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Sarah was laughing.
As if the situation was genuinely ridiculous, she silently giggled to herself for a while.
“…Sarah.”
However, I found nothing funny about this.
No, I felt as if my head would explode at any moment. At this very instant, if someone so much as brushed against me, I was certain I would burst into anger.
I understood all too well. Sarah—one of the five most beautiful women on the continent—had been engaged to someone like me, and there were circumstances that made it anything but a fairytale romance.
From the moment I saw Sarah, who hadn’t even smiled at me throughout our engagement ceremony, I had known full well that there wasn’t a trace of her own will in this arrangement.
At the time, I had thought little of it.
In aristocratic society, arranged marriages were so common that they were barely worth discussing. Even if our engagement had been orchestrated for political reasons, I had naively believed that if I gave my all for her, she would eventually open up to me.
…but this wasn’t right.
It had only been a few months since Sarah and I had broken up, and yet here she was—ordered by her family to seduce another man. To make matters worse, she was being treated like a mere pawn by her so-called uncle right in front of her former fiance.
No matter how one tried to justify it, wasn’t this the same as treating Sarah like a ‘commodity’—something that could be handed off to another family at any moment?
“Ha…”
But I endured it. The current me had no relationship with Sarah. I had once been her fiance, but at this point, we were completely unconnected. I was neither her family nor her lover, and we certainly weren’t close enough to claim we still cared for each other.
…That was why I couldn’t speak carelessly.
I had no right to claim I ‘understood’ her pain. The suffering she had endured alone over the years belonged solely to her. Unless she chose to speak of it herself, anything I said would be nothing but empty, irresponsible words.
I steadied my trembling hands. Thankfully, perhaps due to my age, I managed to regain control quicker than expected. Clenching my fists to suppress the turmoil within me, I forced my voice into a flat, emotionless tone and asked her a question.
“…Sarah, no matter how much I think about it, there are a few things I just can’t understand.”
“What? I’ll answer whatever I can in this state.”
She patted the back of her neck as she spoke, perhaps due to the ‘curse’ that bound her.
“As far as I know, the Heir Decaraznan already has a fiancée. Isn’t it a little late to try seducing him now?”
“Right? I thought so too, but apparently, my father and the others have a slightly different opinion.”
“…Different?”
“Yes. They told me it doesn’t matter if I end up as a concubine, so I should just focus on seducing him anyway. According to them, since the Heir Decaraznan is a responsible man, as long as I establish some kind of relationship with him, everything will fall into place afterward.”
Sarah giggled, but to me, it was anything but amusing. I discovered something new about myself—if a person’s anger reached a certain threshold, their mind could actually go ice-cold. I exhaled sharply and asked again.
“Then, why the Heir Decaraznan?”
“What do you mean?”
Sarah frowned, as if she didn’t understand my question.
“Why not the Heir Tournigen? Why is it specifically the Heir Decaraznan?”
Yes. Before my return—that is, in the original timeline—Sarah had been destined to marry Lucian, who was currently tangled up with the Duke of Estel, and eventually become the lady of the Duchy of Tournigen. But why had she now set her sights on the Heir Decaraznan, aiming to become his concubine instead?
“How do you know that?”
Her expression showed a flicker of surprise before she chuckled slightly.
“It’s like… you just took a peek inside my head.”
Then, with unexpected honesty, she confessed.
“Actually, you’re right. I was supposed to target the HeirTournigen. But Lucian von Tournigen has been away for months now, so my father decided to change our target to the Heir Decaraznan instead. Well, since the ultimate goal was to expand the influence within the four ducal families, does it really matter where I end up?”
“…..”
Hearing her words, I couldn’t suppress the groan that escaped me. I now understood exactly what was happening.
‘…Was this because of me?’
Yes. The reason Sarah hadn’t gone to the Duchy of Tournigen was because Lucian wasn’t there. And the reason Lucian wasn’t in the Tournigen’s territory was that he was currently staying with the Duchy of Estel.
And why was Lucian at the Duchy of Estel’s estate? Because several months ago, I had dueled him on the capital and beaten him half to death.
And, ultimately, the reason Sarah and I had broken up was that she had walked in on Aria lying in my bed when I returned to the past.
In other words, to sum it up in a single phrase—this was all because of me. My return to the past had changed the course of events, completely altering the future.
“…Hah.”
Of course, I couldn’t say it was my fault. I hadn’t intended for things to turn out this way. But that didn’t stop me from feeling disgusted. No matter the cause, it didn’t change the fact that Sarah was now being treated like garbage.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“…Huh?”
“Are you really going to accept this insanity? Seducing the Heir Decaraznan? Becoming a concubine? You were the one who told me last time…”
I fixed my gaze on her.
“You told me you would rather live as yourself than as a puppet bound to your family’s will. Are you planning to go back on those words now?”
Sarah simply gave me a sorrowful smile.
“…Yes, I did say that back then. That I wanted you to take me away. That I wanted you to be my shield, to hide me from this world.”
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