She stood still, staring at the palm-sized window slightly above her.
There were no flowers visible outside the window anymore.
All she could see was the overturned soil.
“Still, I kept my promise. I told you I would come see you once the truth was revealed, didn’t I?”
“……!”
Paris’s face immediately twisted into a vicious expression.
He rushed toward her, but a magical barrier that appeared in an instant blocked him with a loud bang. Perhaps because of the impact, the door seemed to rattle for a moment.
“You—you! Don’t tell me, you knew from back then!”
“……”
Thud!
He slammed his fist against the transparent barrier and demanded angrily,
“Why did you do it? We were good together! Even after you found out about that, all you had to do was keep your mouth shut. You wanted to become a Valencia too, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you clung to my side so desperately?”
His bloodshot eyes glared wildly, filled with anger and mockery.
“So that’s why! You said you wanted to avoid me at the end. Why? You were fine when you believed I was the heir of Valencia, but once you found out I was the son of a slave-born knight, you didn’t even want to touch me, did you? You vulgar woman who changes the way she acts depending on someone’s status! You think I’m going to end like this—”
There was no reason to listen any further.
After remaining silent for some time, Rachel finally opened her mouth.
“There was another reason I came to despise you.”
“What did I—!”
He might not know it now.
But before her regression, Rachel had already once considered the possibility that their marriage might come to an end.
In truth, their married life had never been particularly happy even before all of this happened.
In a family where having an heir was of utmost importance, five years had passed without a child.
They had continued sleeping together regularly, and the examinations they had undergone had shown that there was nothing wrong with either of them, leaving them without an answer.
Then, she had eventually discovered that he had been taking contraceptive tea.
—What is this……?
—That……
Paris had hesitated before leaving the room.
A short while later, the Duchess came to see her, dismissed everyone around them, and spoke with her privately.
—Paris said he wasn’t ready to have children yet. That’s why he did such a thing—
—Mother, you knew about this too?
—No. I didn’t know either. How could I have known?
—……
The person who had been the first to step forward and criticize Rachel for not having a child was the Duchess herself.
Yet, without even offering an apology, she simply stared at Rachel before saying,
—Anyway. You don’t need to worry about it anymore. I’ve already told him not to do it again.
—……Is there nothing else you have to say to me?
—Don’t tell the Duke. There’s nothing good that will come from telling him, is there?
The Duchess rose from her seat.
Paris, who had been standing beside the door, glanced casually at Rachel before following his mother out.
Rachel impulsively opened her mouth.
—Why wouldn’t there be anything good in it? You know what I’ve been hearing all this time. This seems like the perfect opportunity to clear my name of the disgrace that has been placed upon me.
—What?
The Duchess’s eyes widened.
Paris also stood there with a stunned expression, as though he could not believe that the obedient woman who had always remained docile no matter what had finally rebelled.
But to Rachel, it was only natural.
When she had first married into the family, she had no one on her side, so there was nothing she could do.
Once some time had passed, she still could not conceive a child, so she had no choice but to keep her head down and live quietly.
Why can’t I have a child?
Couldn’t there be something wrong with Lady Rachel?
How can she undergo the sealing ceremony like this? At least find out what the problem is first—
Those whispers.
All those disgraceful rumors.
They had all been caused by his foolish actions.
—I need to tell the Duke.
—Rachel!
—My lady!
Rachel immediately left the room and ran all the way to the Duke’s office.
A flustered Paris followed her with a vicious expression, but with so many eyes watching them, he could not forcibly stop her.
Perhaps she had already sensed it then.
That the end of their strange marriage was approaching.
Of course, she had never imagined that the revelation that Paris had been taking contraceptive tea all this time would turn the family upside down.
Nor had she imagined that immediately afterward, during the sealing ceremony, she would learn that he was actually a fake.
……I never imagined he already knew about my birth, too.
In the end, Paris had been an accomplice.
If she had never activated , if she had never seen the 「Record」 within it, she would have lived her entire life without ever knowing the truth.
“……”
After finishing her recollection, Rachel stared silently at Paris.
In truth, she did not know exactly why she had come to see him.
Was it because she wanted to confirm that the reason her life had been ruined so thoroughly was not her fault, but this man’s?
In a way, he was the man who had affected her life even more than Nathan Valencia.
Because he was the one who had dragged someone who had once shone so brightly—
down into the dirt, even now.
“Why can’t you answer? So I was right—”
“You knew about your own bloodline.”
“……!”
At her indifferent reply, Paris looked as though he had suddenly been struck.
Then he stammered,
“W-What are you talking about? I never—”
“When you were fourteen, you overheard your mother talking with Sir Wayne, didn’t you? That’s why you obediently accepted the Duchess’s suggestion to postpone the sealing ceremony. You even secretly searched for a way to successfully undergo the sealing ceremony. Isn’t that right?”
“……!”
His expression told her everything.
It seemed she had been right.
As expected, everything written in the 「Record」—the past, the present, and the future—must have been the truth.
Paris’s face went deathly pale.
“How did you know that? Don’t tell me someone overheard us back then? Is that why—why Father didn’t believe me when I said I didn’t know……!”
“……”
No one had actually overheard them.
But Rachel had no reason to deny it.
And it was also true that the Duke of Valencia had found evidence that Paris had secretly been trying to figure out how to undergo the sealing ceremony.
She did not know whether the Duke before her regression had discovered it as well.
“Ah……”
Paris slowly sank to his knees, his face filled with despair.
Over his bowed, ash-gray hair, Rachel asked one final question.
“I think I can guess. But I still want to ask. Why did you do that to me? If you underwent the ceremony, your bloodline would have been exposed anyway.”
“……”
“Why did you drag me into it? That’s what I came here to ask.”
Paris gritted his teeth and raised his head.
His eyes were filled with despair and malice.
Then he spat out his answer.
“Because you were the most valuable.”
“……!”
“You were called the Jewel of Olsher, weren’t you? The Flower had already gone to the Magic Tower. Everyone was pressuring me to get married, so I couldn’t put it off any longer. So I simply chose you. You were a useful ornament.”
Rachel clenched both hands.
Paris rose to his feet and pointed accusingly at her as he shouted,
“Don’t blame everything on me! I was the heir of Valencia. I’d been that since the day I was born. Do you really think I could just give that up because they suddenly told me to? Was I the one in the wrong? You only married me because you wanted to become Duchess Valencia, and once you discovered my flaw, you were planning to replace me with someone else!”
“……”
Listening to him desperately trying to hurt her in any way he could, Rachel turned away.
The him from this life and the him from her previous life were no different.
So there was no need to care about him anymore.
This was the end of him and her.
“Goodbye. Take care, Paris. Still, I suppose I can’t feel wronged knowing that’s how you thought. Because it means there was nothing between us in the end except deception.”
“……!”
“Then.”
Paris suddenly came to his senses and shouted desperately,
“Wait!”
Click.
Rachel’s shoes stopped right in front of the door.
Paris tried to approach her but was stopped by the magical barrier. He spoke pleadingly.
“What I meant was, it wasn’t entirely my fault. It’s not my fault that I was born as that woman’s son, or that bastard’s son! I’ll forgive everything you’ve done. So give me a chance to live. Ask the Duke to spare me so I can live—”
“……”
She quietly listened to the voice coming from behind her.
Then, without needing to hear another word, Rachel turned around.
It was almost laughable how he was exactly the same as before.
Even his complete lack of regret or apology remained unchanged.
“Rachel!”
Ignoring his desperate scream behind her, she stepped outside.
She was just about to call for the knight when Rachel noticed a figure standing right beside her.
Her body trembled in surprise.
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