“Your Excellency, you’re awake!”
The physician’s voice buzzed in his ears. Aiden furrowed his brow at the throbbing pain in his head.
“Lily…”
“If you mean Miss Dienta, I gave her a stern warning.”
He blinked, and his vision slowly returned. The room was bathed in sunset light, but the woman with the red ribbon was nowhere to be seen.
“For the time being, we’ll be limiting visitors, including your aide. You need complete rest, Your Excellency. You’re not in any condition to be receiving guests.”
The room remained quiet while his temperature and pulse were measured. Everything before he collapsed felt like a dream.
“You have a mild fever, but it’s nothing serious. Still, you mustn’t get agitated.”
“Call Lily…”
“As I said, it’s best you don’t meet anyone for now. Is there a message you’d like to send her?”
A message…
With his hazy mind, he tried to think of what he could say to Lily. As he listed them out, none of them were anything new. He had already said them all—and she had rejected them.
“Ah, that reminds me. Miss Dienta left a letter. She insisted it was important and had to be delivered. I tried to refuse, but she was so earnest, I accepted it.”
The physician retrieved an envelope from a drawer. The seal had been set with wax, and across it, in large letters, were the words “Confidential.”
How much more pain did she want to inflict, leaving behind a letter like this?
Since he couldn’t muster the strength to hold it, the physician opened the letter for him.
Aiden was sure the letter would be filled with more of her rejections. He knew Lily Dienta well enough to understand that she never went back on a decision. So he held little hope.
Still… perhaps… perhaps she had changed her mind.
The expression she wore as he collapsed was enough to stir that hope. He couldn’t forget the trembling voice he heard through his fading consciousness.
At last, he began reading the first line of the letter.
To Duke Aiden Kashimir,
I sincerely apologize for my rudeness earlier. I acted rashly toward someone who had just woken up. I didn’t realize you were that unwell. It may sound shameless, but I never wanted to cause you pain. I’m sorry.
The final period was dark and heavy, as if the pen had lingered a moment too long.
Thank you for your vow that your feelings would not change. At the time, I was too shaken to understand what that really meant. I’ve gone over your words many times. I think I want to believe them too.
Then she should have just believed them. Saying she wanted to believe was just a fancy way of saying she didn’t. Lily Dienta was sticking to her decision to run away.
There was still a whole page left. Why had she written so much?
Aiden gave a bitter smile. He would’ve preferred not to receive a letter like this. The words he once thought as delicate as birdsong now grated on him.
Do you remember our first meeting? I was the only one who could see you in your spirit form, the only one who could hear your voice. It still feels like a miracle.
If not for that, I might never have even greeted you. My job was to clean the halls in secret, hidden from the eyes of nobles.
It was truly a mystery that brought us together. But that mystery is gone now—or rather, we broke it ourselves, and so, um…
Let me just say it plainly. I don’t believe that Your Excellency liked me of your own free will, purely for who I am. To be honest, there was no one else. That uniqueness is what made me special to you, and I can’t deny that.
Now that the mystery is gone, things can’t be the same anymore. ///////Easily///chang////
Please don’t be too heartbroken. Someone more suitab//////////////
The slashes and overwriting looked frantic. With close attention, a few words were still readable beneath the mess.
Passing over another blot left by a pressed pen nib, the tone of the next paragraph suddenly turned formal.
Thank you for the special affection you’ve shown me. I wish you a swift recovery.
With respect,
Lily Dienta
That was it. There was no second page.
He had hoped Lily would say just a bit more. He didn’t care for polite conclusions or careful considerations—he just wanted to hear her true feelings.
Anything at all—he just wanted her to keep talking to him…
Aiden asked the physician:
“Is that the only letter?”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
He blinked, then began reading it from the beginning again. Slowly, whispering it under his breath. Her anxiety and self-deprecation seemed to rise from the paper like waves.
Yes—it could only be interpreted as self-deprecation.
A relationship made possible only by special circumstances. He had clearly told her he would’ve fallen for her no matter how or when they met. But to her, it had meant nothing.
He stared at the scratched-out sentences. One was easy to decipher: Now that the mystery is gone, her heart would change easily. That matched her main argument.
He carefully interpreted the second one:
Don’t be heartbroken. Someone more suit—more suitable— Ha!
And what exactly made someone “more suitable” for him? Wealth? Status? A noble lineage?
By those standards, no one in the empire fit. To please her, he’d have to marry a foreign princess in some grand ceremony.
Lily Dienta would probably just slip away quietly, saying she didn’t belong among the duke’s guests.
It was a painfully logical guess.
Either way, it was all over. He had returned to his body, and the maid had returned to being just a stranger.
No matter how much he pleaded, it wouldn’t change anything. She didn’t even want to stay in the castle. They were never meant to be.
It was his fault, falling for someone selfish and afraid. Giving his heart without calculation…
What a loud, messy heartbreak.
He sighed. The paper resting on his chest weighed him down like it was made of lead.
Come to think of it, it was an awfully messy letter. The meticulous Lily Dienta would normally have rewritten it on clean paper—but here it was, full of stains and crossed-out words.
Those deleted lines might have been better left intact. Had he read them in her usual, tidy handwriting, he might have been wounded beyond repair.
They were about as harsh as a rejection could get.
Had she not been able to bring herself to write them clearly? Did she not really want to say her heart would change—that someone else suited him better?
In the end, Aiden’s fever rose again.
The physician slipped the letter back into its envelope. Aiden, dazed with heat, kept watch with cloudy eyes to make sure he didn’t sneak a peek. Then he had the envelope placed beneath his pillow.
That was the end of it.
😢