episode_0485

-Bam!

“Release! Lee, release!!”

Ethan barely managed to understand what the letter meant before he hurriedly ran out of his room.

Ethan headed to the waiting room next to his own, thinking that he should first meet her and clear up any misunderstandings, but what remained there were two other maids, not Lilith.

“Huh?!”

“… Your Highness?”

The pink-haired maid was startled and flustered by her sudden intrusion, and the vanilla-haired maid calmly called out to her.

In their hands they held a letter, presumably written by Lilith, just as they had just read.

“Isabel? Katharina?”

“Looking at your urgent reaction, I guess you received the letter too.”

“… That means, surely it could be for you too… .”

“Yes. He left a letter saying he was leaving Blackwood Manor and disappeared. Katarina and I came up to check if Lilith really disappeared.”

“… … .”

If it was just a prank on himself, it could be overlooked as a prank, but he left letters for Isabel and Katharina as well.

Ethan realized once again that he had been preparing to leave the mansion for quite some time.

‘Why didn’t I notice…?’

If you think about it, there may have been ample opportunity to infer.

He was a lilith who had always been steadily saving money without even knowing where to use it, and whenever he had a chance to earn money, he would change whatever he had into gold coins.

At the time, I just thought that I had a bit of a strong sense of finance, but when I thought about the fact that it was an act of saving up money to move out of the mansion and become independent, everything made sense.

‘Release, are you trying to seduce me right now?’

‘Yes, I’ve been tempting you for a while now.’

And last night, for the first time, he had seduced me into having a physical relationship with him without any strings attached.

If it was her way of preserving her last memories before parting ways… .

“Your Majesty.”

“…Why are you like that, Isabel.”

“Is the information written in this letter true?”

“… What is it about?”

“The Lord already has another fiancée, so Lilith cannot be his first wife.”

“… … What?”

Ethan, startled by Isabel’s words, hurriedly snatched the letter from her hand, and from the contents of the letter, he could immediately see that Lilith was making a ridiculous misunderstanding.

He has a fiancée from the Blackwood family, and because of that, Lilith is destined to become his second wife or concubine, no matter how well things go.

It was a letter saying that she was leaving because she was very jealous and couldn’t stand the thought of her having a relationship with another woman.

“I, I would never have a fiancé, Lilith… . I, I only had you… .”

“… I apologize for the misunderstanding, Your Majesty.”

Isabelle, who had already figured out the situation, quietly lowered her head as she watched Ethan make a belated confession to the already disappeared release.

“In my opinion, I think Lilith probably misunderstood the young master and left the mansion.”

“… I don’t know why there was a misunderstanding. Was my love for Lilith not enough to cause a misunderstanding…?”

“Sometimes, releases often don’t listen to others because they believe that what they think is right. Didn’t something similar happen when you entered the academy?”

“… … That’s right, right.”

“And to be honest, even if I were Lilith, I think you could misunderstand. No matter how much the master gives his exclusive maid love, the position she can receive is at best a concubine, or if you’re lucky, a second wife.”

“… … .”

“I know it’s late to tell you this, but… If Lord Ethan really wanted to bring Lilith into his hometown, it would have been better to do it a little sooner.”

The way nobles looked at things and the way commoners looked at things were different.

Ethan, who had been thinking that he would one day take Lilith as his wife, had been taking his future with her for granted, thinking that he only had to convince himself and his father anyway, but that was not something Lilith took for granted either.

It was Ethan who finally realized that even while he dreamed of marrying her, Lilith always thought that she would end up as a concubine or second wife.

If she had been a ‘normal’ maid, that alone would have been life-changing, so she might have quietly waited for the future, but if she was Lilith, who was so jealous that she even emphasized her chastity to herself, then…

… Ethan had finally realized that it was entirely possible to assume a future that he could not change with his own power and leave.

-bang!

“Huh?!”

“Fuck, shit!!”

…I should have told you in advance.

No, I should have prepared the meal in advance in the first place.

Because I was having this naive imagination that after graduating from the academy, I would get married and give her a graduation gift that was more special than anyone else’s… Isn’t it because I have such a silly plan in my head that I’m running away from her with this misunderstanding?

