You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 94

By what measure should the penalty for a sin committed knowingly be weighed?

* * *

Watching the woman walk down the aisle, Iswen gnawed anxiously at his lip.

A rush of impulse to run to her and reveal his father’s true nature mixed with the fear that he would have to spit out the warmth he had finally tasted.

But if he had possessed the courage to be truthful, he would not have nodded when the woman asked if he wanted her to accept the proposal.

In the end, Iswen swallowed his words, looked at the woman’s retreating back, and rationalized, I made the choice for her.

His cruel and despicable father did not know how to give up. So, if the woman had refused the proposal, he would have committed some inhuman act to obtain what he wanted from her anyway.

Ultimately, the woman entered Rowen as the South’s most splendid bride.

Afterward, the woman and Father fought frequently.

He was a man who intended to deceive her from the start. Iswen didn’t know what his father was after when he took a second wife, but he was certain their relationship was full of lies. His father did not love the woman.

Despite his young age, Iswen knew how lovely a person the woman was. However, he didn’t believe his father would ever realize that fact before he died.

When passing the marital bedroom, Iswen could hear the woman straining the veins in her neck.

“If you’re going to kill me, just kill me! I won’t do what you say, even if my head rolls!”

Each time, his father would try to persuade, mock, and placate her with all sorts of words.

But the woman absolutely refused to comply with his father’s demands.

As the rift between them deepened, Iswen had a premonition.

‘She might leave.’

Outwardly, she seemed even more powerless than he was, who was just growing up, but Iswen involuntarily thought that.

The woman seemed capable of doing anything. When faced with her overly trusting smile and optimistic words and actions, she appeared like someone who had never experienced defeat.

Therefore, the woman might vanish from the mansion forever if it became too difficult to bear at some point.

The prediction soon became a reality.

“Let’s leave.”

He had never imagined that there would be a place for him in that reality.

While Iswen was frozen by the offer he had never expected to be given, the woman said to him,

“Your father doesn’t know how to respect you.”

Respect? Such a thing had never existed between him and his father.

But the moment those words left the woman’s mouth, Iswen felt as if he had lived his entire life missing the most important thing.

The woman made a promise to him, who was rigid and at a loss after suddenly realizing the truth.

“Wherever we go, I can take care of both of you.”

Saying that, the woman gently stroked her flat belly.

At the time, Iswen did not understand the meaning of her action.

But he knew one thing: if the woman truly wanted to leave for anywhere, she should have left him behind, if not Demian.

Because he was the heir of Rowen.

Because his father was not the type of person to stand by and watch the heir he had labored over for years disappear.

Knowing that fact full well, Iswen took the hand the woman extended.

“I accept.”

Even though he had already seen the consequences of his greed.

In conclusion, they were caught.

The woman who seemed capable of anything on her own was not strong enough to take responsibility for him and Demian.

His father, who chased after them and caught them, was already enraged, but his biggest reason for indignation was not his wife’s escape.

For the man, his wife was merely an animal he had been taming for about a year, and was not yet fully broken. But he believed his son had been his since the moment he was born.

And that son had resisted.

The man’s humanity hit rock bottom at that moment.

“If you don’t want to be a son but a dog, then yes, I will put a leash on you.”

Ten-year-old Iswen was dragged into the couple’s bedroom, held by the scruff of his neck by his father. Inside, the woman, her face swollen from crying and screaming, was confined, wearing only a nightgown.

The moment the woman saw her husband and the son held in his hand, she began to scream hysterically.

“No! I won’t do it! Bastard, how dare you…”

SMACK! The sound of the man’s hard palm hitting her delicate skin echoed in the room.

The woman’s fragile face snapped to the side. She staggered for a few steps and finally collapsed onto the floor. In that instant, Iswen saw the thin arms wrapping around her flat belly.

Stunned as if he had been hit in the head, the pieces of the situation began to fall into place.

The reason the woman had to leave the mansion was not solely due to his father’s violence.

His father grabbed his shoulder as he stood still, trying to comprehend the realization that came too late.

“If you don’t want to, I will bring Demian instead.”

Demian.

Iswen thought of his younger brother, who must have cried himself to sleep in the nurse’s arms by now.

Demian was only five years old. He was weak, passionate, sensitive, soft, and smiled foolishly.

Whatever task was assigned, he would not be able to endure it.

Iswen opened his mouth.

“No.”

He was Demian’s brother. He was his sole protector in a mansion where everything was controlled by the whim of a father who had lost all humanity.

Even though his heart was pounding madly, a composed answer came out of his mouth.

“You don’t need to.”

The woman raised her head and looked at him. Water welled up in her sparkling green eyes—a sight he hadn’t seen in the South.

What was that gaze trying to tell him at that moment?

Whatever it was, he must have failed to fulfill that wish.

