Chapter 9

The documents and books that were organized at best were scattered again, and the frame was lying on the floor in pieces. The sofa in the corner was all torn apart, and a bunch of cotton inside rolled out and flew into the air.

And Ken stood in the middle of the typhoon. 

With your head tilted…

Was it because she wasn’t feeling well, or was it because she was in the room under stress?

Cassia’s last string of reason, which had barely been pressed and held until the end, was cut off.

She was angry, and it was really in an instant. Whatever he did, she hated the child more than anyone else in the world at that moment.

Cassia bit her lips so hard that she bled. She felt like everything was messed up. She trudged up to Ken. Slowly raised her hand and grabbed the child’s shoulder. 

Tearing words burst out. 

“What’s wrong with you?!”

“…”

“What’s wrong with you?!” 

Ken didn’t avoid Cassia’s eyes, which were looking straight at him.

The child also just stared at Cassia. Immense hostility could be seen in his eyes, which resembled her dear friend.

When he looked straight into her eyes, Cassia became indescribably sad at the moment. 

“I don’t want to fight with you, Ken.”

“I want to get along with you…” 

“I want to be a good stepmother to you sincerely. I want to be a resting place where you can lean on anytime.”

“No, I don’t even want that anymore. I just want you to let me exist here.”

“Even if you don’t accept me, I hope you don’t hate me.”

“I hope you won’t be angry, resentful, and just try to kick me out like this.”

The children were the biggest reason Diana asked Cassia to be the Duchess.

So, thinking that my existence was not acceptable to the children, Cassia thought that her own existence had lost its meaning.

It was great despair for Cassia. 

‘Were my efforts wrong?’

‘No, was it really something wrong with my existence in the first place?’

It was unfair. 

‘What did I do so wrong?’

‘I’m just a human who lost her friend too.’ 

A strong resentment rose. 

Cassia felt nauseous, as if she were going to throw up. Her whole heart sank with the feeling of despair that filled it.

She bit her lip till it bled.

Cassia looked straight into Ken’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, but Ken Whidrian, no matter how you treat me, I’ll be next to you.”

“Because I have to protect you two. That’s the only thing I can do for your mother.”

The moment she said those words, Ken’s eyes, which were aiming for Cassia, staggered.

A short time passed, like a thousand years. 

Ken bit his lip and pushed Cassia away. 

She was pushed to the floor helplessly by the child. 

Ken ran out of the room.

Blood flowed out of her hand that touched the shards of glass on the white floor. Cassia sat on the floor blankly for a long time in the silence.

The next day, Ken left the house.

Ken’s runaway caused a stir in the Duke’s mansion.

“Young master has disappeared!”

The maid, who entered Ken’s room to wake him up in the morning, ran out of there in surprise.

Leading the users one after another, Cassia ran to Ken’s room and opened the door.

The morning sun was shining on the neatly arranged blanket. 

Everything the child was using was neatly arranged in place. With the warmth of his body dissipating, Ken disappeared with simple belongings and money in hand.

The Duke had an emergency. 

Axion, who was on a business trip, was immediately summoned. 

He rushed into the mansion and saw the room without Ken and Cassia’s silent appearance and seemed to have ignited an intuition about something, but he did not ask. First of all, finding Ken was the first thing to do. Following the Duke’s instructions, the operatives’ knights began to search in the Duchy.

From the academy where Ken attended, the training ground where the child practised swordsmanship, to the mountain behind where he enjoyed horseback riding.

They searched throughout the Duchy, but Ken was nowhere to be found.

If Ken, who was good at swords, really tried to run away from home, there was a possibility that he might have entered a mercenary group or something, so they asked around, but couldn’t trace him.

Cassia was in a panic. 

So she couldn’t even see the Duke’s face properly at first.

She barely came to her senses, approached the Duke, and told him what happened the day before Ken ran away.

“Sir, there was a bit of friction with me the day before Ken disappeared.”

“It’s okay, Cassia.” 

The Duke simply answered Cassia, and ordered the maid to take the Duchess to her room.

