There is no happy ending

2. Endings and beginnings

Six years was a long enough time to leave a trace and a long enough time to leave a mark.

But there was nothing left between Bianca and Bliss. Bianca had destroyed them all. She’d lost her temper, and she’d killed.

Anger at herself, anger at Bliss Winston, anger at Odette Halona.

I channeled them all and used them to erase the years that had passed. I didn’t want to leave any trace of the past.

If she were to see it and think of Bliss, it would be too much for her to bear.

‘……It feels good.’

Bianca let the words out deliberately. There was still a bit of a lump in her throat, but she’d done her part.

Now all that remained was to make sense of her past.

It would be so refreshing when enough time passed that she didn’t understand herself. Bianca snorted lightly.

The aftertaste was bitter, of course. It was gritty, like taking a large handful of sand and stuffing it into her mouth, and it made it hard to breathe, like a heavy extra weight on one side of her chest.

But Bianca knew it wouldn’t last long.

‘Damn you, Winston.’

Bianca Moening had always been aristocratic, and to her, aristocrats were those who never looked back.

They were supposed to hold and wield arrogance with a natural ease, so she would quickly forget.

How well the two men who had toyed with her were, Bianca did not know, but she was certain of it. She would not remember them, she would forget them, and she would live well. If that was difficult, she would make it so.

Without looking back, Bianca left Duke Winston’s main residence and quickly made her way to her carriage. Nicholas, the knight who had been waiting for her to come out, quickly dropped to one knee as she approached, making it easier for her to climb into the carriage.

After locking eyes with Bianca, he bows his head. Bianca looked down at his head, still smiling.

But the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose were red. Her make-up was lightly smudged, the face of someone who had been in tears, but she didn’t show it. It was as if she had been told to pretend not to see.

‘I didn’t mean to keep you waiting this long, Nicholas, but it’s not fair.’

Nicholas considered his words for a moment, then shook his head. There was so much he wanted to say, but her lady wanted him to pretend he didn’t know.

‘No.’

‘I’m done here, I’ll go straight home.’

Nicholas held out one hand to escort Bianca away. With a smile wiped off her face, Bianca took his hand, but it felt strange. Her hand felt different in his palm.

It feels damp, and Nicholas looks at Bianca’s hand questioningly. Her palm is torn and bleeding. Nicholas’s eyes fluttered.

The loyal knight forgot his manners and raised his head to look into Bianca’s face. Bianca instantly recognized the reason for his surprise. Before he could speak, she quickly cut him off.

‘It’s no big deal.’

‘But, my lady!’

‘My head hurts, Sir Nicholas. I want to rest.’

Her voice was soft but firm, and Nicholas couldn’t say more. Instead, he took a handkerchief from his bosom and wrapped it around Bianca’s hand.

Bianca’s blood seeped onto his white handkerchief, and Nicholas’s jaw tightened as he watched.

This was the Duke of Winston. The Duke with the fiancé of the young lady I serve.

But why, today, as she moved to meet her fiancé, her face and hands were in such disarray was beyond him. All sorts of legitimate questions flooded Nicholas’s mind.

Why was the lady in tears?

Why hadn’t the Duke healed her hand?

Why didn’t the Duke of Winston follow her out?

Behind the questions, Nicholas remembered Duke Winston’s government. He knew that Duke Winston had left my lady to see Fabian Halona’s daughter, for it was Nicholas himself who had investigated it.

Nicholas wondered if that was why they had quarreled, but still, he could not understand it.

Wasn’t she still his fiancée?

Didn’t he act as if he loved her any less?

Nicholas thought as he watched Bliss and Bianca stand side by side on the far shore. He’d seen them apart, a solid fortress, a complete ironclad, but together they were softened.

I thought that what they were doing was love.

Naturally, being by each other’s side, feeling the most complete and secure in each other’s company, if that’s not love, what is?

That’s why Nicholas thought that love was real, and that if anyone wanted to feel it, all they had to do was look at …… two people.

