CH 66

About 20 minutes before Herwin saw Lucia.

Lucia had entered the party with Bern and was greeting Christine.

“Christine, congratulations on your first business, and here’s a small gift.”

It was a bouquet of daisies she’d gotten for Christine when she heard she was throwing a party. Naturally, Christine was thrilled to receive Lucia’s bouquet.

“I wish you all the best with your business.”

“Thank you so much, Lucia, I’m touched.”

“Congratulations on your new business, dear Diores. Why don’t you come to talk to us next time, too?”

“Anytime is fine with you, Marquis. Please contact me at your convenience.”

With that brief greeting, Christine turned to the voice calling to her.

“You have a good friend. A business of this size already at that age. It’s great.”

“Christine is great. Her dream has been to run her own business since she was in the academy.”

She could see a halo around Christine as she dealt with a group of people in the distance.

“I’ll have to be better at this Lucia, so your friend will think better of me, right?”

“Haha, even if you don’t, don’t you think it’s okay because Bern has already done that?”

Bern, who, like Christine, is in business for himself, was happy that he had gotten a good client.

Looking at Bern, who seemed a little excited, Lucia remembered what Lucas had said before they left the mansion.

‘He had a girlfriend he was almost married to!’

A lover. Was Viscountess Celine Romario a former lover, as she suspected?

She wanted to ask.

Lucia stared, and Bern smiled.

“Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No…… nothing.”

Lucia smiled and shook her head.

But now wasn’t the right time. Besides, Bern was aware of the rumors between her and Herwin, but he had never asked her about them.

‘Then I’ll wait, too.’

He would need his own time to prepare, just like she did. Or maybe he didn’t tell her because there wasn’t a relationship.

She felt like she owed him this much for being so patient with her.

“Why don’t we go over there? My friends are over there…….”

When Bern spotted them, he smiled and stopped dead in his tracks.

Lucia, who had her hand on his arm, stopped as well.

“What’s wrong…….”

Looking up at Bern, Lucia saw that his eyes were shaking. It was the first time she had ever seen a crack in his usually smiling face.

As she turned her head to follow his gaze, it was easy to see why.

‘Celine Romario.’

The Viscountess Romario, whom she’d seen a few times in Tapiti, was nearby.

She, too, froze at the sight of Bern. Her green eyes began to moisten.

“……Bern.”

Celine took a step closer, and a shiver ran down Bern’s spine that Lucia could feel.

Bern’s face paled, and she could see the emotions on his face: despair, anxiety, nervousness.

The faintest glimmer of light appeared in his normally dry eyes.

His appearance now was similar to the way she had been when she and Bern had first encountered Herwin.

When he stood still and did nothing, Lucia stealthily stepped in front of him.

“Hello, Viscountess Romario. I see you’re here.”

“Ah…….”

Celine sighed, finally noticing Lucia. Her gaze was soon drawn to Lucia’s hand, which was linked affectionately with Bern’s.

“I wonder if the Viscountess is here by invitation?”

“Ah, yes, yes. That’s right, my husband is traveling abroad, so I attended in his place.”

A small shiver ran down Bern’s arm at the mention of her husband. Lucia noticed and tightened her grip on Bern’s hand.

“I see. I also attended with my fiance because it was a party hosted by a friend.”

“You mean your fiancé……?”

“Yes. You know from the few times we’ve seen that I’m engaged to be married to the Marquis.”

“But you’re not engaged yet…….?”

“We haven’t, but I think we will soon, don’t you, Bern?”

Lucia called out to Bern, tugging on his arm, and he looked down at her.

“Yes. Right.”

She could tell he was trying to smile, but it was a struggle. A cold sweat trickled down Bern’s forehead.

“Are you uncomfortable, Bern? You don’t look too happy.”

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

“Well, you’re sweating, so maybe you should take a break.”

Lucia wiped Bern’s sweat with her handkerchief and whispered to him at a volume that Celine couldn’t hear.

“If you want to get away from here, follow me.”

Bern stared at Lucia with shaky eyes.

Despite her kind words and gestures, the blue walls were hard. Bern nodded slowly.

Lucia withdrew her handkerchief and looked back at Celine.

“If you’ll excuse me, my fiancé is not in the best of spirits, and we must be going.”

Lucia hurriedly grabbed Bern’s arm and pulled him away from her before Celine could grab hold of him.

“Ah, Lucia…….”

“We can talk later, she’s still watching us from behind.”

Bern clamped his mouth shut, staring at the brown head in front of him. It was the exact opposite of what had happened at the empress’ engagement.

Lucia’s calm demeanor and the way she’d saved his ass.

“She won’t follow us here.”

Lucia stopped in front of the fountain. She glanced back at Bern, holding onto him.

There was no sign of approval.

“Okay, I think we’re safe now.”

“Lucia.”

“Yes?”

