Chapter 8

Twisted Engagement (8)

Lyria was suspicious of being suddenly able to return to her room. Her father couldn’t have gotten rid of his anger at this level. It’s enough to be locked up for more than a month.

It occurred to her that they might send her back to her room and then send her to a temple or villa far from the capital and lock her up for several months.

What should I do? It’s time for Rowena’s test results to be announced… I’m holding everyone back again.

Lyria, squatting on the bed in the room, cried silently.

Both Kian and Rowena were able to stand on their own, and her useless self was being shackled. Lyria was devastated by her incompetence.

But she wanted to live and stay with Rowena or Kian. Lyria shed tears, wondering if she was being too greedy.

Lyria has yet to know that Rowena had received a proposal. This was because the Marquis of Wenson did not speak, and the Marquis’ employees did not know yet.

Knock, knock.

It was a knock on the window. Lyria sprang up and got out of bed. As she approached the window, she saw Rowena outside the window.

“Rowena!”

Lyria opened the window without even thinking of wiping her tears. Rowena silently came inside and looked at the door.

“Are you okay now?”

“It’s okay. He let me come up to the room, but I’m still grounded…”

Lyria hugged Rowena, speaking in a choked voice. Rowena was so happy to see her face again in a few days.

“Lyria, I have something to say.”

Lyria’s eyes were wide open as Rowena spoke with a serious look on her face about when she met the prince at the banquet and brought up what he had jokingly said.

Lyria’s face went pale. A trembling hand grabbed Rowena’s hem.

Rowena let the rest of the words out with a calm look.

As Rowena said she was worried about Kian, so she went to see the crown prince again to check on him, and the proposal arrived a few days ago, a look of despair appeared on Lyria’s face.

Lyria shed tears with a distorted face, ashamed.

She whispered in a tearful voice, “I’m sorry, I…”

She had ruined everything again. She thought she had ruined Rowena’s life, where she could be happy with her unbecoming greed.

“Well, I’ll visit the crown prince again. Even if I have to beg him… I’ll ask him to let you go…”

“Lyria, it’s okay. He wasn’t as bad as I’d heard others say.”

Probably.

But Lyria cried bitterly, thinking Rowena was lying to console her. There wasn’t much time left, and she thought she could be happy, but this happened.

“It’s true, Lyria… I don’t think you’re being bad to me. It’s a little mean to yourself.”

Lyria looked up and carefully examined Rowena to make sure that she was not lying, hiding her difficulty and enduring it alone.

For her, Rowena was like the sun. Shining as much as she did, perhaps even more distressed than her.

The Marquis of Wenson was a man who had a nanny to give Lyria a beating but never used his hands on her.

But Count Adelia was different. If there was anything he didn’t like, he immediately used his fist. Lyria had also seen Rowena bleeding from her mouth and collapsing.

Rowena had two older brothers and a younger brother, but Rowena seemed to be the only one to be treated like that.

And yet Rowena was always bright and had a dream for the future. It was different from her, who just spent every day like a mouse.

Everyone said Rowena was inferior to Lyria by comparing her appearance, but Lyria thought differently.

Rowena was a woman who shone a hundred times, a thousand times more than she did.

Is that why the crown prince recognized this light that only she saw? Lyria thought.

“Really?”

“Of course! So don’t worry too much and you and Kian go according to plan. The crown prince seems to be thinking of marrying me in a hurry, so maybe I can help you like that.”

Lyria wept at Rowena’s words. Even though it was because of her selfish request, Rowena felt worried about her.

And yet Lyria wanted to be with Kian. It was overwhelming to think that there was a possibility to do it with Kian.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She’s a selfish bad person.

Lyria wept in Rowena’s arms for a while.

* * *

“My father… may be trying to hurt you. My father is a jealous man.”

Just before parting, Lyria warned Rowena with a worried look on her face. The Marquis of Wenson may try to hurt her.

Lyria’s birth mother was said to be a sunny person. Always smiling at her daughter despite her unhappy marriage to the Marquis of Wenson.

However, the Marquis of Wenson suspected such a wife was having an affair, and she soon died in a fall accident.

“I think my father killed my mother.”

Lyria once confessed to Rowena with a calm look. Shortly after it happened, Lyria had gone to the stable in pursuit of her mother’s traces.

At that time, the Marquis pressed the stable keeper and asked if he erased the traces properly. It was obvious what the traces were.

“My father is a man who loses his reason when he thinks he loses what belongs to him.”

Lyria judged that he would aim for Rowena, as the power of the Marquis of Wenson could not harm the crown prince.

“Should I?”

Rowena had only seen Marquis Wenson a few times. He was always busy and thought of Rowena as Lyria’s maid. That’s why he didn’t pay attention to her.

Rowena remembered the glare of being looked at as unimportant. The Marquis of Wenson saw Rowena as an accessory for Lyria.

There was no way to hide the news that Rowena had received a royal marriage proposal. It was clear that the Marquis of Wenson would soon notice that she had received a proposal from the crown prince.

“You think he’s gonna hurt me?”

It was a way of thinking that Rowena couldn’t understand. But it was Lyria who knew the Marquis of Wenson well. Rowena decided to be careful for the time being.