“Ah …

It was also expected that the others would gather in Lilith’s room after hearing Ethan’s voice screaming while kneeling on the floor.

“… What’s the fuss about this early in the morning, Ethan.”

The voice of his father, approaching him through the crowd of servants gathered in the room of the release.

Ethan’s body rose from his seat in response to the voice that barely brought him back to his senses despite the confusing pain.

“Father… .”

“… What the hell is this noise from the morning, Ethan. The next Blackwood head is so pathetic.”

“… Sorry.”

“And I don’t know why you guys are gathered here instead of going back to your seats. Are you going to keep gathering here and making noise until I tell you to step down?”

“““I’m sorry!!!”””

The butler and maids, startled by Harold’s banishment order, hurriedly disappear downstairs.

After Isabel and Katarina disappeared into the crowd, only Ethan and Harold were left in the room that had lost its owner.

“There’s a big commotion all morning just because one maid disappeared. Is it that inconvenient that your exclusive maid disappeared?”

“… She is not just a maid, Father. To me, she is a precious… that no woman in the world can replace… .”

“If she was such a precious woman, I should have taken better care of her. It’s like I only realized my feelings after she disappeared… Ahem, anyway, she’s really so pathetic.”

“… … .”

“This is all because you didn’t trust that child, Ethan. If you had done it right, that child wouldn’t have had a reason to run away.”

“… Yes, that’s right.”

Even though it was words that seemed to pierce his already aching heart, Ethan could not deny it. He had vaguely acknowledged from his conversation with Isabel that she had run away because he had not explained it properly.

I should have been a little more specific.

As soon as he graduated from Luminor Academy, he announced that he would marry her and have a grand wedding at Blackwood Manor.

This determination to never pay attention to anyone other than Lilith for the rest of my life and to make her my only wife forever.

If not, at least… .

‘You should have tied him up or locked him up somewhere so he could never escape… .’

The problem was that I went in with a passive attitude because I thought I would be hated by Lilith.

He had to make sure that he kept her by his side, just in case.

He hated that Lilith felt disgusted with him, but what he couldn’t stand more than that was the feeling of loss he felt when she wasn’t by his side.

Only now, less than an hour after I learned that the release was gone, did I feel a pang in my chest, and I could be sure of that.

“Are you going to chase me?”

“… … .”

“I asked if you were going to chase me, Ethan.”

“… … Yes.”

“Yeah, that’s what a man should have. If he was a guy who couldn’t keep what he had in his hands and didn’t even think about getting it back, I would’ve been disappointed, Ethan.”

“… … Yes?”

Ethan looked up, slightly taken aback by Harold’s answer. He hadn’t thought that his father’s permission would be granted at this point, just before the start of the academy.

I don’t know how many days it will take, but if I start chasing her, I will never be able to make it to the opening day of Luminor Academy. The words of my father, who is also a professor at the academy, were practically the same as aiding and abetting his child’s unauthorized absence from school.

“Wouldn’t it be better to delay your graduation from the academy by a year or two rather than lose something precious and regret it for the rest of your life?”

“… But father, the leave of absence is… .”

“You don’t have to worry about allowing one or two students to take a leave of absence at the beginning of the semester, as the professor can adjust it at will. And even if you are expelled instead of taking a leave of absence, it seems like Ethan’s choice has already been made.”

“… Yes.”

If he was never going to be able to see the release for the rest of his life, then a diploma from Luminor Academy would be worthless to Ethan.

Rather, if it meant getting her back in exchange for his diploma and the past three years of academy life, Ethan would trade it without hesitation.

“Isn’t it the role of a father to help his son when he’s having a hard time? Change into clothes that are comfortable to move in and come down to the yard. Today, I’m going to teach you how to ride a horse in one day.”

“… … Yes?”

“You wouldn’t be so complacent as to think that you’d chase after a child who can ride a horse on his own, would you? The more urgent it is, the more you should learn the most necessary things before you go, Ethan.”

“… Okay, Father.”

It was the next morning that Ethan, having learned how to ride a horse on his own, set out from Blackwood Manor.