Chapter 147. Why Are You Still Such a Fool……
“What?”
At the complexion that changed in an instant, Lea Parker’s suspicion deepened even further.
Jade Wilkins.
Deborah Coleman.
The fact that Helena Lowell was the link connecting those two was something she had long known, but today, a person she had never even imagined suddenly surfaced between them.
Raymond von Cheister.
The moment she heard the name Roderick had spoken, and saw the color drain from his face, Lea still found it hard to believe.
Wasn’t it so?
It was none other than the Duke of Cheister.
The man standing at the very pinnacle of Cheister’s immense power, enough to make even birds fall from the sky.
The very idea of connecting such a man to a homeless orphan was absurd from the beginning.
Not only her, but everyone would have thought the same.
However, that thought changed after seeing Jade’s reaction when he rushed over upon hearing that Deborah had collapsed due to poor health.
“Why would you bring up that story of all things!”
As if something that should never be mentioned in front of her had been said, he looked completely agitated.
Not only was it the first time she had ever seen such a side of someone who was always gentle, but the reason behind it made her frown deeply.
Unable to hold back what had been circling in her mind, Lea finally voiced it.
“Why can’t that story be mentioned in front of Deborah?”
“…What?”
“That’s right. Not you, but Deborah. Why exactly do we have to be careful talking about Cheister in front of Deborah?”
“……”
At the sharp question that pierced straight through him, his lips immediately shut.
The more he did so, the more Lea’s suspicion turned into certainty.
“Don’t tell me… the place Deborah used to stay at was… the Cheister ducal house?”
Seeing those blue eyes tremble for a moment, a gasp of shock escaped Lea’s lips.
“My goodness……”
She did not even need to ask about the relationship between the two.
She did not know how deep it had been, but it was obvious that there had been something significant between them.
All the mysteries that had remained unsolved until now were suddenly resolved in an instant, yet that only made one thing even harder to understand.
Jade’s actions.
Why on earth, of all things—
Wasn’t Jade someone who hated even uttering the name Cheister ever since his mother’s death?
And yet he had taken in a woman connected to none other than Raymond von Cheister.
Even if it had been at Helena Lowell’s request, it was impossible to understand.
“What exactly… are you planning to do from now on?”
Lea pressed him as she spoke to the person who had remained silent the entire time.
She truly wanted to know.
What exactly was he planning?
If her intuition was not wrong, then Deborah right now……
At that point, Lea shook her head.
No matter how she thought about it, she concluded that it was not something she should recklessly put into words.
After waiting for quite a long time, Jade’s tightly closed lips finally parted.
“I’m not planning to do anything. I just… want to help her.”
“You just… want to help her?”
“Yes.”
At that quietly spoken answer, Lea momentarily lost her words.
The Jade she knew—
Yes, to be honest, he was someone whose consideration for others was so deep that even Lea found it difficult to fully understand.
A man whose bright smile was incredibly charming, yet who smiled so often that he sometimes looked foolish.
Everyone who knew him liked Jade, and Lea herself had liked him for a very long time.
Not as a friend, but as a man.
She simply had never expressed her feelings because they had been friends for too many years.
Lea’s feelings for Jade Wilkins had never been friendship.
They had always been love.
That was why a part of her heart was crumbling right now.
She was someone who could tell his condition just by looking at his face or the way he walked.
Never before had she resented having known him for so long as much as she did at this moment.
Because she understood what that hardened expression, those slightly furrowed brows, and those wavering eyes were saying.
That while she had hesitated, someone else had already taken possession of his heart.
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—You know, it was suspicious how the marriage talks went on for so long without any conclusion. By this point, an engagement announcement should have come out, but strangely there was no news at all. People were even saying for a while that the whole thing might fall through.
—Really? This is the first time I’ve heard about it.
—What, did you just come back from some countryside village? Even three-year-olds in Denverra know about it, and you’re the only one who doesn’t.
—……So, what exactly are you trying to say?
—No, but then out of nowhere, the engagement announcement suddenly dropped at dawn yesterday. Because of that, the social circles were completely turned upside down. Well, regardless, it means two of the most powerful families in Ruvake have formed a marriage alliance.