“I’ll find Ken. It’s okay, so you can go in and rest.” 

With the maid’s help, she came into the room and was locked up for several days and couldn’t do anything.

It was painful because she thought she couldn’t protect Ken. 

She couldn’t keep her promise to Diana.

Was the child very angry? 

Maybe her existence was the problem. 

At the last moment they spent together, the child’s eyes were buried in her heart and did not disappear.

It was about 10 days later that Ken visited again. The child was found in a cemetery, in front of Diana’s grave, and was spotted regularly by the cemetery’s caretaker.

“Ken”!

With the Duke’s emaciated face in the lead, the Duke’s knights, including Cassia, rushed to the cemetery near the Duchy.

Ken was sitting in front of Diana’s tombstone, in the middle of the cemetery where the ancestors of the Duke were buried.

A shabby face appeared when the Duke took off Ken’s hat, which covered his identity while wearing a cape. Ken had lost weight, perhaps because he didn’t eat properly for 10 days. The Duke sighed with relief and hugged Ken as hard as he could.

“Ken.”

“…”

Ken was hugged helplessly by the Duke until his breath exploded. The child’s gaze was still on Diana’s tombstone. Soon, Ken spoke in a subdued voice.

“Father.”

“Yes,” replied the Duke. Ken continued to say it.

“I don’t like her.”

“I don’t like her.” 

Cassia saw a disastrous depth of hatred on his face.

She couldn’t answer easily. 

A cold wind blew past us, and it was a sign that it would soon rain. As time passed, the peacock opened his mouth.

“Ken, she can’t see you anymore.”

“Why?”

“Because your mom is dead.”

“…”

“This is how death is. We all have to accept the fact.”

Ken didn’t answer. 

He didn’t even cry. 

He was held in the Duke’s arms, just like the blank expression he had shown at the funeral.

How long has it been? 

A solitary tear streamed down Ken’s eyes, which were out of focus.

It fell on Diana’s tombstone and dyed it dark.

The raindrops fell next to them and began to wet Diana’s tombstone. 

The rain was getting thicker and heavier. 

With the sound of the raindrops, the rainshower dyed the cemetery dark.

One of the knights ran to the carriage, took out an umbrella he had always kept, and put it above them. Axion hugged Ken even more deeply as the people rushed to and fro in the sudden pouring rain.

“I’m sorry. I made you carry a huge burden. I’m sorry, Father.”

For a very long time in the meantime, Ken remained in the Duke’s arms with an empty look. For a long time, Cassia didn’t know if it was Ken’s tears or raindrops that wet the tombstone.

***

“It’s all because of you. Stepmother left the mansion because of my brother.”

It was undeniable that their stepmother has been a little overly concerned with them in the past. Their mother also wanted to do well, but there were moments when Nick, too, was confused and couldn’t accept it.

Sometimes, however, there was a time when Cassia had already given up on her mind alone, and at some point, she began not to approach them. 

But there was no need to visit stepmother, bully her, and drive her out.

It was indescribable how much Cassia had been wary of the mansion since Ken’s runaway incident.

She only lived a life as a Duchess only when she had to complete her duties as the Duchess, and other than that, she lived like a shadow.

“I couldn’t even say sorry… A contract… Was it all a marriage made by contract? How could that be?”

Nick cried.

The next moment, Ken smirked. 

Nick’s eyebrows wriggled.

“What about the contract? What do you want me to do?”

“What?”

Ken grabbed Nick’s hand, and when he knocked it out, Nick’s hand fell helplessly. 

“Nick Whidrian, I’ve consistently voiced my opinion. I don’t like our stepmother. I didn’t like her taking my mother’s place, I don’t care about the contract, and I didn’t like her just being in my mother’s place, whether she approached me or not.”

“I’d rather push ahead with it. What about you? What else did you do other than hiding behind me and cry while I was giving my opinion? Did you do anything for your stepmother after I left the mansion?”

Nick couldn’t speak for a while at Ken’s words. 

Nick slowly sat down on the sofa. 

He wrapped his head around him as if in deep pain.

“….I am going to do it now.”