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The look in Peytan's eyes wavered violently as he looked at her.
"Was this... your doing?"
"Didn't you know? I thought you'd catch on."
"Such petty tricks...!"
Letizia lowered her body and looked down at Peytan with cold eyes, her red lips parting slightly.
"The land you walk on, the house you try to buy, the food you try to eat. I'm going to buy it all."
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him at her words.
"Who was it that said such petty things? Don't you really remember?"
"... ."
"I thought it was like a code between us, but I guess you forgot."
At that moment, Letizia's voice from long ago suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Then what if I have more money and power than you?"
He had scoffed and dismissed the thought.
He thought it was impossible for Letizia to have more money and power than him.
But now...
Letizia was standing right in front of him.
Having seized both money and power.
'This can't be...'
Peytan, desperately denying the now-reversed relationship, came to a conclusion.
'She's no ordinary strong-willed woman.'
That was how she was able to defeat him, the Duke Farnese.
But Letizia, as he knew her, wasn't such a heartless person.
So when did she change?
Or did she deceive me from the start?
"You... were you always such a cold-blooded woman?"
Letizia chuckled at Peytan's words.
It was ridiculous that the very person who made her that way would say such a thing.
'The original me, huh...'
Letizia dredged up the now-faint memories of the past, so much so that she even doubted whether they were real.
"...No, at first I was naive and foolish."
Enough to believe in and wait for the husband who abandoned her until the moment she died.
"Peytan, you know, I believed in you until the very end."
"... ."
"Even when you kicked me out of the duchy's residence, even as I was dying in a cold prison."
"What on earth are you talking about―"
"That you would change your mind and come back to me."
Peytan narrowed his brows.
When on earth did he kick Letizia out of the duchy's residence?
And what was this talk about dying in prison?
But Letizia's eyes looked so empty as she told the story...
That he almost felt like such a thing had really happened.
Letizia continued in a calm tone, as if telling someone else's story.
"That you would love me again."
The fleeting happiness he had brought her in a difficult life was so sweet that she couldn't let go of the memory until the very end.
"The result of that belief is this."
Miraculously, she had returned to the past and cut off him, the fleetingly happy memories.
"Then, even now, is it possible to―"
Peytan, who had opened his mouth to grasp even a shred of Letizia's lingering feelings, stopped when he saw her eyes.
The blue eyes of Letizia looking down at him no longer held the hatred or animosity that had always been so clear whenever she looked at him.
Only then did Peytan realize.
That now, he was nothing to her, not love, not resentment, not hatred...
Nothing at all.
Only after losing what he didn't even know he had, did a huge, unfillable sense of loss wash over him.
Letizia looked down at Peytan, who was only gaping, unable to finish his words, and conveyed the last words she wanted to say.
"Actually, it's still not enough to pay you back for what you did to me..."
There was even a relieved smile on her lips as she trailed off.
"I'm going to stop now."
"... ."
"My life is too precious to waste on a guy like you."
At that moment, a piece of paper Letizia threw fell right in front of Peytan's eyes.
It was a divorce certificate stamped with the emperor's seal.
Peytan stared at it blankly.
The end.
The scrap of paper that had fallen before his eyes was telling him that the two of them were truly over now.
"Goodbye, Peytan."
"... ."
"Let's never meet again."
Letizia indifferently watched Peytan, who couldn't take his eyes off the divorce papers, before turning away leisurely.
Then, the knights of the imperial palace who had been waiting nearby approached.
They looked at Letizia as if waiting for her permission, and Letizia quietly nodded.
Soon, Peytan's flustered voice was heard from behind.
"What, what is it? Won't you let go of this?"
Once upon a time, she had wondered what Peytan's feelings would be when he received the divorce papers, what kind of expression he would have.
Now, she didn't really care. Surprisingly.
Letizia said goodbye to the tiresome past and turned away.
'Now, there's only one person left.'
As she thought of the last goal, Wigg, who had also been waiting, approached.
"Boss, His Highness the Grand Duke has woken up."
Halt.
Letizia's steps, which had momentarily stopped at the news, began to move again.
A little hasty and anxious.
"Welcome back, Letizia-nim."
As soon as I heard the news and returned to the mansion, the butler greeted me as always.
Normally, I would have acknowledged his greeting, but today I was too preoccupied to even pay attention, and I entered the mansion.
I hurriedly ran up the stairs, breathless, heading towards Idris's room.
For the past few months, despite living in the mansion, I didn't know the location of Idris's room.
I mainly went to the study, never to his bedroom.
But after spending the last few days by his side, it was now more familiar to me than the way to my own room.
Before I knew it, I was standing in front of his door, gasping for breath, and I forgot to knock and entered the room.
Then...
"Hello, Letizia."
Idris, who was talking with his aide, came into view.
Seeing him, a surge of relief welled up inside me.
The aide, seeing me standing there, unable to approach, made eye contact and excused himself.
Only then did I approach him, barely parting my trembling lips.
"...Why does half a day feel so long?"
As if desperately trying to hide the overwhelming worry and relief, a sharp voice came out unintentionally.
But Idris just smiled.
"Yeah. I slept for too long."
As always.
"You're... not going to collapse again, right?"
To my question, Idris answered with a mischievous smile.
"Well... then next time, wake me up with a kiss. That's how you wake a sleeping prince."
What kind of nonsense is that?
Even as I thought that, I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of him joking around as usual.
"Where did you go?"
I hesitated for a moment at his question, then answered nonchalantly.
"...I went to 정리(jeongli) some things. Things that I don't need in my life."
There was no need to tell someone who had just woken up a troublesome story.
Idris stared at me, as if seeing through my inner thoughts, and then nodded.
"You did well."
"Do you know what I 정리(jeongli)?"
"I don't know exactly, but if it's you, I'm sure you did well."
I was stunned by his compliment.
Inwardly, even as I cut off Peytan and my father, I had a small sense of unease as to whether doing this much was the right thing.
But with his one word, all of that was okay.
I decided to tell him my last plan.
"But there's still one left."
Instead of a question, Idris looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"Deon Zahir."
Idris's eyes sank coldly at the name that flowed from my mouth.
"Will you help me?"
To stop our ultimate enemy and save the man before my eyes.
That was my last task.
Idris, who had been silently watching my determined self, kissed the back of my hand as if defeated and whispered.
"Gladly."
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