“Did you not receive my letter?”
“I did. But I had no intention of accepting your refusal.”
“…….”
It seemed her impression that his letter sounded more like a notification than a request had not been entirely mistaken. If he had deliberately written it that way—
“Would you like me to carry you inside?”
“……!”
He suddenly leaned his head down toward her ear and whispered in a low voice.
Rachel lowered her gaze after looking at his cold face, which had come so close to hers.
“No.”
For now, if she wanted to find out what was going on, she had to get into this carriage.
Straightening her posture, Rachel immediately stepped inside the carriage.
He stopped Becky, who was about to follow her.
“It would be better for the maid to go with my servant.”
“…….”
Had he even prepared a separate carriage for her servant to ride in?
Rachel nodded at Becky, who was looking at her anxiously.
There was no one who could stop this anyway, and there was nothing to gain from deliberately wasting time.
He climbed in after her, and through the slowly closing door, she could see her younger brother, who looked strangely restless unlike their parents.
Ilya silently moved his lips.
‘Are you all right, Sister? Should I come with you?’
That was definitely what he was saying.
“…….”
What was wrong with that child now?
She was certain she had explained things clearly to him before.
Thud.
The carriage door closed.
Soon, a knight of the Valencia family approached and announced,
“We will depart.”
Through the window, Rachel could see her escort knights, including Sir Hoffman.
The moment she confirmed they were there, a curtain descended over the carriage window.
Rustle—
The sounds from outside were cut off as cleanly as if they had been severed with a knife.
It was the soundproofing magic that any good carriage would naturally have.
“Now that you’ve finished checking everything, I would like you to look this way.”
“…….”
A heavy voice settled over the quiet silence.
When Rachel turned her head, the man who had drawn the curtains was looking down at her from only a short distance away.
Rachel clasped her hands together.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“…….”
No matter how much she thought about it, Rachel couldn’t come up with a reason for this man to behave this way.
As for what happened with Paris—although she might have acted a little hastily, wasn’t that a perfectly understandable reaction from a fiancée who had nearly been betrayed?
Perhaps he had been displeased by her continued attempts to draw a line between them when he was only trying to show her goodwill.
She considered that possibility as well.
But there was something so strange about this situation that she couldn’t simply conclude that was the reason.
The man who had been silently staring at her crossed his legs as he sat opposite her and rested his hands on his knees.
“Why do you think I’m acting like this?”
“……Was my behavior unpleasant to you? But I truly don’t want to become involved with Valencia any further—”
“One of my men noticed something strange about you. So I investigated it, and there wasn’t a single trace that you had conducted any investigation yourself. Even the person who claimed to be that physician’s academy classmate—the one you told me about—was amazed that you knew what you told him, saying that he had never mentioned it anywhere. He wondered how you could possibly have known.”
“……!”
“Do you have anything to say to me, Lady?”
His red eyes stared down at her.
Without realizing it, Rachel tightened her clasped hands.
Her fingertips, chilled by tension, felt as though they might begin trembling at any moment.
There was no trace of an investigation?
That was fine.
She could somehow make an excuse, saying that she had simply been careful about her actions.
The problem was Billy, the physician’s supposed academy classmate.
He knew about something she had never actually told him.
—Twenty paces from the end of the southern wall of the physician’s quarters.
That alone was enough to make anyone suspicious or at least curious.
“Is it difficult to answer?”
“…….”
But if she had carelessly fabricated traces of an investigation, that would have caused an even bigger problem.
There was no way Valencia would have failed to notice something like that.
Besides, the information Billy had provided was the most decisive piece of evidence, and the distance was close enough.
With only a month left until the wedding, that had essentially been Rachel’s only option.
And because that evidence was the surest thing capable of moving the Duke of Valencia—
“Lady.”
“……!”
A hand suddenly entered her field of vision and seized her hand.
Only then did Rachel realize that she had unconsciously been clenching her fist tightly.
