# 2
Sob… Sob. As Adeline let out a sorrowful whimper, a soft voice settled over her head.
“…I feel bad.”
A long finger touched the cheek of Adeline, who sat on the sofa with a tablecloth wrapped around her thoroughly soaked body.
“I’ve never made you cry before.”
Adeline looked up at the gentle hand stroking her cheek and gazed at the calm face looking down at her. Those thoughtful purple eyes were still full of warmth, which only made her cry more.
Despite his straight, sharp appearance, those eyes gave a somewhat vulnerable impression. Adeline had always been particularly drawn to them.
His hand, large enough to cover her entire face, delicately caressed her tear-stained eyes. Tears were wiped away and replenished repeatedly under his careful touch, as gentle as if he were touching rain-soaked flower petals.
“During that time… did you think of me at all?”
Even knowing she shouldn’t, she found herself pouting in the face of his kindness.
“Of course. How could I not think of you?”
A perfectly textbook response. Complete with the affection conveyed in his voice.
“Did you ever love me?”
“I liked you, I cherished you.”
Adeline emptied her bitter feelings through tears. It wasn’t that she suddenly resented him for never saying he loved her.
She already knew Ash didn’t love her. Nevertheless, during their time together, she felt like the most loved woman in the world.
Sometimes his kindness was so overwhelming that she had even hoped she might be the first woman to break his “hundred-day lover” title.
Perhaps every woman who had been with Ash felt the same way.
“When was it?”
When did you suddenly become an omega? Although the crucial part of the question remained unspoken, it was enough.
“…The night after you left.”
Ash’s answer suddenly awakened her to the desperate reality she had been trying to ignore and disbelieve—this sudden change that had overtaken them.
“Why didn’t you tell me? You should have told me first.”
Adeline’s family trip had been planned for two weeks. If not for that trip, she would have been with Ash that night.
“I didn’t want to worry you. It was a trip you were looking forward to. I couldn’t let you ruin it because of me.”
“You call that an explanation? If it concerned you, what would a mere trip matter…!”
Adeline buried her face in her hands, having raised her voice again without realizing it.
This thunderbolt situation was simply impossible to accept.
That Ash, who had been her lover just two weeks ago, this strong and wonderful man, had become the Crown Prince’s consort during their brief separation.
That strong body which had given her unmistakable pleasure in bed had now become a body capable of conceiving from an alpha’s seed…
Ash gently pulled down her hands as she roughly wiped away tears until her eyes turned red. Adeline turned away, not wanting him to see her tear-stained face, and let out words of resentment.
“If I had known beforehand… I wouldn’t have made such a pathetic scene! At such an important occasion, in front of everyone, such, such shameful behavior…”
“It wasn’t shameful, Adel.”
Adeline met his incredibly warm and affectionate eyes.
“You’re still dignified, and the most wonderful woman in the world.”
Though she knew it was just empty words, his warmth felt so sincere that it seemed genuine. Ash tenderly tidied Adeline’s disheveled cheeks and hair as if they were precious jewels.
“If it were me, I would have truly caused a scene. If you had gotten married to another man without telling me, I wouldn’t have stopped at pushing him into the lake.”
Adeline laughed through her tears at his joke. His eyes were gentle as he watched her laugh with a voice wet with tears.
“I’m sorry. You can curse at me all you want. I can’t even imagine the shock you received. …I’ll do anything to help heal your wounds.”
Adeline looked at Ash, who knelt on one knee before her with exemplary words of apology.
This marriage wasn’t even his choice, and perhaps he was the most devastated person today, yet his apology was kind without a single excuse or hypocrisy.
“…Is this really the end for us?”
“I suppose it is.”
Yet for all his kindness, the voice announcing the end of their relationship was so clean that it was unbearably cruel.
“I also think this marriage is sudden and… unfair, Adel. But that doesn’t mean I could keep holding onto you. That would be truly wrong of me.”
Ash Rihart. He was always like this.
If he had been shameless enough to ask her to become his mistress, if he had clung to her despicably saying this marriage meant nothing and their relationship needn’t change, perhaps this miserable feeling would have eased somewhat.
“You should never receive such treatment, Adel.”
