CH 3

Chapter 3 “Even if you have a young master, you’re a Duke of Adelhard. Don’t you think you can endure that much? And Lady Venion was also an illegitimate child anyway”

“Even if he’s an illegitimate child he’s not the same as any other illegitimate children. The Duke made a young master as his successor. The son she gave birth to may not become the heir, so it won’t be easy to marry.”

“I think I would do it anyway. It’s not someone else, it’s Duke Adelhard.”

“Well, nobles must have a different way of thinking than we do.”

After the whispering maids had passed. Ruth stood blankly for a moment, pondering the maids’ words.

‘What is break up?’

I don’t know what it was, but it felt like it wasn’t that good. Instead of going to the butler, Ruth went back to his room and was embraced by his nanny.

“Nanny!”

“Young master? Why did you bring the letter back? Did you not find the butler?”

Instead of answering, Ruth asked again.

“What is a breakup?”

The story of Evelia’s request to break up the engagement is still not well known.

Of course, the nanny didn’t know either. She had no way of knowing why the child asked this question, so she made a puzzled face.

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden? Where did you hear that?”

“Ugh, nothing. Bring this to the butler, nanny!”

After the nanny left with the letter, Ruth headed to the study room. He took out a thick dictionary and looked up the word he had just heard.

[Break off: (Noun) Breaking up an engagement.]

The moment Ruth confirmed the meaning of break off the engagement, Ruth’s head tingled as if someone had hit him in the back.

‘Then Lady Evelia really can’t be my mother? why?’

In Ruth’s troubled mind, this time, the stories the maids had told him earlier came to mind.

―What do you think? It’s probably because of the young master.

―Even if he’s an illegitimate child he’s not the same as any other illegitimate child…. The son you gave birth to may not become the heir, so it won’t be easy to marry.

Then, the tears that had barely stopped began to fall again.

‘Lady Evelia must not like me because I’m an illegitimate child.’

But what should I do? I can’t change the fact that I’m an illegitimate child.

What can I do to make her like me?

Ruth thought hard with his little head, but in the end he couldn’t find the answer.

* * *

All the way back to the Venion mansion, Evelia was in a bad mood. It was because of Ruth, of course.

‘Did he cry?’

He probably cried In the original novel, even though he looked cold and ruthless on the outside, he actually had a soft personality.

‘Maybe I should have just been nice. What’s so hard about a cup of tea?’

She regretted it.

In the original novel, Aria of Light, Evelia was quite fond of Ruth. ‘Ruth’s dark childhood was like looking at my own past.

I cried all night because I felt like I could relate to him, especially when he was crying and clinging to Aria, the heroine who first reached out to him, a man who seemed to have nothing to fear in the world.

It was Ruth who was so affectionate. If her possessed body hadn’t been ‘Evelia Venion’, she might have stepped forward and cared for Ruth.

‘Why did I possess Evelia…’

Evelia bit her teeth and got off the carriage. Whatever had already happened, it was useless to regret it.

‘All I have to do is break off my engagement and live my life.’

It was time for her to go inside the mansion, thinking about her plans once more.

“Where are you going?”

A cold voice came from above. Evelia let out a long sigh at the voice, which contained more hostility than Cassis.

‘It must have been at the mansion.’

She climbed the stairs, barely straightening her crumpled expression.

I had already met Cassis and Ruth, and I was very tired.

So, she was about to go to her room without confrontation, but the voice of the voice stopped her.

“You seem to be ignoring my words now, right?”

Evelia lifted her head and looked up at the opponent. As expected, there was a blue-eyed man with blonde hair.

The man’s name is Derek Venion. He was Evelia’s half-brother.

It was even more intimidating to see a man taller than her even standing on the stairs.

However, in Evelia’s eyes now, it only looked ridiculous.

‘The original Evelia would have been afraid.’

Poor Evelia. She felt sympathy for her poor soul, who didn’t know where she was.

‘Derek always bullied Evelia.’

It seems that he came today to harass me. But I didn’t want to accept his unreasonable anger.

‘If you look closely, Evelia is also a victim.’

Evelia’s mother was not Count Vanion’s lover. She was just a maid to the Venion family. A maid whose beauty was both an advantage and a disadvantage.

It’s an obvious story, but Evelia’s mother caught the Count’s eye one day, and he forcibly…

The child born that way was Evelia. Even Evelia’s mother loved her own daughter, and fearing that such a child would be harmed by Count Venion or Countess, she quit her job and ran away.

‘That’s how hard she raised Evelia alone in her hometown.’

Unfortunately, Evelia’s mother fell ill when Evelia was eight years old.

Worried about Evelia, who will be alone after her death, she sent a letter to the Count’s family.

When Count Venion received a letter from the runaway maid saying that she had his child, Count Vananein tried to kill them both.

But the moment he saw Evelia’s face, he changed his mind.

It was because Evelia was really pretty, resembling her mother, and it seemed that she would be sold at a high price in the future marriage market.

So he asked Evelia.

—Will you go with me or will you stay here? If you come with me, I will send a doctor to your mother.

Evelia had options, but in reality she only had one choice.

Thus, Evelia was separated from her mother and came to the Count’s family.

It was never Evelia’s fault that she was born as an illegitimate child from a maid’s body.

If there was anyone who was at fault, it was, of course, Count Venion, who forcibly dragged the person who didn’t like him.

However, Evelia was always a sinner in this mansion.

It was a thorn in the eyes of Count Venion, evidence of broken trust between husband and wife to the Countess, and a symbol of his father’s immorality to his two sons.

They were not pleased to see her, especially Derek, the second son.

He was a year younger than Evelia. What does that mean? It meant that his father had an affair before he was even born.

He took out his anger on Evelia against his father.

The original ‘Evelia’ lived as if she was ashamed of her birth and didn’t exist. Even to Derek, who bullied her to death, she bowed her head and apologized every time.

However, the current Evelia had no intention of doing that. It’s not that I don’t understand Derek’s feelings for being betrayed by his father, but his anger should have been directed at Count Venion, not her.

It was cowardly to express anger at the weak Evelia. At least So-yoon, who became Evelia, thought so.

But I didn’t feel like arguing with Derek about it, so I just passed him by. I was just about to climb the stairs and head to my room.

Derek grabbed my wrist.

“Do you keep ignoring me?”

Evelia raised her chin arrogantly at him. There was no way she was going to look intimidated here.

Derek enjoyed watching Evelia cower in front of him.

“Can you let me go if you have nothing to say? I am a bit tired.”

Derek’s face went red in an instant.

“Yo-you! Are you talking to me just now?”

“I am older than you. You talk to me too, so why should I use honorifics to you? Shouldn’t you be calling me sister?”

“Hah! Are you crazy?”

Derek, who was seriously frowning as if trying to determine whether Evelia was sane, twitched his lips.

“You seem to be arrogant about being engaged to Duke Adelhard right now, but that doesn’t change anything.”

“Why doesn’t anything change?”

“What?”

“If I marry Duke Adelhard, I will become the only three Duchess in the Empire, and then you, who don’t even receive the title of Count, will not be able to raise your head properly in front of me.”

There was no way she would become Duchess Adelhard. But she didn’t even have to tell Derek.

It’s demeaning, but if he’s going to stamp her identity, she has no choice but to use all the cards available on this side.

“You…”

Derek, who had been biting his lips as if he couldn’t find anything to refute, suddenly raised one corner of his mouth.