~Chapter 45~
Sophia finally managed to speak.
“Um… if you tell the Duchess my name, she’ll know who I am.”
“Are you an acquaintance? Then please tell me what you’ve come for.”
“…I came because I have a favor to ask.”
Hares’s eyebrows twitched. He didn’t know who she was, but when someone couldn’t introduce themselves or say their business, it usually meant they needed money.
He’d seen plenty of people like her.
“If it’s personal, you should send a letter to the house and make an appointment.”
“I… I came because I knew she wouldn’t agree to meet me!”
Sophia’s voice shook.
Before Hares could say anything else, the office door opened.
“Let her in.”
It was Anais’s voice, mixed with a sigh.
Sophia looked at Anais through the open door. Suddenly, she wanted to cry.
She was in this pitiful state, but Anais looked brighter than ever.
Anais always had more than her. Sophia couldn’t even keep Egbert for herself.
Sophia went in, shoulders hunched.
“Sit on the sofa, Sophia.”
Anais sat across from her, arms folded. The look in her eyes was cold as Sophia sat, nervously biting her lips.
Even here, Sophia was not welcome. Of course, that was only natural.
Sophia’s shoulders shrank.
The office smelled strongly of paper and ink. That scent fit Anais perfectly.
Now, Sophia finally realized what kind of person she had made fun of and looked down on all that time.
“Duchess…”
“Keep it short. As you can see, I’m busy.”
Sophia’s eyes went to the emerald brooch on Anais’s chest. The beautiful laurel design—the crest of Constantine.
She’d always wanted the Graham crest when Anais was the marchioness.
Sophia wanted to have the Graham crest for herself.
She sighed from deep inside.
“…Please come back, Duchess.”
Anais was speechless for a moment.
Did I really hear her right?
“Please come back as the Marchioness of Graham. Please.”
Sophia hung her head and begged, her voice trembling.
“I was wrong all this time. I acted out of place and didn’t know my limits. Please come back. I’ll lie low and act like I don’t even exist. Okay?”
Anais’s eyebrow twitched.
She brushed her hair back from her forehead.
Seeing Sophia like this, Anais guessed she must be having problems with Egbert. But why come to her for this?
Wasn’t Sophia the one who always wished she’d disappear?
She always mocked Anais so confidently.
“Why are you like this, Sophia? Shouldn’t you be happy since you took over the marchioness’s bedroom?”
“N-no! I’ll give everything back. I’ll return it all!”
Sophia had never been this polite before.
Anais’s face turned colder. Return it?
“I don’t need it.”
That bedroom was already ruined. Sophia didn’t know how it felt to try to sleep in the bed where Sophia and Egbert had been together.
Whenever Anais saw her bed, she felt sick. After that, she rarely slept in it, curling up on the sofa instead.
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, then go home, Sophia.”
Sophia shook her head. She dropped to her knees on the floor and grabbed Anais’s legs.
“E-Egbert is acting strange, Duchess. He keeps looking for you. He says it’s all my fault. He told me to leave. How could he do this to me? Please, Duchess, come back. Please?”
Anais let out a small laugh.
“I thought today would be a happy Monday.”
“Duchess…!”
“Deal with your own problems, Sophia,” Anais said coldly.
“And don’t come to me for things like this again. I won’t meet you anymore.”
“No, please!”
“What do you mean, no?”
Sophia looked up at Anais with trembling eyes.
“You have to take responsibility for what you’ve done.”
“If I get kicked out, I’ll die! I’ll die, and it’ll be your fault, Duchess…!”
“People say birds of a feather flock together. Why is that my fault? That’s your fault, Sophia. You’re the one who foolishly trusted Egbert. You’re the one who got swept up by a passing romance and hurt someone else. You’re the one who lost Egbert. So you have to take responsibility.”
Anais was never a kind or weak person. Whenever Sophia said one thing, Anais said ten things back.
Sophia had never won an argument with Anais. That’s why she clung to Egbert even more and poured her energy into mocking Anais.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now Anais even seemed scary.
She looked like someone who could judge and punish her.
Anais added in a cold voice:
“If you want to die over something like that, then go ahead.”
“…That was all I had.”
Sophia sobbed and showed her true self. It was the deep inferiority complex she’d always carried.
“I-I wanted to be like you. That’s why I did it. Why can’t I?”
Anais stared at her with an indifferent gaze.
Why do people like her never want to take responsibility for what they’ve done?
Egbert blamed everything on Sophia, and now Sophia tried to blame Anais.
They both made ridiculous excuses.
“Or, just find Egbert for me. Give him back. You already have everything. I have only one thing, and that’s Egbert. He’s all I have.”
Sophia yanked Anais’s dress, like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Please, okay? Give him back!”
“So I had more than you, huh…”
Anais muttered.
There was a time when Egbert was all she had, too. She thought that love was everything, thought she could give her life for it.
Anais lost everything once, too.
Sophia’s tears fell.
Anais pulled Sophia up off the floor. It was hard to drag out someone being stubborn, but there was no reason to listen to Sophia’s whining anymore.
Anais pushed the sobbing Sophia out of the office.
“Hares.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Don’t let her in here again. She’s not allowed on the second floor. Understand?”
Hares nodded.
“Show the guest out, Hares.”
Anais shoved Sophia toward Hares. Sophia shook her head and kicked as she was dragged away, screaming so loudly it echoed through the whole bank.
Anais sighed.
Egbert, again.
She didn’t know why his traces still haunted her.
Anais rubbed her tired face.
If she could, she’d erase Egbert from her past completely.
But since she couldn’t, she was still paying the price—paying for having been fooled into thinking what she felt was love.
Anais turned away, her face cold.
She really did mean it when she told Sophia to die if she wanted.
There were moments when Anais wanted to die, too. But she survived, and that was her own choice.
For some reason, she missed Baldwin.
The one who was the hero of her choice.
“Welcome back, Duke!”
Lutherik smiled brightly and put a huge stack of paperwork on Baldwin’s desk.
“All of these need to be handled today.”
Baldwin raised his eyebrows at the amount of papers, but only for a second.
He took off his coat and sat down to work.
[The cruise ship?]
“No problems. The engineers have all been hired. As soon as the designs are done, construction will begin.”
[And the cargo ship orders?]
“There’s a new request from the Lakecia side.”
Lakecia was recovering from war. The old, corrupt emperor was dead, and the new emperor was working hard.
“I think you’ll have to go to Lakecia yourself, Duke.”
Lutherik found the right paperwork and put it on top. Baldwin glanced through it and looked up.
Lutherik was right.
The emperor of Lakecia needed him.
Baldwin thought about Anais, who loved the sea. He remembered her eyes, which looked like the ocean itself.
