51. The Last Greeting (2)

Sohee smiled without realizing it. At that point, it was meaningless for him to be shabby just to avoid being seen by others. It wasn’t that she didn’t know Deon’s heart. He must have wanted to look good in front of Ariad, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time. It made her laugh. Fortunately, no one recognized Ariad because she had lowered her wide-brimmed hat to cover her face. Also, the people around them were rushing for their own reasons so they didn’t pay much attention to the man who stood out.

“Deon.” She whispered so softly that she found it amazing when Deon heard it. She could see the surprise in Deon’s gaze the instant he caught sight of Ariad’s belly, which stood out prominently over her old brown dress.

In front of him, So-hee said without hesitation. “It’s your child.”

Deon’s eyes grew wider while his grip on the horse’s reins slowly loosened. Then, he came straight up to Sohee and a sudden embrace followed. His huge arms smelled of sweet vanilla which didn’t go well with his cool image.

So-hee hugged him for a while before adding, “I am using you. I want you to put my mind at ease.” The answer was already fixed. Nevertheless, Sohee asked. “Are you okay with that?”It was a little funny that her question was also aiming to put her own mind at ease.

Deon replied without any hesitation. “I told you, it doesn’t matter.”

Then, his hug tightened around Ariad’s waist. It wasn’t too strong and not too weak, either.

At some point, So-hee felt that this realistic virtual world was approaching her heavily. So, she had to constantly engrave in her head that this place wasn’t real so that she could carry out her plan. However, faint remorse grew and weighed on one side of her heart.

It was because she saw how realistically the characters she had faced lived in situations she had planned herself with her own eyes. The man who was more sincere to Ariad than anyone else loosened his arms and held both of her hands. Then, they rode on horseback to escape the city of Latvea, where the Castle was located. The warm breeze gently wrapped both of her cheeks as if to mark the beginning of spring.

“Ari, I’ll make sure you never regret your choice.”

Another low voice was dispersed in the wind. So-hee couldn’t have regretted this choice now. Life was a series of choices, and now that she was making this novel, she was also running into a series of choices. In the eyes of others, all of those choices wouldn’t have been right. Nevertheless, Sohee didn’t regret it. She believed that the choices she made were the right ones. That was why she did it.

Looking back on the present from the future, she constantly repeated that the outcome of this decision would be the same.

When she turned her head slightly, the large fortress moved away until it appeared like a dot. As she watched that point disappear, So-hee quietly bid it farewell.

* * *

It was her personal maid, Mary, who first noticed that the princess’s whereabouts were unknown.

Mary felt strange from the moment the maid yelled at her as soon as she received the letter she had delivered.

“Are you trying to play with me? What are you doing? Why are you calling someone who’s already busy?”

The nagging lasted for over an hour like that. That’s because the letter in the envelope that Mary had delivered was just white paper without a single letter. After a long spell of fire, Mary went out to find Ariad and realized that she was gone the moment she saw the empty bedroom. Ariad must have ordered her to deliver that meaningless letter to separate herself. Stomping her feet as she sat on the chair with a despondent heart, she decided to tell her superiors about this. However, she only stated that the crown princess had disappeared and didn’t add any more things that would make her sound more suspicious. For example, the Crown Princess had searched for Duke Filtmore’s whereabouts over the past week. Of course, the fact that it was she who helped Lady Ariad was also something that she must hide until death.

‘Mary, if you tell someone that you helped me and it goes into Joshua’s ear, you’re really going to get fired. Do you understand? If anything happens to me again, you have to act like you have nothing to do with it.’

The person who spoke firmly while worrying about her job vanished like smoke for the last time. It would only be a few hours before the palace became noisier once the Crown Prince appeared. Of course, the first person to be interrogated was Mary. When his flashing red eyes landed on her, she continued to ponder what her master had told her to keep in mind, even as her lips trembled.

“I don’t know because I was on an errand at that time, Your Highness. When I came back, Lady Ariad had already disappeared. I’m sorry.”

Fortunately, nothing more embarrassing happened to Mary. It was true that she was ordered to call another maidservant. She had proof that she didn’t contribute to Lady Ariad’s disappearance.

Mary, the perfect accomplice, exhaled a deep breath when she saw the crown prince passing by her like that.

In other words, So-hee’s plan to avoid getting Mary in trouble was too effective.