Now Come and Regret

Ines looked into the face of the man he was facing.

With a thick but sophisticated face line, neatly swept silver hair, and clear green eyes, the man Ines once loved was a handsome man resembling the fresh greenery alone even in the middle of winter.

“Long time no see. Ines.”

After being silent for a while, he spoke first.

“I called you a week ago, but I want to ask you why you are so late.”

“I was not feeling well.”

“It’s the excuse you always make.”

It was a tone as cold as a knife. Today, her husband seemed to be particularly in a bad mood.

Ines quietly overlaid her son’s face over his.

Her son, Cesar, did not resemble his father. There was only one thing in which Cesar resembled her husband, the color of his eyes.

Saturated clear green eyes. Perhaps Ines fell in love with this man at first sight, and those eyes played a big role.

A solid fresh green light that doesn’t seem to be shaken no matter what.

There was a time when she thought she could rely on that solid expression. Was it six years ago? When she was sold to this country.

She thought she was stupid.

Their marriage was, on the surface, a perfectly arranged marriage.

Ines was a member of the royal family of Genaire, and Rayen was the Grand Duke of Rezan. Their marriage played a major role in promoting the reconciliation between Genaire and Lejan.

But in reality, this marriage was a rotten apple.

A rotten apple that looks red and fresh on the outside, but has already been eaten by insects and is empty inside.

Ines was the royal that Genaire had abandoned. An illegitimate child born through an affair of the second princess of Genaire. A shame on Genaire, who trampled on the honor of the imperial family.

The head of the Principality of Eleanor, which has a whole 500-year history, was hit by such an illegitimate child. It must have been a crack in their strong self-esteem.

They just pretended not to be.

Why did she realize this obvious fact so late?

Rayen Eleanor has always been cold to Ines. He was a man with indifferent eyes in everything she did, but when he looked at her, his green eyes shone sharper than usual.

The same was true for children born to them.

Ines barely opened her mouth.

“Cesar wants to see you, Your Majesty.”

“The same story again.”

Rayen’s answer was still blunt and cold. Normally she would shut her mouth here too and she would back off.

But not today.

Ines lowered her gaze. She saw two teacups lying on the table.

The scent of tea wafted up her nostrils. The tea brewed so thick that it had a strong scent was all too familiar to Ines.

Poison. It was a poisoned tea that she once took, and that would kill her if she took it again.

Ines barely swallowed the tears that were welling up. And she opened her mouth with a stiff neck.

“It’s been a week since you have looked for Cesar.”

“… Has time passed that way?”

“Yes. Time has passed already, Your Grace. So please find the child and give him a hug.”

Rayen frowned slightly as if he was not pleased.

Ines reached out and fiddled with the teacup. Even though it was cooled down, it was still steaming faintly.

But the teacup was infinitely cold to her.

Around this time last year, the words of Robert, who was secretly summoned to the Grand Duchy, crossed her mind.

<“It is too late now. You should have called me sooner.>

At that time, a year had passed since she was sentenced to death.

She felt it sometimes. She knew that her life was really short.

Those who did not know this were stupidly busy harassing and despising Ines. Not knowing that she is a woman who will disappear when the time comes.

‘I know.’

Ines’s presence was a thorn in Eleanor’s pride.

No one would know it better than her.

It was time for the unnecessary thorns to be pulled out.

Ines lifted her eyes and faced her husband again.

The vivid green eyes weren’t even that different from when he first entered the room. The man who gave her poison was still like a beautiful wall.

“… Please protect Cesar, Your Grace.”

Her husband did not answer. Ines spoke the words slowly, not paying attention.

“Take care of him, love him, and show him a smile instead of that straight face like now. Please give him nice clothes and let him sleep in a nice room. Let him eat a bunch of his favorite food.”

“….”

“Please be a good father. Please.”

Ines was a mother who could only beg her child’s father for injustice.

Gone were the days when she felt sorry for her situation.

Now she only wanted one thing. She just wanted Cesar to grow up to be an ordinary boy, a strong young man, even if she wasn’t confident.

Cesar was still only four years old. After 10 years, and 20 years later, when he becomes a full-fledged adult, the existence of his mother will not even be remembered by him.

So Ines thought it was fortunate that the time was now.

It was better off leaving when the child didn’t even know what a loss was. Like her mother and father.

