Dear Ex-Fiancé, I Hope You Regret Everything - Chapter 11

“…Failing? Me?”

(This can’t be…)

My right hand was trembling so badly I could hardly read. Holding it steady with my left hand, I managed to make out that the notice of repeating the year clearly stated that several reports determining advancement whose submission deadlines had ended three days prior remained unsubmitted.

Come to think of it, I never received the reports I had asked Iris to bring me.

My father, his face bright red, confronted me fiercely.

“Cain! Explain what this means!”

“…That’s what I want to know…”

“Cain!!”

“Shut up!!! It’s Iris’s fault for not bringing the reports!! I asked her properly, but she didn’t bring them!!! It’s not my fault!!”

“You… Are you insane? You asked Lady Iris to do such a thing?”

“Isn’t it a woman’s role to support her fiancé!? That’s right, let’s bring Iris here now and make her apologize to the headmaster!! Let’s have her say, ‘It’s my fault my fiancé couldn’t submit his reports’.”

Thinking this was a brilliant idea, I stepped forward assertively. My father staggered back with a “Ugh…”, bracing himself against the desk cluttered with documents.

With that motion,

Rustle rustle—a pile of papers scattered.

My father picked them up, his hands trembling slightly.

“…This one too… this one too… none of this is your handwriting.”

He knelt down, clutching the papers. He looked up at me from below.

“For what purpose have you been attending this academy?”

(That’s obvious, why are you asking now?)

“Get expelled!! I cannot entrust this household to you!”

“What did you say!? In the first place, isn’t it your fault, Father, for agreeing to break off the engagement!? If you had just refused it, by now I would’ve!!!”

“…You really haven’t learned your lesson at all. If you continue like this, your life will be ruined.”

Without saying another word, my father left the room.

This is all Iris’s fault too.

Making a fool out of me, over and over.

✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎

I returned to my parents’ house, thinking I should explain the circumstances of how I came to accept the marriage proposal from the Crown Prince of Haira.

I was told that Lord Skyford had already sent a written document to my parents, but I was worried they might have fainted from shock upon reading such a sudden, out-of-the-blue story.

My father has high blood pressure.

The moment I arrived, my parents hugged me. I was so surprised by this unexpected welcome that I froze.

“My, please sit down. Sigh, where to begin… Actually, we’ve received intense protests from Lord Cain…”

“………Pardon?”

“He claims that despite being engaged to him, you were unfaithful. And that the other party is a crown prince from another country. He says he’s been humiliated by being weighed against someone so far above him, like a person in the clouds.”

“Honestly, for a man who was cheating left and right himself, what a pathetic excuse for a man,” my mother spat out disdainfully.

“To say such a thing, you’ve started telling some rather unfunny jokes, I see… I am not impressed.”

“You’re starting to sound like Iris, Mother. According to Lord Cain’s argument, a man’s infidelity shows spirit, but a woman’s infidelity is unforgivable.”

“That’s absurd! I swear I was never unfaithful! Moreover, the first time I even met Lord Skyford was after we had received his consent to break off the engagement.”

“About that engagement,” my father continued, “he says he has no recollection of canceling it. He claims that his father gave consent arbitrarily, that he himself never agreed. He says it’s invalid.”

I stood up and cried out.

“Such nonsense cannot be accepted!? Noble marriages are ultimately between houses! …Poor Lord Cain’s father, the distress he must be in.”

“Calm down, Iris. You are to become the Crown Princess of Haira. It is precisely at times like this that you must handle things calmly.”

“But…! …You are right, Father.”

My father, seated deeply in his armchair, let out a sigh as if to dispel his anger.

“Whether it was arbitrary or not, we have received a formal reply of consent. That fact remains unchanged. Iris, carry yourself with dignity.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

It left a terribly bad aftertaste.

I didn’t think Cain would just accept this and let it go.

He probably hated the fact that I, whom he looked down on, now seemed to hold the upper hand.

(Please, let nothing happen.)