Chapter 5…

“Unexpected.”

“Hm?”

“I thought you would put the dressmaker run by your mother’s friend first on your list.”

“……”

“You’re a son who cares terribly about his mother, after all.”

“……Vanessa. I’m not sure I can just laugh off the nuance of that statement.”

The moment I saw him call my name with his face stiffly hardened, my body flinched on its own.

It was a fear I had learned throughout our marriage.

Whenever he spoke with that expression, shouting usually followed.

“……Did I perhaps do something wrong?”

But when I saw him about to spit out his rising anger, only to immediately back down, all the tension drained out of me.

“If I did, please tell me. So I can fix it.”

Ha-ha.

Once again, I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

Carlisle looked at Vanessa with a peculiar expression, then awkwardly laughed along with her, which only made Vanessa laugh even harder.

“Carlisle.”

“Yes, Vanet.”

“What do you like about me?”

For a moment, Carlisle’s expression was colored with bewilderment at my question.

“……All of a sudden? Do I really have to answer?”

Seeing how unusually long-winded he was, I became certain of the opposite.

Even at this very moment when he was talking about marriage, he still wasn’t looking at me as ‘Vanessa.’

“Forget it. I think I already know the answer, so you don’t have to tell me. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can marry you after all.”

The smile Carlisle had barely managed to maintain eventually disappeared, and his face hardened once again.

I should have shrunk back like I had a moment ago, but from the moment he backed down, I knew.

Carlisle Leonard still couldn’t treat Vanessa Sharoz carelessly.

And I also realized just how long I had endured before finally saying these words.

“Is it because you hesitated over my question? Or because of Ian?”

I almost burst out laughing again without realizing the mood, but the moment the name left his mouth, the smile disappeared from Vanessa’s face.

“I happened to see you……coming out of the Duke of Ruthcliffe’s residence. Your father doesn’t seem to know yet, so I made up some excuse for the time being.”

“So?”

“If your father and the people around you found out that you spent the night with another man while leaving your longtime lover behind……wouldn’t they be terribly disappointed? For now, I’m the only one who saw you, so I’ll let it slide. But if you keep leaving a long tail behind, someone might catch it.”

“Ah.”

Vanessa let out a small sigh.

Right.

That was the reason.

It had been so long that she had forgotten, but thanks to him, she remembered.

Back when she had recklessly left home because her father had opposed her marriage to Carlisle Leonard.

She couldn’t remember exactly how she had ended up drinking with Ian, but at the time, afraid that Carlisle would misunderstand, she had hastily accepted his proposal.

‘That’s right. This was what caused things between Ian and me to become awkward, too.’

And that wasn’t all.

Thinking that she had wronged Carlisle, she had gone even further and done everything he wanted.

‘I was such an idiot.’

If only she had thought a little more deeply about how Carlisle had managed to witness her leaving at exactly that time.

Carlisle noticed the change in her expression and, perhaps sensing his opportunity, opened his mouth again.

“I didn’t bring this up to blame you. I won’t make this any longer. Vanet, my love. I’ll consider it a brief lapse in judgment before our marriage, so come with me to look at dresses today.”

His wounded eyes and the smile he forced onto his lips were so pitiful that anyone who didn’t know him might have been completely fooled.

And yet, despite wearing such a convincing expression, the thing he was asking for was so thoroughly vulgar.

Just looking at him made the corners of Vanessa’s lips tremble.

“You’re asking me to marry you.”

Carlisle Leonard looked so desperate.

His performance was so magnificent that Vanessa almost wanted to applaud him for it.

If she hadn’t returned here with all her memories intact, she would have chosen him again.

In the end, the problem had been love.

She had been blinded by love and had failed to see him properly.

It was fortunate, at least.

She had finally realized that the strange things she had occasionally noticed were the genuine feelings he hadn’t been able to hide because he didn’t love her.

In any case, because of this incident, her past self had married Carlisle Leonard.

‘It would have been nice if I’d returned a little further back in the past…….’

But now that the word marriage had come out of Carlisle’s mouth, she had to settle this.

If she dragged her feet here, a wedding dress might very well arrive at the mansion the very next day.

In an empire that did not permit concubines or mistresses, chastity was important, and adultery was considered a grave crime.

It was a disgrace capable of bringing down even the lofty honor of a noble family in an instant. Carlisle must have thought he had caught her weakness after seeing her leave Ian’s residence today.

As proof, a sharp glint had flashed briefly in Carlisle Leonard’s eyes.

‘But what can I do? I’ve already been through everything and returned here.’

A mere accusation of infidelity wasn’t frightening at all.

She had even been falsely accused of adultery and branded a crippled wife in her previous life, so what was there to fear?