Iswen approached the woman, who was lying there in the most fragile state he had ever seen.

“I’ll do it.”

That day, Capren placed an intangible chain on his son’s heart.

When the interdiction, which took the form of a leash, completely bound his son, Capren placed his hand on his son’s shoulder again. And with a mocking tone, he said sweetly,

“If you want to cast off the interdiction, wait until I die.”

‘However, as long as I exist, you will live cursed forever.’

* * *

A knock sounded at the door.

Iswen opened his eyes. The familiar ceiling entered his sight. He seemed to have dozed off while reminiscing.

A voice came from beyond the door, which was carved from dark, heavy wood.

“Your Grace, the knight you dispatched is here.”

Iswen let out a deep sigh. It was a luxury he could only afford when no one was around.

He roughly smoothed his face and replied.

“Enter.”

The knight opened the door and stood before him. He was a tracker returning after a long mission.

Iswen slightly raised his head. The knight, who offered a small nod of respect before starting his report, registered on his retina. The lingering traces of the dream, which had not yet completely receded, wavered around him.

As he slowly blinked, involuntarily chasing after those traces, the knight began to speak.

“I have found traces of the object you commanded me to track.”

A strange light flashed in his golden eyes, which had been faintly gazing into the air.

The curse was not over.

Thus, the one who should have died might have survived.

* * *

A person is more intense when they do not exist than when they do.

Luke had been experiencing this vague sentiment intensely in recent days.

It had been nearly a month since his superior’s wife had left the castle.

The emptiness within the castle was gradually deepening with the passage of time. The servants spoke in hushed tones even when conversing, and whenever the castle’s master passed through the corridor, everyone recoiled.

The castle was so gloomy that it was apt to say it had become a huge coffin, where even rats moved about silently.

It didn’t matter much that the woman who left had never once taken charge of internal affairs. This was because she had unexpectedly held a large share in his superior’s life.

For the past three years, his superior had silently filled himself with his wife. He must have done so without knowing she would leave. Otherwise, it would mean he knowingly allowed himself to become an empty shell.

Yes, a shell.

Lately, his superior often seemed less like a person and more like his outer surface. Empty and hard, like a husk. It felt different from the gruffness that seemed like self-defense. Rather, it was as if he had given up everything, not knowing what on earth he should protect…

Luke stopped his deepening thoughts. He called out to the superior’s escort who was just passing down the corridor and asked,

“Is he currently working?”

Even though the subject was omitted, the escort immediately understood who he was referring to.

It was common for the lord’s physician to inquire about the lord’s condition, so the escort did not hesitate to answer.

Seeing the man nod, Luke changed his question.

“Drinking?”

“He has not been drinking.”

“Not even a glass?”

“No.”

It had been a month. Luke frowned.

Even for a man who wasn’t frequently ill, there were a few things the physician was familiar with. His superior’s drinking habit was one of them.

The man did not drink often, but he preferred to wash away negative emotions with intoxication. Something had to be poured down to soothe his pent-up feelings.

Since it was truly difficult for someone living a life they hadn’t aimed for to be happy, his superior used to drink a couple of times a month even before this. Luke didn’t think that was bad. Wasn’t it better to leave some strength to carry on life, even in that manner?

But since half of the castle had emptied, his superior had not touched his previous vice once.

As if he intended to hold onto whatever emotion the woman had left behind within him.

What was the problem? Narrowing his brow a little more, Luke recalled what happened before the castle emptied.

That night, he encountered Apple Leta and her mistress at the dockside.

Despite his superior pursuing him with a distorted face, he did not punish him.

Objectively, he must have judged there was no fault. Luke hadn’t gone to the dockside to find Apple Leta or her mistress that day.

Everything that happened was by coincidence. His superior wasn’t so simple as to not know that.

However, Luke rather wished his superior would direct his anger at him.

Sadness or misery does not disappear on its own. Human emotions are like stains; unless deliberately scrubbed off, they linger in the heart. They only appear to vanish as new things pile up on top.

Where would the misery that hasn’t been washed away by anything accumulate?

The sound of a door opening was heard then. Luke turned his head toward the source of the sound. His superior was just coming out of the office.

Luke asked him,

“Where are you going?”

Blue eyes turned toward him. But there was no answer. It was less malicious disregard and more an expression like a person who had forgotten what the answer should be.

His superior, who had been silently staring at him, turned his back. Luke hastily followed him.

Upon reaching the open ground at the back of the castle, Luke understood why his superior had come outside.

Although spring had arrived, a fiercely hot, artificially created fire was blazing in the desolate, windy clearing.

Next to it were the ownerless objects, sorted for easy burning. All of them originated from one woman.

Suddenly, the words of the maid who had last attended to the lady of the house came to mind.

“The mistress ordered that everything be destroyed.”

Today was the day to carry out the lady’s final directive.