‘But why?

Nicholas’s head was spinning.

At the same time, Bianca’s eyes grew darker, because it was easy to tell what he was thinking by the way he couldn’t say anything.

Bianca didn’t want anyone to pity her. Pity flows from the top down. It had to be.

Even if it was an emotion, if I felt it, I felt it, and I didn’t want to feel it, so Nicholas’s reaction was quite unpleasant. Bianca tilted her head and said.

‘Do you…… have a lot on your mind?’

‘…….’

‘Ah, it’s not that you’re wooden, it’s that you’re attentive. But that’s a complicated way to live, isn’t it? A man’s life should be easy.’

He was telling her not to think too much.

Nicholas had been at Bianca’s side ever since her coming-of-age ceremony as her escort. He understood Bianca’s words instantly, and he realized that she was in a very bad mood.

Normally, Sir Nicholas would have apologized for his rudeness. But now, he could not yield.

His lady was hurt. His one and only lady, who had been steadily hurting him for days. Even if she was a Moor, Nicholas could not stop worrying.

He felt for her as a man-to-man, not as a knight’s romantic interest. My lady deserved better than anyone else. She did not deserve this.

‘You may discard the handkerchief.’

‘Wasn’t it given to you by a gentleman of the court of Lord ……?’

Bianca raised one eyebrow, her voice sharpening at the same time.

Bianca hadn’t yet fully processed her time with Bliss, or his feelings for her. Six years was a long time to let it all out in the form of a broken drawing room.

And right after ‘that’. So Bianca was bound to be sensitive.

Nicholas didn’t know what had happened to Bianca, but he had an idea. Nicholas shook his head quickly.

‘She has a sister. Her hobby is embroidery.’

‘I see.’

‘Yes.’

‘My lord would not lie to me, so I will take it this time.’

‘Yes, please.’

Nicholas was tiny relieved that his handkerchief had not been thrown away. Bianca stared at the handkerchief, her eyes still sunken, then took Nicholas’s hand again.

The knight’s handkerchief was the worst fabric Bianca had ever touched in her life.

Bianca climbed into the carriage. The carriage was bound for the Marquis de Moening’s mansion. She hadn’t brought her maid with her, so she fussed noisily over her face and hands.

Silence fell.

In the carriage, Bianca leaned against the wall. Normally, she would have kept her back straight and facing straight ahead, even in a moving carriage, but…… right now she needed rest. Physically and mentally.

But her body was not at peace in the moving carriage, and neither was her mind.

As pleasant as it was, the farther they traveled from Duke Winston’s mansion, the more she thought of Bliss. The more the carriage moved, the more I realized it was over.

A tiny, sharp shard of the six years that Bianca had shattered, a tiny, sharp shard that had become a regret, lodged itself in the center of my heart.

She’d rather think it was an illusion. It was a very bad idea, in Bianca’s opinion.

But Bianca’s reason, the handkerchief wrapped around her hand, and the pain in her hand reminded her every moment that it was no illusion at all, and so she could barely contain her regret.

Still…… it seemed that Bianca would need a little more time to completely erase Bliss from her mind.

‘I feel like the biggest idiot in the world…….’

Bianca muttered softly and closed her eyes.

Yes, she felt like a complete idiot. Not Bianca Moening, not Bliss Winston, not Odette Halona.

Bianca seemed to be able to play with anything she could get her hands on. It was an arrogance that came from his nature, but it was also an arrogance that he could have because he had everything around him.

Therefore, he lived his life believing that nothing could go against his will. I’ve lived the last twenty-two years of my life without a single moment of doubt, without a single point of doubt.

It was a ridiculous illusion.

In the end, human emotions are uncontrollable, and Bliss and Odette fall in love. As a result, she was deceived. The contract was broken, and a relationship that was supposed to last forever was so easily turned into a blank slate.

‘Why did I live under such illusions?’

Bianca laughed intermittently. The scattered laughter was never pleasant like the air escaping from her lungs.