There is no happy ending

******.

Bliss didn’t remove the ring from his finger until a month after Bianca left the capital. It wasn’t that he had come to terms with his separation from Bianca. It was because he didn’t know what to say whenever Odette’s gaze fell on it.

He was devastated, even though all he had done was remove the ring. It wasn’t that he was in love with Bianca, that was for sure. It was just that the familiar was gone. That’s what he believed.

Since then, he’d thrown himself into his work to distract himself from the emptiness. He needed to repair the damage and catch up on things he’d put off. As time passed, he became busier and busier. He even saw Odette less often. It was an escape from the obvious.

But Odette liked the fact that Bliss was busy. If Bliss had been busy, he wouldn’t have been able to think about anything, and he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything but his work and himself.

Bianca was nowhere to be seen, but her presence was still strong in Odette’s mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about her, which was like anxiety, and it wasn’t something she could stop at will.

Odette therefore wanted Bliss to stay busy, or at least not think about Bianca.

‘I know it’s selfish,’ she thought.

But…….

You can’t know what another person is thinking. You can only guess and try to decipher from the movements of their eyes and muscles, and the pitch of their voices.

Just as Bliss and Bianca misunderstood each other in the end, Bliss and Odette will misunderstand each other. So they can hope for that.

‘But everyone wants love to last forever.

Odette thought as she looked at Bliss’s empty office. Bliss had left the mansion in a hurry for a meeting with a certain marquis.

Odette wanted to follow him, but Bliss did not like to be seen by others, so she had to remain at Duke Winston’s mansion. Bliss will return, to the mansion.

It wasn’t that Bliss was ashamed of Odette, otherwise she would never have chosen her as her ball partner. Instead, she was worried about her. Odette had been warned by Bianca, and there was no telling what might happen to her. The world is a cruel place for a commoner warned by a nobleman.

‘……Yes, he loves me.’

Odette muttered softly. She hadn’t expected the word love to be so foreign to pronounce. “Why does my mouth feel closed and my tongue stiffen as if it’s been poisoned?”

But thank goodness. Odette was in Bliss’s office now. When the familiar becomes unfamiliar, you have to face the unfamiliar. Then the familiarity will come before the strangeness.

Odette was not familiar with Bliss’s study and office. There was no place in Duke Winston’s mansion that Odette could not go, but sometimes when she wandered about alone, the butler’s eyes and the eyes of …… other users were a burden.

As they left the mansion, Odette said to Bliss.

‘I’ll wait for you in the drawing room.

So there was only Odette here. It was not a bad choice.

The large desk at which Bliss must have worked long hours, the chair, the books he must have returned to again and again, the papers that must have haunted him. Imagining the Bliss she didn’t know, Odette could ‘live’.

The tea in the untouched teacup had long since cooled. The refreshing black tea blended with dried orange slices, had been made for her at Winston Manor. Odette finished the tea and rose, thinking of Bliss’s love.

Odette paced. She opened the study window. She thought she could hear cicadas chirping in the distance. Odette liked summer, so she liked the illusion.

‘In the summer…… go to your estate, if you don’t mind.

‘I think so.

‘I want to see where you spent your childhood.

Maybe the promise she’d made to Bliss one day would make the summer better. Odette gave a small laugh and shook her head.

Bliss’s desk faced away from the expansive window, leaving Odette standing in the sunlight, peering in. I hadn’t noticed it from the other side of the room, but up close, it looked quite old. Maybe it had been there since Bliss’s father’s time.

Odette pulled out the chair that was neatly tucked away on the desk. She sat down on it, staring out the doorway. This must be the world Bliss sees, she thought to herself. As she thought about it, she couldn’t help but wonder about his space.

Odette hoped Bliss would stay busy forever. She wished she was the only one thinking about Bianca, so she could keep her out of Bliss’s mind forever. Odette is already a bitch, and love is the most important thing to her, so she wants love to be the most important thing to Bliss.

Bianca’s words haunted Odette once more.

‘Don’t you think you have a bad taste?

‘……you.

‘She looks just like Eugene.

Odette hadn’t forgotten what she’d thought of Bianca from the moment she’d first laid eyes on her.

Her dark, bronze-colored hair, was almost black at first glance. Green eyes set high, shoulders that never seemed to stoop, and a face that was…… bored and free. A voice that sounded shrill. All of it flew at Odette’s head and chest with such force that it smashed into her.

I will only have bliss for one iron, but this person will have bliss for eternity because he is also the one who gave me such a feeling of despair.

