Chapter 12
‘I see, she is of a status that isn’t permitted to enter here freely.’
Even though this gathering was technically open to visitors, uninvited guests who didn’t fit the social standing were treated as intruders, often beaten and driven out.
Despite that, she had even donned men’s clothing just to meet someone. Since she had tried to sneak into the hunting grounds, the person she was looking for was likely one of the men out on the beat.
Now that she thought about it…
In the past, Andrew Thompson’s wife was said to be the daughter of a butcher, not a noblewoman. He had faced extreme opposition from his family until the very moment of their marriage. She didn’t know why that thought suddenly occurred to her now.
“The person you came to see… by any chance, is the name… of the Thompson family?”
There was no need to even say the name. The woman’s eyes were already beginning to tremble like a leaf in the wind.
‘Ah. No way.’
Even if she didn’t want to know, the pieces kept falling into place.
Through whatever circumstances, Andrew and this woman had felt a powerful attraction to one another.
However, the man already had a fiancée, and at this hunting gathering, that fact was to be publicly solidified.
The woman had resigned herself to it, yet she couldn’t quite fold her heart away, and so she had come running here recklessly.
To meet the man before everything became irreversible.
‘What is meant to happen will happen.’
As if to prove those words with their very lives, there were two people who had managed to meet despite all the obstacles and missed timings.
To them, Lottie herself could be nothing more than a villainess tearing them apart out of the selfish desire to live well on her own.
‘What… what was I about to do just now?’
She didn’t want to be a villainess. She never wanted to sacrifice someone else’s happiness just so she could be happy alone.
Lottie looked at the woman with strangely luminous eyes. She glanced at the leather shoes the woman was wearing—the only thing that wasn’t excessively large on her—and then shifted her gaze to her own dress shoes.
The decision didn’t take long.
“Miss. Take off your clothes. I’ll bring that man to you.”
A short while later, a figure dressed in a dark green jacket and trousers with tall boots carefully stepped out of the small cottage’s garden.
Since she was taller and more slender than the woman who had worn the clothes before, she didn’t suffer the misfortune of having the fabric drag along the ground like a bundle.
With all her flowing hair tucked up and hidden inside a hat, Lottie advanced quickly while scanning her surroundings.
It was almost noon. The time when hunters, exhausted by the encroaching heat, would gather at the cottage to rest and boast of their trophies.
The man who was supposed to receive his fiancée’s handkerchief—regardless of his own will, simply because the elders had decided it—would also be forcing his heavy feet to move toward the meeting spot.
— Before I knew it, a red numbered ticket was in my hand. I thought to myself, surely no one else out of these hundreds of people would have drawn the same number, and I was about to turn back…
The kind young lady who helped her father with his work had said that when she hurried to the entrance of Grand Park, a neat young man who had drawn the same number was standing there. It was Andrew.
Even with the cunning interference of one who had glimpsed the future, the man had ultimately drawn the exact same number as his wife from his previous life.
What else could that be called if not fate?
While they were swapping clothes, Lottie had exchanged a few more words with the woman, and she became certain. What is meant to happen will happen. A destined connection is not something that can be severed by mere human effort.
And so, the two of them must have helplessly fallen in love after all.
But Andrew Thompson was a good son who did not dare to disobey the words of his family elders.
So, while his heart was elsewhere, he must have forced himself to write formal letters to his fiancée.
Lottie wanted to show that foolishly kind and stupid man what he would have to lose while he was being a “good boy” and listening to his elders.
‘He should definitely be coming back this way… Why isn’t there even a sign of him!’
Lottie walked so fast she was almost running, her heart filled with anxiety. At least it was a relief she was wearing comfortable shoes.
At that time, Calyx was wandering the hunting grounds alone, separated from the main group of hunters.
He knew his every move was being monitored, but he hadn’t expected Luca to follow him even to a hunting gathering he’d decided to attend only the day before.
He recalled the face of Luca, who had chased him down with such persistence only to feign innocence as if they had met by chance.
It was quite laughable. The memory of Luca tripping over his own feet at the sound of hunting dogs barking—too busy focusing all his nerves on whether Calyx was contacting Cream Party hardliners like Congressman Bermian—was still vivid.
He remembered that the person who had reached out a hand to the fallen Luca just then happened to be Andrew Thompson.
— If you don’t want that woman falling into the Crown Prince’s hands, isn’t this the best possible outcome? If you leave it be, she’ll become another man’s wife anyway.
Only after seeing that man did Calyx feel certain that his collaborator’s words were entirely correct.
