You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 51

Major events that change the course of life usually come without warning.

The storm that hit Wendy’s life was no different.

It was the day before Wendy’s seventh birthday, and it had been just over ten days since Lerox had left the Ethel Residence.

That night, the castle was strangely noisy, enough to wake even Wendy, who had fallen asleep with excitement about her upcoming birthday.

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Wendy got out of bed, but before she could look around, Lerisa grabbed her by the wrist.

“Mom?”

Lerisa didn’t answer but lifted her daughter up. Her arms trembled as if they had never lifted anything heavier than a feather. However, Lerisa did not set Wendy down.

Entering the workshop, Lerisa opened the wardrobe where she usually kept various art supplies. She roughly pushed aside the brushes and paints inside.

After placing her daughter in the space she had created, Lerisa handed Wendy a reindeer doll, worn from a week’s worth of handling.

“Wendy, you need to listen to Mommy from now on.”

Wendy, clutching the doll, looked at her mother. Lerisa met her daughter’s gaze. The two pairs of identical pale green eyes reflected each other.

“It’s going to get a bit noisy in the castle. You might wonder where Mommy and Daddy are.”

“……”

“But you must never come out of here. Do you understand?”

Lerisa reached out to touch her daughter’s soft cheek, still plump with baby fat.

“If you wait here, Mommy will come to get you.”

Wendy felt her mother’s delicate, white fingers trembling.

After gently stroking Wendy’s cheek for a moment, Lerisa pulled her small shoulders closer. Holding her daughter in her arms, she repeatedly stroked the back of her head and emphasized,

“Our sweet and pretty daughter, Mommy and Daddy will always love you.”

The hug was not long.

After releasing her daughter, Lerisa took a step back and grabbed the wardrobe handle. Wendy, realizing that her mother was about to leave, became flustered.

“Where are you going?”

Lerisa answered her daughter’s question differently.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Wendy blinked at her mother, who looked as if she might cry. The situation was still challenging for the sleepy child to understand.

Lerisa spoke again to her daughter, who was staring up at her blankly.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

Soon, the wardrobe door closed. In an instant, everything went dark.

* * *

When Wendy, who had dozed off for a moment inside the wardrobe, woke up, everything around her was very quiet.

Her body, curled up uncomfortably, felt stiff. Wendy hugged the reindeer doll and twisted her body slightly. The brushes and paints that had been carelessly tossed aside for the child rolled on the wardrobe floor, making a small noise.

How much time had passed? Wendy thought as she blinked in the darkness.

The words Lerisa had said during their hug felt like a distant memory from the night before.

Still, it was not to the extent that she had forgotten what they were about, so Wendy waited inside the wardrobe for her mommy and daddy to return.

‘If you wait here, Mommy will come to get you.’

Lerisa had definitely said that.

Since her mother had never broken a promise before, Wendy believed those words.

But no matter how long she waited, Lerisa did not come. Neither did Hesen.

The patience of a child who was just a day shy of turning seven was not very deep. Tired of waiting, Wendy finally opened the wardrobe.

Creeeak.

The sound of the hinges moving echoed through the quiet workshop.

Wendy jumped down to the floor. Her legs felt a bit tingly.

Remembering to grab her doll, Wendy slowly opened the workshop door.

The hallway of the castle felt different from usual.

Since it was a house with a child, the lights that were usually carefully spaced out in the hallway were mostly turned off, and the carpet laid down to block the cold was damp and wet.

There was not a single person in sight, and a strange smell lingered in the hallway. It was a fishy scent that made her stomach churn.

At that moment, Wendy did not know that it was the smell of blood, but her instincts had developed enough to feel scared at the unusual state of the house.

Wendy trembled as she looked around.

“Mom…? Dad…?”

Just then, she heard someone approaching from behind. Wendy turned around. A man was striding toward her, holding a torch.

He was one of the knights who had accompanied Lerox back and forth in the Ethel Castle. Although she recognized his face, Wendy was startled to the point of fainting as soon as she saw him. In her shock, she dropped the reindeer doll she had been holding tightly.