‘’The Countess of Ordowell has given me bad taste…….’

But there was something else that made Odette remember Bianca so vividly. It was a name that lurked between the lines of Bianca’s words. It was just a name, and Bliss acted as if it was a disgrace. No, it was more like a very precious…… thing. If it was more precious than Odette, it was an illusion.

Ever since then, when Odette thought of Bianca’s words, she wanted to grab Bliss or…… him and ask: Who is Eugene? Who is the Countess of Ordowell? But she stopped, terrified to imagine the reaction she would get when those names were uttered by Odette instead of Bianca.

The love between a commoner and an aristocrat was usually portrayed as a very beautiful and affectionate love… one that transcended class and discrimination. But in reality, it was not. It was a love in which the weight of power rested firmly on one person. Odette felt it acutely as her relationship with Bliss continued.

She had more, she was stronger, and that alone made her the underdog. ……. Even worse, it was Bliss who loved her more. The fact that she had lost her love in a relationship that had already been established made her miserable.

If she had loved Bliss more than Odette, this situation wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

I curse myself for loving you momentarily., so please come to your senses.

Odette can’t forget Bianca’s words and keeps thinking about them…… and asks how such a situation could have happened. She asks who Eugene is, and who the Countess of Ordowell is. These thoughts raced through Odette’s mind.

As she continued to think, she bit her lip. Suddenly, sadness came over her. Maybe, at that moment of confrontation between Bianca and Bliss, Odette should have asked.

‘And never again.

Odette knew so little about Bliss. She knew nothing of his thoughts, nothing of his past, nothing of him. She didn’t ask, because she thought love was all that mattered, and there were many things Bliss didn’t ask Odette.

But Odette…… had so many questions she had to ask. The idea that love was important had long since blinded Odette’s eyes.

I feel like crying. I can feel a bitter wind blowing in my chest. Odette sighed.

‘Ah…….’

Unable to resist her curiosity, Odette opened the desk drawer.

Deep in Bliss’s desk drawer was a pair of rings. There was also an unfamiliar handkerchief.

She recognized it as soon as she saw it. No, of course, she didn’t recognize it. It was the unmistakable mark of Bianca Moening.

Odette took a slow step backward. Her mouth gradually opened. A stupid sound escaped.

‘Ah, ah, ah…….’

Her eyes remained fixed on the drawer, and she was unable to close it.

I was confused. Pale and frightened, Odette stepped backward, tripping on her skirt and falling backward.

A rush of emotions came over her that she couldn’t quite put into words. No, not emotions, but pain.

The tears wouldn’t stop coming, whether it was from the pain of the blow, the pain of her chest, or the pain of having opened a wound she’d kept hidden.

Her pitiful sobs filled the office. The strange air that had made Odette so comfortable was gone. Odette clutched my head.

My silver hair tangled in her white hands. But it was a worse mess inside her head. There was noise in her thoughts. But one thing was clear.

Bliss was still thinking about Bianca!

The realization was too clear. Her head was spinning. Now Odette wanted to ask Bliss. She wanted to cry, to have a seizure, to scream.

Who Bliss was at his deepest core.

What his most important thing…… was.

No, she didn’t want to ask, but she had to ask, because then she would be able to give him an answer, an admission, and she would be relieved to hear some lame excuse! The time Odette spent waiting for Bliss was long. So long, it seemed like it would never end.

Chapter 1

Three young noblewomen were sitting in a petit salon, their auburn hair curled in curls, their facial muscles working in similar ways, and their dresses similar in style.

Their twin-like faces made them look like the three sisters of the famous Countess of Drian.

The three sisters chatted among themselves.

‘Sister, can you finish that color, please?’

‘I haven’t painted my nails yet. There’s another color there.

‘Sis, can you finish that color, please?’

‘I haven’t painted my nails yet, you can put another color there.’

‘This is a light color!’

They were in the middle of painting their nails.

Social life in Falborne had been chilly lately. But as a young aristocratic woman, she couldn’t afford to dress down.

For unmarried noblewomen, the social season was not just a time to play. More accurately, it was a season of confrontation. They had to look good in order to meet a suitable groom.

They had to be busy, as they were never sure where or how they would meet.

If only there were more maids, I could file my nails in peace, someone muttered. The other two shook their heads slowly in agreement.

The Counts of Drian were not a family with much money to spare. After the servants were assigned to the Count, the Countess, and the eldest son, the Earl, there were few hands left over.

Therefore, the three Drian sisters mostly took care of themselves and each other, unless they were out and about. They were each other’s lady and handmaiden.