The Impact Of The Villainess’ Fake Marriage On The Ending - Chapter 70

Chapter 70

“Brother Enoch! What are you hiding from me?”

“What do you mean, hiding? There is no such thing. His Grace seems to have made a mistake, so I’m trying to tell him that. Don’t get upset, just rest.”

Enoch calmly soothed Adeline and glanced at Kael to go outside. But Adeline had no intention of letting Enoch go.

“Go out that door if you don’t want to see my face ever again.”

Enoch and Leo, as well as Kael, looked at Adeline in surprise at her more resolute and aggravated voice than ever before. Of course, the steps towards the door also stopped.

“Am I mistaken about something? An attack? You said it was an accident that happened because the horse was jumping erratically while running towards the end of the cliff and fell.”

Adeline still clearly remembered the moment Enoch told her what happened that day.

She was certain Enoch had said ‘accident’ with his own mouth. He didn’t mention anything at all about an attack or a criminal.

“Were even my brothers deceiving me?”

It wasn’t just a random day; it was the day their parents died. However, as if the brainwashing was not enough, Adeline’s heart dropped when she thought that even her brothers, whom she trusted unwaveringly, had deceived her.

“You’re not mistaken about anything, Adeline. There are some misconceptions about what happened that day, and His Grace only knows that version. That’s why I’m trying to correct him. Rest now.”

“Brother!”

Enoch spoke much more decisively than usual and led Kael outside.

Adeline tried to grab him a few more times, but this time she couldn’t stop Enoch.

***

“I think I’ve created a lot of confusion.”

Kael offered Enoch a glass of whiskey. Away from Adeline, they headed to Kael’s study, where a very heavy atmosphere hovered between them.

“What could be Your Grace’s fault? This is all on me.”

After receiving the glass, Enoch sighed deeply and took a sip of his drink.

His face was full of dark shadows. The Enoch who had dealt with Adeline decisively just a moment ago was nowhere to be found.

“Is there really some misunderstanding in what I know about what happened, or are you hiding the truth from Adeline?”

Kael, who took a sip of the same liquor, carefully brought up the matter.

It was an incident that turned the empire upside down, in which Marquis and Marchioness Tien died and Adeline alone survived. If there was a mistake, even considering the political aspect, it had to be corrected.

But more than anything else, it concerned Adeline. He couldn’t just ignore something related to Adeline and her parents.

“There is no such thing as a misunderstanding. What you know is true. We hid it from Adeline.”

Enoch told him the truth in a voice filled with bitterness.

“A mysterious group attacked the carriage that Adeline and our parents were in, and only Adeline survived in the process.”

“…”

“Even the knights escorting them were exterminated, but only Adeline managed to stay alive.”

“…”

“It is as you know.”

Kael didn’t misunderstand anything.

The truth of the day when Marquis Tien and his wife lost their lives was not an ‘accident’, as was known to the world.

“What does Adeline know?”

“We told her that the carriage fell down the cliff on the way back to the capital because the horse started acting erratic and the coachman couldn’t calm it down.”

Enoch also told Kael what he had told Adeline.

“We also told her that the escort knights headed to the valley where the carriage fell, and they all died because the valley flooded. It sounds quite plausible because it was a rainy day.”

It was a completely different story from the truth.

“Why?”

Kael, who had listened without saying anything, asked quietly.

Enoch gulped down the remaining whiskey in one shot. It was an act that showed what a mess he was feeling inside right now.

“After that happened, Adeline barely came to her senses, but she couldn’t remember anything.”

“…”

“It was unexpected. Both I, Leo, and the family’s vassals were all waiting for Adeline to wake up, but everyone was confused.”

Enoch calmly reflected on that day’s events.

“She was the only witness. Adeline was the only one who could tell us who had done this horrible thing. But Adeline didn’t even know that her parents had died.”

“…”

“She remembered accompanying them, but she didn’t remember anything after that.”

Enoch paused for a moment as he remembered Adeline that day, asking back with blank eyes if her parents had died.

It was a moment when he realized that the already collapsed world could be even more messed up.

“The doctor said that she was so shocked that she temporarily lost her memory. And that if we stimulated her to think about it, she might remember again.”

“…”

“But when I asked her about that day, Adeline grabbed her head and screamed, and then she collapsed.”

Kael’s expressionless face cracked slightly as he listened.

It was because of the moment that overlapped with what he said, Adeline grabbing her head in the same pain and collapsing in his study, before the brainwashing was broken.

