You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 93

“For now, you don’t have the ability to manage a territory.”

Iswen spoke as the carriage was passing the mansion’s entrance.

“I will assign a tutor to you, so stay at the capital’s mansion to acquire some knowledge, and then you may go down to the territory.”

I nodded compliantly at his words.

“Alright.”

It was true that I was severely lacking in essential knowledge, and above all, I needed time for the news of my departure from Raslet to reach Apple.

Was Apple doing well?

Since she left, I worried about Apple several times a day.

Apple was resourceful and seemed capable of handling crises wisely, but she was alone.

Still, since I would soon have my own territory, I would be able to call Apple to my side.

After that, I really would be able to leave for Emerta. Coincidentally, the territory Iswen handed over to me as an inheritance, Resebel, was very close to Emerta.

As the carriage stopped, I said to him,

“When I leave to establish my own branch family, I want to choose one lady-in-waiting to take with me.”

All my ladies-in-waiting were people employed by Rowen. While I could simply terminate their employment, I first needed the permission of their current employer, the Duke.

The need for the employer’s permission to quit the job was a practice that would shock the ladies-in-waiting of other high Southern families, but it wasn’t a problem in Rowen. The families that selected the ladies-in-waiting were all Rowen’s vassal families to begin with.

Even the Leta family, where Apple was officially registered, was broadly under Rowen’s jurisdiction.

Iswen scrutinized me with his usual cold eyes and replied.

“Do as you wish.”

* * *

The returned mansion felt strangely quiet. Soon, Iswen noticed the problem and frowned.

“Where is Demian?”

The butler, who had been virtually his right-hand man since Capren Rowen was alive, answered.

“He stepped out for a moment.”

Clack, clack. The cane struck the floor quickly a couple of times as if expressing displeasure. His long strides toward the front betrayed his discontented mood.

When the duke reached the door of the office, the butler quickly opened it. Iswen stepped into the room. A sickeningly familiar sight came into view.

Sitting on the sofa as if he were a component of the room, Iswen asked.

“Where did he say he went?”

“He did not specify.”

“His escort?”

The butler shook his head.

He felt like sighing. Iswen suppressed the impulse by frowning.

Not only was his dignity compromised by not taking an escort, but even when safety issues were mentioned, Demian rarely listened.

In the past, he was capable of looking after himself, so Iswen didn’t say much, but now Demian was missing an eye. This meant he would feel discomfort in every small thing, including his sense of balance.

But what could be done about that wild, reckless temperament? Iswen waved his hand, his brow furrowed deeper as he once again suppressed a sigh.

“You may leave.”

The butler bowed deeply and turned his back. Soon, the sound of the door closing was heard. Realizing he was completely alone, Iswen closed his eyes.

As always happened when he submerged himself in the darkness, memories from the distant past pushed their way up inside him.

* * *

She was a woman infinitely younger than Father.

“Hello?”

One day, when he was nine years old and just beginning his education as the family heir, Iswen saw the woman who appeared in the mansion’s garden and thought, This is the woman Father is meeting.

Around that time, rumors were rampant in the capital that Duke Rowen was seeing a certain woman.

Up until then, Iswen hadn’t been particularly affected by the rumors. He was raised as an heir inside the mansion, and his father’s love life ended outside the mansion.

That is, until the woman, said to be his father’s lover, walked into the Rowen garden that day.

“You must be Iswen?”

The woman, with her bright blonde hair neatly tied up and wearing a thin Southern-style dress, was beautiful. Beautiful and seemingly kind.

But she wasn’t interesting.

In some ways, she even looked foolish.

No, she was likely a foolish woman in reality. To be meeting his father, even if he was Duke Rowen. She was a woman who was sorely lacking in judgment.

Therefore, Iswen had ignored her when he first met her.

The woman spoke a few more words to him, then heard the news that his father had returned to the mansion and disappeared somewhere.

Pathetic. Iswen thought to himself as he watched her skirt flutter like a butterfly. She must have no idea what kind of person Father is.

Pathetic people should be quickly erased from one’s mind.

Knowing this, Iswen tried to erase the bright, sun-like blonde hair and the quickly curving green eyes from his memory. Since the colors were so bright, they didn’t erase easily, but he found that with effort, it wasn’t impossible.

Just as his efforts were beginning to pay off, Iswen encountered the woman again, this time with his father.

