Damie was afraid something might happen to Cecile. She wasn’t the type to form light and shallow friendships with everyone. Therefore, she could count on one hand the number of friends she could open her heart to, and Cecile was one of them.
Now that Kael, her childhood friend and long-time crush, had left, if she were to lose Cecile as well… The mere thought of it made her feel suffocated.
‘That must not happen!’
Fortunately, Noella was busy wiping Leon’s chin as he spilled food, so she didn’t notice Damie’s pale complexion. She casually continued the conversation.
“Yes. Cesare, that child has always been smart, so he’ll be fine. He’ll probably come straight home as soon as he finishes his work at the Grand Temple. They say no news is good news, right?”
Instead of answering, Damie stared at Noella’s face. Did she really not know what her son was up to behind the scenes?
“Kyahaha, oooh!!”
At that moment, Leon burst into laughter, lightening the heavy atmosphere. The child with blue eyes and golden curls was as cute as an angel. This allowed Damie to put aside her worries for a moment.
“…Yes. Everything will be fine, Mother.”
Damie uttered these platitudes while inwardly sighing.
Noella was certainly a good person for a stepmother. Perhaps she even thought of Damie as real family. Even if that was just wishful thinking.
But Cesare was different. He clearly treated Damie not as a sister, but as a woman. Therefore, Damie had no intention of considering him family.
‘So, I will choose Cecile.’
Damie’s hand tightened on the silver knife. Although she felt sorry for her stepmother Noella, she was determined to stop Cesare by any means necessary.
For the sake of her friend Cecile, and for the future of the Primula family.
After dinner, Damie went up to her bedroom. Alone in her familiar and cozy room, her mind became peaceful.
A cool summer night breeze blew gently through the slightly open window. As Damie took a pleasant breath, she suddenly caught a faint scent of lilac mixed in the wind.
‘That’s strange. Lilacs should have all withered by now.’
She looked out the window into the garden, but as expected, no lilacs were in sight. However, the scent was definitely coming from somewhere in the room.
As Damie looked around the room with puzzled eyes, her gaze suddenly stopped at the bedside. Among the lovely canopy decorations, she saw a well-dried lilac bouquet hanging. The bouquet, which she hadn’t noticed before, still emitted a strong floral scent.
“This is…”
Damie frowned as she recalled the identity of the bouquet. It was the one Acard had given her on his first visit to the mansion.
After receiving it, she had carelessly put it down somewhere and completely forgotten about it. But why was this bouquet hanging by her bedside? And in such a well-preserved, beautifully dried state.
Puzzled, Damie decided to call a maid and ask. Fortunately, the maid in charge of Damie’s bedroom knew the answer.
“Oh, that bouquet was placed there on Lady Noella’s instructions, my Lady.”
“Mother’s? But why?”
“Well, I’m not sure about that… I’m sorry.”
The maid tilted her head, seeming equally confused, and smiled awkwardly. Thinking about this, Damie suddenly realized.
This was probably Noella’s thoughtfulness. With her girlish side, she had beautifully dried the bouquet her stepdaughter received from a man and placed it as a memento. She probably hoped it would remain a good memory for Damie.
While Noella’s considerate gesture was appreciated, it was quite troublesome. Damie now couldn’t stand the sight of Acard Valerian. Considering that his face might be the most handsome in the entire kingdom, or perhaps even the world, Damie’s heart had turned that far away from him.
But she couldn’t throw away the bouquet that Noella had so thoughtfully preserved. Especially not in front of the maid.
“Thank you for letting me know. You may go now.”
Swallowing a sigh, Damie decided to thoroughly ignore the bouquet. Just like when she had turned her back on Acard in the corridor that day.
“Yes, my Lady. Have a good night.”
The oblivious maid bowed politely and left the room. Left alone, Damie lay down on the bed, rubbing her throbbing head.
She was utterly sick of both Acard Valerian and Cesare.
It seemed she had dozed off. Damie woke up to a rustling sound at her bedside. She was startled, thinking it might be a mouse, but it turned out to be the sound of the well-dried bouquet falling.
“Oh dear.”
Awake now, Damie sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.
The bouquet from Acard was troublesome to the end. The fallen lilacs had made a mess all over the bed. Dried petals were crushed and scattered on the sheets, turning everything to dust.
Tired, Damie roughly pushed the flowers aside with her hand and lay back down. She planned to sleep like this and tell the maid to clean up in the morning.
“……!!”
It was the moment Damie carelessly turned over to sleep. Suddenly, an uninvited guest who hadn’t been visible before caught her eye. The moment she recognized who it was, Damie was literally frozen with shock.
“Oh, did I wake you? I was trying to be careful.”
Cesare, sitting in a chair next to the table a little away from the bed, smiled as he looked at her. At first, she thought it was an illusion in the dim light, but it was real.
“Hello, Damie.”
“…Brother?”
Damie sat up, her face pale. She was too shocked and bewildered to even scream. As far as she knew, Cesare was supposed to be at the Grand Temple with their father. How was he here in her bedroom?
She hadn’t heard any news of Cesare’s return. Even if he had arrived late at night, why? Why had he sneaked into her bedroom and been watching her sleep?
‘This is dangerous.’
Finding herself alone with Cesare in the enclosed room, Damie felt her hair stand on end and her heart sink. She imagined this must be how a mouse feels trapped in a cage with a rattlesnake. She couldn’t even blink easily, not knowing what he might do.
“Why are you so surprised, Damie? As if you’ve done something wrong.”
Cesare whispered smoothly, wearing an eerily gentle smile. He rose from his seat and approached the bed.
Being a tall young man, his large shadow fell over Damie’s curled-up body on the bed. He came close enough to touch and stroked Damie’s long, loose hair.
His touch was terribly cold and sticky. It was unpleasant, as if invisible cobwebs were sticking to every place he touched. Cesare, with a thin smile, uttered insulting words in a fresh tone.
“I’m glad to see you again. You’ve become even prettier. Did you have fun with Acard Valerian while I was gone?”
Feeling ashamed, Damie gritted her teeth. She desperately wanted to scream and call for help. But that was too dangerous. Cesare could act much faster than it would take for the servants to reach her bedroom.
Cesare could overpower her and do irreversible things if he wanted to. Realizing this, Damie felt a chill run down her spine as if doused with cold water.
However, she couldn’t show fear in this situation. Damie deliberately spoke with composure.
“What are you doing, Brother? Sneaking into someone else’s bedroom late at night.”
Damie’s face was calm as she looked up at Cesare, who was much bigger and stronger than her. In fact, she even showed a hint of displeasure.
At this, Cesare’s hand, which had been stroking the ends of Damie’s hair, stopped. He stared at her as if trying to smell fear from her somehow.
His eyes, glowing unusually blue in the darkness, looked just like glass beads. It was eerie, but Damie didn’t avoid his gaze. It was Cesare who turned his head away from her composure.
As he inadvertently lowered his eyes, he noticed the scattered remains of lilac flowers on the bed. For a moment, Cesare’s lips, as red as a woman’s, twisted strangely.
“This too… must be from him. Seems you had quite a good time with his loose lower body? I didn’t think you were the type to do such shameless things.”
His cold fingers grabbed a handful of well-dried lilac flowers. Under his cruel touch, the fragile flowers screamed silently and crumbled. The way he repeatedly did this, as if to show off, seemed like a silent warning to Damie.
Damie silently gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to be interrogated by Cesare as if she were a criminal. She also refused to play along with his dangerous, abnormal behavior.
Therefore, Damie decided to take a more assertive approach. Ignoring everything Cesare had said, she directly confronted him.
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