A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 41

“I’m truly sorry…. Matthias told me not to say anything, but because you treated me so kindly, I ended up letting it slip. I hope you won’t take offense. Matthias and I have always spoken very openly with each other…. Madam, please be generous and understand….”

Even as Daphne apologized, she behaved like someone who didn’t expect to be understood. As if this slip of the tongue had come from her overly close relationship with Matthias, something no one else could possibly understand.

She hadn’t intended to stir up trouble. It was only that, for a brief moment, she felt the impulse to crumple that shy, pale face. She simply wanted to see that face lose its vitality like a withered flower.

When she looked at herself objectively, Daphne was confident she was not a bad person.

She thought that this uncharacteristically spiteful behavior came from the fact that, a few days ago in the garden, Matthias had given her a refusal that wasn’t quite a refusal, leaving her in a slightly twisted mood.

A refusal that wasn’t quite a refusal.

A rejection, yet not truly a rejection.

Daphne sincerely believed that. He hadn’t dismissed her proposal about a year later as nonsense. He had only been displeased with Daphne’s attitude of deciding the future a year ahead on her own.

So that wasn’t a rejection. In her mind, it had already been neatly concluded as something like a rejection, yet not quite one.

Because of that, a small bit of spite had taken root in her heart. As she watched the woman smile brightly while speaking of Matthias, calling a man who would never have acted kindly toward her ‘kind,’ she felt the urge to unsettle her just a little.

It was like wanting to knock down the pride of someone who spoke as if they knew everything about something you knew better.

Even if only in degree, wasn’t that a feeling everyone experienced at least once?

“If it upset you very much….”

When their eyes met, the light emerald gaze that had wavered for a moment quickly regained its original clarity, sparkling brightly. As if she had only just understood what Daphne meant.

“No, it’s alright. I’ve already heard about what kind of connection the two of you had.”

“…Really?”

“Yes. I heard from him before, when you sent the perfume bottle as a gift. …Actually, I feel more at ease knowing that Your Highness is aware of it.”

“…Pardon? What do you mean… at ease?”

Eleanor continued, looking oddly relieved, “It’s about secrets. The more things there are that only I know and others don’t, the more exhausting it becomes. But when there’s even one more person who knows, it feels so much more at ease…. To be honest, I didn’t have anyone I could speak to openly, so it was quite suffocating.”

“….”

“So I feel much better now, knowing that Your Highness knows everything. At least now there’s someone I can open my heart to.”

“…It seems you have many hardships,” Daphne said, assuming that must be the case.

Having a man like Matthias by one’s side could bring more difficulties than expected. Especially for a woman like Eleanor Brynhill, who seemed lacking in certain ways.

People would constantly compare what Eleanor Brynhill lacked with what Matthias possessed, and that alone would become her first hardship.

Secondly, this was a difficulty that came from Daphne’s own personal experience, the issue of possessiveness over a man named Matthias Nielsen.

Eleanor Brynhill could only become something of his for barely a year at most.

The sweeter the honey, the more bitter the taste that follows. Just as Daphne, who had once been his fiancée and lost that position forever, now regretted it, the Brynhill woman would also spend her nights worrying, dwelling, and agonizing over the fact that in a year, her connection with him would be cut off.

Daphne was certain that the hardship the woman spoke of must be that kind of thing.

Eleanor opened her mouth with a calm expression.

“How can I spend the remaining time happily?”

“…What did you say?”

“The remaining time I can spend with the Duke. I’m always thinking about how I can spend it a little better. It’s better if the Duke is happy too, rather than just me being happy. Since the two of you were childhood friends and were once engaged, and you’re still close even now, I thought Your Highness might know. May I ask for your help?”

“….”

She wasn’t being sarcastic. It wasn’t something said to probe the other person’s intentions either. The woman, waiting for an answer with shining eyes, was so sincere that Daphne felt both empty and somewhat flustered.

“Your Highness.”

At that moment, a low voice called from behind. Daphne quickly composed her expression and turned her body.

A lady-in-waiting stood modestly, bowing her head as she spoke. And behind her—

“I greet Your Highness. May the blessing of the Sun God be upon you.”

A man who shone more brightly than the summer sunlight stood there.

After offering a formal greeting, Matthias’s gaze passed over Daphne and briefly landed on Eleanor before falling away. Daphne swallowed against her dry throat and opened her lips.

“…Why is the Duke of Nielsen at a ladies’ tea gathering….”

“I heard there was a small commotion. …So I took the liberty of coming to check if my wife was alright.”

As he spoke, Matthias’s gaze once again touched the woman with pink hair. There was no blatant affection in that gaze, but Daphne knew. Something was strange.

A subtle intimacy and warmth. The kind shared between a man and a woman who had shared something others did not know.

“If Your Highness permits, I would like to take my wife and withdraw.”

“….”

It wasn’t an attitude that truly sought permission from the start. Both Matthias and Daphne knew this was a notification. Only Eleanor, blinking her eyes, didn’t know.

Daphne forced a gentle smile. “Please do so. I hope there will be another opportunity to speak with the Duchess.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Eleanor bent her knees in a proper greeting, then turned her body and followed behind Matthias, who had already started walking ahead.

When Matthias raised his arm, she lightly placed her hand on it, and Daphne watched their retreating figures for a long time. It was nothing particularly special, yet somehow, just as the Brynhill woman had said, it looked inexplicably affectionate.

Daphne touched her throat. It felt as if her breath was being constricted, her throat drying up.

***

The carriage carrying the two of them began moving again, retracing the path back from the imperial palace.

Only then did Eleanor lean back comfortably against the carriage seat and ask Matthias, who sat across from her with his gaze fixed outside the window.

“How did you know there was a commotion?”

“Princess Alicia sent someone to inform me,” Matthias answered calmly.

Alicia had never particularly liked Daphne Fram since she was young. Back when Daphne had been engaged to Matthias, he had once casually asked her why.

“She just feels… a bit unsettling.”

Nothing in particular had ever happened, so at the time he simply let it pass.

Even today, Alicia’s report had focused less on ‘the Duchess of Nielsen had an incident with Olivia Düsseldorf,’ and more on ‘that Duchess was taken away by Daphne Fram.’

However, Matthias’s attention was drawn elsewhere. He wondered if an angry Eleanor Nielsen had caused trouble again.

Telling her to throw tea when she got angry, he shouldn’t have made that kind of joke. With a small regret, he had gone to find her.

His gaze landed on the woman sitting quietly.

He checked with his eyes whether her hair was disheveled, whether the hem of her dress was wrinkled or stained, whether there were any traces of tears around her eyes.

The woman, seeming to interpret his silent gaze in some way, shrank slightly and fumbled out her words.

“Um, I didn’t do anything. Like I promised.”

“Because you weren’t angry today?”

“…That young lady, it’s true that I was in the wrong.”

The woman who lowered her head slightly looked like a sinner to anyone who saw her.

Matthias wasn’t a particularly merciful person. Especially when it came to people who committed wrongs and then regretted them, that wasn’t the kind of person he thought well of.

Even so, now, as he looked at the woman who seemed to regret her own wrongdoing, he felt something close to impatience. As if the edge of his heart was burning little by little.

“Well done.”

That was why he offered such an absurd praise. For some reason, seeing the woman’s dejected shoulders made him feel uneasy.

“Yes…?”

“You did well, holding back.”

As a proper noble lady, it was very commendable that she hadn’t thrown tea.

Seeing the woman’s eyes shine brightly again, he found himself thinking, somewhat lacking for him, that giving such an odd compliment hadn’t been entirely meaningless.