Thud. The scarf held in Duchess Blanche’s hand fell to the floor.
If Lariette remembered correctly, it was a scarf the duchess cherished dearly. Far too precious to be dropped simply from the surprise of meeting her.
“Lari, Lariette?”
Duchess Blanche called Lariette’s name once more, as if she couldn’t believe it. Madame Charbert glanced between the two of them, then bowed her head and stepped back.
“…It’s been a while, Mother.”
Lariette swallowed dryly and forced herself to speak. The moment the word *Mother* left her lips, her throat felt as though it were stinging.
“Heavens, Lariette! How are you here…! Lariette, where on earth have you been!”
Duchess Blanche rushed over as though she would step on the hem of her dress and seized Lariette. Her voice was thick with tears.
“How much, how much has your mother worried…!”
Thick tears streamed down her wrinkled cheeks, drop by drop.
The duchess grasped Lariette’s arm with her slender hand. The moment her well-cared-for, soft hand touched her skin, Lariette’s body went rigid.
Then the duchess spread her arms to embrace her. A subtle fragrance stabbed unpleasantly at Lariette’s nose.
“Worried?”
Smack. Lariette firmly pushed the duchess’s arms away. So that she could not embrace her.
“For someone so worried about her daughter, you seem to have come straight from getting a massage with luxury oils and visiting a boutique.”
“This is, something unavoidable as a duchess….”
“I’ve never once seen an advertisement searching for a missing noble lady, Mother.”
Lariette answered with a hollow laugh.
Every time she came into the city, she had looked to see if there was anyone searching for her, but had never encountered anyone. Not even rumors of Lariette’s disappearance had spread much.
It was obvious. They must have kept quiet as much as possible, fearing the prestige of the Ducal House would fall.
In other words, it meant that worry for Lariette had never once been Blanche’s priority. Truly, as always.
“…There was nothing I could do. You know that as well.”
The duchess bowed her head deeply and muttered softly. It was a powerless tone—the kind she would always use before the Duke of Blanche.
A noblewoman could not dare to defy her husband. This was the truth, and other noble houses were no different.
The one with true power was the duke, not the duchess; it was to say that she had no choice but to follow her husband’s will.
But really? Had there really been nothing she could do?
Lariette didn’t think so.
At the very least, she could have shown her a little more attention. She could have offered a single warm greeting.
“Don’t make excuses. There was clearly much more you could have done.”
Lariette replied sharply, as if firing back. Strength surged through her entire body, and her stomach churned. Her head spun.
Her mother’s actions toward her, that sharp voice, replayed continuously in her mind, confusing her. She had thought herself firmly resolved, yet the moment she faced her mother, her chest trembled as if shaking.
“…I’m sorry, Lariette.”
And the moment she was met with an unexpected apology, Lariette felt as though her body were sinking into the ground. Her mind went blank, and her chest swayed like a ship caught in a storm.
*I can’t endure any longer.*
Ugh. Lariette covered her mouth at the surging nausea. The scent of the luxury perfume her mother wore kept churning her stomach. It had once been a simply fragrant scent, but no longer.
In the end, she chose to flee. If she stayed any longer, she felt she might do something pathetic, intoxicated by her mother’s tenderness after so long.
“Lariette, Lariette!”
The desperate voice stabbed painfully at the back of the fleeing Lariette’s head. But she didn’t stop, moving her feet urgently.
She exited the building and ran without knowing where she was going. Her breathing was irregular and rough, her breath rising to the tip of her throat.
She felt tears coming, but she didn’t cry. Holding back tears was something she was used to.
And someone snatched her up in her state of being like a hedgehog with all its quills raised.
Her body turned at the large hand gripping her shoulder, and soon a familiar figure came into view.
“Lariette.”
“…Asrahan?”
A height so tall she had to look up for some time, a proudly arched nose, and sharply slanted eyes.
Lariette stared blankly at the two seas contained within that handsome face. Her heart, which had been clamoring like waves in a storm, began to calm at the sight of him.
Asrahan frowned as he looked down at her dazed face. His gaze grew fierce once more.
“Who was it.”
“What?”
Asrahan carefully reached out and rubbed the corners of Lariette’s eyes. And he repeated in an even lower voice.
“Who made you cry.”
Despite there being no trace of moisture around her eyes, he looked certain that she had been crying. That conviction melted her body, which had been frozen like ice.
Only then did the tension leave Lariette, and she smiled faintly. Then she promptly buried herself in his embrace. Though his body was nothing but hard muscle, to her it was the coziest place.
“I didn’t cry.”
“…Lariette.”
