Chapter 51.1

Chapter 51 – In A Fit Of Anger

“Yes, I love him.”

“…”

Aileen’s eyes shook. She couldn’t contain her embarrassment as she blinked her trembling eyes. That was the answer she was concerned about. She was suffocated by the anxiety squeezing her heart, probably because she could feel the same way from Ashia and that man’s gaze.

She’d pondered all night long why her mind was at a loss. There was a time when she imagined him and expected something from him. But that wasn’t love. It was just anticipation and curiosity. That was it. Her heart had never raced like this before. It happened. It really happened….

‘Did I really fall in love with that man at first sight?’

Even though she changed her mind this much after seeing her (Ashia) face, she (Ashia) was confident herself. Kaligo’s way of speaking to her and his way of looking at the other woman—it tore her heart recalling each of her actions, throbbing with pain all night.

And as soon as the sun came up in the morning, she ran to her store. With the thought that she should know the answer to this feeling, deep in her heart, she thought that the relationship between Ashia and Kaligo wouldn’t be that deep. However, Ashia’s answer was clear and unwavering.

– I love him.

Why was it that having confirmed Ashia’s heart, Aileen was caught by an unaccountable conviction that she should break any kind of relationship between the two of them? That the other woman should be gotten rid of?

Aileen continued in a hoarse voice, “I’ve never been so excited to see someone before.”

“…”

The smile on Ashia’s lips slowly disappeared.

“I… I don’t care if he’s in love with another woman now.”

He used to play with other women in the past anyway. Adding one or two more people to that wouldn’t make much difference.

‘She must be one of the passing women in his life.’

Aileen thought that Ashia would be just that kind of woman. Because she was beautiful, he was just also mesmerized by her. Maybe that was why he was trying to touch her out of curiosity.

“I heard that when bodies are away, the mind also goes away.”

(T/N: When you are not physically with your lover, the mind/heart can naturally change and forget. This was what Aileen wanted to say.)

It was greed. The more she thought about him, the more she wants him for herself alone.

“I can open a bigger store wherever you want. It doesn’t matter which empire or continent.”

“…”

“If you don’t want a store, I can give you enough gold to play and eat for the rest of your life.”

Aileen now wanted the seat of the Grand Duchess of Karhan Empire, the wife of Kaligo, rather than the position of an Imperial Princess of the Empire.

“What I am saying is,”

‘What I am saying is, you should disappear.’

The woman in front of her should stay away from the Grand Duke. If she couldn’t move his heart because of this woman, she should just get rid of her.

“I want you to leave this empire.”

“…”

Heok

Aileen, who had just been calm until now, widened her eyes.

‘Wh, what am I saying now?’

Looking at Ashia for a while, Aileen’s eyes shook violently. “I, wh-what I want to say is, so….”

Ashia listened to Aileen without saying anything. The reason why she didn’t stop Aileen midway even though she knew what she was talking about, was because she wondered how far the original novel’s main character would go.

‘Leave the empire…’

She expressed very openly that she wanted her to stay away from Kaligo.

‘Is it Aileen’s true intentions, or… the original novel’s power?’

She was afraid of that not too long ago. The fact that the two main characters would meet and fall in love at first sight as the original novel intended. In the first place, this was a world created for the fateful love between the two of them. No matter how confident she was that Kaligo wouldn’t change his mind, no one knew what would happen when that time came.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Kaligo didn’t change when he met Aileen at the mansion. There wasn’t an inch of him that wavered. It only meant that Kaligo’s heart wasn’t controlled by the original novel, although he was the male lead.

However…

Aileen was different.

‘What is this uncomfortable feeling?’

The male lead who wasn’t influenced by the original and the female lead who was swayed by the original. And between the two of them, her existence was nothing. It was as if she had become the original’s impurity.

“You are speaking as if you have already become the Grand Duchess.”

“…Ah, that.”

Ashia’s sharp voice made Aileen’s face slightly bewildered.

“Am I even his mistress? Did I seduce the Grand Duke? That’s why you must have thought that I broke a peaceful family.”

“…”

“Your Royal Highness. You should talk about this with the Grand Duke and not me.”

Aileen gently bit her lips. She probably realized that her words greatly disrespected Ashia. But she still looked puzzled as to why she said those.

Ashia couldn’t be more certain when she saw that.

Aileen was influenced by the original novel, but that doesn’t mean that she would understand her, forgive her disrespect, and be convinced. Ashia wasn’t naïve enough to say, ‘Oh, please do that. Have a beautiful love’, nor nice enough to back down.

On the contrary, it was the good-natured Imperial Princess Aileen who was in front of her. At this point, she just seemed to be no different than a villain who was tormenting and harassing the female lead. The more that Aileen went on like this—no, the more that the original story came out like this, the more determined Ashia became.