6

"How can I send you off. How can I."

Chesana's insides burned at the thought of letting Elena, who was still young, leave.

"Mom..."

The same was true of Elena. Seeing Chesana who was sad, she was eager to spend one more day with her.

'Let's not be shaken. I'm already prepared for this, aren't I?"

But Elena clamped down hard on herself. She didn't want to bring her emotions to the forefront and have Leabrick's eyes on her. If she did, she might suspect her. For now, it was better to pretend that she couldn't win and just go along with it.

"... I'll leave, instead."

She had no intention of just leaving. She quickly added back words.

"Let me spend three hours with my family. No, just two hours is fine. Please."

Leabrick, who tapped the table with her fingers, accepted the offer.

"I'll give you two hours. No more than that."

"Thank you. That's enough."

As soon as she found a compromise, Leabrick left the house, saying she would be preparing to leave. There was a strange silence among the three family members. Knowing that there was no time for this, no one knew where to begin to say goodbye.

"When did my baby grow up so big..."

Chesana, barely speaking, stroked Elena's cheek. Her red eyes were dangerous as if they would pour out tears right away. The voice of Baron Frederick, who tried to pretend to be stern, trembled slightly.

"Don't worry about us, just mind yourself. Do you understand?"

"Mom, Dad."

Elena clenched her teeth in a moment's rush. Don't be weak. It was difficult not to shake. It's a golden time now, if she wasted her time, she would lose her chance forever.

"Listen to what I'm going to say from now on."

Elena's voice was filled with solemnity.

"Leave here before Leabrick returns."

When asked to leave in a hurry, the couple blinked as if they didn't understand.

"Leave? To where?"

"Didn't we decide to trust her? I don't know what this whim is."

When Elena changed her words, the couple looked perplexed. As she expected, persuasion would not be easy, Elena gave up on her impatience and calmly persuaded them.

"Isn't it weird? The lord, who offered to sponsor mere fallen noblemen, was strange, but when we refused, he requested I become his concubine. What's even more amazing is that Leabrick appeared in front of us in this difficult situation, like she was waiting."

"You mean..."

"Maybe it's all fabricated."

The couple was shocked. It wasn't a big deal, but there were more than one or two suspicious things when they started to suspect. But that didn't mean they could take all of Elena's assumptions as fact. It was only a guess, and it didn't explain why she had approached Elena like that.

Elena said to make sure it wasn't a question.

"The obvious thing is, for any reason, the Grand Duke Friedrich needs me."

"You, you... How did you know it was the Grand Duke?"

Baron Frederick was so surprised that he stumbled. He had never mentioned that the person was the Grand Duke.

"I knew it from the first sentence."

"...!"

"Wait a minute. I have something for the both of you."

Elena excused herself for a moment then went to her room. When she came back out to the living room, there was a sealed envelope in her hand.

"I know you have a lot of questions. I'm sure there are a lot of things you want to ask. I wrote everything down in here. Why you have to leave, where you have to go, and how you two can find a way to live."

"When did you do this..."

The couple was perplexed. They didn't know how to take this. Elena seemed to have done this as a prediction. Otherwise, everything prepared in advance was not explained.

"If you leave through the back door, go straight to Mount Rose along the trail. There's a creek running 50 paces to the right of the zelkova tree in the middle of the mountain. Follow the creek across the mountain slope and you will see the Ronalp River."

"You, you...."

"There will be a ferry downstream. Take it and follow the current to cross the border."

The couple was astonished to hear that she had even prepared a boat. They were convinced at the same time. Elena knew that this would happen, and that she had prepared beforehand.

How the hell did she know? Apart from that, was it possible? Come to think of it, Elena may have been a lovely child, but she was not smart or wise.

However, since two months ago, Elena had suddenly changed. Not only was she matured in speech and behavior, but she had also deepened in thought. In addition, the knowledge that unconsciously popped out was hard for the couple to understand. They should have noticed then. That Elena had changed.

'As a father, I'm disqualified. How could I be ignorant of my own daughter.'

