I’ve Decided to Let You Go - Chapter 101

Enoch… Callete?

As Natasha repeated the unfamiliar name, one face came to mind.

If what Kail said was true, then this man shared the same surname as Ashy Callete.

But the shocking part wasn’t just that Enoch and Ashy were from the same bloodline. What struck her harder was the phrase attached to his name.

The only surviving heir of a house destroyed by the royal family of Charlier.

Based on his real name and the context, it was obvious who he truly was.

She remembered the story well. Decades ago, the noble House of Callete was destroyed by Charlier’s royal family. Even Natasha had heard whispers of it.

She was just a child then and didn’t really understand what “destroyed” meant. Curious about the words her siblings and maids threw around, she once asked her parents to explain.

“We simply made traitors pay the price,” they had said.

“A price? Traitors?”

“Their downfall will serve as a warning so no other house dares to rebel again.”

The King had been furious at the time, and her parents’ explanation was vague. Young Natasha simply thought it was a story of justice. Her parents had suffered something painful and finally had their revenge.

It wasn’t until years later, through history books, that Natasha learned the truth of that day. Only then did she understand the anger in her parents’ eyes.

And why they had covered her eyes every time they passed near the city walls that year.

If Sieghart was truly the last heir of the House of Callete…

If, like her, he had survived by chance and lived only to take revenge on those who wronged him, then she could almost understand why he had helped slaughter the Charlier royal family.

After all, he too must have wanted revenge. Just as she had.

“But even if that’s true… why am I the one being blamed?”

Why was she the one always judged? Why was Natasha always painted as the selfish one?

“The fall of the Callete family was unfortunate, but Charlier had no other choice. They tried to betray the kingdom, to hand it over to the Empire as a vassal state. They were punished, that’s all!”

There had been a reason for it. The Calletes were traitors. Enoch Callete probably never understood that, but the truth remained. His family paid the price for betrayal.

Of course, Natasha admitted that Charlier’s punishment had been too extreme.

“Still… why am I the one being condemned? Why is it that my past must be miserable, and why am I the only one treated like I’m selfish?”

Her voice cracked with pain. The sound of her trembling filled the gaps in the room like the scraping of nails against marble.

Kail grinned, clearly enjoying her torment. He grabbed her hair again and shouted in her face.

“Why are you selfish, you ask?”

“Ah…!”

“You killed an innocent man with a false accusation. Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Tha… that’s not…”

“Hah. You actually believed your family?”

His cruel voice echoed in her head. It was like he was telling her that the truth she believed in was a lie all along.

“Enoch Callete came to the Imperial Palace when he was only seven. He begged for his life. And my father, that merciless bastard, sent him into the dog fighting pits to prove his worth. A place where animals tore each other apart day and night just to survive. That boy lasted three years in that hell before he finally won. Only then did he earn the right to be called the hound of the Letius Empire.”

“…”

“And finally, he was reborn as Sieghart Aschart.”

Kail went on, describing how brutally the Empire trained their new pet. He spoke with his head held high, proud of the horror he recounted.

Natasha, who had once believed Sieghart had simply abandoned Enoch Callete, now realized just how painful and bitter his life had been. How completely he had been used and abused by the Letius family. How his life had been swallowed by darkness.

“Hey, Duchess. Why do you think he came back, so desperate and angry? Do you really think it was for some noble revenge for a disgraced family?”

Then Kail’s voice suddenly changed. His attention, once distant, now focused directly on her.

He questioned how Sieghart could be so loyal to the very people who ruined him. If, as Natasha believed, his family truly deserved punishment, then why would he still hate the royal family?

“It’s because Charlier framed the House of Callete. The royal family needed to cleanly eliminate a powerful house that threatened their rule.”

The truth finally slipped out from Kail’s lips. It was harsh and raw. Like a whisper rising from a deep, dark abyss, crawling into her ears and piercing her.

Ah. Ah…!

Despair swept over her like a storm. The chill that wrapped around her body froze her senses. Her vision went dark, her hearing dulled, and yet the words crawling through her mind were all too vivid, like worms made of sound.

Ahhh!

Natasha couldn’t hold back her pain. She dropped her head and collapsed onto the floor. But Kail Letius didn’t stop. He continued, feeding her fear without mercy.

“They say a long tail always gets caught. He used his allies and shadows recklessly and ended up getting exposed by the Galonde Empire. The assassins they captured confessed everything. Said he had disguised himself as a servant in House Callete and created fake evidence of treason.”

It was a lie.

It had to be. There was no way this man, who only wanted to watch her suffer, could be telling the truth. Just like always, he was twisting stories to torment her.

And yet…

The image of her father’s angry face suddenly surfaced in her mind. She remembered how furious he used to get whenever House Callete was mentioned.

One day, while reading the newspaper, the king had furrowed his brow. Deep wrinkles of frustration and rage creased his forehead. Then, unable to hold it in, he shouted.

“Those cursed pests. How irritating.”

Young Natasha, startled by the outburst, had clutched her teddy bear tightly. On the front page of the newspaper her father had thrown, she saw a familiar name.

House Callete.

She had learned about that family in her history lessons. As the youngest princess, she was proud of what she had studied and had wanted to show off her knowledge to her father. But the rare sight of his furious face had kept her quiet.

Instead, she turned to her nanny and asked quietly.

“What does irritating mean, nanny?”

“It means troublesome. People who are bothering His Majesty.”

“They’re bothering daddy? I don’t like that…”

Natasha had nodded, agreeing. Anyone who upset her father couldn’t be good. She thought about the things that annoyed her too, like bugs that flew into her room in the early mornings.

“Then can’t we just get rid of them?”

Whenever she was annoyed, the servants always took care of it.

She was too young to fully understand what “get rid of” really meant. At that age, she didn’t know the difference between bugs and people.

She had said it innocently. If something caused trouble, you should just make it disappear.

King James Charlier had gone completely still after hearing her words. Then he slowly calmed down and gazed at his daughter with quiet, blood-red eyes.

“…Ah.”

She didn’t know if the terrible truth she was hearing now was real or just a well-made lie. There was no one left in her family who could tell her what had really happened.

But Natasha instinctively felt that this was the truth. And when she accepted it, everything started falling into place in her mind like puzzle pieces locking together.

She began to understand why that man had hated her so bitterly in their previous life.

Maybe it was true, just like the others said. She had grown up among blood that had been declared impure.

She finally understood why he saw her blood as dirty.

Why he had warned her so firmly not to get involved with the royal family again.

Why he had looked at her eyes with such intense hatred.

All of it.

So, this was the reason.

Even if their marriage had been forced by Kail Letius, even if she had been innocent at the time, that hatred would not have come from nowhere.

“You standing in front of me like you’re clean and righteous is the real crime. How can you look me in the eyes with those red eyes and smile next to Sieghart as if nothing ever happened?”

She remembered the voice of the woman who had once loathed her without reason. Her words put a final period on Natasha’s spinning thoughts.

“…Ha.”

Natasha let out a ragged breath. Her laugh was hollow, filled with grief she couldn’t contain. It sounded like she was throwing up sorrow in the form of a bitter, broken laugh.

Sieghart Aschart.

So, this was the secret you were hiding.

Even when everything was exposed, and you stood there silently, as if you deserved my hatred, you never spoke a word about it.

This was the truth you kept hidden.

This was the shadow you knew would drag me straight into hell.

And now I know.

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