I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 14
Since arriving in Jonas Territory, Ernan had taken to appearing in my dreams with unsettling regularity.
On those mornings, I’d wake consumed by a dog-like irritation I couldn’t shake, thrashing about in bed like a madwoman.
‘Damned Ernan Cleor.’
Just when I thought I’d forgotten him, he’d surface in a dream to remind me he existed.
In my estimation, if I didn’t completely erase my memories of Ernan, the acute stress alone might kill me.
Lately I’d been toying with the idea of getting psychological counseling—thinking it might reduce my odds of dying young.
Mind and body are connected, or so they say, each influencing the other.
If my body was ravaged by illness and my mind tormented by stress, my chances of an early death would skyrocket.
Like my stock portfolio, one might say.
But life isn’t the stock market…….
As I descended the stairs, I resolved to ask the Academy Director soon if he knew a good psychology professor who could see me. It seemed I was accumulating an ever-growing list of favors to request from him.
“Miss, you have a distinguished visitor.”
‘Distinguished,’ he said.
I had no idea who it could be.
An ominous foreboding stirred in the back of my mind, insisting on its presence, but I pushed it away.
Because it absolutely could not be him.
‘There’s no way he’d come here.’
But the moment I stepped into the Main Mansion Hall.
“…….”
I thought I was dreaming.
That I’d had another one of those wretched dreams, two nights in a row.
‘What went wrong?’
I sought the cause of this disaster.
Had I thought about Ernan for a moment last night?
And then dreamed of him?
And moments ago, had I been dwelling on thoughts related to that dream?
Whatever the answer, I immediately concluded this was a dream.
I suspected my unconscious mind was playing some deranged trick, forcing Ernan on me two days straight.
Because……
“……Ernan.”
The man who absolutely should not be here was standing right in front of me.
“…….”
It really was Ernan Cleor.
I stood speechless, watching Ernan standing beside the Marquis and Marquise of Jonas.
I wanted to faint.
‘What on earth is this situation?’
Suppressing my shock as much as possible, I turned my gaze to the couple.
“……Why is that man here?”
“That man, Fidellia?”
The Marquise gently reproved me. She seemed the type who valued propriety.
The fact that she didn’t bat an eye despite my years of chasing after this man showed professional composure.
But that aside, I needed to resolve this mystery.
I didn’t particularly want to speak to him, but asking the person involved directly was probably the fastest approach.
Suppressing the irritation rising within me, I feigned an expressionless face.
“This hardly seems like a place befitting someone as distinguished as yourself.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t come here because I wanted to.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I came to deliver something.”
I blinked once.
Deliver something?
From whom?
‘Do we share acquaintances?’
Now that I thought about it, we actually had quite a few.
We hadn’t been frequenting the same hotel galas for nothing.
Countess Melania, Baron Nicolo, Luca Blanco, Diego Leonard…….
Diego Leonard is Fidellia’s husband in the original work.
In any case, with all the connections I’d accumulated one way or another, I couldn’t guess whose message Ernan had come to deliver.
It must be someone of importance. If it were an ordinary person, there’d be no reason for Ernan Cleor himself to make the journey.
‘Could it be the Crown Prince?’
But the Crown Prince and I hardly had any rapport to speak of.
I wanted to tell him to leave on the spot, yet the Duke and Duchess of Jonas were present in the room. I had a duty not to shame my parents.
That was when it happened.
“So, you’re saying you came to see my daughter?”
“That is correct.”
…….
Duke Jonas, regarding Ernan with cold eyes, folded his arms across his chest.
“Why?”
…….
“You pretend not to notice even as my daughter chases after you, and—blph!”
The Duchess quickly clamped her hand over the Duke’s mouth.
I pressed my forehead with a wince.
Father, please.
“Ernan!”
A man burst through the door from outside, calling out in a loud voice.
“If you leave like that, how will I—ah, goodness. My apologies, Your Grace, Your Grace.”
Ernan’s aide, carrying an enormous stack of documents, bowed hastily to Duke and Duchess Jonas.
…….
…….
…….
“Why does the atmosphere feel so strange?”
It was a farce of the highest order.
* * *
I took charge of showing them around the mansion.
It wouldn’t have been proper for the lord and lady to move about directly, and besides, these were guests who had come looking for me.
When Sanna heard that Ernan had arrived, she took to her bed with an upset stomach.
Kiara, too, had no desire to see Ernan’s face and shut herself away in Sanna’s room.
And I…
‘This is a disaster.’
I’d lost the chance to introduce Rene to everyone.
‘Damned Ernan Cleor.’
In any case, he was utterly useless to my life.
I gave Ernan one of the empty rooms on the fourth floor.
“You can use this space. Your aide can have the room next door.”
Honestly, I didn’t see why any of this was necessary.
Couldn’t he just hand over whatever message he had and leave?
But I didn’t say it aloud because I knew, in my own heart, that such words were unfair.
From the Capital to Jonas Territory takes several days even by train.
