Chapter 38

Episode 38: A Being That Resembles Me

“I wasn’t away for too long, was I?”

“It’s okay. Thanks to you, I had a great time with my friend after a long time,” Lord Vincent replied in a pleasant voice.

“More than that, I was worried about Lady Garnet. Is it true that the story with the Grand Duke ended well?  Sorry for not being of any help earlier.”

“No, nothing really happened. We had family matters to discuss.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Lord Vincent was still skeptical, but he nodded warmly at my words, which I considered significant. As Mrs. Gemma said, Lord Vincent was a very considerate and sweet person.

“Chloe!”

Having a small conversation with Lord Vincent, Vestie ran toward me from afar. At her frivolous gesture, the man next to her had a troubled expression on his face.

I had to ask Lord Vincent for understanding again. At the same time, Lord Vincent also had a crowd looking for him, so he told me to enjoy the ball a little more and walked over to his friends.

“Where were you? I’ve been looking for you for a long time!”

Vestie, who ran to me, who was left alone, grabbed my hands tightly and asked anxiously.

“I came back after getting some fresh air.”

“Did anything happen? People just said that the atmosphere between you and Grand Duke Ludwig was unusual.”

I guess everyone pretended not to watch but were glancing secretly. It was expected, I would have done the same. Grand Duke Ludwig, who is said to be making his appearance after a long time, was creating a creepy atmosphere in the corner, holding only me, leaving his partner Marquis Rosaline alone.

“Did he threaten you or something? Trying to harm you…….”

“That didn’t happen at all. You don’t have to worry, Vestie.”

“I’m glad to hear that..….”

Fortunately, looking at Vestie’s reaction, no one knows what he and I talked about.

If the conversation with him became known, it would be Kailos, not me, who would be damaged, but nevertheless I wanted the conversation to be concealed.

I didn’t want to get involved with him again and get into the lips of people. I hoped that a man named Kailos Ludwig would no longer exist to me.

“Oh, by the way, Chloe. This is my brother! Brother, this is the Chloe I was talking about. She’s really pretty, right?”

Vestie introduced me to the man who followed her. He was a man who looked like Vestie but had a slightly sharper impression.

“I’m Chloe Garnet. Lord Caroline.”

“You’re the famous lady of the Grand Duke of Ludwig.”

The man looked up and down at me and muttered. It was like looking at a product. It was also a very familiar gaze to me. Kailos has always managed everything about me with these eyes.

“The taste of the Grand Duke Ludwig is amazing. I can’t believe he had such a great beauty hidden all to himself.”

“……That’s a little misunderstood, sir. My uncle just felt pity for me as an orphan and sponsored me.”

“Brother! Did you just say something disrespectful to Chloe?”

Vestie glared at Lord Caroline, raising her eyes in a triangle. Then he raised both hands and cut her off, “No, that’s not what I meant…….”

Looking at the cut-off, it seems that it was not really intended. In fact, what he said was of a sufficiently conceivable range.

A young, handsome, unmarried Grand Duke and a beautiful lady sponsored by him. Right now, Miss Rosaline doubts and is wary of the relationship between Kailos and me, and I had always longed to be in that kind of relationship with him.

“It’s okay. People who don’t know might misunderstand.”

I spoke firmly in the hope that this conversation would no longer continue.

“But I feel very uncomfortable talking directly like this.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Garnet. I made a mistake.”

I believed that the conversation would end with his apology. If it hadn’t been for the following words, I might have regarded this as just a light incident.

“However, I think there was a misunderstanding because the woman who was with the Grand Duke outside just resembled the Lady.”

At that moment, my body stopped. My eyes turned white and then black repeatedly. I barely curled up my trembling fingertips and tried to move my lips.

“My uncle was with a lady who looked like me?”

When asked my question, Lord Caroline smiled awkwardly.

“Yes, she was definitely a different person, but she had a similar aura like yours.”

The words of Marquis Rosaline, whom I recently met at the opera house, came to mind.

‘Since this happened, don’t come back forever. Kyle has already found a substitute for you anyway.’

Substitute. So, his new bait to seduce Raymond, the woman who would become my replacement, was here. She is with him.

“Uncle, where is he now?”

