It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 9.6

He looked down at the dancers and traced back to a memory from many years ago. Ines, Edgar, and he had all been in the same place once.

 

Back then, it had also been on a balcony.

 

The only difference now was who was being watched, and who was doing the watching.

 

Why did it have to be his cousin standing beside her? It was too perfectly timed to be mere coincidence.

 

It was more believable that someone had deliberately sent Ines to Edgar.

 

And Edgar knew it too.

 

‘Then…’

 

Since Edgar already knew what kind of situation Ines was in, he would now try to protect her.

 

Just by looking into the eyes of his younger brother—who once felt like a true sibling but was now his emperor—he could sense that resolve.

 

So in the end, the only one who had been unaware was him alone.

 

Rayan muttered in a hoarse voice toward the curtain.

 

“You really made me… such a fool, Kian.”

 

With a faint breeze, a heavy presence settled within the shadow behind the curtain.

 

Rayan didn’t turn his head but asked,

 

“Whose idea was it? Since her memory is gone, it couldn’t have been Ines who gave the order.”

 

“…”

 

“…Was it Caesar?”

 

His young son had clearly recognized his mother at once, just as he had.

 

If that wasn’t the case, then a normally shy child wouldn’t have gone out for a walk with her on purpose, acted spoiled, and even burst into tears.

 

Still, since he was only four years old at the time, he probably couldn’t have planned such a detailed scheme—Kian must have helped him.

 

“Caesar gave the order, and you carried it out…”

 

The real Celia Irope, whom he had once captured, confessed that at the moment she was about to die in a carriage accident, a messenger of the gods had saved her.

 

They had offered her a chance to live a new life, and she had accepted.

 

“I thought it was some trick of the gods—but no, it was the devil’s doing.”

 

Kian stayed silent, which was no different from admitting it. Rayan let out a sharp laugh.

 

“Ah, so that’s why… why he said his mother wouldn’t come back…”

 

“Mother’s not coming back. So you should stop too, Father.”

 

“He told me not to look for her…”

 

His six-year-old son had always seen far more than he had. Caesar was burdened with far too much darkness for his age.

 

“…No.”

 

The laughter faded from Rayan’s pale face.

 

He soon became completely expressionless and muttered,

 

“A child needs their mother.”

 

It sounded like he was making a vow to himself.

 

“Right… more than a father, a mother is more important. Of course.”

 

Caesar still occasionally looked at him with awkward eyes.

 

He came to him, acted cute, and clung to him—not because he loved his father, but because he knew doing so would make him feel a little at ease.

 

His son was overly kind, just like his mother. He didn’t have to be.

 

There was no need to care about a foolish father like him.

 

“Don’t even think of using that as an excuse to get close to him.”

 

Kian stepped out from the curtain and warned coldly.

 

“Caesar knows too. He knows he can’t go back to Ines. He agreed to it from the start. It’s not something for you to interfere—”

 

“And so you make him cry?”

 

Rayan’s once dry voice now held anger.

 

His lips were badly chapped, but his crooked smile still looked terribly elegant.

 

“He cried. Because he wanted to see his mother.”

 

“…”

 

“Then bring her back.”

 

Rayan’s conclusion was very clear.

 

He looked down at Celia again and slowly continued,

 

“Ines really seems to have forgotten everything about me. If she remembered me, she wouldn’t have ended things with just a few words. She would’ve slapped me the moment she saw me.”

 

Kian, showing a face more human than any human, snapped back harshly.

 

“Rayan Eleanor. You don’t deserve to take away the happiness Ines finally found. Let her forget and move on.”

 

“Ines’s happiness?”

 

Rayan chuckled.

 

“Are you the one to say that? The one who’s feeding on the heart of the son Ines loves more than her own life?”

 

Kian faltered for a moment at the piercing words, while Rayan straightened from where he had been leaning on the railing.

 

His green eyes, as he turned toward Kian, were calmly settled.

 

“You should be loyal to me, Kian. Not to my son.”

 

“…”

 

“From now on, I’ll be your one and only master.”

 

A rough hand rested on Kian’s shoulder.

 

At that moment, his body began to break apart into billions of fine particles.

 

Rayan reached toward the darkness that had begun to move under his control a few months ago.

 

“So Caesar can grow up healthy and be happy with his mother. Isn’t that right?”

 

Before the startled daytime Kian could even reply, his body completely dissolved into black mist.

 

That mist coiled around Rayan’s hand a few times, then seeped into his skin and slowly disappeared.

