~Chapter 41~
It’s Just Because It’s Raining
The state council meeting ended.
Herdin rose leisurely from his seat and left the conference room together with Ruth.
The first thing he saw upon exiting the meeting room was the window in the corridor.
The weather was gloomy.
Judging by the ominous dark clouds, it looked like rain would fall soon.
Noticing his gaze, Ruth spoke.
“It seemed like the weather was getting warmer, but perhaps a spring rain is coming.”
Herdin looked out at the view of the imperial palace beyond the window.
It was hidden by trees, but the Empress Palace would be over there.
And Blair was probably there right now.
‘Someone from the House of Loreline came by, and yesterday someone from the imperial palace visited the count’s residence.
And today, Her Majesty the Grand Empress Dowager summoned Madam.’
Until before his marriage, he had believed Katrina cherished her daughter dearly.
Her daughter always wore expensive clothes, adorned herself with costly jewelry, and smiled brightly among those who praised her.
Back then, he had not known that what one saw was not everything.
Blair’s appearance at the first dinner after his marriage with Ivan and Katrina, and the way she had looked at Katrina’s birthday banquet.
The reality of the mother and daughter relationship he had seen up close was different from what he had imagined.
Only then did he realize that Katrina’s attitude toward her daughter was strange.
And Blair’s attitude toward her mother as well.
He could not judge everything from those brief glimpses, but it was clear that their relationship was not that of an ordinary mother and daughter.
Suddenly Blair’s appearance at the dinner came to mind.
The way her hands trembled under the table while she still spoke her words quietly.
“……”
Lost in thought while walking down the corridor, Herdin suddenly stopped.
Before he realized it, rain had begun to fall.
* * *
After finishing her conversation with Katrina and leaving the Empress Palace, Blair encountered an unexpected variable.
Spring rain.
Blair stopped in front of the sudden rain.
A maid from the Empress Palace who had noticed her quickly ran through the rain to call a carriage.
Because Blair had left in a hurry after finishing her conversation with Katrina, she had not arranged for her carriage to wait.
So she had no choice but to stand at the entrance and wait.
Watching her, the palace maid spoke cautiously.
“Madam, the air is still cold.
Why don’t you wait inside?”
“It’s alright.
It’ll arrive soon anyway.
The air feels refreshing, so I’ll stay here.”
Refusing the maid’s suggestion, Blair blankly watched the drizzle while waiting for the carriage.
‘What will change by digging into it now?
Will that dead woman come back to life?’
Katrina was not only refusing to approach the truth of the incident from ten years ago—she was afraid of it.
If what she had said were truly the truth of that incident, she would have nothing to fear.
The moment Blair saw that fear, she finally faced a possibility she had avoided for the past ten years.
Perhaps her mother had used her.
Even the accident that day, perhaps even her life.
At the same time, the face of the mother who undeniably resembled her felt chilling.
How could she do that?
How could her mother do that to her?
Of course, it was only a possibility.
It might not be the truth.
It might simply be her suspicion.
But perhaps this was also her own rationalization so that she would not feel abandoned by her mother.
She had believed that having Asiel was enough.
And even now, that thought had not changed.
Then what was this emptiness growing inside her?
Why did it feel as if she had been left alone in the world?
‘…Asiel.’
Blair recalled the face of the child who had laughed brightly at her and gently touched her empty stomach.
My baby.
In this world she had returned to the past, there was not a single trace of that child.
So she stroked the womb that had once carried the child.
But the flat stomach she touched held nothing except her own body, which only deepened the emptiness.
If she met Asiel again, if she could hold that child—the only family who shared her blood—once more in her arms…
It felt as if the growing emptiness consuming her would disappear.
As if the emotions of this moment would become nothing.
Because when she looked at that child, who breathed and laughed brightly while trusting only her, she felt she could overcome anything.
That was why she could not be alright now that the child was gone.
As the rainy scenery filled Blair’s empty violet eyes, a carriage stopped in front of the Empress Palace.
The crest of a family with the wings of a divine beast.
It was the same crest as the carriage Blair had arrived in—the crest of the House of Delmark.
But it was not the carriage she had come in.
The door of the carriage opened, and a familiar face stepped down.
Holding an umbrella, Herdin strode toward Blair.
Blair stared blankly at him approaching.
They had fought.
He suspected her.
Because she was Katrina’s daughter.
Even at this very moment, he probably still suspected her.
What she had talked about, whether she had been swayed by her mother.
