Chapter 278

Don’t pay attention to the people who hate you, the people who try to diminish your worth. They’ll pay the price eventually. You’ll become so happy you won’t even remember them.

“Don’t think you have no one.”

The MacKinnon family he had secretly saved was known to the world as dead, and Ren Fayel had no interest in Nerys. Perhaps her mother would have to fake her death soon as well.

But at least that much was still alive, wholly hers.

She would never know it, though.

He was sad and happy about that.

[Daddy, what about me? Me?]

“…Yes. You’re here too.”

Cledwyn smiled at the lump of light throwing a fit, as if to tell him not to forget her.

“I’m glad you’re with me.”

[Hmph! Of course! I’m Mom and Dad’s daughter!]

The Milky Way flowed across the black sky, and the breeze stirred the dark forest. The three family members stayed together in that spot until the pink dawn finally broke.

As soon as the sky brightened enough, Cledwyn’s body began to move on its own. After returning Nerys to the warehouse floor where she’d been, it locked the door again. Nerys looked like she would wake soon.

Cledwyn thought his body would leave it at that. In this timeline, perhaps he had never had any contact with Nerys trapped in the warehouse. But surprisingly, his body gestured and called Talfrin.

“Yes, Master.”

Cledwyn’s body spoke coldly.

“Pretend you found her by chance and get the child out.”

Talfrin wore a strange expression. Why not do it himself? But the most flustered person was Cledwyn, stripped of control over his own body.

In this world—one that moved according to Nerys’s past memories—Cledwyn’s body acted on its own in two cases. First, when the risk of diverging from her memory was obvious. Second, when Cledwyn appeared in her memory.

Putting Nerys back in the warehouse earlier had been the first case. But even then, his body had never “spoken” like this.

‘Then.’

His heart thumped.

When Nerys was trapped in the warehouse in her previous life…

It had been him—him from her previous life—who helped her.

Talfrin still looked uncertain, but he answered that he would do as told. Cledwyn’s body immediately left the spot.

Only after they were far enough away that Nerys couldn’t hear did Cledwyn regain control. The lump of light chattered happily.

[Mom’s coming out now, right? Right?]

“…Yes.”

Basking in the full dawn sunlight—so close in color to his wife’s hair—Cledwyn smiled. Unexpectedly, he was appearing often in her memories.

It was a small comfort, for someone who didn’t know how long he would have to remain here.

❖ ❖ ❖

Time kept flowing.

Cledwyn watched as Nerys became isolated without even understanding why, as Valentin and Megara—growing more vicious with age—tightened their cruelty around her. He did everything he could to retaliate against the Marquis Lykeandros Family and the Dukedom of Elandria with Maindulante’s rising power, but perhaps because of this world’s laws, those two families continued to prosper.

Sometimes he appeared as an insignificant figure in her memory. Other times, he unexpectedly helped her when she was in trouble. It wasn’t even a drop of water to someone dying of thirst, but whenever Cledwyn realized that even the him in this timeline was connected to Nerys, he felt a sweetness he couldn’t deny.

Because of the difference in their years, he kept watching over Nerys even after graduating ahead of her. Truthfully, he was only nominally in Maindulante; most of his time was spent watching her grow. The subordinates who took over the Grand Duchy’s management complained, but he didn’t care.

After losing several secret places to her classmates, Nerys started visiting the pharmacology library. In that place of sky, tranquility, and the smell of books, she often shut her eyes and spent time alone. She never found the necklace Cledwyn had hidden—not until the very end.

Nerys’s mother was killed by an assassin sent by Nellusion. Cledwyn saved her—or rather, faked her death. It happened not long after Nerys’s Ja’an had bloomed.

With a face so pale it looked as if every hope and joy had drained from her life, Nerys was adopted into the Elandria Family. Duke and Duchess Elandria thrived as the heads of a respected house and relatives of one of the Empire’s top three merchant guilds, and Nerys supported them by lowering herself again and again.

The bright, imaginative girl vanished without a trace. She gradually forgot what rest meant. Aside from the sleep required to survive and the daily tea she drank once a day, she spent all her time studying etiquette and politics.

Even lowly maids in the Elandria Family ignored her. For a lady who had manifested Ja’an and been formally adopted into the family to be treated like that by servants should have been unthinkable. But what wasn’t absurd in that house? With the family’s two tyrants—the Duchess and Valentin—openly despising Nerys, the maids made their allegiance clear.

Nellusion was the only one who treated Nerys warmly as she barely survived day by day in a cold closet. The innocent, lonely Nerys was quickly deceived by Nellusion’s hypocritical kindness.

Cledwyn realized, with a twist of pain, that she might have loved him very much.

The cunning Nellusion couldn’t have failed to notice how Nerys’s expression brightened whenever she saw Cledwyn. So Nellusion behaved as if he, too, had feelings for her—only to insist that the circumstances made it impossible.

Perhaps Nellusion believed he didn’t love her at all, and that he was merely acting with perfect calculation. Because that bastard was a masterful liar.

But Cledwyn could tell. Nellusion might have had some interest in her.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have fought loudly after the Duke said he would send Nerys to become the Crown Princess Consort—then pass out drunk. Nor would he have made preparations to smuggle Nerys to his house on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

But in this timeline, Nellusion eventually agreed to send Nerys to the Imperial Family—because the Elandria Family was drunk on ambition, because they stood to gain so much by offering up just her.