 

“…You did well, erasing Ines’s memory, Kian.”

 

Rayan laughed with tears in his voice as he felt his heartbeat irregularly pounding.

 

Even if it’s just once, he wanted to try it.

 

The little things. Like having a meal together, tea time, a short walk—things all other ordinary couples do easily, but they couldn’t because of him…

 

Just for a little while.

 

That night, the identity of the Duke of Heselid was revealed exactly at midnight.

 

The masquerade ball ended in great success.

 

 

The next day after the ball, Ines received a very polite letter.

 

Just by the envelope and the wax seal, it was easy to guess who sent it.

 

Inside the luxurious ivory envelope with sparkling green foil, a brief message was written in slanted handwriting.

 

Clara trembled as she asked,

 

“Ah… My lady, what does it say…?”

 

It was an apology for the rudeness shown to her at the Duke of Heselid’s masquerade, and an invitation to dinner at the Eleanor estate, if she would be willing to accept.

 

Something was written beneath that, but Ines folded the paper back and returned it to the envelope without reading further.

 

“Who knows. Nothing important.”

 

With a casual murmur, she brought the end of the letter near the candle flame.

 

The letter soon caught fire and began to burn. Ines smiled at the frozen Clara.

 

“Could you take care of this for me, Clara?”

 

 

The following Wednesday, at exactly five o’clock in the afternoon, Ines visited the flower shop across from the Eucalyptus statue.

 

There was a small tearoom attached to the flower shop. Since it was used as a secret communication spot by the emperor, there were no other guests inside.

 

Edgar had already arrived and was sitting by the window. Leaning back in his chair, reading a book, he looked like a peaceful, beautiful painting.

 

When he saw her entering the shop, he smiled and waved.

 

‘She came earlier than I expected…’

 

He had dared to make the emperor wait. Embarrassed, Ines blushed and bowed. But even that was stopped.

 

“I didn’t come here as the emperor, but as your friend. Don’t be so formal.”

 

“But… Your Majesty, if that’s the case, please at least allow me to speak casually—”

 

“I’m more comfortable this way. Will I need to wear a mask today too, for you to look at me like that day?”

 

“Ah, no. No, not at all.”

 

Ines ended up sitting across from the emperor and drank the tea he poured for her. It was a fragrant flower tea.

 

“I was worried we might miss each other again today. I’m glad we didn’t.”

 

“Oh, um. I’m sorry about last time. Something unexpected happened, and—”

 

Seeing Ines flustered, Edgar decided to keep it a secret that he had waited in the shop with a fluttering heart since noon that day.

 

“How was your week? Nothing happened?”

 

“Yes. It was fine…”

 

Ines trailed off with an unsure look. The truth was, something had happened.

 

The problem began when she didn’t even finish reading the letter from Duke Eleanor she received on Thursday and burned it.

 

He probably had never been ignored like that before, so she thought he’d be upset—but his response was beyond her expectations.

 

As if he knew she had burned it, he sent another letter the very next day.

 

It contained the same message, but the postscript was ridiculous:

 

The one delivering this letter is my personal knight. Please don’t turn my loyal subject into a disobedient one by refusing to reply.

 

Was that a threat?

 

She couldn’t believe it—but the knight really didn’t leave the drawing room until she handed over a reply.

 

In the end, she grabbed a random sheet of stationery and slipped it blank into the envelope, then gave it to the knight.

 

The meaning of a blank page was clear: I have nothing to say in response to your letter.

 

But the next day, another letter arrived from the duke’s mansion.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that I’m not much of a gentleman. Would cutting off my knight’s wrist for failing to deliver a proper reply be enough to satisfy you?

 

That line didn’t feel like a joke at all. In the end, Ines had to write a polite letter refusing his invitation.

 

Still, she didn’t feel at ease after sending it. The image of the gentle-eyed child lingered in her mind.

 

But she knew better than to carelessly step into that mansion just because she wanted to see the child again.

 

That place was entirely the duke’s domain.

 

A small kingdom ruled by a man with power and status so great, he could crush her without anyone knowing.

 

She wasn’t foolish enough to crawl into the den of a madman.

 

Instead, she placed a guard from the Irope family near the duke’s mansion. His job was to observe the child’s condition and report to her whenever the boy left the estate.

 

After several reports, one thing became clear—The duke was more obsessed with his son than she had imagined.

 

Every time the boy left the mansion, the duke was always with him.

 

Whatever the boy asks for, the duke gives it to him.

 

The servants say that if the boy wanted the entire empire, the duke would probably give him that too.