What Remains at the End of Regret - Chapter 25

Edmund and Felix were nearing the place where the Lockberg’s sailing ship was. Lost in thought and not paying much attention to his surroundings, Edmund was unexpectedly interrupted by a familiar face.

Edmund and Hayden stopped and their eyes met in the heavy air.

Edmund slowly racked his brain, trying to place the familiar face.

“Who is it?”

Felix asked, staring at the blond man along with Edmund. At the same time, Edmund vividly recalled that the man the woman he met on the beach the day they arrived in Foberg had turned to was a blond man like him, and he gave a short sneer.

Then, without hesitation, he walked towards the man. Approaching without hesitation, Edmund was soon close enough to touch the man if he reached out.

Hayden was the first to offer a polite greeting.

A man who had long remained a source of guilt in Vivian’s heart. The uncertain emotions that had troubled Hayden for a while surged violently in his heart as he faced the impeccably perfect Duke.

“Hayden Harper, at your service.”

“Harper?”

Edmund’s eyebrows tilted crookedly. He slowly rolled the name he had heard before in his mouth, and Edmund was finally able to identify the man.

He recalled that Bender Harper, a successful capitalist who had coaxed the picky king of the Lehman Principality and eventually seized Argent’s wine market, was from Foberg, and he could easily guess that he was Bender Harper’s son.

As the tangled threads unraveled, Edmund easily deduced why Hayden Harper was in this narrow harbor and stared at Hayden.

The reaction came from an unexpected place.

“Goodness, are you the Harper who makes Merlot Franc?”

The voice that broke the calm air of the waving harbor was Felix, who had been pondering the vaguely familiar name since Hayden introduced himself.

The sound of Felix’s shoes hitting the ground as he rolled his eyes back and forth stopped, and Felix finally realized that the ‘H’ logo on the whiskey he always drank meant Harper. He stepped closer to Hayden, filled with excitement.

Bender Harper, who succeeded in importing the Lehman Principality’s wine to Argent, quickly expanded his business not long after making his first deal.

The Merlot Franc, which he released as soon as he acquired the Principality’s vast vineyards, was a whiskey that made good use of its luxurious taste and aroma by introducing a unique blended method. With Merlot Franc and rare wines, which quickly captivated Argent’s upper class, who placed high value on aesthetic objects, the Harper family dominated high society.

The exclamations flowing from Felix, who was facing the owner of that Merlot Franc, did not stop and shook the calm space.

Liquor was an indispensable existence for sailors living a boring sea life, and Merlot Franc was perfect enough to satisfy even picky tastes.

When it became difficult to listen to Felix’s words, who was pouring out his passion for alcohol to a pathetic degree, Edmund chose the right words to say to Hayden.

“I think I saw you with the Young Lady.”

It was a question he asked, remembering Hayden Harper approaching Vivian in their first encounter.

Hayden smiled and replied to Edmund’s words.

“That may be so. She is also my fiancée. Fortunately, I have a good relationship with the Marvel family.”

“Marvel? Was there such a name?”

Hayden gently shook his head as Felix interjected.

“Yes. She is the only daughter of the Lord of Foberg. Vivian and I are planning to have our wedding this summer.”

“I haven’t heard that there were marriage talks?”

“It was a marriage that was decided when we were very young, and it hasn’t been officially announced yet.”

“We’re planning to stay in Foberg until summer, so we’ll be able to attend. Right, Edmund?”

The Duke, who had been silent for a while, nodded without saying anything.

Hayden’s heart, which had been worried that the Duke might have feelings for Vivian, became a little lighter.

The fact that Lockberg was the first person Vivian, who was full of affection, had ever felt dislike for gave Hayden no small sense of crisis.

Others may not have noticed, but Vivian had changed subtly after meeting the Duke.

Only Hayden, who had always looked at Vivian, could know that. Whether negative or positive, the Duke was reason enough for Hayden to be wary, simply because he was unique.

Contrary to his worries, the Duke showed a different reaction than Hayden had always expected.

An attitude that showed appropriate interest but seemed to draw a line by not asking any further. It was a typical etiquette of the noble aristocrats he had seen countless times.

“When is the wedding?”

“August.”

It was June, just entering the beginning of summer.

There were less than two months left until the wedding.

As Hayden, who did not miss the Duke’s expression, which seemed lost in thought, explored, a noisy murmur mixed in his ears. Then, the urgent cries of the workers who were moving the boxes of whiskey calling for Hayden were heard.

“I’m sorry, but I think I should go first. I will visit you with a good gift soon, Duke.”

Felix, instead of Edmund, who was ignoring Hayden’s words, saw him off with a pleasant smile.

“Nice to meet you, Lord Harper. Don’t forget me either. When it comes to alcohol, I have a much deeper insight than my cousin.”

Hayden smiled at the words and jumped to the worker who was looking for him. The two gentlemen stared silently at the receding figure.

“Let’s go now, Edmund.”

At Felix’s urging, Edmund slowly moved his steps. Edmund, who got into the car waiting to serve its owner, ordered in a low voice.

“Let’s go.”

At the time when the sun was at its highest, the car slowly departed for the beautiful mansion on the cliff with the Tanic Sea at its feet.

The sea of the harbor seen through the window of the running car was rippling quietly. Accepting the sizzling heat of the hot sunlight endlessly generously. As if nothing had happened.

The sea, wide enough to be sickening, the heat, the scent of flowers, and that woman.

An irritating heat choked him.

Everything in this city was irritating.

As they entered the city, the scenery of Foberg passed by slowly.

Edmund, who naturally thought that she would have returned to the castle with Varner’s guidance, could not hide his embarrassment at the words of the capable butler, who said that no one had visited the castle that day, and ended up laughing out loud.

So, she swam back across that sea?

Soaked in rain and seawater, in that state.

She was truly an unpredictable woman. Thinking of that foolish woman who had quietly returned to protect her pride, Edmund felt an unpleasant impulse as if he was being swept away by a wave that had swept into his calm daily life.

A woman who is nothing.

If he thought so, even if he saw tears falling from that pale face, he could focus solely on the sweet pleasure the woman gave him without much guilt.

A face reddening with shame, tears falling. Her skin, which was more pale than others, turned redder when she got a fever.

The sharp gestures and the terribly distorted beautiful face that could only be seen when he drove her as if he would chew her all up gave him a satisfying sense of fullness that could not be compared to the pleasures of other hobbies.

So, he imagined.

You becoming another man’s wife.

As he stopped breathing and materialized the imagination that would one day become a reality, he seemed to know when the irritation that faintly crept in and eventually ruined his mood began.

He felt dirty.

More than he thought.

Hayden Harper was a good match.

The friendship they had built up since childhood would have been a good background. Above all, although it was not a short meeting, Edmund could quickly figure out that Hayden truly loved Vivian.

The relaxed mouth that loosened when he heard Vivian’s name was proof of that. As he recalled the pure face that revealed the emotions that Edmund could never have, the displeasure deepened even more.

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