Rayen Eleanor answered in a still chilly tone.

“You’re talking the obvious. Eleanor’s bloodline deserves to be treated according to Eleanor’s class.”

It’s because he doesn’t know what kind of eyes or how the people of the Grand Duke’s residence treat her and Cesar.

Ines wanted to say that.

And you are the same.

Rayen Eleanor despises Ines.

He hated her so much that he wanted to kill her.

He was a man who had always been waiting for her to disappear from his sight.

“Never forget the promise you just made.”

Ines’ heart pounded loudly.

Rayen’s green eyes were still staring intently at Ines, but she didn’t lose sight of the faint emotions passing through it.

The name of that emotion was annoyance.

Rayen calmly cut her off.

“Let’s stop talking about this nonsense. The reason I called you today… ”

“Your Grace.”

Ines cut off his words, feeling her throat strangled. This man dismisses her will as nonsense.

He didn’t even answer properly, so he’ll probably forget her request again.

If so, she will make it unforgettable.

Ines’ thin hand began to tremble for a different reason than before.

She had 7 years of unrequited love, sorrow, and somehow the comfort she felt when she once was held in his arms, and the anger that became ashes when removed.

She hated him. Very much. She hated the man who brought her to this end of the situation.

With her death in front of her eyes, she couldn’t stand the words.

Ines spat out with a feeling of vomiting blood.

“I hate you.”

“What?”

Rayen made an absurd face. It was the first time his facial expression changed since he sat down with her.

Her vision became blurry, and his figure soon became blurred. Ines said, pressing down on each word.

“I hate you so much.”

“Ines.”

“That day, why did you reach out to me?”

If it’s like this until the end, why were you being sweet to me on the first day we met?

Why did you make me love you? Why did you hug me?

You took me as you wanted, threw me away, left me unattended, and locked me so I couldn’t even run away.

Why did you do that to me?

Did you hate me that much?

Fragmented words fumbled out.

“Why did you seduce me?”

Rayen only frowned, but he didn’t answer quickly.

But what he said was meaningless to Ines anymore.

Ines murmured with a breath.

“I regret to death that I chose you that day. I am cursed for loving you.”

Strength entered the hand holding the teacup until it’s white.

Suddenly, the expression on Rayen’s face disappeared again. Only the bitter frost remained in the green eyes, where the previous vibrations had disappeared without a trace.

“This curse… are you the only one.”

He sighed and got up from his seat and walked closer to her in one step.

A large hand, covering her face with one hand, grabbed her chin and lifted her head.

It was a hand that made her miserable.

However, the man who had endured the cold anger quickly found his composure.

“Ines, are you still mad at me?”

His gesture of wiping her thin, black hair scattered from her forehead was as graceful as ever, and his voice, as he grew older, was so sweet.

“I’m sorry about last time. At that time, I was not in my right mind.”

The cool apology was also soft. The callused man’s hand gently combed Ines’ black hair.

There were quite a few times like this. Sometimes he didn’t seem normal.

Her husband broke her and left her as if she had ever been, and cut off her escape route by breaking her wings at the end, but often it was as if she was the most precious and sweetest sugar doll in the world.

And when she just denied him, he used to rage sharply as before.

She once believed that she was in love with him,

“So, stop whining. It’s not a wise choice to provoke me in this way. You know.”

“Whining….”

“There are limits to being easy on you.”

Ines looked at the man kissing her hair with dim eyes.

A coercive and arrogant man.

If she died here, what face would he have and what eyes would he have?

Finally, a decision was made. A trembling finger gripped the teacup.

“… Rayen.”

Ines whispered one last time to the man she had once loved, to the father of her child.

“Even if there is a next life, let’s never meet again.”

With those last words, Ines drank the tea. without leaving a single drop.

Tak.

The sound of the teacup hitting the table sank down heavily, as if foretelling what would happen next.

Without waiting long, her hands and feet froze cold.

Even when she was crouching in the corner of Genaire’s Imperial Palace in the severe winter snow, a chill she had never experienced hit her.

It was the coldness of death.

“Ines?”

Rayen sensed something unusual about her and quickly grabbed her by the shoulder. But it was late.

Her thin body crumbled helplessly.

“Ines!”

The last thing she saw in her blinking vision was the green eyes, which unexpectedly began to shake violently.