Chapter 283

Chapter 283

The two of them walked slowly, watching the never-ending illusion magic from the spot with the best view.

A brief bout of silence passed. Violet quietly admired the beauty of the scenery before speaking again.

“I wasn’t a good person in the past.”

Aldin listened to her words attentively.

“Even if I did say those things to you, I’m sure I had ulterior motives.”

“I understand.”

It was a simple response to what had been a difficult confession for her to make. Violet glanced at him, surprised.

“...You know that and yet you feel moved? You must have been truly isolated.”

“There was someone who pitied me.”

“Was it your older sister?”

“...Back then, even that sympathy didn’t feel welcome.”

Violet gave a small smile, feeling like she understood what he meant.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me more? About the past, or whatever you’d like.”

“...It’s not the kind of story someone like you should hear.”

“Is it something you’d rather not talk about? If so, you don’t have to.”

Violet’s calm voice prompted Aldin into a brief silence. But soon, he began to speak again.

“My childhood was ordinary. Except for the fact that I didn’t have a father.”

Despite his initial hesitation, he spoke about his past with surprising ease.

He told her about growing up with his mother, a famous actress and singer. Although they had no financial troubles, he faced ridicule and scorn because he was a fatherless child. And then, when it was revealed that he was the illegitimate son of Duke Aesir, everything changed.

“No one chooses to be born into this world. Children deserve to be loved, regardless of bloodline or family.”

She spoke words that were different from what she had once said.

In a way, she was talking to herself as well.

She wanted to whisper to that child who had felt so isolated at eight years old that they were worthy of love, even without all that desperate striving.

“...Is that so.”

Aldin neither confirmed nor denied her words, giving a vague answer.

Both the young her and the young him deserved to be loved simply because they were children. Even if the time had passed, even if that time had shaped who they had become, it was still a time that should have been met with comfort.

Violet didn’t continue the same line of thought.

But a sudden question arose in her mind.

What if—just what if Aileen had known she could be loved unconditionally? Would their relationship have been so twisted?

If she hadn’t fallen into that sense of inferiority, denying her own bloodline and her mother’s, and thinking she could only receive love by pushing someone else out of the way?

It was a pointless thought. Even if that were true, Violet would have still disliked Aileen. They were too fundamentally different.

Violet closed her eyes slowly, ending her train of thought.

What did she think of Aldin? It was a feeling she hadn’t clearly defined, something she had left unresolved after much thought.

Even though she hadn’t given an answer to his feelings, Aldin had waited. He had even said that it didn’t matter if she rejected him, that if his feelings became a burden, it would be better to sever them.

And he had worked hard on the unfamiliar, too. He said he could give up everything for her.

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