Chapter 27

“I missed him.”

A few minutes later, the Duke entered the gallery again. He was sweating as if he had been running around alone without a knight to help. Cassia was wiping the dishes dry, that she had finished washing, on the counter with a calm mind.

“It looks like I am going to have to stay here for a while. I have sent a request to the Imperial family to summon the Imperial Knights, and I have temporarily summoned Lawrencia’s security forces, so they will arrive soon. Since he was found in this store, we need to search the area around here, so I ask for your cooperation.”

“…Do it yourself.”

Her mind was already calm, so she said to him indifferently.

“Cassia, I’d like to hear from you about what you know.”

He stood in front of the counter and continued to look at her busy working.

“Tell me what you know about the Third Prince, how you got to know him, when did he come here, etc.”

“…He is a customer of my gallery. He stayed here for about a month and would come to the gallery often.”

“What did you talk about? I know that the Knights of the Imperial Palace visited Lawrencia once again last time. If he has stayed here since then, there must be a place he is staying at. Have you ever heard of where he lives?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t get to share a story that deep.”

“You must have known that he was the Third Prince from what you had hidden before. How did you find out about that?”

“The last time the Imperial Knights came to Lawrencia, they showed me a portrait. I saw it and knew it.”

Even so, it was uncomfortable to see his face, but as he continued to ask her so many questions, her nerves grew sharper. Besides, she had calmed down, but she wasn’t in a good mood. She put down the dish she was washing and said.

“It is sad. He must have had a reason to want to leave the Imperial Palace to the point of making himself missing, but it was not disappointing that he was being pursued by the Imperial Palace as he was being targeted here and there. I wanted my gallery to be a place for him to relax, even a little bit.”

“So I only treated him as a customer, not pretending to know him. In fact, I’ve never heard from him that he’s a prince. That’s it. Do you have an answer now?”

It feels like something was messed up.

No, really, life in Lawrencia was going to be messed up. 

Nick came to see her and didn’t want to leave, and the Duke didn’t even sign the divorce papers, asking her why she left the Duke’s mansion. An unfamiliar guest, Irwin, ran into a hunting dog chasing him here, and she was put in jeopardy.

She realized that everything she had planned and dreamed of was falling apart.

And the fact that Diana, the starting point of all these moments, wasn’t there, maddened her.

“I must have disturbed you in many ways today.”

Perhaps he saw her darkened expression, the Duke took a step back and said. At that moment, the gallery door opened, and Nick got up slowly and went to work.

“Mother, I’m here… Father?”

When the child saw the Duke standing, his eyes widened.

Nick looked like he would ask more, but the Duke looked at Cassia and left the building to take Nick and talk outside. 

The gallery went silent. 

Cassia stood blankly, then sat down on a chair at the counter and let out a deep sigh.

‘…Is Irwin okay? Why is this happening with me…?’

***

Not long after, a massive number of the Imperial Palace Knights arrived in Lawrencia. It was manpower that could be sent during a war. Arriving in Lawrencia, waving a golden flag with a lion, which symbolizes the Imperial family, they came to Cassia’a gallery.

To be precise, they came to the Duke, who was in her gallery.

“There was a message from His Majesty the Emperor, asking him to look for the Third Prince this time, and taking good care of him.” The knight commander knelt before him and courteously delivered the Emperor’s words. 

Lawrence’s security force, temporarily guarding the store’s perimeter and searching, withdrew. Immediately, a massive number of knights were arranged all over Lawrence in unison. 

Her gallery, where the Third Prince was first discovered, became a base for the search.

Naturally, her business stopped. The Duke explained that it was inevitable because the Third Prince stayed here mainly. He added that he would provide maximum compensation for any potential damage or loss caused by the outage.

“Suit yourself.”

For some reason, Cassia was so exhausted that she just left a single word and went out.

She came home and played around for a few days. 

She felt uncomfortable. 

