Married Couple’s Qualifications

*Rivianna’s pov this whole chapter.*

***

When I woke up, I saw a familiar ceiling. I slowly closed my eyes a couple of times and then opened them again. Strangely, my eyes were stiff. 

How could I be alive? I’m sure……

I couldn’t understand what was going on, so I hurried to get up.

Obviously, I had a broken body, but it wasn’t so heavy that I couldn’t move it. 

I looked around carefully.

Then I immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

“This is the worst dream I’ve had in a long time.”

I can’t believe I dreamed about Mariel dying.

I lost myself in a fit of giggles, then frowned at the bandages I found. The bandages looked freshly wrapped, and were tightly wrapped around the knuckles of my fingers.

I looked at it blankly and jumped up with a scream.

Aah! I was wearing a black dress.

“This can’t be true…This can’t be a reality…”

I gripped the blanket with my shaking fingers.

My ankles were also bandaged.

For a moment, my head went dizzy like it had been hit with a hammer, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

I hurriedly got out of bed and my ankles, which were not healing, got twisted. I tried to force myself to get up, and my unbalanced body staggered, but I didn’t have the energy to worry about it.

I couldn’t stop walking, even though it felt unstable with a limp.

This was a dream. It had to be an unconditional dream. All I had to do was leave this room, go around the corridor, and go down one step. I could find my daughter’s room even with my eyes closed.

“Rivianna?”

I turned my head at the voice calling me.

There stood Bake with a slender face.

I extended my hand towards him, not hiding my happiness.

“Call Meriel, Bake.”

“….”

I laughed, but Bake didn’t.

He didn’t answer, just stared at me with his lips moving. 

But I smiled even brighter. Mariel liked it when I smiled.

“Hmm? It’s been a while since we’ve all been together, let’s go eat strawberry crème cake. Mariel would wake up in the middle of her sleep in a flash if it was strawberry fresh cream cake.”

“….”

I couldn’t wait and called Bake again, but this time the response wasn’t much different.

I took another limp step, raising the corners of my mouth.

“No, come to think of it, Mariel is at the Academy now, isn’t she? So let’s get the carriage ready first.”

“Mariel is dead.”

Bake turned his head away as if he couldn’t bear to look at me.

I stared at him blankly and laughed some more.

“What are you talking about, Bake, that can’t be right.”

“…”

“Mariel couldn’t have died………..”

I faltered and continued talking, but in the end, I didn’t finish and sat down helplessly.

Yes, I actually knew.

I could pretend to be different on purpose, deny reality over and over again, but nothing had changed.

My daughter was dead.

I could no longer carry that sweet child in my arms.

“…After you collapsed at the funeral, I alone have just now seen Mariel’s coffin being laid to rest in the Temple.”

“….”

“Are you alright?”

Bake approached and hugged my shoulders.

I held his arm, swallowing back the tears that were welling up. My vision was clouded by the downpour of tears, and my voice choked. 

“…Mariel, I want to see her.”

“….”

“Please take me to Mariel. Please……”

“Later. You need to recover first.”

“Mariel doesn’t like to be alone. She’ll be scared….”

I regret it every day, and regret it again.

I did not want my child to go.

I didn’t want to make her wait until her birthday to cut the cake.

I had to let her play her favorite game of hide and seek to her heart’s content.

I won’t nag her to behave like a lady.

I would just let her eat as much cake as she wanted.

No. What’s the point of all this? No matter how much I regretted it, I couldn’t see my daughter anymore. Tears fell down the back of my hand. The wound was torn, and the bandage had turned bright red before I knew it.

***

I spent the next few days just letting it happen, because nothing seemed real enough to accept. But eventually I had to accept this ridiculous reality. 

In order to distract myself from the reality, all the days were perfectly aligned with my experience. 

And that made me even more frustrated. Why, of all the days, did I have to wake up on the day of Mariel’s funeral? 

If someone was giving me a chance, why wouldn’t I come back before Mariel’s death? 

 I slowly closed my eyes in Marial’s still cluttered room.

Truly, it all seemed like a dream. No, I hoped it was.

There was nothing left for me to do anymore. 

I closed my eyes as I held Mariel’s teddy bear in my arms. 

The stuffed bear that my child slept with every day smelled of milk.

It was the scent of Mariel.

I buried my face in the stuffed bear, desperate to escape from reality.

But that didn’t change anything.

“I’ll go to hell to pay for the crime of killing the mother and daughter. So please don’t hate me too much. Still, those who live must live, right?”

I slowly raised my head as if possessed.

It wasn’t over yet.

Mariel was dead, but the murderer of my daughter was still alive.

When my mind reached that point, I looked at the vase.

The flowers I had put in for Mariel had long since dried up without blooming.