I asked Lord Caroline, hoping that my voice didn’t sound awkward. Since then, several people have joined and had more conversations, but I couldn’t focus on it.

It was true that I didn’t want to get involved with him again.  I didn’t want to face Kailos anymore, to the point that I didn’t even want to take revenge on the one who took my little Estelle.

However, on the one hand, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the “substitute” he had prepared. No, I was actually paying attention the whole time. Ever since I heard it from Marquis Rosaline.

‘In front of the fountain in the garden on the east side of the building.….’

I naturally came out of the ballroom, recalling the place Lord Caroline told me. Those who were excited by the ripened atmosphere did not notice me disappearing quietly.

Tak, Tak, Tak, Tak, Tak.

The sound of my footsteps accelerating as I got closer to the place seemed to represent my impatient mind.

When I finally got to the road where I could see the fountain in the garden on the east side of the building, I stopped for a moment under a large willow tree that had lost all its leaves and took a deep breath.

Next to the fountain, a silver skein glistened between the branches.

As I turned my head slowly, I grabbed the wooden pillar and hardened stiffly.

There was a man. There was a woman. There were two, a man and a woman.

The man who saved me from the mud and made me fall back into the hellish abyss was standing with an expressionless face, and opposite him, a woman with a silhouette that resembles me was whispering something to him.

‘Ah…’

Really, really it was, a being that resembles me that Kailos has long worked hard to suit Raymond’s taste.

‘You need to gain more weight. My handsome brother doesn’t like skinny women.’

‘The emperor’s biological mother was a royal daughter from Evran. Learn how to speak Evran, it’ll be useful.’

‘Did you spray perfume? It suits you, but it’s not his taste. I will present you with something good, enough to capture my brother’s heart at once.’

‘Chloe, you have good hair. Have I said this before? I care so much about you because of your hair. The emperor likes silver-haired beauty.’

Naturally, as if breathing, I have grown up to be a woman who meets Raymond’s taste in accordance with Kailos’ instructions.

When I believed I loved him, I thought that was the only reason I lived. I wanted to do anything for him, who made me live like a human for the first time, who was in a worse situation than an animal.

‘Crawl like a dog and lick my feet.’

When I was young, the ghosts who did not give me the surname of Garnet until the end called me a beast.

However, no.

‘A broken doll.’

I was worse than a beast. I was a tool that is thrown away when it is useful and can be replaced with something else at any time when it breaks down.

‘So it would be abandoned so miserable and replaced so easily.’

The woman put her hand on his chest. At that moment, indescribable disgust came. I hated that a woman, with a silhouette that resembles me, touched his body.

Psssk.

The bark fell off and fell down. At that moment, he looked up. He looked at me over the shoulder of the woman facing him, and our eyes met, and he had a visibly bewildered expression on his face.

“Chloe!”

The sound of him calling me sounded cold in the dark night air. I turned around and ran away.

It was strange. The heart in my chest hardened because it couldn’t cool down, and the heart rate was beating hard until the whole blood vessel was aching.

When I could no longer hear his voice, I barely stopped and hung on a wooden pole. The inside of the thicket, covered with dry wooden pillars, had not been polluted by humans for a long time, so it was still and quiet.

“Ha, ha……”

With a short breath, the tears that I had endured the entire time poured out. I looked back on the path I had run aimlessly, but I couldn’t see his shadow anywhere.  However, his shadow, which I had not escaped from a long time ago, still remained and bound me.

“Really….”

Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I burst into disheartened laughter.

“You haven’t taken a single step, you stupid Chloe Garnet…….”

I thought I definitely ran away, but I guess I was still unable to run away from him, the source of my misfortune. It was really pathetic. To the point where I can understand why I was used and abandoned every time.

Maybe in the first place, happiness didn’t suit me from the beginning.

Garnet’s dirty illegitimate child, useless bait that only has a shell, an ugly monster that destroyed a man, and an incompetent woman who lost even her own baby……. How can Chloe Garnet dare to be happy?

Standing there, I buried my face in both hands. Something rough was swept over my face. It was just, it hurt.

“……This is why I can’t just leave you alone.”

The voice of a man who could not be heard here entered my ears. At the moment, I stopped crying and raised my head because of the chilling sensation that covered my body.