Lucia paused, looking up at Bern with a bright face. Then, like Bern, her face slowly turned serious.

“Do you happen to know everything?”

“……I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Bern’s mouth dropped open, unable to finish his sentence. Lucia lowered her gaze at him.

“I don’t know if what I know is true, I’m just going by the way things are going and what Bern told me last time.”

The corners of Bern’s eyes drooped. He looked a mixture of sorry and guilty.

“I was just waiting for Bern to tell me when he was ready, and here we are.”

Lucia smiled awkwardly. Then she looked at Bern with a questioning glance. Bern’s face was reflected in the wall.

“If you don’t mind, can you tell me what happened?”

Bern straightened his disheveled posture and sat down at the fountain. Lucia sat down beside him and waited for him to feel comfortable enough to speak.

“What do you know about it?”

“Well. I know, for one, that Viscountess Romario has a great fondness for Bern; I’ve seen her a few times at tea parties, and it’s obvious. Oh, and I know that Bern had a lover whom he expected to marry.”

“You saw her often at tea parties?”

“Yes. The first time we met, she asked me if I was engaged to Bern.”

Bern pursed his lips, then buried his face in his hands with a faint sigh.

“The girl you were supposed to marry was Viscountess Romario, wasn’t she?”

“……Yes, that’s right.”

Bern finally spoke, his face bitter as he recalled the past. His usual smiling face was finally unmasked.

“Celine and I first met at the Academy. Ah… no, not that, the Viscountess…….”

Bern was taken aback by the familiarity of Celine’s name. Seeing him at a loss for words, Lucia shook her head.

“I don’t mind, so don’t worry about it.”

Bern met Lucia’s eyes and opened his mouth again.

“The first time I met her ……was in the second semester of my first year at the Academy. I liked to read, so I used to go to the library a lot.”

He had mentioned before that there were times when he hadn’t left the library for a whole day.

“That’s where I first saw Celine. A chance encounter turned into a second, then a third, then a fifth, and before anyone knew it, we were talking.”

Even though Celine was a year older, she had all the same tastes and hobbies, so they hit it off immediately.

Then he stumbled upon a secret room in the second library.

‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe there are all these rooms!’

‘How many old books are in here?’

Although it was small, it had everything they needed, so they decided to make it their secret hideaway and often went in and out of it, away from prying eyes.

“It was inevitable that I would fall in love with Celine.”

It was inevitable that the two would fall in love.

So when Bern was a sophomore and Celine was a senior, they made it official.

“My friends were congratulatory and supportive, but some were not. Celine was a baroness.”

Marquis and Baroness love. Although they were of the same nobility, the gap between them was very wide.

Some disbelieved and doubted their love, as well as those who said they would soon be separated.

Despite all the criticism and gossip, the two continued to grow in their love.

“But how is it that the Viscountess is now married to Viscount Romario?”

The two people who loved each other like crazy were now standing next to another person.

In Lucia’s eyes, it was clear that they still loved each other passionately.

“……We broke up over my parents’ objections.”

No amount of love could bridge the gap.

The Marquis of Casper, with his long history and prestige, naturally did not look favorably on Celine’s family, the Jaysons.

Not a viscounty, but a barony. Moreover, Baron Jayson’s reputation in social circles was less than stellar.

He was a womanizer, gambled away his fortune, and lacked the slightest semblance of nobility.

The first Marquis to meet the Baron and Baroness, at the urging of his son, was furious at the sight of them.

‘I can’t believe you’re marrying something that’s not even a noble! I will never approve!’

Bern and Celine were already expecting to marry, but the world around them was not helping them.

The Marquis of Casper refused to recognize the lowly Jaysons, and Baron Jayson, delighted that his daughter had asked for a marquis, pushed Celine when the marriage didn’t go through.

‘Why don’t you get married! You were asked for the marquis and will finally play the role of a daughter.’

‘You’ll have to bite the hand that feeds you or carries his child, and he’ll have no choice but to accept you!’

‘We took out a loan to marry the Marquis of Casper, thinking we were going to be in-laws, and then he broke off the marriage! How can we expect to pay it back? It’s all your fault, and you’ll pay it back!’

Baron Jayson, who had never been a good father to Celine in his life, believed with all his heart that Celine would marry him.

But when the marriage was canceled and there was no way he could repay his debts, he pointed all his arrows at Celine.

It was more than she could handle.

Eventually, after being forced into debt and having his mansion auctioned off, Baron Jayson pushed for her marriage to Viscount Romario against her wishes.

He sold his daughter to a viscount well over 40.

It was a situation that was bound to enrage anyone who heard it. Lucia clenched her fists.

“There wasn’t anything I could… do.”

Bern finally looked away. His face was stained with pain.

No matter how much he tried, his parents wouldn’t listen. As he struggled to help her somehow, alone, the woman he loved had slipped out of his grasp, forever.