Providing a place to rest was the bare minimum of courtesy.
‘But it’s none of my concern.’
I wanted nothing more than to receive whatever it was I was supposed to receive and be done with it.
What could possibly be so important that they’d sent Ernan Cleor all the way down to the southern territories?
“You said you had something to give me.”
“Well.”
“When will you hand it over?”
Ernan seemed to ponder something before answering.
“I believe I left it in the carriage. I’ll deliver it tomorrow.”
His aide, who had been shuffling through documents beside him, then lifted his head.
“What? No, I brought the luggage just now, and—ow!”
The aide yelped and grabbed his shin where Ernan had struck him.
“Tomorrow.”
…….
I stared at the pitiful sight in disbelief, then let out a low chuckle.
Waiting another day was hardly a burden.
‘As long as this turns out to be worth the effort.’
I wouldn’t throw a dueling glove in that shiny face of his, but I’d have to be prepared for something equivalent.
My morning duties were finished, and this uninvited guest had already cost me time, so I needed to hurry off to meet Rene.
“Do as you like to pass the time. I have matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave.”
As I glanced at the corridor clock and turned to go, a faint murmur tinged with amusement caught my ankle.
“Such cold treatment. This is a first for me.”
He stopped short.
“…….”
‘From whom?’
From me? From everyone else?
In truth, it wasn’t difficult to parse. If you couldn’t tell whether Ernan Cleor was being sarcastic or sincere, he was almost certainly being sarcastic.
I swallowed the curse rising like bile and held my composure.
Keeping my voice level was something of a specialty.
“If you keep that up, I might just show you what real disrespect looks like.”
With that, I abandoned Ernan Cleor where he stood and made my way up the staircase at the end of the corridor to Rene’s room.
Should I not have done that?
The next morning, I spent the night in Rene’s room, went down to the Dining Room for breakfast, and finished all my morning routines.
Fortunately, I didn’t run into Ernan Cleor.
I heard from the kitchen staff that he’d asked to have his meal sent to his room, saying he preferred to eat alone. A mercy, that.
‘I might’ve choked if I’d had to watch him eat.’
So what was the problem, then?
It was after I’d finished all my morning duties.
I lied as usual about heading to the Study, then climbed the stairs to Rene’s room.
And.
“You came?”
I found Ernan Cleor reading a picture book to Rene.
“…….”
I understood the situation no better than when I’d seen him in the Estate’s Main Mansion Hall.
‘Am I hallucinating?’
What was this implausible turn of events?
Lately this kind of thing kept happening. I thought I’d somehow slipped back to yesterday morning.
To when he first burst into this house.
I couldn’t fathom how he’d discovered Rene’s room.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
“…….”
What was he saying so calmly?
I didn’t know what to say and stood in the doorway, stupefied, for a long moment.
I felt as though I might collapse from stress-induced stomach cramps.
“Fi-Fidellia……!”
Rene, watching Ernan Cleor without the slightest wariness, called out to me with a beaming face.
Wasn’t the child frightened of strangers?
I closed the door behind me and sat on Rene’s bed, brushing back her hair and checking her complexion.
‘She hasn’t been crying.’
On the other hand, I was shocked. I’d thought the possibility of Ernan Cleor and Rene becoming bound by an adoption had sailed past, yet now they were meeting like this.
I wondered if this was the inevitability of the Original Work asserting itself.
But I couldn’t suppress my resistance to how it was unfolding.
I turned my head and stared at the uninvited guest sitting in my chair.
“How did you know about this room?”
“My aide told me about it.”
“Louis Beaudouin?”
Him?
‘Did he tail me in secret?’
But why?
As far as I could tell, Ernan Cleor’s aide Louis Beaudouin was a man who lacked both the means and the nerve for such underhanded work.
‘He’s always wavering because of Ernan.’
Sporting dark circles, constantly whining to Ernan about skipping social gatherings and getting back to work—that was his aide.
‘He was ordered to do it.’
Ernan Cleor made him do it.
Absolutely. He was exactly the type to do something like that.
“I wasn’t aware we’d taken to using each other’s names.”
“That’s been going on for quite some time. Didn’t you notice?”
One of Ernan Cleor’s eyebrows arched slightly.
“You ordered Louis Beaudouin to do it, didn’t you? To tail me.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, keep dodging. But there’s no reason I should hold back when I can just press Louis Beaudouin and hear it straight from you.”
“My aide’s mouth is far too loose. I’m half-serious about firing him.”
All talk and no action.
I turned my attention to Rene instead, asking him if he was hungry or cold or some such thing, and thus dispensed with Ernan.
He’s not worth a serious conversation.
“Louis also looks rather worn out—if I were to hire him now, wouldn’t that make for a happy ending for everyone?”
“No. I’ve grown attached to him.”
“Then you came here for attachment as well? For my sake?”
I asked without thinking much of it, and looked at Ernan.
And Ernan just—
…….

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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