TINOT16

Chapter: 16

The more he thought about it, the more infuriating it became.

“I gave her everything she asked for, and all it did was make her more spoiled! She must have planned this from the very beginning. And after all that, she dares to treat me like some heartless father?”

There was no doubt about it—this had been done in collusion with Grand Duke Cassius from the start.

“If this had happened to someone else instead of me, Father, would you still be standing by and doing nothing?”

“I know I was a child you never wanted. But do you think I didn’t want to be born to parents who loved me?”

Every word she had said when she came to see him was clearly meant to pressure him into sending the letter requesting the annulment to the Spencer family.

Just thinking about how those few words had troubled his heart for weeks made his stomach churn.

He was furious that he had been deceived so completely. His teeth trembled with betrayal.

“Huff… huff…”

As his strength gave out and his breathing grew ragged, Edward—who had been standing protectively in front of Celia—grasped the Marquis of Aster’s shoulder.

“Father, this isn’t the time to act on anger alone. We need to understand the situation before deciding how to respond—”

At that moment, Lisithea, who had been sitting there the entire time with an indifferent expression, spoke in an even tone.

“Respond? Respond how? I already told you. This is the marriage I want. I’m going through with it.”

“Who would ever approve of such a ridiculous marriage?!”

“Father, please calm down. I’ll explain—”

Edward barely managed to restrain the marquis and let out a deep sigh.

For some reason, he felt like he had already been struck before he even opened his mouth.

The spot where Lisithea had once hit him throbbed faintly, and he rubbed his cheek once.

“Older sister, I don’t know why you’ve made things turn out like this, but you are still officially engaged to Joel Spencer.”

“I clearly said I would annul the engagement.”

“We did send a request for annulment, but that’s all. The Spencer family hasn’t accepted it, so the annulment may not even go through.”

The Marquis of Aster had sent the annulment request, yes—but that was it.

The Spencer family was firmly maintaining their refusal.

As long as the annulment had not been finalized, Lisithea was still Joel Spencer’s fiancée.

And in the middle of this tense tug-of-war between the two families, a marriage proposal from Grand Duke Cassius appeared.

If the Spencer family chose to make an issue of this, Aster might end up bearing responsibility instead of achieving an annulment.

“To receive another man’s proposal while already engaged—do you even know how much trouble this has caused the Aster family—”

“Who are you calling Joel Spencer’s fiancée?”

Lisithea casually tossed a document. It struck Edward in the face and fell to the floor.

“Ha, seriously…”

That was the last straw.

Edward ground his teeth as he roughly rubbed the spot where the paper had hit him.

“If you think I’ll continue tolerating your rudeness forever—”

“Unni, it says the engagement was annulled?”

Celia’s words, spoken as she picked up the document from the floor, made Edward forget his anger entirely.

“What? That can’t be—”

Panicked, he snatched the paper from Celia and hurriedly read it.

The document Lisithea had thrown clearly stated that the engagement between Joel Spencer and Lisithea Aster had been officially annulled.

Stamped with the seals of a high-ranking priest of the temple and the Chief Justice, it was flawless.

The annulment reason itself placed full responsibility on Joel Spencer for violating the duty of good faith—an approval document that could not have been more perfect.

Lisithea looked around at the stunned Marquis of Aster and his family, then smiled faintly.

“I can’t believe you still haven’t checked it, even though it arrived more than ten days ago. You’re awfully careless about something as important as a marriage, Father.”

She did not forget to throw his own words back at him with a mocking edge.

The annulment approval sent by Diamuid had arrived ten days earlier.

Naturally, it had never been delivered to the marquis.

It had only been shoved into a pile of documents in his office this morning. Who knew when he would have discovered it?

Without realizing it, a soft laugh slipped out of Lisithea.

Diamuid had said he would help with the annulment, but she hadn’t expected him to do this well.

Receiving the approval in less than a month was unbelievable enough—but there was something even more surprising.

“Father, you said the marriage between me and Spencer might have been His Majesty’s will.”

Lisithea pointed to the Chief Justice’s signature stamped on the document.

The seal belonged to Marquis Baldwin, the fifth-appointed Chief Justice among the seven—and a man known as the emperor’s closest confidant.

“I think His Majesty’s will has been made clear enough.”

With this, there was no need to worry at all about displeasing the emperor over her annulment with Joel Spencer.

The Marquis of Aster twisted his face in displeasure but could not say a word.

Shrugging lightly, Lisithea turned to Edward.

“Edward, tell me. Is there anything left that could put Aster in an awkward position because of the Grand Duke’s proposal?”

