SGC 16

CHAPTER 16

Translator: Rae

***

Because she hadn’t expected him to ask for a reason, Rozella stammered in confusion.

“B-Because it only touched, just a tiny little bit!”

“Even if it was just a little bit, touching is still considered touching. That’s not a valid reason.”

She tried to offer a lame excuse, but it didn’t seem to work on Edmund at all.

“B-But it was clearly an accident, and we pulled away right away, and then—”

No matter how Rozella clutched her head and scraped together excuses, Edmund only shook his head firmly.

“What’s already happened can’t be nullified, Rose.”

As if he had no intention of taking his words back, his well-shaped lips pressed tightly together.

Despite his firm expression, even the back of his neck had gone red.

Having lost all excuses and only could move her lips without saying anything, Rozella finally failed to gold back her embarrassment and shouted.

“No! This is something you’re only supposed to do with the person I’ll marry!”

Even if it was an accident, he shouldn’t have given his first kiss to someone like her. After all, he was someone remarkable, a person who would be marrying a princess.

As she stood there on the verge of tears while fuming, Edmund’s wide-eyed expression darkened sharply.

What came from the boy sounded as though he had been struck by shock.

“…The person you’ll be marrying? Who is that?”

That was the very question Rozella wanted to ask him. And the one who should have been shocked was her instead of him. Forcing down the resentment rising from deep within her, Rozella avoided his gaze.

Then Edmund asked again with an anxious expression.

“Do you like someone, Rose?”

It was a foolish question, which wasn’t like Ed at all. She couldn’t understand why someone usually so clever failed to notice her feelings.

Rozella chewed on her lips and swallowed the words she wanted to say.

Ed was her only friend, and even if she had more, there would be no one as kind and wonderful as him.

However, the words on the tip of her throat remained lodged.

Her earlobes reddened, her lower eyelids trembled, and Rozella spoke a lie.

“That’s right. So what happened earlier… has to be kept a secret for life. For my future husband.”

When Rozella’s somber words ended, Edmund remained silent for a long while. As he lowered his gaze, his brow slowly drew together.

Soon, Edmund rose slowly and took a few steps closer and looked at Rozella’s eyes directly.

“If I say I don’t like it, will you hate me?”

“...”

Rozella looked up hazily at the boy’s youthful face, who seemed unable to conceal his anxiety. It was rare to see the usually gentle and thoughtful young master show such an expression..

“I want you not to go anywhere. Just like now, I want it to be only the two of us in this garden.”

“...”

"Don’t you feel the same?”

Because his words sounded like a confession, Rozella felt her heart pounding through her entire body as she barely managed to speak.

"But..." 

She could no longer remember what she had answered back then, nor how that day’s conversation had ended.

Only that the incident, too clumsy to be called a kiss, lingered in her mind for a long time.

That day, Edmund said he wanted them to remain forever in a world of just the two of them. It was probably the first time she vaguely understood where his heart lay.

However, Rosella woke up from her daydream since that day. 

But after that day, Rozella woke from her daydream. Holding onto a wish that could never come true was frightening when it meant losing him someday. 

If so, she would rather remain friends. No, even being just the young master and a maid’s daughter was enough.

The anxiety etched into her young heart led to avoidance, and Rozella continued to remain in that paradise with him by endlessly turning away from his feelings and hiding her own.

She could never imagine that fate would lead her to such an ironic future.

“...”

Rozella quietly stared at the large full-length mirror in the bridal waiting room.

The memories of the distant past soon blurred like mist in a forest, and her reflection in a wedding dress filled her vision.

The cool autumn rain that had fallen for days had finally stopped.

Her wedding with Edmund opened under flawless sunlight without a single cloud.

***

At midday, the grand cathedral opened its main doors to receive the guests.

The wedding of the Duke of Hayden, who had risen after tragedy, was held on a small scale in the cathedral’s largest nave.

Only the ducal family, collateral relatives, and selected members of the royal household were invited.

Yet each individual’s presence was immeasurably significant.

Even with the ceremony conducted quietly, it was only natural that it drew the attention of the entire capital.

“Is it true that the duke’s bride is a commoner? Is that why the ceremony is being rushed like this?”

As the archbishop officiating the ceremony ascended the platform, the guests could not help but speak about the veiled bride.

Two individuals from the royal palace continued their conversation in lowered voices.