“At that time, I couldn’t afford it. I was dizzy from having to shoulder becoming the head of the household overnight, but I thought I would go crazy thinking that I lost my parents due to someone’s attack.”

“…”

“Even though I knew that Adeline was suffering, I kept nagging her. I told her that if she didn’t think about it, we might never be able to find out who the enemy who killed our parents is.”

A deep regret touched Enoch’s face.

“How could I not try hard, hearing that story? Adeline didn’t give up even though she knew that the more she tried to recover her memory, the more her body would be ruined.”

“…”

“But she couldn’t remember, no matter how hard she tried. Adeline couldn’t remember, and the investigation was closed as unresolved.”

The image of the commander of the military police, sad to inform him that they could no longer investigate it, was still vivid in his mind. Enoch closed his eyes for a moment, reliving his painful memories years later.

“As the situation turned out like that, Adeline felt tremendous guilt. She thought she ruined everything, because she would be able to solve everything if she remembered her own memories, but ultimately couldn’t.

“…”

“That’s why she tried to give up her life.”

Kael’s eyes jolted. It was something he had never thought of.

“Adeline remembers it as the day she woke up after the accident, but that’s not true.”

“…”

“It was the day when the case was closed, her attempt to die failed, and she barely woke up. It is ‘that day’ that Adeline remembers.”

Too many things were tangled up. Kael fell into thought with a dark face.

The shadows this woman, a woman who seemed to be as bright as the sun, carried, were too dark and painful.

“As if a defense mechanism was working, when she woke up, her memories were gone once again. So I hid the truth.”

“…”

“It was like the last chance Heaven gave Adeline. An opportunity to bury the past and live in the present.”

“…”

“Moreover, groundless rumors were spreading. They were saying that Marquis Tien and his wife had been attacked because of a terrible curse, and that the curse would be transferred just from mentioning the incident. That our family itself was full of curses.”

“… A curse?”

“No one tried to help the family because of the rumors, but it was fortunate when I thought about Adeline. Because no one would tell Adeline what happened that day. So I kept lying to Adeline. I was afraid she would blame herself for something that wasn’t her fault.”

When Enoch’s long story was over, a heavy silence fell between them.

“If I found the culprit, I was going to reveal it then. After everything was settled. But I couldn’t find the culprit, even after this much time had passed. As you can see.”

The faint smile mixed with self-scorn didn’t feel like a smile at all. Enoch conveyed a terrible sense of helplessness and sadness.

“Do you have any clue?”

“None. Even if I searched all over the Empire, from the brightest place to the darkest place, to try and find something, I didn’t get anything.”

Enoch continued in a sunken voice.

“I can’t even fathom who attacked my parents. They weren’t worthy of any grudges outside.”

Kael also knew well the reputation of Marquis and Marchioness Tien. They never really had any enemies, and many moving stories followed them. They were a much-loved couple even in the eastern provinces. That was why when the incident happened, the empire turned upside down even more.

“Since those things happened to Adeline one after the other, the events of that day seem to overlap a lot. As Your Grace said earlier, I think that the person who tried to attack Adeline that day may have brainwashed her and played a joke with another type of magic.”

Enoch’s eyes sharpened at once.

If the events of that day, which had never been forgotten, had been linked to Adeline for such a long time until now, Enoch intended to find and tear apart the culprit, even if he had to sacrifice his life.

The horror Marquis Tien and his wife must have felt while taking their last breath in the cold rain; the time Adeline lived surrounded by lies and the pain she had to face because of that; and the suffering the Tien siblings, including Adeline and Enoch, had to endure; it was all too great.

Enoch wanted to make the culprit pay for everything.

However, he had to soothe Adeline’s wounds before he could find out who did it. He knew her heart was already in tatters, but that was why he had to protect Adeline even a little more.

“Your Grace. I have one favor to ask of you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Please promise me. That you won’t tell Adeline the truth of this incident until I find the culprit.”

Enoch asked more firmly than ever before, full of sincerity.

“I don’t want to make her drown in a swamp of guilt that she doesn’t have to feel.”

Enoch’s sincere desire to protect Adeline was conveyed to Kael.

“… I will do that.”

Kael gave a slight nod and promised Enoch.

Knowing how heavy the weight of his heart to protect his loved one was, and how difficult it would be to carry that weight, he could not bear to turn away from Enoch.