He knew that if he simply stayed still, it would indeed be the best conclusion. For himself, for his comrades, and for that woman who would become that man’s wife.
‘In the end, am I the only problem?’
It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but it was hard to shake.
Andrew Thompson’s eyes, which were as honest and transparent as the woman’s, made the time spent with him increasingly difficult to bear, and Calyx eventually ended up breaking away from the returning group.
Walking aimlessly like this, he felt he could understand why that woman walked so persistently whenever her thoughts were complicated. Though currently, he was walking comfortably atop a saddle.
— Next time, I shall teach the young lady how to ride.
It was an empty promise that had now become useless.
He should stop here. With that thought, Calyx tightened his grip on the reins he had been holding loosely. The white horse, which had been walking slowly, snorted and came to a halt.
At that moment, a dark figure burst through the thickets.
“……!”
A roe deer with light green eyes. No.
“Charlotte.”
“……?! What are you doing here again?!”
‘Again.’ It was a word that made the woman’s name, which he had pulled up unconsciously, seem out of place.
To think she’d make a face like she’d seen something she shouldn’t have. Does she even know what she looks like right now?
“And what brings the young lady here? Looking at your state, it doesn’t seem like you came to enjoy tea time.”
His tone became sharp despite himself. Her state? A crease formed between Lottie’s brows, then she quickly smoothed her expression as if remembering something she had briefly forgotten.
“Since time is short, I will ask only what is necessary. Do you happen to know which way the gentlemen you were hunting with are?”
It was surely no coincidence that Andrew Thompson came to Calyx’s mind at that question.
Aha. So the impatient young lady didn’t come for tea time, but to enjoy the hunt?
“Do I have an obligation to answer?”
“I believe you are not someone who lacks even that much generosity.”
“Based on what?”
“B-Because you are a gentleman.”
“To say that every gentleman in the world must show manners to a young lady… your reasoning is a bit weak.”
Calyx spoke teasingly, then straightened his face, which had been tinged with amusement.
She was in a desperate hurry and couldn’t afford to trade jokes here. Lottie took a step closer, then froze in place, seized by a sense of déjà vu.
Calyx Valdea, looking down at her from atop his horse. A long rifle slung over his shoulder.
A gaze that was nothing if not chilling, even though he was smiling.
“……You committed a very, very great wrong. To me…… and to many people.”
The moment he heard Lottie’s trembling words, Calyx recalled how he had previously asked her if he had ever committed a great wrong against her.
“Responsibility for one’s wrongs…… I believe is something that any human, not just a gentleman, should naturally pay for.”
“Pay for the responsibility first, without even knowing what my wrong is.”
“I won’t ask for any further responsibility, so there is no need for you to know the specific details.”
And compared to the wrong you committed, the price you’re paying is far too cheap!
Lottie swallowed those words. Even to her, the logic of making him pay in this life for the wrongs he committed in his past life felt forced. However, since the matter was urgent, she decided to act brazenly.
“And if it wouldn’t be rude, I would like you to step down from your horse for a moment……”
“Pfft…… Ahahaha!”
The laughter ringing out from atop the saddle was so bright and cheerful that Lottie momentarily thought she had laid out a joke rivaling that of any royal palace jester.
Calyx Valdea, sitting on his horse, was laughing.
With his rifle slung and ready to fire at any moment, he looked as if he were simply dying of amusement and joy.
‘Why on earth?’
Well, because you are the first person to ever prattle on about ‘wrongs’ in front of a deposed prince who killed his own father.
Through the fact that he was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop himself, Calyx Valdea became certain.
At least in front of this woman, he didn’t have to be the infamous Calyx Valdea.
She didn’t fear him because of the notoriety that was bloated enough to obscure the truth; she demanded he take responsibility for his wrongs, and then she even went so far as to coax him, saying she’d forgive him on her own.
That brazenness made him laugh.
“Haha……”
Not knowing why he was laughing, Lottie eventually chose the path of laughing vacantly along with him. In the meantime, Calyx decided to readily grant her request.
Leaping lightly from the saddle, Calyx strode toward Lottie.
His eyes, shining in the noon sunlight, curved into crescents as they turned toward her.
His eyes were a fresh reddish-brown, as if they held the trees of the forest within them. Not the dead blue they had been in Lottie’s final memory.
“Let’s go.”
“Pardon?”
The sense of incongruity Lottie felt didn’t last long. It was because Calyx, standing before her, suddenly pulled her toward the horse.
