You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 89

It is not that the opportunity to learn is late. I have already lived for several years like a person who is both blind and deaf.

The harm I suffered during that time will not disappear just because I start studying.

Does Iswen even know what kind of harm he inflicted upon me?

I dismissed the question, for which I wasn’t even curious about the answer, and asked him:

“Did you bring a notary?”

Iswen gestured to the man who had followed him to the drawing room. He was the man who had handed me the documents earlier.

He and I were acquainted. He was the one who had escorted me into the wedding hall in place of the head of the family.

“The Young Duke’s message for me to deliver was…”

At the time, I thought he was merely someone who had received an instruction, but now it seemed he had been acquainted with Iswen even then.

That’s why he wasn’t harmed even after my father’s death.

Perhaps he is Iswen’s aide. As I thought that far, a different man came to mind.

“What about Payden Hale?”

Payden was my father’s aide. When I lived in Rowen, I could see that man strutting around about once a week.

Iswen answered coldly.

“I confiscated his property and drove him out.”

Apple would have been delighted. She truly hated that man.

Although it was unclear if I would even be able to tell Apple this news, I reflexively imagined her smiling with satisfaction.

It was then that Iswen interjected.

“I don’t see your maid.”

“I let her go.”

The man’s silver eyebrow twitched. I didn’t want to be kind to him, but I wanted to say this, so I added an explanation.

“I didn’t want to drag her into my mess.”

Iswen and Demian would never have such a thought in their lives. Because they were the kind of people who shoved others into the mire, not themselves.

My eyes fell on the cane leaning next to the sofa. I glanced at it and asked Iswen.

“Why did you hurt your leg?”

“That is none of your concern.”

That would be true.

I wasn’t genuinely curious anyway.

Hadn’t he said there was a rebellion? My father even lost his life, so it was reasonable for Iswen to be injured.

Or perhaps he just twisted it slightly. Or fractured it. Iswen isn’t the type to make mistakes, but I had heard that such injuries are acquired while training in physical combat.

I didn’t think about the other person’s circumstances, which made no difference to me.

I pushed the documents I had been handed back toward Iswen.

“I can’t even trust the notary.”

Iswen stared at me silently, then took a ring out of his pocket.

It was a ring engraved with the seal of the earldom, which he had owned since he was the Young Duke of Rowen.

Iswen placed the ring on the table between us. It meant he was offering it as collateral.

Without touching it, I asked.

“What if I take the collateral and am then framed for theft?”

Iswen frowned.

“What do you mean?”

It was absurd that he didn’t understand my words.

If he had a conscience, shouldn’t he know why I couldn’t just readily accept his proposal?

“For the past three years, you and the former Duke of Rowen colluded to frame me as a criminal.”

And then he hid behind me and committed all sorts of crimes.

I don’t know what benefit Iswen would gain by framing me for theft. But wouldn’t it be too late once I found out?

“Ah, will it be different this time? Even if you are the Duke of Rowen, surely you wouldn’t frame me for something you yourself gave me.”

“…”

“That’s just too brazen.”

Yes, it is brazen.

All of them, trying to bring about some change now, were uniformly selfish and one-sided.

Before, I wouldn’t have dared to say such a thing to Iswen.

Because there was someone I had to protect.

“The maid who seemed like she would fill your emptiness also ultimately became a leash.”

“…”

“Do not forget that fact.”

Just as Iswen said, I hadn’t forgotten the fact that I had Apple.

Now, Apple is not by my side. I let her go. Even if I was in a cage, I couldn’t escape; I wanted her to see the sky. I sent her away with a hurried farewell so that her ankle would not be broken before she even got a chance.

Iswen remained silent. But his gold eyes, resembling my father’s, were staring right through me.

An impulse rose up to snap at him to stop looking at me with those eyes. It was as if the part of me that controlled emotions had broken down after losing Apple, and such anger often surged up.

However, now was not the time to be angry.

It wouldn’t be too late to strip away whatever pretense Iswen was wearing and then push him away. The title and the territory… they were too necessary for me right now to refuse.

“If you want to persuade me, bring something trustworthy.”

With those words, I stood up from my seat.

Iswen said nothing. For the first time, his arrogance was satisfying.

At least he has some pride, so he won’t cling to me miserably, right?

* * *

The next day, Iswen requested another meeting.

This time, he dismissed his entourage and appeared, shoving a paper at me without preamble.

“I brought Duke Raslet’s notarization.”

Sioden notarized it?

I had resolved not to be surprised by anything he brought, but those words were jarring.

I took the paper Iswen handed me and examined it.

The first thing that caught my eye was that all the clauses of inheritance I had seen yesterday—the territory, assets, title, and the right not to marry—now had explanatory footnotes attached. Someone seemed to have written them last night, but that wasn’t what was important now.

I flipped to the very last page of the document and checked the added notarization section.

Sioden’s seal was genuinely stamped there.

