My Ex-Fiancée Is the Female Lead in the Romance Novel

24 – Rosemary(1)

The room was dark. Even though it was not yet night, Seria’s room was filled with darkness. All light coming from outside was blocked by curtains, and all objects in the room that could act as light sources were turned off by Seria’s hand.

Seria felt she needed a break.

Actually, what she needed the most was not a cold blanket without any warmth, but the warmth of a warm person. But she had no one to give Seria that warmth.

She could only see her brother, who was still stationed in the East, through letters, and instead of giving him a warm hug, César pushed him away coldly.

Seria’s white comforter was gradually turning gray due to her tears. Seria hoped that all the futons would turn gray. She wants only faded colors to exist in her field of vision.

Seria subconsciously started looking for something to replace someone’s warmth.

And what she held in her hand was a large bear. But the bear was also cold. Seria knew that too.

But for some reason she could feel some warmth from the teddy bear.

There wasn’t much time for her to feel the replaced warmth, the false warmth.

Seria opened her closed eyes when she heard a voice outside her room. Seria knew that there was no one other than her father, the Duke of Argenta, who could walk so confidently and unnoticed in this house.

Seria could not guess for what purpose the Duke of Argenta had come to visit her. Rather, she was afraid.

Coming to think of it, none of the things her father asked her to do recently turned out to be good. She was, and for her part, she felt her head aching from the thought of carrying out her strange plan once more that her duke had come up with.

Her duke showed no consideration for her when she opened the door to Seria.

The light pouring from the hallway poured into Seria through the door that was opened so hard that there was a bang.

Seria closed her eyes at the light. It was an inevitable physiological response to the light she was suddenly greeted with.

“Seria. You showed ugliness again on the street today.”

“Father…” The Duke of Argenta’s expression was either angry or annoyed, but he was frowning. Seria was afraid of the duke’s expression.

“If you are enjoying the privilege of being the daughter of a duke, you need to behave properly. It’s like trying to get a man…”

Seria flinched at the Duke’s words. But deep down, she thought that the duke, who had asked her to act out an act of love with the second prince, had nothing to say.

“Of course, it would be a pity to miss a man like Cesar. But it was all Seria and you brought it on yourself. So she doesn’t have any more lingering feelings.” “… Yes?”

In Seria’s opinion, she didn’t do much wrong to Cesar. Rather, it was as if she had finally broken up the marriage due to the absurd behavior of her father, the duke.

Seria held her mouth shut. Her anger and dejection at her duke dominated her whole body. She didn’t even try to pull up her arm, which was naturally weak.

“You can’t live without your fiancé forever. Go to the place I have prepared for you.”

Seeing the duke speak in her commanding tone, Seria felt disgusted.

“I have no intention of getting engaged to anyone except Cesar.”

“This is the 2nd Prince. The second prince also said it was okay, so go out to your table.”

The duke was also aware of the fact that he was using Seria like a tool while acting out of nonsense. But the duke was a human being who could be anyone for the sake of power.

The Duke of Argenta was already being treated as a clique of the 2nd Prince, and cracks had already begun to appear in the military. In such a situation, he thought it wouldn’t be bad to just have a blood relationship with the second prince.

In the first place, when Cesar and Seria were betrothed, the duke’s purpose was to obtain blood that was recognized by the empire’s aristocratic society. If he got engaged to the second prince and even had a child, he would have come close to that goal.

So the Duke of Argenta already had a plan to get her daughter engaged to the second prince.

“Right now, I have no intention of getting engaged if you don’t want to. So feel free to talk to the 2nd Prince and come.”

The Duke could see that Seria’s expression softened a bit at those words.

The Duke thought that Seria’s obsession with Cesar was not normal. That’s why I couldn’t have predicted what would happen if I forced my engagement to the second prince right now.

For now, a grace period is given. Then, naturally, things will change.

* * *

“Camilla. Look at this.”

“Huh?”

Her twin brother Seren gave her a letter to her while she was lazing around next to her at work.

“Are you Duke Flair? Aren’t you going to negotiate with the barbarians right now?”

“Uh. That’s right. But read the letter.”

At Serene’s words, Camilla closed the book in her hand and began to look at the letter from Duke Flair. It was quite a long letter, but the meaning of the contents in it was simple.

In order to meet the Arit people’s request, they asked if they could help.

“What do you think of Camilla?”

“It’s not easy…But it doesn’t seem impossible to solve.”

“That’s right, since the slave guild is run by the First Prince’s faction, we all know about its vulnerabilities…”

“I didn’t know that crazy people would catch slaves from abroad.”

Seren nodded at Camilla’s words.

“I would like to help, but… If we become involved here, we might end up helping her 4th princess. If there are no families to help the 4th Princess together, we will be isolated.”

At those words, Camilla was troubled. Soon she was able to recall one fact.

“Aren’t you sure that Cesar… Is the owner of Bereng?”

“Uh. At least I can be sure of more than I can save.”

“The 4th Princess is a regular at the Bereng Group. And it is famous that her 4th princess asked Her Majesty to support the breakup with Argenta.”

“Yes.”

“Then wouldn’t Cesar-nim also stick to the 4th princess’s side?”

When Serene heard that there was a possibility she hadn’t thought of, her mind started to get complicated.

Seeing Seren’s troubles, Camilla offered him her solution.

“Then, why not invite Cesar to our mansion? Because I am here, inviting Cesar-sama is not unnatural.”

It was Camilla who looked exceptionally excited as she said those words. That’s why Serene couldn’t help but be confused whether her purpose of Camilla was to satisfy her own selfishness, or whether she invited Cesar for political reasons.

But it wasn’t such a bad idea even for Seren. Neither Lombardi nor Rosemary have any clear powers or allies right now. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to each other.

“Then I will send a letter to Youngsik Lombardi.”

Then Camilla straightened up and interrupted Seren from holding her pen.

“I will use it.”

“Will he not come if you write?”

Camilla looked like she was struggling and then she said to Serene with a look that she couldn’t help it.

“Then… I can’t help it. Serene, you write.”

* * *

In the package of letters that came to me, there was a letter with a special seal. Since the letter was sealed with the imperial family’s seal, the only member of the royal family worthy of sending me a letter was the 4th princess, so it was easy to see that this letter was from the 4th princess.

I carefully unsealed the letter. It is not easy to predict what the contents will be. In the original story, the 4th princess seemed to have solved this problem, but why did she receive a letter from the 4th princess?

I opened the letter with an anxious heart.

After reading the neat handwriting of the 4th princess, I realized that the situation was more complicated than I thought.

In the original work, the decisive factor in Seria and the 2nd prince toppling the 1st prince was because they asked about the slave trade.

The 1st prince, who did not have the right funds, eventually got involved in her slave trade, and the process was cruel and inhumane. That’s why she was the first prince, and when her slave trade was revealed, she couldn’t hold out for long and was deposed, and she had no choice but to go into exile abroad.

Since I know that fact too, I thought that the day might come when I would write about it, so I researched the 1st Prince’s slave guild step by step.

But the investigation wasn’t perfect. I couldn’t help but hesitate to help her 4th princess because it was incomplete to catch her tail until her 1st prince.

It wasn’t too late for another letter to arrive.