“It’s a matter of the ducal house. Not something for us to interfere with.”

“But wasn’t there once talk of marriage with our royal family? Princess Vanessa is openly present here as well—”

“Shh. Mind your decorum.”

Soon, the bell rang to signal the start of the archbishop’s officiation, and the nave, once filled with hushed whispers, fell silent.

“The groom, Duke Edmund Hayden, will now enter.”

With the orchestra’s solemn prelude, the great doors opened heavily to either side. Beyond them appeared the man of the day, Edmund Hayden.

Clad in a white officer’s uniform that fit his solid frame perfectly, he walked forward without hesitation, like a soldier by nature.

Some gazed at his refined bearing in admiration, while others felt a quiet ache they dared not voice. As the procession continued, not even the sound of breathing could be heard among the guests.

The members of the ducal family watched their new head with composed expressions. Even so, unease lingered beneath the surface.

This marriage had been carried out solely by Edmund’s own decision. Those who already knew the bride’s identity and those still in the dark mingled together, leaving the seating thick with tension.

Edmund halted his steps leisurely before the archbishop on the dais and stood straight.

His dark green eyes lingered nowhere, fixed instead on the entrance beyond the path he had walked.

It was time for the veiled bride to appear.

“The bride, Miss Rozella Everett, will now enter.”

The moment a woman adorned in pure white, as if surrounded by lilies, came into view, a deep silence fell over the nave.

The bride was, quite literally, a woman of breathtaking beauty. Her red hair was kept down and arranged beneath the delicate veil, captivating the onlookers, and a pair of golden eyes was also revealed beneath long lashes, shining brilliantly.

As if coloring the solemn cathedral with splendor, the rose-like bride stepped forward lightly, one step at a time. Her wedding dress’ design was modest, flowing like a gentle wave and subtly revealing the graceful lines of her body.

No one, not even those consumed by envy, could deny her innate beauty.

Yet the time allowed for admiration did not last long. There was no one present who couldn’t recognize the bride’s face, or How could they forget?

A woman who looked as though she had been stamped from the same mold as the witch who had devoured the late duke.

“…By God, this is surely a calamity.”

One of the ducal elders muttered hollowly, as though unable to believe the reality before his eyes.

Rozella endured the openly scrutinizing gazes with her entire body, swallowing down a breath of anxiety that rose to her chin.

The only thing she could do was brace her legs tightly to keep from twisting an ankle in her high heels.

She slowly lifted her lowered lashes and looked toward the man standing at the end of the wedding aisle.

It was the first time she had ever seen Edmund dressed in an officer’s uniform.

Even amid the countless gazes that stabbed like daggers, Rozella could not take her eyes off him.

From the early summer when she first met him at nine, to the late summer at sixteen she believed would be their final farewell, the memories passed vividly through her mind.

Edmund, whom Rozella had loved had never once failed to shine, but Edmund of today was far beyond what the word extraordinary could contain.

As though enchanted, her gaze settled on the exquisitely beautiful face beneath his neatly kept black hair, so perfect it stole her breath.

The green eyes she had always thought resembled a summer forest shone with particular clarity in this moment. Rozella wondered, and feared, how her own reflection might appear within that brilliant light.

“…Disgusting woman.”

At that moment, a brief remark flew between the notes of the symphony. Though the voice was faint and small, Rozella clearly sensed the emotion carried within it.

There was no way to tell exactly which guest the insult had come from.

But one thing was certain: it would not have been strange no matter who it was.

There was no one at this wedding who truly recognized Rozella Everett as his rightful bride.

The moment she realized this, Rozella’s gaze scattered into emptiness.

Her mind went completely blank, to the point she could no longer remember how she had walked down the aisle.

Pull yourself together. As she thought so and reached the end of the carpet, her ankle wavered dangerously.

Just as her heel began to slip, measured footsteps approached and a large hand wrapped around her waist, steadying her.

With startled eyes, Rozella looked up at the gleaming silver epaulettes, then at the man before her.

Edmund released her waist and naturally took her hand instead.

“Just focus on me. That’s all you need to do.”

His gentle voice brought her back to her senses.

Edmund’s green eyes curved into an inscrutable line, and through the lace glove, his large hand tightened around hers. It was a grip strong enough to ensure she could not slip away even slightly.

***

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