Since the annulment had been finalized with Joel Spencer bearing full responsibility, it did not matter when or to whom Lisithea became engaged again.

Someone might have said the timing was too sudden—but even that would not have been appropriate.

For a noblewoman who had annulled an engagement, hastening a new one to avoid missing her marriageable years was perfectly normal.

Moreover, with interference from the Spencer duchy almost guaranteed, Grand Duke Cassius was a fairly good match.

No matter how one looked at it, it was difficult to criticize the proposal itself.

“…It all happened so suddenly that I haven’t fully grasped the situation yet.”

“Then go and review everything carefully before coming back. Don’t rush in without thinking, like you just did.”

After neatly dismissing Edward’s excuse, Lisithea turned to the Marquis of Aster, who stood there stiffly like a stone statue.

“Father, do you have anything else to say to me?”

“…Let’s go.”

The marquis glared at Lisithea in silence, then turned his back and walked away.

“Father, this is ridiculous! Grand Duke Cassius—he may have the title, but he’s practically a criminal! How could she marry someone like that—”

“Celia, that’s enough.”

“If this marriage actually happens, I’ll be too ashamed to even show my face in public!”

Celia clung to the Marquis of Aster, her face twisted in distress.

Edward, looking exhausted, reached out as if to stop her.

Lisithea knew that if she left things alone, Edward would smooth things over and leave.

But she didn’t want to.

She didn’t want to let Celia, who knew nothing, shred with her sharp tongue the man who had run around tirelessly for her sake for an entire month.

“Celia, please don’t make me report you for insulting a member of the imperial family. That would be truly embarrassing, wouldn’t it?”

Celia turned toward Lisithea, her face bright red, stomping her feet violently.

Her bloodshot eyes brimmed with tears, as if she had been deeply wronged.

“Lisithea!”

The Marquis of Aster pulled the sobbing Celia into his arms and shouted at Lisithea.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, clicked his tongue a few times, then muttered, “Let’s end this here for today,” before disappearing.

After doing everything he wanted, what exactly was he ending?

With a scoff, Lisithea collapsed back onto her seat.

The annex grew quiet once more after everyone left.

I should leave this house at the right time. It’s far too noisy a place to spend the rest of my life.

***

“Your Highness, everything you ordered has been completed without issue.”

An elderly woman reported to Diamuid.

Hearing her voice, Diamuid lifted his head from his thoughts.

“Ah, thank you, Countess Dilton.”

“It is nothing. Serving Your Highness is my duty.”

The woman before him was Bernadette Dilton, head of the Dilton family and former attendant to Crown Princess Rueira.

To Diamuid, she was also his benefactor—the one who had stubbornly protected him after his mother died and he was left alone.

“Your Highness… are you truly all right with this?”

At the loyal concern in her voice, Diamuid smiled and nodded.

“I have to be. There’s no reason not to be. I’m only worried that my change of mind might have caused trouble for those around me.”

“Your Highness leaving seclusion and resuming public activity was already part of the plan. It can hardly be called a whim. And with the struggle for the throne between the princesses becoming clearer, the timing isn’t bad either.”

The conflict between First Princess Florence and Second Princess Elaine intensified with each passing day.

The First Princess’s faction emphasized that Empress Pamela was the crown princess consort through a temple-sanctioned lawful marriage.

Therefore, Florence’s legitimacy—being born of a formal marriage—was unquestionable.

The Second Princess’s side countered that if Pamela’s background had truly been acceptable, how could the emperor have been allowed to commit bigamy in the first place?

They argued that Florence was unfit to succeed due to her mother’s insufficient lineage.

Although the Terias imperial family followed the principle of primogeniture, there had been many cases where the successor was changed when the first in line was deemed unfit.

After all, Emperor Oswald himself had ascended the throne that way.

With justification on the Second Princess’s side, the political struggle grew increasingly blatant.

But the most fundamental reason behind this conflict was simple: the emperor had not named either princess as his heir.

Diamuid believed this was his final chance to protect the legacy his mother had left him.

To bring into the light those who had been discarded as useless simply for having followed her to the end.

To give them a foundation where they could fully use their talents, live out their natural lifespans, and die in peace.

That was his goal.

Some might call it a fight for power, or even revenge—but no matter how he looked at it, he no longer had the passion for such things.

“Didn’t you think Your Highness’s silence was just waiting for the right moment? Don’t you dream of revenge?”

Yes. Revenge was a word suited only for someone with eyes like that.

Eyes burning with raging emotion, even in a body close to death.

It was far too brilliant a word to attach to someone like him—someone who was alive yet no different from the dead.