‘Where is Irwin? Did he escape Lawrencia? Or maybe he’s hiding somewhere and is scared…’

Cassia felt sorry for him. She just wanted to make him stay in Lawrencia a little bit longer, but she thought she got him stuck.

She wanted to find out if she knew where he was hiding and somehow help him get out of here. But it was impossible. Because the Imperial Knights were protecting her. 

It was because of the possibility that she had contact with Irwin.

In their gaze, she couldn’t do anything suspicious in the slightest, except to roll around at home, paint, or go to the market occasionally. Rumours quickly spread throughout Lawrencia that she had seen the Third Prince, and that she had been hiding it all along. 

As soon as she went to the market, some interested people would stop her and ask questions.

Have you really seen the Third Prince?

How was he? 

Did he really look like a portrait? 

What conversation did you have with him? 

When people engulfed her with questions, knights would appear and stop them. At that time, she thought it would be better to have knights always by her side to watch over her. 

Lawrencia was rapidly falling into chaos.

And Cassia, too, was getting tired.

***

A few days later, Cassia received news that would soothe her exhausted mind and body. A reply came from Michael to the letter she had sent about the situation here.

“This is a letter from Count Allison.”

The messenger from the Count came to her house and delivered a letter from Michael.

She hadn’t had a chance to even smile in the last few days, so she felt the corners of her lips go up after visiting him after a long time.

“Thank you.”

When she received the letter with excitement, the messenger said goodbye and left the house. As she was about to open the letter, a knight standing in a corner came up to her.

“Excuse me, Madam, but we have to check what letter it is.”

“This is a private letter. Is it a must-see?”

Actually, legally she was still Duchess Whidrian, so there was no reason to respect the knights.

But she was going to get a divorce, and since she was already divorced in her heart, she was using respect for them.

When she showed her displeasure, they looked at her with a look of embarrassment. Cassia said, “If you don’t see it, you will get in trouble, so I’ll show you this time. But if you confirm that it is safe, please do not report it to Your Excellency.”

“…But we must report it as it is our duty.”

“If you really must report…”

Cassia looked at them and smiled. Because she had a good idea. She lifted the letter in the air and looked at them.

“Okay, please report it. Duchess Whidrian has received a love letter.”

“…What?”

The knights widened their eyes. Cassia handed the letter. They carefully received the letter, unfolded it, scanned the contents, and coughed in vain. They handed her the letter again.

“Is it all right now? Please report this as a love letter. A love letter from Count Allison. And if you don’t want to stay confused, please ask him to sign the divorce papers as soon as possible.”

“…Yes, Madam.” 

“Oh, and please add this as well.”

Cassia was very exhausted, perhaps because of the drastic changes in her life in Lawrencia in the past few days.

It would be the case when everyone faces a sudden change in which their lives are violated, their lives are being watched by knights, and their freedom is controlled.

She had become violent.

No, to be precise, she didn’t want to bear losing her life anymore. She kept talking over and over again.

“If you keep invading my privacy too much, I won’t stand still.”

…Their faces turned white.

Why did she have to endure so hard all this time?

In fact, these days, she had been immersed in such a question. It was since the people of the Whidrian family kept appearing in front of her.

A future different from what she had hoped for was coming. 

She had a deep intuition that life in this place, where she had buried everything in the past and wanted to live a simple and straightforward life, was falling apart.

And she felt the need to actively defend herself. In order not to go back to the place related to Whidrian again.

Come to think of it, she didn’t have to wait any longer. It was only because of Diana that she lived silently as the Duchess. Above all else, it was because her top priority was to secure the things that her dear friend loved. 

But now it wasn’t. 

The seven-year contract between the Duke and Cassia had come to an end, and she chose to divorce according to the contract. So, she left the Duke’s house.

After 7 years and the contract ended, they are perfect strangers now.

She didn’t want to get involved with them. 

She really didn’t want to go back. 

She also has her own life, and she wanted to live her own life for the rest of the time. Now that the contract period was over, she wanted to go back to when things were normal.

In order to protect her real self, not the Duchess anymore, she felt the need to be strong.

***