“I just, I missed you so much that I came out, that’s all.”
Without answering, Asrahan held Lariette’s body tightly. If she didn’t wish to speak of it, he couldn’t ask further.
“Let’s go home. We. Let’s just go today.”
Lariette buried her face in his chest and murmured. Because she felt doubt even as she uttered the word *home,* her voice was unusually small.
*Do I have a home?* Lariette asked herself inwardly. Neither the Blanche Ducal residence nor the Candell Ducal residence was a place she could dare call home.
That she would disappear in just a few months suddenly felt like a relief.
***
Something had undoubtedly happened to Lariette while he was away.
Watching Lariette stare blankly into the distance today as well, Asrahan thought so.
He had sent Gerard to find out what on earth had happened, but because it had occurred inside the boutique, confirmation was delayed.
“Lariette, what about today’s hug?”
“Ah, right. I’ll do it now….”
That reaction alone proved it. Lariette had actually forgotten to even hug him. Just a few days ago, she had been eagerly watching for any chance to touch him!
At her blank expression and the way she hugged him perfunctorily, Asrahan felt something uncomfortable.
She used to hold him much tighter than this. Embarrassing thoughts he couldn’t voice kept surfacing.
Asrahan observed Lariette with a dejected expression. The purple eyes that were always clear were now unfocused. She looked worrisome.
He wanted to stay home all day and look after her, but of all days, there was a meeting. It was a matter concerning signs of war—a meeting he absolutely had to attend.
“…I will return as early as possible. Please take care of yourself.”
“Mmhmm, have a good trip.”
Lariette saw him off with an awkward smile. Asrahan kept looking back until Hallstein urged him on, and only then did he leave the mansion.
After he left, Lariette returned to her room and spent time in a daze. Her head was so tangled that nothing could take hold.
Since receiving her terminal diagnosis, she had vowed not to waste time meaninglessly, but there was nothing she could do about the sudden depression.
Knock, knock, knock.
The loud knocking on the door was what brought her back to her senses for a moment as she sat quietly on the bed.
“Miss Lariette, may I come in for a moment?”
“Ah, Hallstein. Of course. Please come in.”
Lariette hurriedly rose from the bed and answered, smoothing out the crumpled hem of her dress. Soon the door opened, and Hallstein entered with a cautious air.
“I’ve come to deliver a letter.”
“A letter? For me?”
Lariette tilted her head and looked at the envelope in Hallstein’s hand. It was an envelope with a pattern she had never seen before.
“Yes. It has come from Artis. It seems Madame Charbert sent it.”
Hallstein chuckled, asking if she had already grown close enough to a major figure in high society to exchange letters. However, unlike usual when she would take his jokes well, Lariette’s face was rigid.
After Hallstein, who had been reading the room, left, Lariette stared at the envelope as if it were an enemy. Then, with hesitant hands, she cut the envelope open and took out the letter inside.
The first thing she found was a small piece of stationery one might call a note. Upon it, Madame Charbert’s name and a brief message were written in elegant handwriting.
Lariette bit her lip hard and placed the note on the desk. Then she took out another letter contained within the envelope.
Soon, a familiar handwriting was visible. It was a handwriting she had sometimes ghostwritten—one she couldn’t fail to recognize.
The hand holding the paper trembled violently. Because she gripped it too hard, the fine stationery was ruthlessly crumpled.
“Why now, of all times….”
A voice infinitely weakened echoed in the silent room.
After that, Lariette sat motionless for a long while with her head bowed deeply, like a stone.
***
At a time well past five o’clock.
In the private room of Restaurant Almaire, Duchess Blanche, elegantly dressed, sat forlornly keeping her seat.
The duchess kept glancing at the door, but even though more than 30 minutes had passed, there was no sign of the person she was waiting for. Anxious, she kept fidgeting with her beautifully groomed nails.
Squeak—.
Just when she wondered if she should give up and return, the door finally opened with a soft sound. And between the opened doors, Lariette revealed herself.
“Lariette! You came!”
Duchess Blanche sprang up and approached Lariette. However, Lariette looked at her with cold eyes for a moment, then sat down without a reply.
In the past, she would have been scolded for being a young lady without manners, but the duchess didn’t mind and returned to her seat. Then she hurriedly ordered food to be brought.
Soon, warm and splendid dishes filled the table. The duchess smiled, pushing the restaurant’s most famous signature dish toward Lariette.
“Start with this. You have to eat it while it’s warm to be delicious. Or would you prefer the fish dish? Eat plenty, quickly.”
Ha. Lariette let out a short, hollow laugh. It was the first time she had heard such words.
