The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 151

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 151

* * *

Two days after Joseph’s masquerade party, June 5th.

Annemarie sent a letter to Creme Dome.

Though it was a formally polite letter, the content requesting to visit the very next day was slightly rude by noble customs. Of course, it also meant she was that urgent and desperate.

The Raskail family left the choice to Leonhardt. He stared at the letter Annemarie had written for a long time from his sickbed, then looked back at Lillieta who had brought the letter directly.

“Rita.”

“Yes.”

“That night when we were attacked by the monster…”

Leonhardt’s voice was slow and rough. He had recovered a bit more over the past few days and could speak at length, but his throat still wasn’t completely healed.

He continued speaking haltingly in a voice mixed with the sound of wind.

“…Do you know why I was alone in the ballroom?”

Lillieta had roughly guessed. She had heard from the Duke while he was unconscious. What conversation her father had with his eldest son after her advice.

‘Dad told brother that you’re still just an heir, not the head of the family… There are things you can only do now, so if there’s something you want, don’t hold back.’

That whatever choice he made would be fine, even if he made mistakes or caused losses to the family. Making trouble is a young person’s privilege, and the cleanup would be handled by us, his parents, so he should cause trouble while he still could.

So he could be more courageous and more greedy.

‘And he said this was something he would never say to Richard. Since Richard had been causing all the trouble he wanted since long ago, this was advice only for Leon who had lived holding back too much…’

He even said that if he suddenly brought home a child, he would take full responsibility as a father, so he should follow his heart.

‘Dad really… If he and mom hadn’t gotten marriage permission, they would have just made a baby together first… Really, what is he encouraging Leon to do.’

Though she was somewhat surprised by the radical statement, she agreed with her father’s judgment that Leonhardt needed to hear that much to make up his mind.

Anyway, after hearing such talk, Leonhardt couldn’t fall asleep that day and was lost in thought alone in the ballroom at midnight. At the place where he had reunited with Annemarie when she came to teach Lillieta to dance.

“You were thinking about Anne, weren’t you? There.”

“…Yes.”

Leonhardt’s face darkened as he answered honestly. He continued in a low voice.

“Anne is Duke Adicl’s cousin. If Raskail comes to support His Highness the Crown Prince…”

“Brother.”

Rita interrupted his words as he tried to think in terms of family interests again. And she pointed to Annemarie’s letter clutched in his hand.

“Not that stuff, just think about her.”

“…”

“Do you want to give up?”

Perhaps unconsciously applying force, the letter crumpled in Leonhardt’s grip. Soon he startled and let go, then turned pale and tried to smooth out the wrinkled parts.

Lillieta smiled faintly watching him.

“The answer is already there.”

“…”

“Don’t give up, brother. Just go for it.”

“Go for it, what do you mean by that…”

Rita declared to the exasperated Leonhardt.

“It’s okay. The family that you’ve protected for the past 10 years, our family, will protect you this time.”

“…!”

His purple eyes, similar to hers, widened. She continued calmly.

“This time, honestly follow your heart, Leon. This might be your last chance.”

“Last chance…”

As if entranced by those words, he became dazed and touched the bandages still wrapped around his neck.

When death suddenly came, what regrets would have occurred to him?

Leonhardt pondered in long silence. And finally picked up a pen to write a reply. It was content accepting Annemarie’s visit to see him.

While he wrote the letter, Lillieta stared at Annemarie’s letter with its permanent wrinkle marks and thought.

‘Do you want to give up?’

She asked herself the same question she had just thrown at her brother.

There was no need to add a subject. The target had been occupying her mind all along anyway.

She recalled the large right hand that had touched her cheek. She recalled the casual lies. She recalled the unknown secrets he might be hiding.

So do you want to give up?

‘No way.’

Maybe it was all her misunderstanding, and he might really confess everything at Beacon Garden.

But even if not. As her intuition suggested, even if he spun lies.

Even if she became disappointed in him. Or even if she got hurt.

The years they spent together rose like a tidal wave. Overlaid with newly bloomed emotions, it looked completely different from before.

She bit her lips firmly.

‘I won’t give up.’

Neither him nor the things he was hiding could be given up. She couldn’t turn away or pretend not to know.

A goal was set. Therefore, she formulated a strategy.

* * *

June 6th, Annemarie visited Creme Dome.

She came with a confused face and spent a long time alone with Leonhardt in his room.

Though loud voices erupted in the middle, making the family worry about Leonhardt’s throat condition, they didn’t interfere.

Lillieta also deliberately didn’t listen in. She didn’t want to rudely eavesdrop on matters between the two.

After the visit, Lillieta saw Annemarie off and noticed her tear stains and flushed cheeks. As she left clutching something precious in her hands, she suddenly looked back at Rita and said quietly.

“The Rabbit Waltz, I’ll teach it to you again next time.”

It meant Leon and Anne had talked about their memories, and also that she would visit again. Rita intuited that there had been some progress between them and felt relieved.

The same day, Duke Raskail had a secret meeting with Crown Prince Gideon. Upon returning, he spoke separately with the Countess and Leonhardt, then told Lillieta.

“We’ve decided to actively support His Highness the Crown Prince. So…”

Listening to the subsequent stories, the strategy regarding Hanna, and future plans, Lillieta realized that Gideon hadn’t said a word to her father about the Coronator proposal.

‘Is he worried I’d feel burdened?’

Such thoughtful consideration was like Gid. At the same time, unlike Gid.

It was like the Gid she knew, but not like the ‘Gideon’ who had confined her to his bedroom in Onyx Palace and blocked her detection range as soon as they met again.

Was he also holding back? Like Leonhardt, or perhaps even more so.

‘What would happen if I told him to do as he wished? If I told him to just go for whatever he wanted.’

Then, could she hear the truth?

‘…Let me first hear what he says this time and then think. It seems there’s still a lot I don’t know.’

Stopping her thoughts there, Lillieta told her parents about receiving the Coronator proposal from Gid.

The Duke was shocked as if he might faint, but the Countess looked like she had expected this.

“A few days ago you two embraced each other so passionately in the garden where we could all see. Honestly, Mom thought you two would kiss right there.”

“What?”

“The atmosphere was right for it.”

The Countess then brought up story after story.

About Lillieta spending three days at Onyx Palace, the aftermath that followed, Gideon carrying the injured her back at the Frontier Festival.

His expression then, how she had been completely at ease in his arms, and so on.

“At this point, not noticing would be parental negligence.”

The Duke, who had suddenly become parentally negligent while staying quiet, looked even more shocked, but the Countess didn’t care.

“So, Lillieta, what do you want to do?”

Mom will support whatever choice you make. Dad is acting like that because he still thinks you’re 10 years old, so just ignore him.

“And if you’re curious about Mom’s opinion, well, thinking about His Highness the Crown Prince’s face when he carried you back injured and explained your constitution, or when he embraced you after catching the monster… I think it’ll be fine.”

“…”

“He treats you well, you know each other well, he’s capable, handsome, and has appropriate status. Honestly, considering what you two did right after reuniting and thinking about his family, I don’t like it, but how could there be a perfect son-in-law in this world? That much can be tolerated—”

“Dear!”

When statements that constituted lèse-majesté poured out without restraint, Duke Raskail was horrified for the third time.

Lillieta had already been half out of her mind from the moment he mentioned kissing, so she wasn’t additionally shocked.

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