Ever Ever After

Chapter 17: Someone I Don’t Love

Ailea was in Clint’s private study room which she knew existed just before her death. She took out a book from a shelf and read from the beginning.

Clint had an extraordinary number of books behind her imagination in the library. The books she read were completely worn out and were mostly about seducing women and the art of seduction. Though there were some rare and beautiful reads she found.

Ailea made a leather cover and wrapped it around both sides of the book to make a cover and tied it tightly with a string of beautiful colors.

She would live happily in the two years of life she had left. She’d no longer drift by as the world moves on.

Live happily and to the heart’s fullest content… she would do that.

Back then, after about half a year living in the Outer Castle, Lawrence who couldn’t endure the emperor’s anger came to see Ailea’s state of being. When he saw her presence, he had tried his best not to wear a look of disgust, yet it managed to.

“Why do you wear that dress? It’s disgusting. Take it off and wear something proper.”

 

Before she heard those words, Ailea was happy to know that he had come to visit her.

All her life, the only man she knew was Lawrence. She was thirteen then. Her first experience, the first man she ever saw, and first love was Lawrence. When she grew of age and when Lawrence took an interest in her, she was happy, thinking that her goals in life had been achieved. After all, Lawrence finally looked her way.

But everything changed when she was inflicted with a disease.

But this didn’t matter anymore.

In this new life she was given, she would no longer hope. She would live freely to her heart’s content as she is now.

Ailea hoped for the day that Lawrence visits her would never come. If he did, she hoped it’d pass quickly on by.

***

Lawrence had virtually forgotten Ailea’s presence after she was exiled to the Outer Castle.

His white-haired father, the emperor Murray Theresia de Calise, donned an uncomfortable look on his face. While talking to his son, Ailea’s name came to mind for a moment.

Ailea’s father, Ron Elgar Euliana, saved the empire and was pronounced a hero, but he was already dead. However, Murray was afraid of public sentimental backlash if he wasn’t given a proper reward. So he called in Ron’s daughter to the Imperial City. She would become Lawrence’s fiancé, causing him to suffer.

 

Murray thought the wedding was delayed because Ailea was sick.

“I’m afraid that Ailea hasn’t been seeing you lately,” said the emperor in a heavy voice.

“She doesn’t want to get me sick,” Lawrence replied, brows tightened.

“She’s not feeling well, is she?” Murray questioned.

“It would seem like it.”

“Use your power connections to heal her. When you marry that child, this country will belong to you,” Murray sighed.

“I don’t think so,” Lawrence said with a discontented look. “What would they think if I married a woman with a dirty disease? They’ll think of me as a petty man who only married her because of her father’s reputation.”

“Clint has recaptured the castle of Geneva.”

“…Yes?”

What was the emperor talking about? Recaptured the castle of Geneva? A place Lawrence sent him to die? His expression crumbled.

Murray looked at him blankly and said, “His popularity is extraordinary. Like him, you have to win the hearts of the people, too. If you marry the daughter of their beloved hero, the people will admire you. You can always have a concubine after marrying her.”

“I’ll be living a lie. I’ll marry a woman I don’t love merely to satisfy the people?”

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“You’re a man who’ll become the emperor. What else have you given to the public so far? The first act of care you’ll do is to marry her. You don’t have to love her but be satisfied with living with her.”

“…..”

Lawrence grit his teeth.

Ailea, that woman drove him crazy even when her presence was nowhere in the Imperial City.

That day Lawrence was defeated by his father and eventually set out for the Outer Palace.