The duke and duchess had always told Lariette, “You’re a girl, so eat moderately,” and when Raon refused to dine with her, they would send Lariette to her room.
It was once a tender word she had desperately longed for, but now that kindness was merely unpleasant. Lariette deliberately met her mother’s eyes and spoke in a firm voice.
“You said you had something to tell me. Get to it. That’s why I came.”
“First, let’s eat….”
“No. Say what you have to say first.”
Duchess Blanche flinched at Lariette’s cold attitude. She fell silent for a moment, choosing her words, then soon opened her mouth with a serious expression.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“There is… too much, too much to count. Not looking after you well. That is what I’m most sorry for.”
To think her mother was someone capable of saying sorry. Lariette muttered inwardly and clenched her fist under the table.
As if making a confession, the duchess continued.
“Only after losing you did I know your worth. After you left, I suffered from the shock for a long while… but no one came to look in on me. Raon was busy squandering money, and your father only assigned a priest to me without coming himself. Rather, he scolded me, asking what I was doing instead of attending to my duties as a duchess.”
She drank water as if her throat were parched. Lariette waited silently for her next words.
“Only then did I realize. That you were the only one who came when I was ill. That you were the only one who truly worried about me. And yet, all this time, I had turned my back on you like that.”
“….”
“Just as I married your father because of family circumstances, I thought it would be the same for you. I truly regretted not finding you a better match, at the very least.”
Lariette slowly closed her eyes.
She hadn’t hated her parents for failing to secure a good marriage prospect. The duchess seemed to be on the right track, yet she failed to grasp what had pained Lariette the most.
But Lariette knew that this was her limit. Her mother would likely never understand.
“I heard your apology. Then I’ll be going now.”
“What?”
Lariette rose from her seat with not a trace of lingering attachment. At that, the duchess’s face filled with panic, and she grabbed Lariette by the hem of her clothes.
“Where are you going?”
“……Did you think I would return to the Blanche estate?”
Lariette asked back with an expressionless face. As if that were the correct answer, the Duchess of Blanche could say nothing and merely worked her lips.
It was obvious she was thinking, “But I apologized, didn’t I?” It seemed she had thought that, since Lariette had been an obedient daughter, she would come back if she apologized and coaxed her.
To Lariette, it was both laughable and heartbreaking. If she was truly sorry to her, she should not be hoping for that.
“Just because you apologized doesn’t mean my memories disappear. Like a dress drenched in red sauce—no matter how much you wash it, the stain only grows faint. It never vanishes.”
“But, Lariette.”
“So I will never return to Blanche again.”
Lariette cut off the duchess’s words and declared it firmly. She had not the slightest intention of ending what little life she had left in a hellish place like that.
The duchess fidgeted anxiously, gripping Lariette’s clothes even tighter. After hesitating for a long while, she finally let out a deep sigh as though she had given up.
“Haah…… Lariette. I truly am sorry. I mean it.”
It was an abrupt apology. Just as Lariette wondered if she was trying to apologize one last time, she sensed a commotion beyond the door.
And soon, the one who opened the door and appeared was the Duke of Blanche, leading a group of the ducal family’s private soldiers.
“Seize her.”
At the duke’s command, the soldiers rushed toward Lariette.
However, they were soon blocked by a solid protective spell and could not move. It was because Lariette had cast the spell quickly the moment she spotted them.
The duke furrowed his brow and began casting a dispelling spell. But Lariette’s mana surpassed his, so it had little effect.
“Joel.”
“……Understood, Your Grace.”
When a familiar face appeared, Lariette stared at him with trembling eyes. He was a mage belonging to the Duchy of Blanche, and Lariette’s teacher—Sir Joel.
“Master……!”
“I’m sorry, my lady.”
Sir Joel squeezed his eyes shut and cast a dispelling spell. When his mana joined the duke’s, the barrier Lariette had created shattered in an instant.
Lariette tried to cast another spell, but the soldiers had already surrounded her. Before she could even part her lips, a dull impact struck the back of her neck.
Thwack!!
A knight struck Lariette down with his sword still in its scabbard. In an instant, darkness flickered before her eyes.
Before she lost consciousness, the last voice she heard was her father’s. The man she would no longer call father.
“I told you, did I not, my lady? The way to bring back a runaway daughter is not an apology.”
***
How much time had passed?
Feeling an aching pain at the back of her neck, Lariette barely lifted her heavy eyelids. Through her blurred vision, a familiar sight came into view.
The Blanche ducal estate, Lariette’s room. And the white door, firmly locked shut.
Ah, it was that door again.