Chapter 20
#20
"What did you just say?"
Ricardo frowned slightly as he spoke.
"I want to break off our engagement."
As he wished, I repeated the words I had just spoken clearly.
"......"
Even though I did as he wished, Ricardo only stared at me silently. No, he was glaring at me.
"Why?"
It was only after a long silence that Ricardo uttered a short word.
"If I remember correctly, Bianca, you were the one who wanted this engagement?"
"Yes, that's right. Ten years ago, when I was very young, it was the engagement I wanted."
"You speak as if you don't want it now?"
"Since I don't want it, that's why I'm saying let's break it off, right?"
"Why?"
Once again, Ricardo asked the reason.
I couldn't possibly tell him the real reason.
Because you're going to cut off my head. Because you're going to fall in love with another woman.
How do I know? It was written in the book.
"Ricardo."
I couldn't say such crazy things.
Instead, I calmly called his name.
"We got engaged when we were too young. Before we even knew each other."
"And?"
"Like all children's decisions, my decision back then was too hasty. I was only fixated on what was in front of me."
"What did you see?"
You.
You, who were so cool to my young self.
"Of course, the position of Duchess. How attractive would that position be to a little Marquess's daughter who wanted to become a perfect lady?"
I lied.
It wasn't a difficult task. I just had to say it with a subtle smile, like, 'The Count's daughter's necklace is so beautiful today. It suits your eyes so well.'
Even if that young lady's necklace actually looked cheap, even if that young lady's eyes weren't actually beautiful, even if that necklace and the young lady's eyes didn't suit each other at all, I could say it as much as I wanted.
"But recently, I've realized that there are much more precious things than that. So I'm thinking of correcting my past mistakes, even now."
"Mistakes?"
Ricardo's eyebrows twitched.
"Are you saying that my engagement with you is a mistake?"
He seemed angry.
Of course, it wouldn't be very pleasant to hear from your fiancé that she wants to break off the engagement, but I didn't think Ricardo would get angry.
I thought he would just say 'Whatever' with an indifferent look and tone, as he always did.
"Rather than a mistake..."
Perhaps my tone sounded like I was blaming him?
To choose a gentler word, I tried to revise what I had said earlier.
"No."
But Ricardo was faster.
He cut me off before I could choose another word.
As if there was nothing more to hear.
"As you said, the position of Duchess of Wincaiser is a very attractive position. Enough for even a young Marquess's daughter to see it. You don't think that position is something you can get just by whining like a child, do you?"
"I know. It's a promise between families, right?"
I knew it too.
When I was young, if the person I said I wanted to marry was not Ricardo but just a common Count's son, my father would not have said that he would happily promote it.
If the person I whined to was not the heir to the Wincaiser Dukedom but a commoner, no matter how much I whined, the marriage proposal would not have been made.
And that would have been the same for the Wincaiser Dukedom.
It wasn't a woman named 'Bianca' who proposed the marriage. It was the daughter of the 'Crofford' family.
That's why they accepted it.
"You know it well."
Ricardo looked at me with cold eyes.
"I can't break a promise between families that has lasted for ten years because of your momentary whim."
Perhaps what Ricardo is saying now is consistent with what he has been saying all along.
It's a promise between families, so we'll get married.
It's a promise between families, so we can't break off the engagement.
What was I expecting?
"Then, if there is a legitimate reason other than a whim, we can break off the engagement."
"A legitimate reason?"
"If there is a reason why we can break off the engagement, even if it is a firm promise between families, we can break off the engagement, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. A legitimate reason for breaking off the engagement? Are you going to have an affair?"
Even after saying it himself, Ricardo flinched as if he was dumbfounded.
"Don't tell me... Bianca?"
He frowned and said suspiciously.
"Do you have another man?"
"If I have another man, is that a legitimate reason for breaking off the engagement?"
"Do you really have another man, Bianca?"
Ricardo's eyebrows furrowed even more. His confused, bewildered black eyes were looking at me.
If I say I have another man now, can we break off the engagement?
For a brief moment, I was tempted to say so.
"That's not it. I'm just asking you if you think that's a valid reason for breaking off the engagement."
