~Chapter 30~
Cedric flinched for a moment, but judging by the voices echoing from below, it wasn’t anything serious.
“…She’s not hurt…?”
“She’s fine, she’s fine.”
“Still…”
It seemed Diana had knocked over a chair while excitedly walking through the crowd.
Cedric sighed deeply.
“…I wonder if anyone would ever want to marry that troublemaker. Actually, it’s probably harder to find someone she’d even like.”
Eileen looked up at him and replied,
“…She might marry you.”
After all, they weren’t related by blood.
Cedric’s tone sounded more like the helpless complaint of an older brother dealing with a mischievous little sister, but still—technically, it wasn’t impossible.
“When we were younger, people used to joke about things like that. So for a while, I thought maybe…”
Cedric’s gaze drifted off into the distance—not looking at Diana now, but at something far away and unseen.
“But now… I don’t think so.”
His answer was vague, but unexpected.
Instead of saying “maybe,” he said the opposite—“no.”
“Then… is there anyone else you’re considering as your duchess?”
It sounded like Eileen was hoping he’d marry someone else.
Cedric frowned and asked her back,
“You want me to marry someone else?”
“Then what—are you going to stay single forever?”
“Maybe.”
His reply came instantly, without even thinking.
He just wanted to strongly deny her assumption.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Who’s going to take over the duchy?”
“I could just adopt someone.”
“That would cause a huge mess. It’d be unfair to the adopted heir. The retainers could even—”
He was going to say “start fighting,” but his words trailed off.
It was a sensitive subject.
During the war he had just returned from, Cedric had punished one of his own knights.
Eileen didn’t ask, and Cedric didn’t speak of it.
But even though all the knights were present at the banquet, Eden was missing.
And no one brought him up.
Cedric finally spoke again.
“The Phinikel family promised him status and money. I asked him again and again if that was really all. He said yes. That was it.”
“Cedric…”
“He said orphans have a limit to how far they can rise. He wanted to know what it was like to be a noble.”
Cedric slowly opened his hand and stared down at it.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on his face when he died. If my uncle hadn’t arrived just in time, I might not have been able to keep going in that state of mind.”
“Your uncle?”
“My father’s younger brother. The Baron of Demicalon.”
Eden had fallen into a trap Cedric had deliberately set.
He’d tried to lead troops behind Cedric’s back to attack and betray him.
But when he was caught, he confessed everything without resistance—and even stayed calm to the end.
“Take care of yourself. This won’t be the end.”
Those were his final words, delivered in the same detached tone he always used.
That made it even harder to bear.
Was that really all their relationship had ever meant?
“…I returned late because I went to escort my uncle back to his distant territory.”
Eileen finally remembered seeing “Demicalon” on a map.
‘His uncle…’
After Diana left the Lowell family, Cedric had fallen into despair.
He never married anyone, and wandered from one battlefield to another, avoiding the “home” he no longer wanted to return to.
The one who managed the duchy in his absence, commanding the retainers and overseeing the estate, was Cedric’s uncle.
‘What happened after that?’
The novel never revealed what became of Cedric in the end.
Did he eventually find love and peace?
Or did he lose all will to live and die young on the battlefield?
Even imagining that made Eileen’s chest tighten.
She didn’t want such a sad ending for Cedric.
“I still wonder if I should’ve spared him. I keep thinking about it at night.”
After a long silence, Cedric spoke again.
Eileen decided not to dwell on the future that hadn’t come.
Instead, she focused on his words.
“Maybe I should’ve locked him up for life or sent him into prison. If I’d done that…”
He looked like someone desperate to believe he made the right decision.
Eileen finally cut in.
“No. If I were you, I wouldn’t have let him live either.”
Maybe it wasn’t the morally “right” thing to do, considering Eden’s years of service.
But it wasn’t about that.
It was something that had to be done.
Eileen gently reached out and placed her hand on his arm.
Cedric flinched, but didn’t pull away.
“Like you said, I’m never wrong.”
“…Yeah.”
Cedric, already carrying the burden of responsibility on his shoulders, now had this heavy guilt to carry too.
He looked truly exhausted.
“That’s just how it is.”
Eileen stayed by him in silence, letting him hold her hand as if she were his only support.
There was nothing else she could do—but at least she could be there.
***
Diana and Eileen acted like the other didn’t exist.
To be more precise, Diana was wary of Eileen.
Eileen, on the other hand, had no interest in reacting to anything Diana did—for now.
But trouble always comes eventually.
When summer passed quickly and the chill of autumn arrived, trouble finally came.
“A grand autumn banquet?”
“Yeah. It’s a family tradition, so we have to host it this year. Most major families will attend—either to get on my good side, or to see you.”
“I wish they’d stop staring at me.”
They were chatting over tea after dinner.
Diana preferred spending time with Cedric in the mornings or going on outings during the day.
That left quiet evenings like this for Eileen and Cedric to talk.
‘Not that we really talk much anyway.’
Cedric had been swamped with work since his return.
Even the one outing with Diana only happened after she begged and begged.
Once, Diana had begged him to go exploring in the forest near the castle. Cedric reluctantly agreed.
He returned covered in mosquito bites, swearing he would never go again.
Eileen had laughed until her sides hurt.
Now, as Cedric flipped through his reports, he suddenly said:
“…The reason people stare at you so much—it’s because you look unusual.”
“My face looks weird?” she teased.
“No, not weird… just…different.”
He finally looked up and stared directly at her. Especially her eyes.
“That’s the problem. Your eyes.”
“What about them?”
“In the North, green eyes are rare. So the green in your eyes stands out.”
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen anyone in the North with her eye color.
There were people with hazel or grayish eyes, but not green.
In the capital, she’d seen plenty—light green, deep green, and more.
“So it’ll be easy to get the noblewomen at the banquet to like me too.” she said.
Cedric frowned.
“Not just them.”
Wherever she went, whatever she did, Eileen Cassier would always draw attention and become the center of everything.
‘Why is everyone so interested in her?’
Lately, Cedric found it more and more irritating—how people looked at her with such curiosity.