Blood had finally begun returning to the hand she had been abusing so badly.
Following his lead, she opened her hand and saw that the palm was red, deep nail marks embedded in it as though the skin might tear at any moment.
A sigh-like sound came from across from her.
“Use your words. Are you protesting right now?”
“…….”
Rachel stared silently at Nathan, who was sitting opposite her.
He released her hand and leaned back, but his eyes immediately met hers again.
They were slightly narrowed at first.
Then, after staring into his red eyes, which gradually sank into a deeper, darker shade, Rachel studied them for a long while.
All sorts of emotions were swirling within them, but there didn’t seem to be any contempt or murderous intent.
“……How I came to know about it is a secret.”
“……Lady.”
His expression immediately stiffened.
Rachel lowered her gaze.
In truth, this man had been treating her more gently than before.
She knew why.
‘Because I’m not Paris’s wife anymore.’
Because she wasn’t the fake’s wife, this man was maintaining a certain degree of courtesy even in this situation.
If he knew the truth, he would never have let her off so easily.
“It really is a secret. I haven’t even told my parents about this. I can’t reveal it just to resolve one of your suspicions.”
Certain, at least, that this would not lead to her being confined, Rachel raised her head.
Her heart involuntarily lurched when she saw how dark his red eyes had become, but she continued speaking.
“……We’re not going to have anything to do with each other anymore anyway, are we? I hope you can simply understand and overlook my somewhat suspicious investigative abilities. It isn’t as though I intend to use this to cause any harm to you or—”
“No. That isn’t what I’m worried about.”
The man cut her off decisively.
Rachel could see the tension gathering along his jaw.
“It’s that you’re hiding something. And I’ve begun to suspect that perhaps you weren’t the one who uncovered all of this.”
“……!”
Of course, the one who had uncovered all of this was Aisha Labelin from before the regression.
It had been her again.
But that fact would have no impact on this life.
More importantly, there could be no mastermind behind her.
Rachel replied as calmly as she could.
“That’s speculation. I found all of this myself, and—”
“How?”
“……I told you, it’s a secret. And does the method really matter that much? If I had intended to do something bad, would I have tried so hard to distance myself from Valencia? I would have clung to you as your benefactor and never let go. Wouldn’t I?”
“You could simply be waiting for an opportunity. In fact, it’s precisely because you’ve continued trying to distance yourself from me that I’ve been paying more attention to you. And then you happened to learn this by chance.”
“…….”
“If I hadn’t known, I would have continued being led around by you until I eventually fell into your hands. Because if you had asked me for something someday, I would have nodded without a second thought.”
Looking into his wavering red eyes, Rachel instinctively understood.
It was already over.
Unless she told him how she had learned everything, he would not let go of his suspicions.
After all, before the regression, he had been the man who had painstakingly uncovered the entire fake heir incident alongside Aisha Labelin—a case that no one else had known about.
He would never back down until he was satisfied.
……And if he discovered the truth about her regression, he would be furious.
A woman who had once been the fake heir’s wife had pretended to be his benefactor and then slipped away from the entire incident.
There was no way she could simply tell him about it .
She didn’t even know how he could possibly discover it so easily, but perhaps because this was a man who had already once uncovered an impossible case, an uneasy feeling swept over her.
“Today, I came to warn you.”
“……!”
A hand suddenly reached toward her and firmly seized the hand she had once again been clenching before pulling it away.
“My instincts are telling me that you’re hiding something very important.”
His blood-red eyes were now right before her.
He forcibly pressed the hand marked with harsh nail marks down onto the sofa and warned her coldly.
“Be careful, Lady. The moment I uncover what you are hiding, you will pay the price for not telling me the truth today.”
“…….”
Rachel clenched her teeth and smiled.
“Do whatever you want. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”
‘I need to hurry the marriage.’
Now that things had come to this, she needed to get out of this man’s sight as quickly as possible.
If she got married and shut herself away in her territory for several years, then…
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