Watching the entire process, Cledwyn burned with anger and frustration. No matter how he tried to approach her, this world wouldn’t allow the two of them to come into contact—at least while she was conscious.

At some point, Cledwyn began to feel crushingly lonely, as if he alone remembered the Nerys who was his wife. So he said to the lump of light.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

The lump of light—dimmer lately—sparkled again.

[Hmph! Right?]

“Are you okay? Your light’s been fading. You look like you’re having a hard time.”

[Uh-huh… I’m okay.]

Even after insisting it was fine, the lump of light flew into Cledwyn’s chest. Cledwyn hugged her with a motion that had become natural over the years.

[Sad because Mom’s sad.]

The lump of light sobbed. Cledwyn let out a long sigh.

He had never truly wanted a child. He had been happy about the pregnancy because he knew Nerys wanted one—because that was simply who he was.

But having someone like this, someone who could share Nerys’s story and love her alongside him, didn’t seem so bad.

“Me too.”

Me too—sad because my wife is sad.

And yet it seemed they were the only ones in this world who were sad for Nerys. The Imperial Family and the Elandria Family hurried through the wedding preparations with bright faces, while the people, ignorant, welcomed it as a wonderful union.

❖ ❖ ❖

Cledwyn hated himself for being able to do nothing but watch Nerys break faster after the marriage. He hated the ones who inflicted pain on her so much he wanted to kill them. He loathed those who stood by as she suffered. And he found those who profited off her while shattering her body disgusting.

Crown Princess Consort Nerys drank until she was on the verge of addiction. She was already precarious, like a cracked stone barely holding a human shape. One day, in a drunken haze, she even clung to Abelus as he came for his conjugal duty and then tried to leave.

“Please don’t go tonight. Please stay with me.”

She begged for what she had every right to demand as his wife, as if it were a lifelong wish too much for her to ask.

Even Abelus, usually indifferent, hesitated.

“Your Highness, Lady Megara has suddenly collapsed.”

If Megara’s maid hadn’t rushed in with feigned urgency, Abelus might have stayed. But torn between his drunken wife and the news of his collapsed mistress, Abelus clicked his tongue and left.

Nerys wasn’t fully asleep, but she was clearly unconscious. Cledwyn entered the empty bedroom—one without even proper servants—and called his wife’s name.

“Nerys.”

Nerys cracked her eyes open and looked at him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had met her gaze.

“…Main, du, lan…?”

She couldn’t even speak properly. Cledwyn saw the surprise on her face and smiled, bitterly. Since he could move freely, it seemed the events of tonight wouldn’t remain in her memory at all.

He carefully lifted Nerys, sprawled on the floor, into his arms. He smoothed her disheveled blonde hair and laid her properly on the bed.

“Why… you… are…”

Nerys asked, faltering. Cledwyn kissed his beloved wife on the forehead.

“You drunkard.”

Nobles of the Empire learned from childhood what alcohol paired well with meals, so her usual abstinence had always been unusual. It was even stranger in Maindulante, where strong liquor flowed freely. He had once wondered why she didn’t drink.

So this was why.

As he pulled up the blanket—made from only the finest materials—Nerys curled up like a shrimp and began to sob. Cledwyn’s heart felt as if it were being torn apart.

“Nerys. Nerys. Look at me.”

Unable to resist, he lifted her and hugged her. Nerys stiffened.

As if she hadn’t been held like this in a very long time.

“Nerys, it’s okay. Don’t worry. I’m here. I’ll get you out of here.”

Whenever that might be.

“You’ll be happy. You’ll be surrounded by people who love you. You’ll live. You’ll live better than anyone else.”

Her small, tear-streaked face trembled against his chest.

“No… one… lo… ves… me…”

The words fell in broken drops, small as rain. Cledwyn didn’t miss a single one.

No one loves me.

He could refute that even if he went without sleep for days.

“I love you.”

“It… doesn’t… mat… ter… I’m… use… less…”

No one cares if I’m gone. I’m useless.

“You are important.”

“No… one… trea… ts… me… spe… cial…”

No one treats me specially.

“I can’t live without you.”

He whispered it, again and again, with sincerity. But she didn’t seem to believe him. With effort, she lifted her head and stared at him warily.

That stubborn wall.

Nerys smiled bitterly—the same smile of resignation that child had worn in the past, in the world where she was his wife.

“You… don’t… need… to… com… fort… some… one… like… me…”

Cledwyn swallowed dry tears.

The reason a stranger—no, even the Grand Duke of Maindulante, the man the Crown Prince hated most in the world—could freely come and go from the Crown Princess Consort’s residence was probably because there was no record in Nerys’s memory of him appearing here and making a scene.

Assuming tonight would be erased from her memory, he had said whatever he wanted. But if he tried to take her away right now, his body would probably start moving on its own again.

Before he knew it, Nerys had closed her eyes and was breathing softly in sleep. Cledwyn covered her with the blanket again and kissed her forehead, longing for her more fiercely than ever.

“Let’s go.”

[Okay, Daddy…]

The lump of light drooped and clung to Cledwyn’s shoulder. Cledwyn pretended not to notice how she kept looking back at Nerys as they left.