It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 9.9

Kian might resist strongly, but if they had to do it, it wasn’t impossible.

 

To shake off the dangerous thoughts that had just crossed his mind, Rayan rolled a sharp-edged piece of broken porcelain in his palm.

 

‘I need to get a grip.’

 

He looked down at his completely ruined right hand and curled up the corners of his lips.

 

There was a reason he hadn’t returned Ines to her original state right away.

 

It was because her looking like someone else was Rayan’s only brake.

 

‘Focus and think clearly, Rayan.’

 

Eventually, the blood-soaked shard dropped to the floor with a soft clatter.

 

By the time the palace doctor ran into the meeting room with bandages and ointment, only the broken vase pieces and a round pool of blood remained where he had been.

 

 

The emperor expressed his opinion that it would be better to postpone the royal wedding and hold an engagement ceremony first. Even that alone was the greatest honor for the Irope Count’s family.

 

“Even if it’s not a royal wedding yet, the engagement is still a huge event! We have to get your dresses fitted right away if we want to be ready by the end of the month. I hear the imperial family has already started making the engagement ring!”

 

Countess, who was always anxious her daughter might collapse again, began dragging Ines around every tailor shop in the capital as soon as the doctor confirmed she was in perfect condition.

 

Her urgency wasn’t for nothing. An official notice had arrived saying the engagement with Celia would be announced during the upcoming Founding Festival.

 

There was only one month until the festival.

 

“The Founding Festival lasts a week. On the first day, there’s a ceremony at the church. From the second to the fifth day, there will be hunting competitions and street festivals. The last two days are for banquets at the capital palace, and that’s when your engagement will be announced. Since you are the future empress, Celia, you’ll need to be present for all seven days.”

 

Twelve dresses had to be tailored for the week. Once the dresses were chosen, matching accessories had to be custom made. Then came discussions about how to style her hair.

 

Meanwhile, she also had to learn the dances for the banquet in advance.

 

Ines was already tired of the countless dances and songs Clara and the Countess kept listing, many of which she had never even heard of.

 

“This dance doesn’t seem popular in Lezan, Mother.”

 

“Oh, this one’s a traditional dance from the northwest region of the continent.”

 

“Why would we dance something from another country…?”

 

At Ines’s puzzled question, the Countess answered simply.

 

“Why? Because delegates from all over the continent will be coming here to Lezan.”

 

“Oh… I see.”

 

“Various types of music will be played so the guests can enjoy the banquets too. All the great powers will be watching you—you can’t come up short.”

 

Delegates. That was unexpected.

 

To uncover the strange truth behind what happened to her, it would be best to come into contact with people from Jenaire, her homeland.

 

Looking at it objectively with no memories, it didn’t make sense that someone said to be the illegitimate child of the Jenaire imperial family survived until nineteen and was sent to Lezan.

 

A child born from an imperial affair.

 

A stain on the royal image.

 

Why wouldn’t they have just killed her at birth? Why raise her in the imperial city until adulthood?

 

‘Maybe… maybe they had a reason they couldn’t kill me.’

 

“My lady, Mr. Karel is here.”

 

“Is he? Ask him to wait in the drawing room. Come on, Celia. Let’s go!”

 

Ines’s thoughts were interrupted by the visit of the dance teacher the Countess had personally hired.

 

 

‘How does a day go by so fast…?’

 

Ines sat in a tearoom by the window, tracing faint memories.

 

Being surrounded by the Countess and the maids all day, she often couldn’t make it in time for Wednesday tea.

 

The only relief was that Edgar had also been too busy preparing for the delegations to find time.

 

They hadn’t met last week.

 

Determined to meet this week, Ines had practiced dancing until midnight the night before, her feet sore and swollen, just so she could spare this afternoon.

 

Her feet, trapped in tight shoes, ached sharply. How had Celia endured this kind of life?

 

‘I’ll definitely take a carriage back this time.’

 

Just as she tapped her sore leg with her fist and straightened her back again—

 

She caught sight of a familiar shade of silver through the window.

 

“…Oh.”

