Chapter 42
#042. A Story I Pretended Not to Know
“But. There’s no need to anymore.”
Olivia’s hollow voice echoed in Jade’s head, regardless of the time. Every time the words, which struck his heart like a pounding wave, came to mind, Jade kept asking himself.
Why.
Why wouldn’t Olivia return?
And at the end of his thoughts, Jade aimed his arrow at the Empress.
“Isn’t it because of the Empress that Olivia is having a hard time?”
Perhaps that was it. Jade had guessed as much.
The Empress, an Aristocratic Faction member to the bone, wouldn’t have left Olivia, who came from the Emperor's Faction and was labeled a bastard, alone.
But he had never thought about Olivia's hardship.
It was hard enough to suppress his own anger.
He hated Olivia, who always hovered around him as if she wanted something. Every time he saw Olivia calling him 'brother' as if she didn't know anything, even though she had taken his mother away from him, he was furious.
So he always tormented Olivia.
He just wanted her to leave him alone.
Even if he put a dead mouse under her bed, chased her out of the house on a rainy day, or even tore up her favorite book.
“Brother!”
Olivia was always the same. That stupid girl always smiled and hovered around him.
Then, when Olivia became the Crown Prince's fiancée, Jade thought it was a good thing in a way.
The Empress wouldn't like her, but still, she was Madeleine.
“My sisters have jewels embedded in their eyes. Esella has a purple amethyst, and Olivia has a green emerald.”
…Once upon a time. She was his sister.
Every time his young voice, speaking proudly, echoed in his head, Jade closed his eyes. Back then, he thought that every choice he had made was the best.
* * *
“…What did you just say…”
So, at this moment in the reception room of the Imperial Princess Palace, Jade couldn't believe his ears.
The Princess, sitting on a wide velvet sofa, smiled bewitchingly.
“I know very well that you don’t like that half-breed either, Lady Madeleine?”
Jade’s breath caught in his throat for a moment. The Princess’s words hit Jade mercilessly.
“As the Princess, I have cherished that wretch until now. But that ungrateful thing seduced Grand Duke Bikander, who was supposed to marry me.”
“……”
“People are said to resemble where they come from. How could a bastard born to a lowly dancer be any different?”
Unlike the voice that spoke with pity and elegance, each word was sharp.
Wretch, bastard, half-breed.
Because those harsh words referred to none other than Olivia, Jade stared blankly at the Princess. With a graceful figure admired by all, the Princess smiled.
“How…”
How could someone refer to a person with such words?
The question rose to the tip of his tongue. Before Jade could finish his sentence, the Princess laughed brightly.
“Lady Madeleine. Surely you’re not asking how I knew you didn’t like that half-breed? Wasn’t it Lady Madeleine who openly mistreated her first?”
The clear words pushed Jade to the edge of a cliff.
Openly mistreated her.
Jade, who was about to deny it reflexively, suddenly bit the inside of his mouth hard. The metallic smell rose in his mouth, but Jade couldn't let go.
He mistreated her. And he denied her.
Knowing that the power of the Madeleine Dukedom would have been desperately needed in that harsh social circle. He wanted Olivia to be ashamed and in pain.
So he didn't look back.
Olivia's Debutante suddenly came to mind. The face she made when the Crown Prince started dancing with another lady, looking back at him.
That face, which he had casually dismissed, became clearer and clearer. He also remembered how the desperation and expectation in her green eyes gradually faded over time, and how the faint resignation deepened.
And eventually.
“…I didn’t persevere stubbornly.”
“Someday, they’ll accept me as family.”
“But. There’s no need to anymore.”
The memory of Olivia saying that she no longer wanted to be Madeleine became a sharp fragment and stabbed Jade. When those empty voices filled Jade's head.
Jade jumped up. The Princess, who had been smiling elegantly, looked at Jade in bewilderment, but he didn't even care.
Olivia leaving shouldn't be his fault. Only then could he tell her to come back.
“…Lady Madeleine?”
The Princess called out to Jade. But Jade didn't even hear the sound and walked towards the outside of the reception room. Jade's steps, which had always been dignified, faltered little by little.
He needed someone to relieve this ridiculous guilt.
.
.
.
Despite the Princess's call, Jade Madeleine left the reception room. The Princess blinked.
She couldn't believe this situation.
Even the maids looked at the open reception room door with bewildered faces before bowing their heads.
“Ha. What is going on right now?”
The Princess clenched her fist and muttered. Her fingertips trembled with the belated surge of humiliation.
