12. Flowing Star – 04
A small patronage located behind the Duke of Estelle.
It can’t be said to be very well-maintained, but walking among the cute flower beds with small and simple flowers in bloom, Sarah was actually reflecting on the feeling of peace and tranquility for the first time in a long time. The wind blows past her only pleasantly, making the flowers in the flower bed flutter. I ended up thinking that everything I could see and touch my senses was no different from a miracle.
A week had passed since she arrived at the Estelle duchy. Her duties as treasurer slowly began to take hold, and everyone around her treated her kindly, just because Cain had brought her. Some people who knew the truth only took care of her without showing anything.
It was difficult to find the past ‘Sarah Sernad’ in the current Sara. Her hair color and eye color have changed, and her appearance has subtly changed from the past due to Arya’s magic. Even if it was only a slight change in the impression, most of the people of the Estel family did not notice that Sara was the ‘Sarah Sernard’ of the past.
… Crucially, the present Sara always smiled. was smiling It was a really contrasting expression from the past ‘Sarah Cernard’ who always walked around with an icy cold expression. With that alone, it could be said that the present Sara is a different person from the past ‘Sarah Sernad’.
“…..”
The sun was really warm. In the distance, the blue sky stretched high and blue. The sight of the sky spreading all the way to the horizon made me think that I might just be blown away. If someone asks you how you feel right now, you will most likely say ‘I’m happy’.
…Although it hurts a little that you didn’t look at me, which is the only reason I’m here, but that too was a problem that time would solve. For now, I want to be satisfied with this. Because I am now under the same sky as you. Even if it doesn’t reach you, I believe that there is something left in my heart. Because I looked at the same thing as you, at least once. The fact that a woman named Sarah really loved a man named Cain von Estel will remain—
So there was no rush to anything. In the future, there will be many, many such hours left. It’s slow, but you’ll be able to enjoy life in your own way.
“…Miss Sara, could you please give me a moment?”
“…Princess Tournigen.”
…Okay, except for this truly irritating spectacle of the little duke of the Duke of Tournisen staring at him and clinging to him.
As soon as she saw Lucian’s face, Sarah unknowingly furrowed her brow. The public commented on Lucian’s face as ‘smooth’ and knew that there was a lot of demand from women, but Sarah did not like Lucian’s face that much. I don’t know since when, but Sarah didn’t like that pretty, smooth face. That’s right, shouldn’t a man have at least a reliable side like Cain-
“…why do you keep avoiding me? Are you saying that I am uncomfortable?”
do you mean that Isn’t it natural that you avoid it because you’re uncomfortable? Above all, isn’t the target you want to talk about not ‘Sarah’ of the Estel family, but ‘Sarah Cernard’ of Count Cernard? That fact, to me, irritates me more than anything in the world.
That is why I have avoided confronting you head-on until now. I have turned down situations in which I want to talk to you. But, now that I’m facing you head-on without luck, I can’t seem to avoid you now. After all, as long as Lucian von Tournisen continued to stay in the Estel family, he felt the need to pick me up and talk to me someday.
“A lowly woman meets a noble person from the Duke of Tournigen.”
Saying that, Sarah slightly lifted the hem of the dress she was wearing and bowed to Lucian. However, contrary to the gestures of such an example, Sarah’s voice was cold. However, Lucian hurriedly continued talking to Sarah, as if that was enough.
“Miss Sarah. Miss Sara, I won’t ask why you are staying here in this way. But please give me one answer. do you remember me? Haven’t we met several times since we first met at a banquet held by the Count of Lichtenburg a few years ago? Do you remember?”
ah, don’t remember I remember that very well too. How could I forget you Lucian von Tournisen was also on the list of ‘buyers’ to buy ‘Sarah Cernard’. Many of the encounters you and I faced were intentional encounters from this side, but how can we forget that fact?
“It’s true that my name is Sarah, but how could an insignificant girl like me have any contact with the Duke of Tournigen? It must be clear that the Little Duke was mistaken.”
I am no longer the ‘Sarah Cernard’ of that time. So, please leave me alone.
When Lucian made a dumbfounded expression at Sarah’s resolute denial, Sarah looked at him with a cold expressionless face and quickly turned away.
“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll step back.”
Saying that, the moment Sarah was about to leave Lucian, Lucian hurriedly grabbed Sarah’s wrist. I knew very well that it was not an example of dealing with a woman, but it was because I was in a moment of great urgency.
“Miss Sarah. I’m sure. That you are Sarah Cernard, I know. But why do you deny that you are Sarah Cernard so much?”