—And what does that have to do with us?
—What do you mean, what does it have to do with us? We have no idea how the balance of power might change. Right now the Cheister family is friendly toward the royal family, but once they join with the Constant family, who knows—
—Ah, enough. Stop with those headache-inducing stories. Those noble affairs have nothing to do with peop— Huh? Deborah!
From somewhere, an unpleasant sound kept buzzing.
A sound coming from a very distant place, like the wail of a ghost.
As that sound gradually drew closer, squeezing her breath tighter and tighter, something settled upon her forehead.
A warm touch.
Slowly, very carefully, that hand rested against her forehead, and Deborah’s consciousness finally began to rise to the surface.
“…Are you awake?”
Blue eyes visible beyond her blurred vision.
The heart that had been surging like waves calmed down as if by magic when her vision gradually became clear.
“Jade……”
As soon as Deborah barely managed to utter those words and tried to sit up, Jade quickly supported her.
“Why am I here……?”
“…You don’t remember? You suddenly collapsed at the bookstore, so Roderick and Lea brought you here.”
At the calm explanation, Deborah finally seemed to remember, and a faint groan escaped her lips.
“I’m sorry…… Maybe I ate something wrong yesterday. My body wasn’t feeling very… well this morning……”
“……”
“By lunchtime, I felt better again…… I never thought this would happen. I’m really… really sorry for making you worry.”
Unable to even meet his eyes, she continued offering one disorganized excuse after another.
Jade knew very well why she was acting that way.
He knew what the person before him was trying to hide.
And he knew what she desperately did not want discovered.
Under normal circumstances, Jade would have gone along with her and pretended not to know.
He would have acted as if he truly knew nothing and simply smiled like a fool, asking if that was what happened.
But at that moment, something surged up inside him.
That man had gotten engaged to another woman without issue, and would continue living his life as though nothing had ever happened.
Yet this foolish woman was barely surviving, enduring each day alone in such a broken state.
The thought made him unbearably angry.
For a while she had seemed fine, and he had thought she was gradually recovering.
Yet the fact that she had fainted over nothing more than the news of that man’s engagement made him furious.
So furious that he could hardly contain it.
That was why.
Why he finally brought those words to his lips despite knowing she did not want to hear them.
“You heard the news, didn’t you?”
The fabricated smile she had been wearing vanished from her face without a trace.
Seeing her expression stiffen in the blink of an eye, one would think he would stop there.
Yet strangely, he felt no such urge.
“That man’s engagement. Raymond von Cheister’s.”
His voice carried no rise or fall, as though he were simply reading from a letter.
At the same time, Deborah’s tightly clenched fingertips turned completely white.
“You already know since you heard about it, but it was reported everywhere yesterday. They made such a huge fuss about it, calling it the union of the two most powerful families in the history of the Kingdom of Ruvake.”
“S-Stop… I want to rest—”
“They’re both so beautiful that people are already predicting enormous crowds will gather for the wedding. What do you think, Deborah?”
Jade cleanly ignored and cut off her plea that she did not want to hear any more and wanted him to leave.
“Well, there’s still quite a bit of time before the wedding. The procedures are apparently so complicated and numerous. Normally, even after an engagement announcement, it takes at least several months—”
“Stop!!”
“……”
“Please stop…… I said I don’t want to hear it… that story……”
At the sight of her trembling while covering her ears, the relentless stream of words finally came to an abrupt halt.
“…Why? Why… don’t you want to hear it?”
Watching her small shoulders shake pitifully, Jade’s face twisted with indescribable misery.
Both himself for saying such things, and the woman who collapsed so easily over mere words—
Everything was too cruel and heartbreaking.
“…You should be fine. You too, Deborah.”
Between his words, spoken while suppressing his emotions, the sound of restrained sobs could be heard.
“The man who threw Deborah away is living perfectly well, getting engaged to another woman and moving on with his life. But Deborah… only Deborah… why are you still such a fool……”
The murmured words ended there.
At some point after sitting in silence for a long time, Jade rose from his seat and left, closing the door behind him.
The muffled sound of Deborah’s crying, now finally alone, echoed behind that closed door throughout the entire night.
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