Did Sioden really notarize it? In the name of the Duke of Raslet, staking his family’s honor?

Sioden had said he wanted to do anything for me, but his words carried an implicit prerequisite.

As long as I remained in Raslet.

He had never uttered those words out loud, but it was a fact I could know without hearing it. Everything he had promised me, like a rosy future, was based on the condition of being ‘with him in Raslet.’

Iswen, seeing me look at him with unconcealed surprise, said.

“If you can’t believe it, verify it with him.”

* * *

If he tells me to verify it, I can.

That very day, I went straight to Sioden’s study and asked.

“I want to confirm if the document Iswen gave me is forged.”

It was an abrupt start, straight to the point, which should have been jarring, but Sioden answered gently.

“It is correct that I notarized it.”

What on earth was his intention? That question automatically welled up inside me. A question I could not ask Sioden directly…

No, what is there that I cannot ask?

“What is your game?”

“I have no game.”

He expects me to believe that? My face involuntarily crumpled into a frown.

“If this document goes through, I won’t live as your wife anymore.”

The language was a bit rough, but it was the truth nonetheless.

Becoming the owner of a territory meant having a land where my instructions would be carried out as the highest priority.

If I acquired such land, I would never leave it.

Iswen must have known that, which is why he offered me the title and territory. He wanted to nullify Sioden’s marriage to me.

A question suddenly arose as to what Iswen stood to gain from this transaction, but that wasn’t what was important right now.

Sioden looked down at me with eyes that showed no resentment.

“I know.”

He walked over to his desk and took out something.

“There is something I want to give you.”

I took the document he offered. That paper, also annotated with footnotes, was the document that needed to be submitted to the Imperial Palace to annul the marriage.

While I read it carefully, Sioden spoke from beside me.

“I also considered annulling the marriage. However, it seemed that it would not be very useful to you right now, so I prepared something else.”

He pointed to the signature line, which already contained his signature.

“You only need to write in your name.”

“…”

“Submit it to the Imperial Palace when you feel safe making the choice you desire. Then, I will go to the capital.”

A marriage formed by imperial edict could only be annulled in the presence of the emperor.

What Sioden was saying now meant that he would annul the marriage when it seemed that Iswen would not force me into marriage again.

The freedom that seemed unattainable was acquired too easily and in the safest way possible.

The man’s calm voice fell from above my stunned head.

“I apologize for being unable to prepare anything more worthy of your acceptance than this.”

* * *

When I emerged from Sioden’s study, Iswen was standing in the corridor.

Clutching the paper I had obtained inside the room so I wouldn’t drop it, I approached him.

“…I will go to the South.”

Inheritance, he had called it.

I would collect every last bit of it.

“You must keep your promise not to interfere after the inheritance is settled.”

Iswen looked down at me coldly, as he always did, and replied.

“You need not worry.”

Afterward, preparations for departure did not take long.

Because I didn’t have much baggage to pack.

Excluding what was absolutely necessary for the journey, there was only one way to dispose of the belongings I had acquired in Raslet.

“Throw everything away.”

What was truly essential for life was available in the South anyway, and none of it felt precious to me.

On the day I finally left Raslet Castle, Sioden came out to the castle gate.

“I know that the best course of action is for you not to see my face, but there is something I must say.”

He paused to take a breath. I kept the carriage door open, waiting for his words.

Finally, Sioden spoke.

“If you ever need help, return at any time.”

An unconcealed desperation was evident in his trembling voice.

“I will do anything I can. You do not need to worry that I will demand payment. I will ask for nothing in return…”

I cut him off, not listening to the end of his pleading promise.

“No.”

“…”

“I am not coming back.”

His blue eyes widened. Was he shocked or hurt? It was confusing, but I didn’t want to distinguish it.

Yes, it wasn’t that I couldn’t distinguish it; it was that I didn’t want to.

And I was about to move toward a life where I didn’t have to do what I disliked.

I spoke to Sioden, who was looking at me with a pale face.

“I cannot wish you farewell.”

I don’t wish for him to be unhappy.

But I also don’t want to wish him well.

The happiness wished for in a relationship that only left wounds would not contain a single drop of sincerity.

“So, you shouldn’t wish me farewell either.”

The man’s exquisitely drawn lips trembled. They were the lips that had once pressed against mine, confirming each other’s warmth.

Now, they would only be cold if they touched. I knew this because I knew how cold the wind was in Raslet, and I did not want to wait for the north wind to change.

Instead of facing the face that couldn’t leave behind regret any longer, I leaned back in my seat. The carriage door closed immediately. Slowly, the carriage wheels began to turn.

The sight of the gray castle getting further away was visible through the carriage window.

It was the sight of me leaving on a carriage bearing the Raslet seal, on the road I had entered on a carriage bearing the Rowen seal.

The conclusion of three years, which had been chaotic with love and wounds, expectations and disappointments, resembled its beginning.

However, one thing was certain: the same things would not happen again.