Baron Frederick regretted trying to judge and tailor Elena by his own criteria. How frustrated Elena must have been because a person could only see a tree close at hand was trying to understand someone who sees the forest.

"I'll leave."

Baron Frederick's mouth was hard-pressed.

"Honey!"

"But you're coming with me."

Elena raised her chin to make eye contact with Baron Frederick. Despite the concerns, Baron Frederick, who was worried about his daughter, was stunned by the fact he could not be with her.

"No. I can't go."

"What you said was unbelievable! What if they harm you? Let's go together."

Even Chesana tried to persuade her to come along, but Elena was adamant.

"They need me for some reason. So they won't harm me. But mom and dad are different. I'm sure they won't let you live. If they keep you alive, you'll be kept hostage. As a means of controlling and suppressing me."

"...!"

Elena's gruesome expression made the couple's mouth go wide open. Control, hostage, oppression. None of those were words of an unacceptable nature without sufficient explanation. Elena continued her words without stopping.

"I have to stay. There's something I have to do to them."

Revenge. Revenge will begin when hatred, which has barely subsided below the surface, rises again. By then, she will use herself and destroy those who killed her in misery.

"What are you going to, what are you going to do."

"Don't worry about me."

"Elena..."

The couple felt like their hearts were going to fall apart. It was a terrible feeling, leaving their only child on their limbs and running away. Elena said she had work to do in the empire, but they felt so sorry that it was their fault they couldn't leave together.

"I'm running out of time. She'll be here soon."

"Elena, let me ask you one thing."

The eyes of Baron Frederick, who stared at his daughter, were deeply sorry.

"Did we put you in danger?"

"No."

Elena replied as if she didn't have to think. She knew what he was feeling beyond that anxious glance.

"This was unavoidable. Like a midsummer shower."

How could you avoid the rain, and the black clouds that cover the clear sky without warning. It's only good to find a place to shelter from the rain before the whole body gets wet. Baron Frederick dropped his head helplessly.

"... I'll do as you please."

Eventually, the couple prepared to leave, feeling like they were cutting their own flesh. Light clothes, gold coins, and an envelope were all that was left of their luggage. As they were about to part, the couple stood in front of the back door. If they opened that door and let themselves into the darkened gates, they would truly be separated.

"Come here."

Chesana embraced Elena tightly with a half-weeping voice. Baron Frederick wrapped the mother and daughter with open arms. The body temperature of each other, which was close enough to touch breaths, was comforting at this moment.

"My Elena, my only daughter in the world."

Elena held her breath. She bit her teeth so that she wouldn't start sobbing.

Elena, Elena, Elena.

That name will be given to the heart, not the ears. To not forget her soon-to-be-deleted name, perhaps her unheard-of identity, she engraved it on her heart again and again.

"Farewell."

The brief and calm greetings were imbued with unimaginable injustice.

"Take care of yourself. We'll meet again, okay?"

After opening the back door, looking at Chesana, Elena made a smile colored in sadness without a word.

"Dear, let's go."

Chesana went farther along the hillside as if forced by Baron Frederick. Even in the midst of getting farther away, she didn't think her gaze would fall from Elena.

"You must be safe, absolutely."

Elena corrected herself by capturing the image of the couple getting farther away apart. She put her hands on her belly, bowed her back, and politely and reverently said her last goodbye. She hoped to see them again. She prayed that the wind would reach the sky.

By the time the rustling through the bushes died down, Elena looked up. When she couldn't find the two people buried in the darkness, the word "breakup" touched her heart.

"Crying... Is just the beginning."

Elena murmured a vow to herself. When she finally calmed down and took down her sleeves, the look in her eyes was as cold as frostbite. Elena, the daughter of a fallen nobleman, was no longer in this world. All that remained was the iron-blooded woman who looked down on everyone with a solitary gaze and ran the social circles of the empire.

Closing the door behind her, Elena locked it. She fixed her messy hair and did not forget to clean the hem of her wrinkled skirt and the sleeves of her clothes. The act of grooming was a way to deal with her emotionally charged inner life