And in her previous life, he might even have been the one who killed her.
Yet the moment he appeared before her eyes, Blair’s world finally held two people again.
Herdin walked with a pace neither slow nor fast and stopped in front of Blair.
Blair looked up at him with disbelieving eyes.
Under the umbrella, piercingly blue eyes quietly observed her.
After examining her for a moment, he extended his hand.
“Let’s go.”
Blair looked between the large hand extended to her and his face before placing her hand on top of his.
The large hand wrapped around hers and gently pulled her beneath the umbrella.
At the same time, the umbrella tilted toward her.
Blair boarded the carriage together with him.
Ruth moved to the carriage Blair had originally come in.
Soon the carriage began to move.
Only silence filled the inside.
Blair glanced sideways at Herdin.
He only looked at the rain sliding down the window, saying nothing.
‘I thought he would definitely ask about my conversation with Mother.’
If he had, she could have answered without difficulty.
Blair felt uncomfortable with this silence.
Because she feared he might be silently nurturing his suspicions.
In the end, Blair spoke first.
“My mother… it seems she planted someone in the mansion.
She knew that I’ve been having counseling sessions with Lady Loreline.”
Only then did Herdin’s gaze, which had been directed outside the window, turn toward Blair.
There was no sign of surprise on his face.
It seemed he had already expected it.
“And…”
Blair, who had been answering questions he had not even asked, closed her mouth before continuing.
If she said that Katrina had told her to stop trying to recover her memories, it would mean telling Herdin that there was a possibility Katrina had been involved in Esmeralda’s death.
How would he react if he heard that?
He might have already suspected his mother-in-law, but suspicion turning into near certainty was an entirely different matter.
Even so, Blair continued.
“…And she told me to stop trying to recover my memories.”
She had decided to find the truth no matter what happened.
And he was the partner who would find that truth with her.
“Of course, regardless of my mother’s wishes, I will definitely recover my mem—”
“I know.”
The calm, low voice interrupted Blair’s words.
The eyes that met hers held none of the suspicion or interrogation from before.
“You don’t need to explain anything more to me.”
Blair looked at him with confusion.
“Then why…?”
She had meant to ask why he had come to pick her up.
Instead of answering, Herdin quietly looked down at Blair’s pale face and noticed a small raindrop clinging to her hair.
When Blair saw his hand approaching, she instinctively closed her eyes.
With his index finger, he brushed away the raindrop near her temple.
His gaze, which had been on the raindrop, returned to Blair, and their eyes met.
Only then did Herdin answer in a dry voice.
“Just because it’s raining.”
* * *
“Did you call for me, Your Grace?”
That night, Herdin summoned Caligo to his office.
“Caligo, track the movements of the Grand Empress Dowager for a while.”
On the day of the accident.
Blair had secretly gone to the Empress Palace without telling Katrina, but Katrina had said she learned about it from a maid planted in the princess’s palace.
The maid had testified the same.
Using that fact, Katrina had dismissed the suspicion directed at her.
If she had truly intended to kill Esmeralda, would she really have done such a thing on a day when she clearly knew her daughter was at the Empress Palace?
In fact, she had even gone to the temple that night to save the severely injured Blair.
But until now, Herdin had firmly believed Katrina was the culprit.
He had thought the maid’s testimony was false, and that Blair was pretending to have lost her memories to comfortably conceal her mother’s crime.
However, there was another possibility everyone had overlooked because they could not imagine someone violating the natural bond between parent and child.
That woman might have used her daughter’s life as well.
Blair probably had the same blind spot.
She likely never imagined that her own mother would use her life.
‘No… she probably didn’t want to imagine it.’
Because if that were the truth, she would not have the strength to accept it.
Once that possibility entered his mind, he hesitated.
About making her recover her memories.
Even so, he had no intention of stopping here.
Whatever the truth was, he had to know.
Why his aunt had to die.
Why Delmark had to bear such disgrace.
Even if Blair were hurt in the process, it was a truth she had to accept.
‘Either way, we can’t rely only on her memories.’
After reaching that conclusion, Herdin continued.
“I stirred that woman’s nerves quite a bit.
If she’s the culprit, she’ll check things again.
She’ll be anxious that she might have overlooked something.”
“….”
“Keep watch over all the witnesses involved back then.
If you find anything suspicious, report it.”
Caligo’s eyes, receiving Herdin’s command, shone sharply unlike usual.
He bowed his head with a serious expression.
“As you command.”