At that time, Iswen was holding his younger brother in his arms. The brother, only four years old, was sensitive and prone to fussing. The wet nurse said it was because the child had lost his mother right after birth.

“Since he never felt his mother’s arms, it can’t be helped.”

But if his mother were alive, Demian’s opinion would have been different.

The deceased Duchess Rowen couldn’t contain her rage whenever her child lingered in her sight. This was because she had believed her husband to be a wonderful man before marriage, but after getting married, she realized she had brought a cold-blooded monster into her bed.

The Duchess expressed her rage toward the husband—who had suddenly transformed into a monster that consumed the man she loved—everywhere. Her children were also included as targets for this expression.

Because he still remembered what his mother was like, Iswen was secretly grateful that his younger brother would not have to go through the same thing.

He just needed to take good care of Demian. To ensure he didn’t feel the void left by their mother.

Of course, that task wasn’t easy.

His father, who reigned as the tyrant of the house, could not stand him taking care of his younger brother.

“Do not display such weakness in front of me.”

So, Iswen never held his brother in front of his father. He had sometimes ignored him, spoken to him harshly, and even sent him away to the nanny.

He only showed affection for Demian when his father was absent from the mansion.

But on that unlucky day, they had run into each other in the corridor.

His father’s cold, golden eyes were looking down at him.

Iswen involuntarily tightened the arm wrapped around his brother. The sleeping Demian made a small sound. But his already tense arm didn’t easily relax.

It was then that the woman standing next to his father bent down.

“Is this your brother?”

Iswen nodded.

His heart was beating frantically. He felt as if his father would scold him for being pathetic at any moment. Perhaps he might even prevent him from seeing Demian. In fact, his father punished his eldest son by taking his younger brother away whenever Iswen’s behavior fell short of his standards.

It was then that the woman linked her arm through his father’s.

“He’s adorable. It’s nice to see them getting along.”

“They are my two prides.”

A lie. Their father had never considered his children a source of pride.

Nevertheless, his father, in that moment, spoke with the most affectionate voice he had ever heard.

“Leave Demian with the nurse.”

Afterward, the woman visited the mansion several times. Since he was allowed to keep Demian by his side when she came, Iswen gradually began to welcome the woman’s visits.

The woman was so innocent that it was suspicious how she had fallen in love with his father.

“Can I call you Is?”

She’d come up with strange nicknames.

“Me too, me too!”

“Okay, Demi.”

Not only did she reserve that strange thing for him, but she also gave it to his brother.

In any case, all of the woman’s actions were innocent and foolish. Although he was only nine years old, Iswen knew that living like that would only lead to being cheated.

Yet, his foolish brother laughed happily. The woman, who was as foolish as his brother, laughed along. Amidst those two foolish people, Iswen suddenly found himself laughing.

One day, the woman said.

“I’ve received a proposal.”

The missing subject was probably ‘from Capren,’ as the woman and his father called each other by name.

The moment he heard those words, he felt as if cold water had been poured down his spine.

He enjoyed every moment spent with the woman, but he did not want her to become his father’s wife. This was because he already knew what kind of life his father’s first wife had lived.

“Our father is a monster disguised in human skin, not a man, and your life is too precious to be wasted by his side.“

The words swelled up in his throat. Iswen choked back the confession. Then, he squeezed out the question with a trembling voice.

“W-will you refuse?”

“Hmm… Honestly, I am conflicted. Your father is a good man, but if I marry him, I’ll have to stay in the South permanently.”

The woman tilted her head slightly and added.

“I’m not from the South.”

Yes, that seemed to be the case. She carried a powerful vitality that he had never seen before in his life. It was a vitality unfamiliar to him, who was already accustomed to everything in the South.

“But I don’t want to leave my two adorable little Dukes.”

“Me neither.”

The woman gazed intently at him, who was acting more desperately than usual. After a moment of silence, she asked,

“Do you want me to marry your father?”

Marry?

Of course, he didn’t want that.

But what if she didn’t accept the proposal? Would she still come to the mansion then?

The calculation was simple, and the result was clear. Iswen slowly nodded his head.

No matter how good of a person he thought the other party was, at that moment, he was nothing more than a selfish child who didn’t want to lose the peace in front of him.

The woman was silent again, then smiled brightly.

“Alright.”

In that moment, Iswen realized that he had sent her life into the abyss.

It was a sin he had committed knowingly.