‘What should I do? There’s nowhere near enough time to find a new husband.’

If she was going to return to the past, couldn’t she have come back just a little earlier?

……No.

She should be grateful that she had returned at all.

What if she’d returned after the wedding?

Then she really would have been trapped.

A rumor or two wasn’t such a big deal.

It was certainly better than her previous life, when she had been branded both an adulteress and a cripple.

Besides, if there was a reason Carlisle wanted to marry her now, it was probably……

‘The founding of a knight order?’

The Sharoz ducal family was the only family in the empire without a private knight order.

In fact, the first thing Carlisle had demanded immediately after marrying her was a guarantee regarding the knight order he planned to establish.

A knight order made up of private soldiers prioritized the personal commands of a noble over the emperor’s orders, meaning it was itself a military force.

Possessing a knight order was essentially the same as possessing military power that even the imperial family couldn’t treat carelessly.

So for the Leonard Marquess family, who sought the ducal title, it must have been desperately important.

Especially since imperial law strictly prohibited anyone below the rank of duke from maintaining private soldiers.

But no matter how blinded by love she had been, even she knew that providing such a guarantee was dangerous.

Moreover, with her father still alive and well, she couldn’t arbitrarily establish a knight order when she hadn’t even inherited the title yet.

That was why she had refused.

But considering how the Marchioness of Leonard’s attitude toward her changed afterward, perhaps that was when she had begun to hate Vanessa.

Could it have been because of that that her father eventually died?

Thinking about it now, it didn’t seem like such an entirely absurd suspicion.

After organizing her thoughts, Vanessa twisted her face as though she were in pain.

“I’m sorry, Carlisle.”

“……There’s nothing for you to apologize for. It was probably an accident. I understand.”

The moment she saw Carlisle deliberately smiling despite his drooping shoulders, she nearly laughed.

She barely managed to stop herself by biting down hard on her lips.

“About the marriage.”

“I’ll take care of the preparations, so all you have to do is accept.”

At his gentle tone, Vanessa felt nauseated inside.

He probably thought he had gotten hold of her weakness, so if he wanted to use it against her, he would do so without hesitation.

Just thinking about it made her want to slap him across the face right then and there, but she had to endure.

If a bomb was going to explode anyway, now—before she had any chance to prepare—was the best time.

Just do it first.

She could find a husband afterward.

Right now, what mattered was making sure she did not marry that Carlisle Leonard!

“I already have someone else in mind for marriage. What should I do?”

“……Sharoz. That’s going too far.”

At her words, delivered with an expression of helplessness, the smile that had covered his face like a mask throughout the conversation finally shattered.

Unable to calm his ragged breathing, Carlisle left the ducal residence empty-handed.

‘Vanessa Sharoz, you’ll definitely regret this.’

He even left after throwing out a line straight out of a third-rate villain’s script.

Vanessa stomped her feet as she watched Carlisle’s retreating back, then raised her middle finger at him.

‘Would you regret it if you were me?’

Despite having a long road of revenge ahead of her, she already felt wonderfully refreshed.

There was just one small problem.

The ‘marriage partner’ she had boldly declared she had……didn’t exist.

Under imperial law, when a marriage was unequal in status, a massive dowry was required.

But that wasn’t important.

She could pay the dowry herself, no matter how large it was.

The problem was……

Her father knew, she knew, and Carlisle knew that she wasn’t the type of person who would willingly endure a difference in social status for the sake of love alone.

What if the groom was already on his way to the wedding venue in a carriage?

Oh? I heard he died in a carriage accident.

That wasn’t something the Leonard Marquess family would be able to dismiss as a joke.

And if that weren’t enough?

What if Carlisle himself appeared as the groom on the wedding day?

Only after Carlisle had disappeared into the distance, becoming nothing more than a dot, did Vanessa finally lower her finger and let out a long sigh.

‘I should’ve made some friends.’

Her background was one thing, but because Carlisle always accompanied her as her partner whenever a ball was held, there was no one in high society who doubted that she and Carlisle would eventually marry.

Besides, with the Marquess family watching her so closely, there wasn’t a man bold enough to pretend to have a romantic relationship with her.

Vanessa mentally went through the unmarried men who were still single at this point in time and groaned.

Were there really so few potential husbands in the empire?

How was it that every single unmarried man seemed to be someone destined to cause some major or minor incident in the future……?!

Was there really no man who had enough power, wasn’t interested in marriage, would remain unmarried in the future, and wouldn’t suddenly change his mind and refuse to divorce her?

Crunch, crunch.

Vanessa bit her nails, then suddenly let out a small gasp.

……Wait a minute.