 

A man was walking out of the small theater across from the flower shop.

 

He was dressed more simply than when she saw him at the Heselid mansion, but that unique hair color couldn’t belong to anyone else.

 

It looked like the Grand Duke was leaving the theater with his son.

 

The boy chattered cheerfully while holding his father’s hand, and the man smiled faintly in response.

 

When the boy held up his arms, the man naturally picked him up. The way he checked his son’s forehead with one large hand looked like a practiced habit.

 

Seeing the two of them like that, they really did seem like a loving father and son.

 

Ines felt her chest tighten again as she watched them in a daze.

 

‘Caesar…’

 

Was it she who had named him? Or that man? For some reason, she was sure it hadn’t been him.

 

She wanted to talk to the child again, even just once. Her eyes sank with longing.

 

She had told Edgar last time that she had no lingering feelings about her time in the Grand Duchy, but that wasn’t true.

 

As long as that small, fragile child remained in Eleanor, she would keep glancing back there… and inevitably run into that man again.

 

…

 

Her thoughts were a mess.

 

Just as she tried to tear her gaze away—

 

Right before their eyes could part, the Grand Duke turned his head.

 

“…!”

 

His green eyes locked directly onto her, and a chill ran through her whole body.

 

Screech. Her chair made an unpleasant sound as she pushed it back.

 

Ines quickly pressed herself into the chair, holding her breath, her shoulders trembling.

 

Her heart pounded anxiously in surprise. She pulled the curtain closed with a shaky hand, feeling like all the blood had drained from her.

 

She knew it—he had spotted her.

 

‘No way… surely he won’t come this way—’

 

It wasn’t that seeing the boy again had rekindled any feelings for the Grand Duke.

 

She had already been rude enough, ignoring more than ten letters from him.

 

Even after she sent a clear rejection, he had written several more times.

 

The letters all said the same thing:

 

If her excuse was that her health hadn’t recovered, then he wanted to meet her once she had recovered.

 

Still, there was nothing threatening or coercive in the follow-up letters, so she just burned them all.

 

“What if the Grand Duke shows up at the mansion, miss? If people hear that His Highness keeps asking for you even though your engagement is coming up…”

 

Clara had worried with a troubled face, but honestly, Ines thought that wouldn’t happen.

 

A man like him wouldn’t come looking for her himself.

 

His handwriting was always steady, and the letters were formal.

 

As if that night of overwhelming emotion had been just a dream.

 

Besides, Rayan Eleanor didn’t do cowardly things like secretly pressuring the Count or showing up uninvited.

 

Even the spies she had placed around the Eleanor mansion hadn’t reported anything unusual.

 

So please—let today pass quietly.

 

Had he really recognized her? If he had, surely he wouldn’t come in here. No way, no way…

 

But just as she feared, her ominous feeling proved right.

 

The flower shop door opened with a cheerful chime.

 

Ines looked toward the entrance in despair.

 

‘Trying to run only brings me back to the start…’

 

The flower shop owner looked back and forth between the Grand Duke and Ines with wide, surprised eyes.

 

She was the emperor’s trusted aide.

 

Right before the Grand Duke’s searching eyes reached her, Ines turned her head away. Then, pretending to stay calm, she picked up the city newspaper she had been reading.

 

‘Let’s pretend I didn’t see him.’

 

Etiquette when meeting a high noble in an informal setting? She erased it all from her mind.

 

Her instincts told her the more she acknowledged him, the more she’d get pulled in.

 

So the answer was to ignore him.

 

Ines didn’t glance at him even once, not even as he walked up to her table.

 

But ignoring his presence didn’t mean she couldn’t feel it.

 

As soon as he sat in the seat across from her—where Edgar usually sat—a heavy pressure filled the small shop.

 

She saw from the corner of her eye as the man took off his jacket. Then, he draped the black jacket over the back of the chair beside him.

 

If he was taking off his coat, he clearly meant to stay.

 

Now Ines started to feel truly anxious.

 

The sun was already leaning right above the head of the Eucalyptus statue outside.