She had called him to subtly ask if there was a way to take back the Abandoned Mine from that half-breed. And now he was leaving her alone like this without permission?
The Princess's eyes narrowed. In an instant, the air in the reception room turned cold. The maids looked at the Princess, not knowing what to do.
The maids in this reception room knew best how great the temper of Princess Reina Franz, the flower of the Imperial Palace, who was more beautiful and elegant than anyone else, was.
Just as the sound of her sighing breath grew rough over her beautifully painted lips.
“How dare he do such an impudent thing to Her Highness the Princess!”
A voice scolding from behind the Princess was heard. It was Baroness Luhan. At the Baroness's words, who had been assisting the Princess since she was young, the Princess's eyes softened slightly.
The Baroness, who keenly watched the scene, became exaggeratedly angry.
“Your Highness. Please don’t pay any attention to Lady Madeleine. He is not even worth frowning those beautiful brows for.”
The Princess's sharp nerves were slightly relieved by the Baroness's actions, who sat next to her and brushed her hair with a soft comb.
That's right. He's not even worth getting angry at. There would be plenty of ways to get the Abandoned Mine back besides Jade Madeleine.
As the Princess's expression loosened a little, the maids behind her also approached and chattered.
“That’s right, Your Highness. To think he was such a rude person. The title of war hero is wasted on him.”
“…Those who hold the title of war hero seem to be rude.”
At the Princess's slow words, the maids looked at each other with a slightly relieved look. Although her displeasure was evident, her sharp attitude had disappeared a lot.
As if taking advantage of the momentum, Baroness Luhan spoke sweetly, coaxing her.
“Your Highness the Princess. Erase other thoughts. I will call Count Yubler quickly. In the meantime, how about watching the extreme stunts?”
“The troupe?”
“Yes. The troupe that you enjoyed watching at the summer palace is waiting for Your Highness the Princess.”
The troupe. The Princess suddenly became cheerful. The Abandoned Mine and Jade Madeleine's rude attitude, which had been bothering her until just now, were washed away.
She had her nanny, Baroness Ruhas, and the maids who were so loyal to her. Nothing would change just because Olivia, that half-breed, was gone.
Even if the Abandoned Mine was currently owned by Olivia Madeleine.
The Princess nodded with a generous face. Then, the troupe outside the door quickly entered.
The performance began.
.
.
.
The troupe's splendid stunts were in full swing. In one corner of the Princess's reception room, one of the maids suddenly looked around the actors with a puzzled face. Then, she walked towards the troupe leader, who was standing far away.
“Troupe leader, there’s something I’m curious about.”
“Yes. Please tell me, maid.”
“Wasn’t there a male actor with brown hair among the actors? He was an actor who seemed ordinary, but at first glance, he looked quite handsome.”
The maid spoke calmly and subtly gave the troupe leader a look. It was common for noble ladies to occasionally take troupe actors as lovers.
The troupe leader thought for a moment and clapped his fingers together, exclaiming, “Ah!”
“Ah, that person is not a formal actor, but a wandering actor who briefly helped with practice. He briefly appeared as a spare at the summer palace when the lead actor had a stomachache.”
“He didn’t come in here?”
“Yes. We are not such a lacking troupe that we would dare to bring such a drifter into the solemn palace.”
The troupe leader, who did not notice the subtle words, strongly denied it. In the end, the maid turned away, swallowing her disappointment.
The troupe leader let out a sigh of relief. And he looked at the performance with a regretful face.
The wandering actor who appeared at the most needed time, as if he had fallen from the sky.
“It can’t be helped even if you’re sad. It would be nice if we could go to the palace together.”
“It’s okay. Well, me.”
The regretful face he saw at the last farewell party came to mind.
The troupe leader, immersed in the memories of that day, had completely forgotten about the memory of the Princess telling him how often she called the troupe when she was drunk.
He also forgot that she had told him the trivial story of how many troupes followed the Princess whenever she went on a pleasure trip disguised as recuperation, and how much money the troupes that were selected once earned.
* * *
Conrad frowned as he saw Jade entering his office.
“Jade, aren’t you on duty right now?”
“…Brother.”
But when Jade called him in a low voice, Conrad thought that something unusual had happened.
His face, tanned by the sunlight, was pale. Conrad put down the documents he was looking at and nodded to his aide. The quick-witted aide left the office as soon as permission was granted.
With the sound of the door closing, Conrad said.
“What’s wrong? Why do you look like that?”
It was his brother, who hadn't even come to the Dukedom residence for days. Even now, when everyone in the mansion was on edge, he was worried about his brother's sudden strange reaction.
