Final Chapter 3:
Another Ending
(PREVIOUS TIMELINE)
I HAD A FIANCÉ. HE WAS MY COUSIN—THREE years older than me. I had been close to him ever since I was a child. He had the same dark eyes and hair as I did, and he was handsome. He was like a calm breeze—comforting to be around. When I turned fourteen and my engagement was decided, I was elated. Ever since I was a child, I had hoped to become engaged to him. My dream had finally come true.
However, the year I turned eighteen, a student who also attended the academy asked for my hand in marriage. He was the heir of a duke, and I was a noble of a lower class. I knew that our social statuses were too different, and I already had a fiancé anyway. I turned him down.
“You don’t have to worry about rank,” this man said with a smile. “I’m in love with you.”
I personally declined his offer, and my house had also provided him with a formal rejection, but the man didn’t seem to mind one bit and was undeterred. He was affable despite hailing from the house of a duke and always had a smile on his face. His slightly rotund frame only accentuated his calm and gentle demeanor. He was widely known for his generosity, and I also assumed that he was kind.
The realization hit me only after he asked for my hand in marriage. He may have been a soft-spoken man who was always cheery, but he didn’t seem to take “no” for an answer.
Is he always just smiling without a care for others’ feelings and circumstances? I wondered.
When that seed of doubt was planted within me, I began to think that there was something creepy underneath that cheery veneer. I became terrified of him.
“The heir of the duke doesn’t care about rank and social status as he asks for your hand in marriage!” others said. “Oh, it sounds like a lovely, romantic tale!”
I became the center of envy and found myself unable to speak up about my concerns and fear of the man. But my parents knew that I wished to marry my cousin. We were a lowly noble house, and the duke was miles above us. My parents had firmly and politely refused the duke’s offer. I assumed that this farce couldn’t possibly progress any further, and I was at ease.
Unfortunately, things didn’t look good for me.
“They show no signs of giving up,” my father said.
He had assumed that the duke’s household couldn’t have possibly been serious or enthusiastic about their heir marrying a noble who was of far lower rank. My father thought that the duke’s son acted on his own—if we declined the offer, His Grace would happily jump at the opportunity to dissuade his son from his antics. However, that apparently wasn’t the case. In fact, now that the duke’s dignity was at stake, he began to become more insistent and apply pressure on us.
Furthermore, we began to receive reports from our fief that were causes for concern. We became alienated from nearby nobles, fewer merchants visited our lands, and the crops produced from our fief no longer sold well. These changes were all for the worse, and it became increasingly more difficult to manage our territory. We weren’t the only victims either; my cousin’s family and all of our relatives began to suffer.
The culprit behind it all was clear. House Rosenberg was a prominent family within the kingdom; they could easily torture us in this fashion. Our relatives held an emergency meeting, and everyone present wore a grave expression.
“It would do us good if we had ties to the duke’s family,” someone said.
I wept, knowing that there was nothing I could do now. And so, my marriage with my cousin was canceled, and I was forced to tie the knot with the son of Duke Rosenberg.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I knew that this would happen,” he said.
It was the day of our wedding, and my now-husband had a bright smile on his face.
“We were fated to be,” he added.
There wasn’t an ounce of guilt on his face. He had practically strong-armed and tortured my entire family, and he truly thought that our marriage was fated. I cursed myself, forced to marry this horrible man.
Soon after our marriage, I became heavy with child. Everyone blessed my quick pregnancy, and on the surface, my husband also showed his excitement. However, when we were alone in our bedroom together, he posed a question, all with a smile still plastered on his face.
“It feels a bit too soon, doesn’t it?” he asked.
“If this child was conceived during our first night after we married, this timing isn’t all that odd,” I replied.
“But I heard that you were close with your former fiancé, right until our wedding.” He maintained his grin, which only caused me to start fearing him.
“He’s my cousin. I’ve been close with him ever since we were kids.”
“Is that so? I trust you, of course. I’m excited about our child. I hope that they’ll either have my hair or eyes—that would make me feel at ease.”
My husband had blue eyes and blond hair. Both my cousin and I had dark eyes and hair. If my child shared any trait with my husband, my innocence would be proven.
“Yes,” I said. “I also hope that our child shares some of your traits.”
I braced myself before I lay down beside him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sometime after my pregnancy was revealed, my cousin died. He had been killed by someone.
“What’s going on?!” I demanded.
I cornered my husband for an answer. There was no doubt in my mind that he was behind the murder. The duke employed several people who worked in the shadows. His butler, who also served as a bodyguard, was an elderly man, but he was apparently an extremely skilled assassin. It would have been an easy task for the butler to kill my cousin.
My husband easily admitted his guilt.
“What other choice did I have?” he replied, his smile plastered on his face. “As long as that man’s around, I can never be your number one. I only did it out of love for you.”
“He and I were over!” I cried. “I was no longer in a relationship with him! Why would you do such an atrocious act?!”
“Oh? I’m not sure about that,” my husband replied. He took out a sheet of paper.
“That’s my…”
“Yes, this is a letter that you wrote. For some reason, your cousin had it by his side. You’re rather passionate in your writing, aren’t you? You never expressed such words to me.”
My relatives would visit the duke’s manor every now and then, and I had them deliver my letters to my cousin. This was how I received letters from him as well. For safety, I made sure not to mention my husband or the duke’s household. That had been the only shred of joy I had left in my life.
“If I continue to eradicate every man you love more than me, I’ll become your number one, won’t I?” my husband inquired.
He continued to smile. He didn’t seem at all apologetic when he confessed that he’d had another person murdered in cold blood.
If you want to become my number one, you must kill every man in the world.
I was tempted to say my thoughts out loud, but I was too scared. He certainly seemed capable of eliminating every single man. I couldn’t suppress the trembles that coursed through my body.