There is no happy ending

Do you love me?’

Ah, the question was finally asked.

Hearing Odette’s question, Bliss turned urgently toward her. Odette turned her head away, hiding her face from Bliss.

Part of her didn’t want to show her face to Bliss, but another part didn’t want to see Bliss’ face. Bliss was taken aback by Odette’s behavior.

‘Odette.’

‘I’m …… sorry, I guess what happened today was too much for me.’

‘Why would you say that…….’

That’s what Bliss Winston knew about love.

Love is a warm sensation that makes you smile and bask in the sunshine. It’s a warm sensation that makes you smile and bask in the sunshine. Love is something you want to hold tightly in your hands and possess without letting go.

Bliss smiled at Odette. She wanted to collapse in the glorious warmth, not because she was collapsing, but because she felt like she was collapsing, and she wanted to cling to Odette, begging her not to disappear.

If this is not love, what is it? If he loves her so truly, why does she ask?

‘I-I did wrong.’

Bliss said urgently. Bliss was sure of her love. She never wanted to be denied it.

Even if it wasn’t love to speak now.

‘If all you can give me is doubt, I’ll take it sweetly.’

‘…….’

‘But please don’t give me that look.’

The more pleading Bliss spoke, the more Odette’s eyes clouded over. Odette swallowed her question again. Odette nodded.

Either way, Odette would spend the night at Duke Winston’s tonight. She will lie in the same bed as Bliss, and she will ask Bliss for her love. She will whisper her love.

……It was ‘meant to be’ because Bliss loved Odette by Bliss’s standards if that is what love is.

***]

The night was long. Back in the ducal chamber, Odette was quickly restored by her maids, and for a long time, she stared at the wine, the tears, and the wrinkled mess of her dress.

Her face was unusually impassive. No one could tell what she was thinking.

Then, without a word to Bliss, Odette slipped out of the Duchy of Winston.

She seemed to be running away, but no one in the ducal household caught her. Bliss heard about it later from the butler.

‘She’s …… gone back.’

‘Yes. I offered to give her the Duke’s carriage, but she refused and asked for a private carriage, so I did as you requested.’

‘……Yes.’

This was an unexpected twist in the otherwise tranquil relationship between the two men. Ordinarily, Bliss would have ridden out immediately and sought out Fabien Hallona’s mansion, but he did not.

He stayed up late that night in his study, fiddling with a pair of rings. They were Bliss’s and Bianca’s engagement rings.

Bliss’s eyes sank heavily. I must see Bianca and talk to her, Bliss thought.

It was true that Bliss hadn’t known Bianca’s feelings until now, but that didn’t mean she was such an idiot that she couldn’t deduce Odette’s feelings and their causes. Bliss remembered Bianca’s words.

Bianca’s voice, not Odette’s, lingered in her mind.

‘I curse myself for loving you for a moment, so please come to your senses.

A broken voice escaped Bliss’s mouth. Bliss hadn’t even realized how her voice sounded.

‘…… loved me.’

Bliss didn’t want to believe Bianca’s words; it felt like the foundation of her world would be turned upside down if she did.

But then, as the anxiety that had been plaguing her for weeks subsided, she vaguely suspected it was true.

And that Odette, too, had recognized the truth of Bianca’s words, and would have reacted the way she did today.

‘The one, Bianca Moening.’

Bliss remembers Bianca at Eugene’s funeral, laughing hysterically and telling him how lucky he was.

Bliss had thought then that the girl in front of him would never fall in love and laugh in such an arrogant way.

But then Bianca sent Bliss to…….

Bliss stopped thinking. Her stomach was churning, over and over again.

Bliss glanced at the clock on the side of her study. There wasn’t much time left before sunrise.

Soon enough, the Morning Marquis would be ready for guests, and the first thing Bliss would do would be to meet Bianca and…….

Suddenly, Bliss had a thought.

I wish the sun hadn’t risen, he thought.

He was very aware of the situation now. Odette was getting restless. She knew that Bliss and Bianca were in love with each other, and she was worried that she had given in to the desires of the moment.

Bliss had to go to Odette and tell her that he did not love Bianca, but at the same time, he had to hear her deny it.

Otherwise, his vulnerable and beautiful lover would not believe him. But he could not bring himself to do either of these things.

Bliss looked at Bianca and thought she was like a well-honed blade, sometimes reluctant, sometimes watching her with indifference, as if she would stay firmly in place, unbreakable no matter what happened.

A woman who wouldn’t die even if I killed her, I thought. If it was harsh, it was a harsh assessment, and if it was cold, it was a cold assessment.

Therefore, Bliss did not love Bianca. Love would not have made such an assessment, that much was certain. It had to be.

‘……Are you sure?

A faint sensation of weakness and dullness gripped the back of his mind, a malaise that left him feeling helpless, and a faint headache.

Bliss consciously stopped thinking. It seemed that if he did, there would be no turning back.

***]

The sun rose even though Bliss didn’t want it to. Bliss found that watching the sun rise was quite therapeutic.

It was a sensation she had never felt before.

Bliss wandered over to the Marquis de Morning, a little too late for the morning, and said,

‘The Marquise is currently absent, sir.’

The old butler said. She had the same cold eyes and voice addressing an iron-clad guard rather than a guest. It was a disrespectful way to treat a duke, but Bliss couldn’t bring herself to criticize it.

It was more accurate to say that he couldn’t be bothered.

“It was ugly.”, but it was still morning. In the aftermath of the banquet, most nobles would not rise until after lunch.

As if to prove it, the streets were deserted. If there were any appointments, they would be in the afternoon, and Bianca had to be at the marquis’s mansion.

She had to be……..

‘The Marquise left Bayerque at dawn. You probably won’t see the Duke for a while, even if he comes to visit.’

‘What?’

‘In addition, His Highness the Marquis has declined the Duke’s visit, so the Morning Marquis House will no longer welcome His Highness, please return.’

Bliss’s head turned white.

The butler of House Moening had spoken of a permanent separation between Bliss and Bianca. No, no, no. The old butler hadn’t said that. Bianca had already spoken.

‘We shall never meet again.

Bianca had kept her word perfectly.

It was truly over.