You know that, right? His almost whispered words carried warm sincerity. Tears fell from beneath her lowered eyelids. Adeline finally nodded as she emptied the tears pooling in her eyes.
“…I know.”
“Thank you for everything.”
In truth, she was the one who should be thankful. Dating Ash had a dreamlike quality to it—knowing it would end someday, but still feeling wonderfully sweet while with him, as if that moment would last forever.
The hand stroking her hair moved away without hesitation. Adeline wiped her wet eyes and looked up at him as he stood.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay with you longer. I may be fine, but you shouldn’t get hurt.”
Adeline understood what Ash meant. The former lover of the Crown Prince’s consort had caused a scene at the wedding reception, and if that wasn’t enough, they were alone in a guest room—the situation was already problematic.
If he stayed longer, unpleasant rumors would spread uncontrollably. That would be more dangerous for her, a mere baron’s daughter, than for Ash, the Crown Prince’s consort.
“Take your time to collect yourself. Stay as long as you need until you feel better.”
That’s the kind of man Ash is. Extremely kind, gentle… but nothing more.
He neither holds back women who leave nor stops those who come, yet he isn’t vulgar about his desires, maintaining loyalty to the woman he’s dating. He skillfully pretends to be in love, but never crosses a certain line.
Perhaps that’s why she always felt something was missing.
“If that hadn’t happened to you.”
Adeline impulsively spoke up just as Ash turned and was about to open the door. He turned his head slightly toward her, his brow furrowing slightly with a puzzled expression.
“Would we have remained lovers?”
Would you have still been kind to me after a hundred days?
“What’s the use of such speculation now?”
His answer to her foolish question was merciless, leaving no room for possibility. The head that had turned toward Adeline returned indifferently to face forward. Now she could no longer see what expression he wore.
“I just want you to understand that I couldn’t help being confused… Ash. If you had married another beta woman, I wouldn’t have been so shocked.”
He paused silently before quietly saying:
“…I regret that too.”
Click. The door opened. Soon his figure disappeared completely from view.
In the empty guest room after Ash left, only the fig cake and tea he had ordered for Adeline remained conspicuously on the table.
I should have made a funny joke instead, she thought, vacantly staring at the bright red figs neatly arranged on the snowy whipped cream. She regretted too late. When he smiled, Ash gave off a boyish impression that didn’t match his usual image.
If only she could have ended with that face she loved most. She had developed a terrible habit. It seemed that anyone else she might date in the future would appear pathetically inadequate by comparison.
But it was all over now. The wise Adeline did not dwell on things past.
The cold tea was bitter. The edge of the whipped cream covering the cake crumbled under the tip of her fork.
* * *
“You there… Marsha.”
Ash, having left the guest room, stopped a passing maid in the corridor and checked the name embroidered on her clothes.
“The tea has gone cold, so bring a fresh pot. And prepare for Adel to bathe. The bathwater shouldn’t be too hot, and use a perfume that doesn’t have strong grassy notes. Let her choose a dress from those with milder colors. Wash her wet clothes and send them to her later.”
The maid immediately took out a notepad and pen and began to note down his instructions.
“Don’t speak to her unnecessarily, don’t stare at her, just ask if she needs anything and fulfill whatever Adel wants.”
His words, flowing elegantly without the slightest hesitation, came to an end.
“Have a carriage waiting at the back entrance so she won’t be seen when leaving, and ensure she’s escorted with the utmost courtesy to her mansion.”
Ash fulfilled all the proper courtesies due to someone who had once been his lover. Even if it hadn’t been love, such a parting was bitter for him as well. Especially since it wasn’t something he had intended.
“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince Consort.”
“…”
It was an uncomfortable title to hear when they hadn’t even held the ceremony yet. However, Ash didn’t point this out and embarrass the maid.
His quick steps headed straight for the Crown Prince’s palace. Now that this matter was resolved, he needed to address his own disheveled state.
Above all, he felt Sion would be there. By now, he would have somewhat settled the atmosphere of the reception hall that had been disrupted because of Ash, and then left on the pretext of checking on his prospective husband.
And as expected, Sion was in the bedroom.
The place where they would spend their wedding night today, and the space where they would live together as a couple.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
