Chapter 153: Unfading Memories
It was early morning. The old butler knocked politely and entered Fritz’s room, where he was getting ready for the academy.
Fritz, hearing the hint of sympathy in his voice, couldn’t bring himself to refuse the butler, or his former fiancée.
Enzhe’s footsteps entered his room even before he could finish giving his permission.
She sat on the sepia-colored bed, her fingers intertwined, her gaze fixed on them. Fritz, watching her, finally asked, unable to bear the silence any longer,
“What brings you here?”
“I love you, Shina.”
Her answer was simple and straightforward. Enzhe embraced him from behind.
“I love you, so don’t push me away.”
Fritz swallowed, hearing the desperation in her voice.
“…Why do you love me?”
He wasn’t sure if he was asking, questioning, or resenting.
A long silence fell. Enzhe finally spoke,
“I have a memory.”
“A memory…?”
“Yes.”
Enzhe Lopetrefer had a memory she didn’t want to forget. A memory of a boy. She would often replay that memory in her mind.
A memory.
A tearful voice, the warmth of a hand, the lovely him.
“It started that day, when I took you to the small forest near the mansion.”
“….”
They had been much more innocent and pure back then. A time when they just wanted to play together, free of any worries.
Until the day Enzhe had taken Fritz to the nearby forest, saying she had something she wanted to show him.
“You were the only one who knew I was a failure. But you still comforted me.”
“A failure…?”
The gruesome sight of animal carcasses.
Rats, birds, cats, dogs, even a deer.
They had all been… “rearranged.” That was the only way he could describe it.
Shina Fritz, witnessing the unforgettable scene with his own eyes, had thrown up on the dirt road. It was the first time he had ever lost his composure.
He had fainted after emptying his stomach. And when he woke up, Enzhe was hugging him, crying. He placed his hand on her trembling shoulder and finally felt relieved.
It was the Enzhe he knew.
Fritz, his hand and voice trembling, had begged Enzhe not to do it again. He begged her every day. He buried the carcasses in the forest.
“I stopped because you told me to. Really, because I love you.”
“I know, I believe you.”
And a few months later, their engagement was announced.
Shina Fritz loved Enzhe Lopetrefer. He had tried to. But there was a limit. He had admitted it in less than a year.
It was his first defeat.
“But Enzhe, I can comfort you, but I can’t love you.”
They shared the same memory. But it had led them to completely different thoughts.
“That day, when you fell in love with me, I became incapable of loving you.”
He knew he lacked morals, but what had happened that day wasn’t something a child would do, giggling as they killed a bug.
It was a scar.
The memories he had tried to bury deep down, to forget what had happened that day, would resurface every time he spent time with Enzhe, flashing before his eyes like a panorama.
He couldn’t endure it.
“Liar.”
Enzhe’s voice, which had been tearful, was now laced with venom. Fritz flinched, hearing her venomous voice for the first time.
Enzhe buried her face in his back and said,
“You promised. You said you would marry me if you didn’t meet anyone you loved.”
“Yes, it’s my fault. I broke my promise to you.”
Fritz turned around and looked at her face. Her face was expressionless. There was no anger or sadness in her deep-set eyes. It was all new to him.
“So you can kill me if you want, Enzhe.”
“…!”
Enzhe’s black eyes filled with a hollow despair. She mumbled,
“…You’d rather die than be my husband?”
And the cruel answer came after a short silence.
“Yes.”
***
Sue, after class, gathered her things and left the classroom. And then, at the door,
“Byron.”
Acrea called out to her. He was leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed, his usual smile on his face.
In the Graduation Building hallway, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, Acrea said in his characteristically gentle voice,
“Don’t come to the academy tomorrow.”
Or the day after tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after that.
***
She understood what he meant the next morning.
“Miss, Lady Enzhe and Young Master Shina…!”
It had finally happened. The news of Enzhe and Fritz’s broken engagement had been announced to the entire noble society. Sue, awakened by Nine’s frantic voice, sat up, clutching her waist.
Her body was stiff, but she felt no pain. The curse hadn’t been activated today.
She basked in the dawn light streaming through the window, trying to clear her head.
“Nine, prepare my bath. I have to go to the academy.”
She had ignored Acrea’s request.
The atmosphere at the academy was tense. An oppressive unease hung over both the Graduation Building and the sixth-year building. Everyone knew the cause, but no one dared to speak their names.
There was one empty seat in both the Golden Lion class and the Green Giant class all day. Enzhe and Fritz were both absent.
“He mocked me so much back then, and now Lady Enzhe is doing the same thing.”
Sue, summoned by Melaine after a long time, had lunch with her.
Melaine spent the entire meal mocking Enzhe, but her tone was laced with worry.
“Lady Enzhe might just turn this whole place upside down.”
“Haha, I doubt it. She’s not that irrational.”
“Hmm, are you sure?”
No, she wasn’t.
Sue, who had defended Enzhe, was the one who knew her irrationality best.
“Anyway, the Lopetrefers are probably furious at Fritz for his unilateral actions. Their relationship will definitely worsen. Hmm, this is giving me a headache.”
As Melaine had said, even in the novel, the Lopetrefer family had been enraged after Fritz had broken off the engagement. And this was a marriage agreement between the three grand dukes, a conflict between the Lopetrefers and the Fritzes, not the relatively amicable Acreas.
It was definitely a worse situation than Melaine and Reeves’s hasty broken engagement.
“Sue, are you feeling okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine today, and I’ve been fine lately.”
“Oh, isn’t that even more frightening? Did she cry herself to sleep or something? Want to visit the Lopetrefer mansion after school?”
“Are you going too?”
“Yes, it’s not like I’ve turned my back on Lady Enzhe. I’m a little worried about her.”
She meant it. It was Melaine, not Sue, who could understand how it felt to be dumped, and it must be even more devastating to be rejected by someone you’ve loved your whole life.
They made plans to visit the Lopetrefer mansion after school, and Sue was on her way back to the classroom when someone suddenly grabbed her wrist, calling out, “Lady Byron.”
“…Halo?”
Sue turned around, her eyes wide with surprise. Her soft, light pink hair had grown longer, reaching her chest.
Halo’s eyes darted around, she wanted to say something, but she seemed to be struggling. Sue waited patiently, and then, Halo’s anxious voice, barely a whisper, reached her ears,
“If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
“….”
Sue blinked repeatedly, trying to figure out why Halo would say such a thing. But she couldn’t come up with an answer.
Sue smiled faintly and whispered,
“Halo, please don’t worry about me.”
***
Sue, after class, left the classroom to meet Melaine.
“Ah.”
She stopped abruptly as she turned the corner of the hallway leading to the Golden Lion classroom.
She had almost bumped into Acrea, who was leaning against the wall, as if he was waiting for someone.
“Who are you waiting for?”
“You, Byron.”
His emotionless, yet gentle gaze was fixed on her.
‘Aren’t we in the same class?’
Sue didn’t quite understand his logic, but she accepted it. He must have been checking if Fritz was here, and he had decided to see her while he was at it.
…She had ignored his advice, after all.
“Are you okay?”
His gentle voice wasn’t accusatory or judgmental. Sue swallowed, seeing his unchanging smile.
‘Are you okay?’
Why were these people worried about her, instead of reporting her and having her arrested? It would have been better if they had just stayed silent.
She couldn’t tell if he was asking out of genuine concern or if it was just a roundabout way of asking a question, but Sue answered honestly,
“I’m okay for now.”