The doll fell onto the damp carpet. Its soft cream-colored velvet body was stained with red liquid. The same liquid was also on the face and body of the knight looking down at Wendy.

The knight turned around and reported to someone.

“I found the child.”

A man who had been behind the knight approached. Each step he took closer made a sickening squelching sound as the wetness stuck to him and then released.

Passing the knight, Lerox came forward, arms wide open, just as Hesen usually did.

“Come here.”

Wendy staggered back to avoid him. Lerox stretched out his arms. Thinking he was about to grab her, Wendy squeezed her eyes shut.

However, even as time passed, she didn’t feel the sensation of a hand, gloved in black leather, gripping her wrist.

Wendy slowly opened her eyes. Lerox was picking up something that had fallen right next to her.

He forced a white reindeer, dripping with red liquid, into Wendy’s arms. The reindeer, along with her white pajamas, was stained red. A fishy smell hit her hard. Wendy shivered.

Without noticing anything strange about the situation, Lerox spoke gently.

“Let’s go home.”

At that moment, the bell signaling midnight rang.

It was Wendy’s seventh birthday.

* * *

Afterward, Lerox went through several procedures to take Wendy to Raslet Castle.

There, Wendy was no longer called Wendy. Instead, her official name, which had not been used by anyone until then, became Merwen.

During the transition from Wendy to Merwen, she learned many truths.

She was not the biological daughter of Count Hesen of Ethel.

Her real father was none other than Lerox.

“You are my daughter. Ethel dared to hide and raise you as his own.”

To persuade the child who was resisting with all her might to escape from being Wendy, Lerox revealed the truths he had kept hidden until now.

Originally, Lerisa was a captive taken during the war. She was said to be from the neighboring country of Kaullem, which had now vanished from the map.

“When I first saw her, it felt like my breath stopped.”

Lerox seemed to believe that by bringing up such a novel-like description, the child would not feel any aversion to his relationship with Lerisa.

Of course, there was no way that such an effect would exist, and from the moment she heard those words, Merwen wanted to vomit.

Lerox spoke as if they had shared a great love, but upon closer inspection, he was only describing the situation from his own perspective.

There was no description of what Lerisa felt or how she acted. In front of Hesen, Lerisa was the world’s most gentle and kind wife, yet the reality was that their relationship was entirely based on rape, a fact that could not be completely hidden.

An inappropriate relationship established by the will of only one side reached its inevitable conclusion: Lerisa became pregnant.

Unable to bring her to his homeland, Lerox chose one of his vassals.

“When Lerisa became pregnant with you, I entrusted her to Ethel to avoid malicious gazes.”

Lerisa married Hesen Ethel, the vassal he had chosen, and disguised herself as Countess Ethel.

“When I asked what happened to the child, that arrogant bastard Ethel said you died as soon as you were born.”

And then he raised you as his daughter.

Lerox added, his voice dripping with resentment that he did not even bother to hide.

“If I had known you were alive in time, I would have brought you back to my homeland much sooner.”

He looked down at the child, who silently absorbed the information, and asked,

“Don’t you feel wronged?”

She felt wronged.

Deeply, to the marrow of her bones, she felt wronged.

The fact that the man before her was the reason Hesen and Lerisa had to die, that she inherited half the blood of the man who murdered her parents.

Above all, if he hadn’t existed, Hesen and Lerisa, and she, could have lived happily as they always had.

She felt not just wronged but also indignant and heartbroken.

The irreversible tragedy of the past felt like a pyre burning her alive. Ever since she learned why Hesen and Lerisa had to die, Merwen struggled every night with hatred for Lerox and everything about him. She wanted to burn everything he cherished, strip him of all honor and dignity, and make him crawl like a worm. Or she wanted to kill him in unimaginably cruel ways and leave his body in the marketplace to be trampled by passersby.

However, no matter what murder she imagined, it never felt like it held the same value as what she had lost.

To take revenge on Lerox, she needed something more. Something that could not simply be divided into life and death…

Fortunately, Merwen realized that Lerox was a man who did not value morals or ethics, someone who cherished what was his flesh and blood.

Her family.

Thus, Merwen set her lifelong goal.

To crumble Raslet from the watchtower to the foundation.