“Brother, you didn’t know either.”
“Know what.”
“Olivia. That she was treated like that.”
Jade, who was speaking intermittently, couldn't continue speaking. But Conrad raised his eyebrows.
Olivia. Conrad reacted sensitively to the name that was making the Dukedom residence edgy these days.
“What did you hear to make you like this? What did she do?”
He had heard that she had left for the Territory of Vikander today. Could she have caused something else to explode? But Jade muttered with a blank face.
“The Princess called her a half-breed.”
“So.”
“So what? Brother! Not only the Empress but also the Princess did that. Then everyone must have done that! They called Olivia a half-breed.”
“So, what.”
A cold rebuke fell over Jade's voice, who was shouting as if pouring out his emotions.
Conrad Madeleine, that is, his brother, was a fair person to everyone. He was cold yet upright like his father, and a warm person.
“I was hoping for that, so I left her alone.”
So he couldn't believe it even more. He really didn't want to believe that Conrad had really known everything and left Olivia alone.
In that cutthroat social circle, in front of the Empress and the Princess. That his brother was the one who made Olivia listen to those countless insults.
Conrad smiled slowly.
“You really didn’t know?”
And that he.
It was so clear.
Jade couldn't say anything.
What he had pretended not to know had come back so painfully. As soon as he realized that fact, Jade clenched his fist tightly. But he couldn't stop his amethyst eyes from turning red.
Conrad, who didn't see those eyes, shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.
“The house is already noisy because of Olivia. If you’re done, come back home now.”
As if.
Nothing had happened.
* * *
The news that Jade Madeleine had returned to the Dukedom residence after a long time quickly swept through the Dukedom residence.
But Esella, who had gone to find Jade because he didn't even come to dinner, sensed it.
There was an unsettling atmosphere emanating from Jade, who was changing into his uniform as if he had made a firm decision.
Just like when she was staggering before going to ask her sister for forgiveness.
“Where are you going?”
“…To Olivia.”
Ha. Esella swallowed a sigh. What she had so desperately wanted had unfolded too late. Esella said quietly.
“Olivia is gone.”
“What?”
Jade's eyes widened as if he really didn't know. As Jade strode closer, the dark circles under his eyes became clearly visible.
“Where to. To the Territory of Vikander?”
It was a confident voice as if there was no other place, but Esella shook her head.
“I’m not going to tell you that.”
“Esella!”
Even at the spirit of calling her name loudly, Esella looked at Jade calmly.
“I should have done that sooner.”
Jade's eyes wavered as if he had been caught off guard. Seeing that, Esella's heart ached even more.
If only he had been a little, just a little faster.
No, if Jade had gone with her even when she went.
But the unfulfilled assumptions disappeared like afterimages, out of reach. Esella put strength into her trembling lips. Her nose tingled.
“…Olivia is too kind. She even forgave me for finding her so late.”
“……”
“So. I can’t tell brother.”
After barely finishing her words with a trembling voice, Esella turned her back on Jade without regret. And only when she left Jade's room did she let out a sigh as if to soothe her aching heart.
Let's show Jade brother one more day.
Esella recalled the letter she had received from Olivia.
“Young lady. …A letter has arrived.”
Sally was the first to come to her with a letter that had come from Grand Duke Bikander's Residence in the middle of the day. It wasn't long before her eyes, filled with hope, became teary.
She said that the letter Olivia sent to Sally was full of Olivia's affection.
The letter she received was similar.
Kind words saying that she was going to the Territory of Vikander and that if she wanted to write a letter, she should send it to the Grand Duke's Residence first were written in elegant handwriting.
The only difference from Sally's letter was one thing. There was another letter that clearly stated how to write the ledger, budget items, and meetings with the bank manager.
On that letter, there was a request to deliver it to 'Jade Madeleine'.
Not brother, but Jade Madeleine.
Esella clearly understood what her sister was trying to say when she saw that sentence.
In Esella's vision, who was turning her head, the place where the family portrait that had been hanging in the first floor hall was gone felt coldly stepped on.
Only that spot, as if something had been attached and then removed, had a particularly dark wall color. Only that spot made Esella's heart feel empty, as if it was hollow.
Her father, who had ordered the portrait to be thrown away, would never know. That the portrait had gone to Esella's room.
Esella looked around the mansion with painful eyes.
The curtains and beautiful flower decorations that changed every season, the windows and corridors that were always clean.
The Madeleine Dukedom residence, which received everyone's exclamations.
She would no longer be able to see Olivia's touch in every corner of the mansion.
