5 Chapter 5
In the end, Marianne had to cancel her afternoon schedule and return to her room.
In fact, she had been earnestly waiting for a birthday party for more than a month, not hiding her excitement. All of a sudden, she suddenly looked dejected and said, 'Please take care of my birthday party, you two!" Hugo and Mrs. Icell looked at each other in embarrassment. Hugo cautiously asked her what happened, but she told him she had nothing in particular.
Of course she wasn't okay.
Could she be okay? She could not be okay. And she was not supposed to be okay.
She sighed deeply, sitting in the bedroom alone. She let Cordelli out of her room with the excuses that she wanted to rest. Tears from her long eyelashes dropped onto her dress.
Only then did she realize why she felt stuffy all morning.
'Going back to my past doesn't mean that my hurt feelings were healed. I am still the same.'
Her life in this world was her second chance. Whether it was a dream or real, she had enough time to change her future in this world. And she was determined to do anything to avoid falling into the same trap as she did before.
But she really trusted and loved Ober until yesterday. That was her true feeling.
Of course, she could now guess that there was wicked motivation behind his words and actions, but she could not say that her happiness and excited feelings when she didn't really know him were fake. Denying her feelings back then was too harsh for her. She felt so upset about the fact that she had to remember her happy memories of him as the humiliating moments because of his crime.That was too big a price for her foolish heart.
'Bad bastard! Why did you deceive me like this? Don't you know how much I trusted and loved you? You punishment won't be enough no matter how heavy it is!'
She wiped away ceaseless tears again and again.
If she didn't get even with him this time, she would be sucked in again. She would rather curse at him while biting her lips. She wouldn't be dumb again. She knew all this well.
But just knowing it didn't mean that things would work out well for her.
"Boohoo…"
In the end, she cried loudly like a child. At her crying, Cordelli, who was pacing up and down outside the door, opened the door without her permission and came in with a worried look.
But her tears never ceased. Rather, tears came down like a dam that opened a floodgate.
The whole annex plunged into chaos when she cried. Not only the chief maid and the butler, but also Duke Kling, who came back less than one hour after hearing that, tried their best to comfort her in vain.
She was beyond their control.
In fact, she needed more time to recognize his betrayal and cry.
The mansion, which was in chaos because of her crying, was back to normal in the evening. Marianne fell asleep after crying a lot as if the world fell, but she woke up because she was hungry, strangely enough.
As a result, she had to eat soup with swollen eyes in front of her father, Cordelli, Mrs. Icell and Hugo, and the family doctor Laeneek, who just arrived for her checkup.
She felt ashamed as she had to eat amid their attention, which she didn't notice when she was crying loudly.
They constantly expressed worry while she was eating.
She had to repeat like a parrot that she was alright whenever she was asked.
None of those gathered there believed her, but she had no other choice but to say so.
She couldn't confess to them, 'Actually, I was murdered by Ober yesterday, or more precisely, last night, at the back garden of the main house. Oh, before that happened, I was married to him, and my father died. But the culprit behind my father's death was going to kill me too. I was foolish enough to ask him directly and drowned in the lake. I was twenty-three years old then, but when I opened my eyes, I was twenty-one years old.'
She couldn't bring herself to say that. She didn't want to tell her father about that terrible process. Even if she told them about it, not everyone would accept it at once.
Anyway, at this point in time, Ober was a nobleman who faithfully tried to win her heart with a good feeling. Even Duke Kling would not have guessed that Ober was not simply interested in his lovely daughter or his territories, although he hated Ober because of his family's overpowering power and his identity as the illegitimate child of the royal family.
'Knowing a secret I can't tell anyone is not as fun as a play.'
She suddenly got lonely and pushed the half-empty soup plate before pulling the blanket over.
When she didn't show any further intention to talk with them, the people present in the mansion left one by one. Cordelli stayed to the end, took care of her bedding, and then blew out the candles before going out.
Her room was quiet again. She curled up her body, sticking her head out of the blanket.
Looking out the window through which the moonlight was shining through, she recalled that night again.
As she already cried a lot, she felt a little more calm now than in the morning.
"Marie, there is nothing called love in the world."
She suddenly hunched her shoulders when she recalled the face and voice of Ober who said so.
"You are just a pretty doll. You would be the same if you were sold off to someone other than me."
She wanted to deny what he said. But that was the only reality she was left with. A pretty doll. The only daughter of a large aristocrat who must be sold off to someone with a significant dowry. Under the imperial law, the daughter could not succeed the titles of her family. Duke Kling had no illegitimate child or a nephew he could take as an adopted son. Since he loved his wife so much, who died more than two decades ago, he did not think of having a concubine or getting married again to get a baby boy.
'If I had a brother, would things work out differently because my father would have a son to succeed the family?'
She thought about it for a moment, but gave it up in no time.
"Hope what I am saying now can comfort you. You were a pretty good doll. You were more beautiful than any other woman, and you had great honor and wealth that was hard to compare with any other family, and you were as foolish as the others, but only loyal to me."
In any case, it could not be denied that a "beautiful and stupid wife" and "the honor and wealth of the Kling family" were part of what Ober coveted. He was a cold-hearted villain who deceived her with love and manipulated his father's death. If her father had a successor, Ober would certainly kill him.
"That's why I didn't want to give you up until I became the emperor."
Before killing her, Ober lived with his wife Marianne only temporarily, and it wouldn't have been uncomfortable for him. There was no possibility that Ober would not kill Kling's successor who would be dangerous to him.
She suddenly stopped thinking because she found some strange word in her recollection.
'Emperor? Until I become the emperor… ?
That made sense if the Ober family had a blood relationship with the Frei royal family. Actually, Erica, the wife of the first Marquis Chester and Ober's biological mother, was the late emperor Cassius.
Although Ober did not inherit the platinum hair of the Frei family, there were widespread rumors in the social circles in many parts of the empire, including those in the capital, that Ober was the late emperor's illegitimate child. There was another rumor that there was a reason why Marquis Chester had no children other than Ober, though he slept with lots of women.
There was even a rumor that Ober would have inherited the Castle of Frey instead of Chester, if Cassius and Queen Blair had not had a baby, who later became a crown prince.
Marianne also heard those rumors in passing, but she had heard of them once or twice.
Those who stayed around her did not like the conspiracies or groundless rumors originating in the capital. Rather, they enjoyed talking about flowers, paintings, poetry, and music much longer.
Was it because of that?
She often felt sorry for the label 'illegitimate child' attached to Ober's name. She believed his reassurances that he was willing to live in the Kling house with no successor as his son-in-law and succeed his achievement. She thought that his fervent efforts to win her heart despite her father's vehement opposition and all kinds of humiliation showed his true love of her as well as his loyalty to the empire.