Without hesitation, I pulled out the withered flowers and threw the vase on the floor.

Crack! 

The broken pieces of the vase scattered in all directions.

I picked out the largest and sharpest of the broken pieces with my bleeding hands.

There was only one thing left for me to do for my daughter.

***

‘’My Lady, what’s wrong?”

“If you don’t want to die, do as I say.”

The man who had spotted me holding the glass shard was startled and backed away.

He was Bake’s second-in-command, Septer.

“But, My Lady, there’s blood, blood on your hands.”

“Get the carriage ready right now.”

“A carriage?”

“Hurry up!”

I aimed the shard at him again, and the Septer, more flustered, raised his hands in surrender.

But rather than being relieved, I gave strength to my hands.

Without any protection, my flesh was dug into the shard I held, leaving a deep gash, but I didn’t think it hurt.

It was just that the dripping blood felt cumbersome.

“I’m going to Margaret right now. Get ready.”

“Lady Fischer has already left the capital.”

“I know that Margaret did not leave. I know where she is and everything.”

Septer squeezed his mouth shut at my words.

I stared at him with cold eyes and opened my mouth again.

“Don’t even think about deceiving me with your lies, just shut up and do as I say. Otherwise, you will not be able to see good things.”

“My Lady, please calm down. You can’t beat me with a mere thing like that.”

“I may not be able to beat you, but I can cut myself.”

“My Lady!”

I pointed the shard at my neck for good measure.

The sharp fragment left a scratch even with the slightest touch.

“I will not repeat the same words again, prepare the carriage now!”

“….”

“If you don’t, I’ll stab myself. And I will state that you have harmed me.”

“Your Excellency is not going to believe a word of it.”

“It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t believe it. All that matters is that I have a wound on my body and you are involved in that wound, and you know better than I do that it’ll be you who will be in trouble.”

I risked my life, but it was the Septer side who was nervous.

I kept my eyes firmly fixed on Septer’s shaking eyes and brought the shard even closer to my neck.

“If you understand, don’t answer, just nod and turn around.”

“…”

“Okay. Keep moving. I’ll move at a certain distance, so if anyone else comes along, you can handle them properly. Do you understand?”

Again, Septer substituted a nod for an answer, and I followed his footsteps without relaxing.

But as soon as my feet left the sliding doors, they stopped.

There were no people in the corridor I had just walked down, which was a stroke of luck.

It was just like the time I had discovered the secret meeting between Bake and Margaret.

I chuckled as I remembered the empty hallway.

I didn’t think it was possible, but my suspicions had already grown.

“—Is Margaret here now?”

“What?”

The look of panic on Septer’s face was enough of an answer.

I held back the laughter that leaked out and gave strength to my eyes.

“My Lady, I think you’ve misunderstood something.”

“Where are they?”

“My Lady.”

“Where are they now?”

I gritted my teeth, my face contorted in laughter.

Again, I didn’t need an answer.

Considering the place where Septer was looking, there were only so many answers I could come up with. I walked away, leaving the bewildered Septer behind, who was unable to stop me or let Bake know.

I was on the path that led to our marital bedroom.

***

“How do you feel?”

“We can’t do this.”

“Who cares. You can’t always be sad.You should rest a little too.”

“What if Rivianna sees us?”

“You know she stays in Mariel’s room all day long. Isn’t that what you called me?”

I breathed a desolate breath as I saw the scenery through the slightly open door.

“Yeah, but I still feel really weird.”

“Anyway, you’re being too nice, that’s the problem. It’s not like Mariel is your child anyway.”

“Still, it’s because of the affection I’ve seen.”

“I know how you feel, but please stop with the depressing thoughts. It was probably unavoidable anyway.” 

Margaret spontaneously climbed on Bake’s lap. Bake was so used to this kind of behavior that he naturally leaned his head against Margaret’s chest.

“Mariel’s death was unfortunate but unavoidable. If the child were gone, everything would be resolved, wouldn’t it? The relationship between Rivianna and t Duke Pierre, the succession issue, everything.”

“….”

“That’s why you abandoned me, right?”

“I was only trying to protect my child.”

“That child is our child, yours and mine.”

“…”

“It’s okay. Don’t make that face. I know everything. How long have I known you that I don’t know what you mean.”

Margaret gently caressed Bake’s ear.

Bake kept his eyes closed and gave himself completely to her.

“I’m trying to pretend that I’m okay, but it’s hard to see Rivianna’s face.”

“It’s fine. It wasn’t you who got blood on you, it was me. At least you can be honest in front of Rivianna.”

“Your wife won’t know anything about it.”

Margaret whispered in Bake’s ear and brought her lips to his neck. At that moment, Margaret looked at me and smiled.