But soon I refrained from it, thinking about my reputation.
I would gladly accept being called a woman who broke off an engagement, but I refused to be called a sloppy woman.
Besides, if he asked who that man was right now, I couldn't answer.
There was no way the Wincaiser family would leave alone the family that dared to make their heir break off the engagement.
It was better not to lie if it would be exposed soon.
"If having another man is a reason for breaking off the engagement, then the opposite is also possible."
"The opposite?"
"Yes. If you have another woman. If that happens, I can demand that you break off the engagement, right?"
In response to my question, Ricardo only stared at me in disbelief instead of answering.
And he even laughed as if my question was absurd.
"Yes. If I have another woman, your demand for breaking off the engagement would be justified."
Finally, those words came out of Ricardo's mouth.
Then, if I wait a little and see even a slight sign that Ricardo and Maria are showing interest in each other...
"But that will never happen."
Ricardo's firm words broke into my head, which was calculating. As if there was no need to make such calculations.
"Why are you so sure?"
Knowing what will happen in the future, I just found Ricardo's words ridiculous.
The man who says that the promise between families is more important than anything else had no idea that he would be blinded by love and break that promise and demand that I break off the engagement.
"Because I'm not interested in other women."
Ricardo said as if it were obvious.
Even those words were just ridiculous to me.
Not interested in other women? Saying that makes it sound like he's interested in me, doesn't it?
...Wait.
"I am currently very interested in the jewel in my pocket that I didn't even know about, so I don't have time to pay attention to other stones."
Ricardo slowly explained the words that gave me confidence in the thought I had just had.
"Why are you suddenly doing this when you weren't interested before?"
"Because I didn't know."
"You might not have known forever."
"But I know now."
Ricardo shrugged one shoulder and said.
Oh my god, he shrugged one shoulder.
The man who didn't change his expression much no matter what he said was even talking with gestures.
"I'm right that I was a fool who didn't even recognize the jewel in my pocket before, but now that I've realized it's a jewel, I'm not such a fool as to throw it away."
Ricardo looked at me seriously.
At me, who was flustered by his sudden change.
"Ricardo."
"Yeah."
"Are you saying that you are satisfied with our current relationship?"
I asked him calmly.
"No."
I knew it. He hasn't fundamentally changed...
"I want us to take a step further from our current relationship."
"Excuse me?"
"I was wondering if we should start preparing for the wedding soon?"
"......"
I was speechless at Ricardo's sudden words.
I was the one who always wanted to get married. I was the one who wanted to stand by his side formally.
But not anymore.
Just as I was about to give up my long-held dream, Ricardo was telling me that he would make that dream come true.
"You don't like it."
In the midst of a quiet silence, Ricardo said in a subdued voice.
"I guess you didn't bring up the story of breaking off the engagement to hear me say that I'm going to proceed with the wedding?"
"......"
"Do you really want to break up with me?"
The composure that Ricardo had seemed to have to some extent until now was gradually disappearing from his face.
Instead, coldness was gradually settling on his face.
Ricardo's subdued voice and frozen expression were chillingly lowering the temperature in the room.
"Then I'll have to say it again."
A sharp voice coldly cut through the silence.
"There will never be a breakup."
Having said that, Ricardo jumped up from his seat.
I didn't even try to grab him.
Even if I held him back, I knew that no conversation was possible between us right now.
"Ah, I forgot something."
Ricardo, who was about to go out, strode back and stood in front of me.
Putting his hand in his pocket, he placed something on the table almost as if he was throwing it.
"It's a gift."
With those words, Ricardo left the room as it was. This time he didn't stop or look back again.
"This is..."
When I looked at the table after he left, there was a wrapped lollipop.
It was a lollipop with a red rose drawn on a white background with clumsy skill.
It was something that could only be sold at a festival stall.
No, it must have been bought at that stall.
There was no way the Wincaiser family's patissier would make something like this, and that was the only place Ricardo could come into contact with such cheap things.
It was different from the expensive dresses and jewelry that he had sent me every birthday for the past 10 years, or rather, that the Wincaiser family had sent me, and who knows who had chosen them.
It was a cheap lollipop that Ricardo had chosen himself and paid for himself.