At Lucian’s words, Sarah almost collapsed her own expression. Lucian’s remarks, which she knew nothing about, just made Sarah feel disgusted. What the hell do you mean by saying something like that? In order to throw away the surname of ‘Cernade’, to obtain the ‘me’ of this moment, I have no idea what sacrifices I have endured!
At Lucian’s words, Sarah very slightly raised her eyebrows and faced him directly. Two eyes that fluctuate without rest and a pathetic face come into her eyes. Not even one of the elements that made up Lucian was to her liking. yes, even either one.
“…I know that too. In the Countess Sernard family, there is a noble lady who cannot be compared to a lowly woman like me.”
Yes, it was a miserable life that had to be lived as a noble doll. I was a puppet with no free will, a commodity to be sold to someone else.
“And we also know that recently, he disappeared without a trace.”
It was an escape for freedom, in which the ‘doll’ of me was reborn as a person. I thought it was enough to just be treated as missing, but I was wrong. On that day, in that forest, ‘Sarah Cernard’ should have died. If that were the case, there might not have been a man who remembered him and attacked him so sloppy.
“I understood what the Duke meant by telling me. It’s a very cheeky thing, but I think you can tell that the appearance of the insignificant me and the noble person of Count Cernard are very similar. Seeing that the Duke of Sox held onto such an insignificant woman and used her honorific title.”
Uncomfortable. ‘Sarah Cernard’ is now nothing more than a specter of the past. Like the me of the past, please don’t let anyone recognize me.
“But I think it must be the Duke’s misunderstanding. Originally, I am an insignificant woman who roamed the streets, and after being taken in by Duke Estelle, I am no more than a mean woman here. I don’t think the Duke of Sox is the one to be talked out of, and even less the one to be so considerate. If that’s not the case, did you intend to reward me with victory?”
Lucian’s face turns red at the naked words Seung-eun. Looking at the boy’s innocent behavior, Sara clicked her tongue once inside. Somehow, it seemed that he had not approached himself with a sinister intention. That didn’t mean I liked him, though.
“…Then, I’ll step back and look. Little Duke of Tournisen.”
Putting a special accent on the word ‘Duke of Tournigen’, Sara turned away from Lucian this time.
Sarah, who had been walking without looking back, let out a small sigh, realizing that the fever that had risen to the top of her head had subsided.
…To be honest, I was angry and annoyed a lot, so I regretted it because I seemed to have a tendency to talk a little arrogantly to Lucian, who was clearly a minor duke. More precisely, he did not like the situation in which Cain might be harmed because of his cheeky tone towards Lucian.
should have been patient No, I should have been patient. I really didn’t want to bother him for a girl like me, but-
But, that was the time.
“…Sarah, Cernard.”
It was a very small voice. However, in Sarah’s ears, for some reason, there was a ringing like thunder.
Unknowingly, the head turns. At the end of that gaze, a woman was staring at Sarah with her body leaning against the wall.
“We are spherical. Isn’t it?”
Sarah was also a woman she knew well. No, it would be more appropriate to describe her as a woman who had no choice but to know her well. How could she not find out? The Empire’s only princess, Iris el Devhart-
“Meet the Moon of the Empire.”
Even though Sara hurriedly bowed her head to show her respect, the princess’s expression showed no signs of changing.
“It was a greeting. Sarah Cernard. Did Cain bring you here?”
Originally, I was trying to stay still. I tried to treat her as if she didn’t exist, as she wanted. However, seeing that scene, I couldn’t stay still without saying a word. Other people might not know it, but the sight of Sarah Cernard wagging his tail at Lucian von Tournisen was something I couldn’t let go.
“…I am not Sarah Cernard. I was brought by the little duke…”
When Sara stuttered and tried to make an excuse, the princess cut off her words halfway through. It was an attitude like an abstraction that no more excuses would be tolerated.
“Agriculture should be done in moderation. Sarah Cernard. Did you think I would forget you?”
Even if the color of your hair and eyes changes, even if your impression subtly changes, even if you throw away your name at the end, there is no way I can forget you. On that day, on the terrace of the island, what kind of tryst you and Cain had, and what kind of whispers you whispered, I captured clearly in these two eyes. Where are you trying to whisper lies to me? Sarah Cernard.
“…Sir, I am just a lowly woman. It has nothing to do with the Duke-“
In response to Sarah’s urgent excuse, the princess lifted the corner of her mouth very slightly.
“No, there is. It is also very closely related.”
I’d rather not have anything to do with it.
– Kyeong-eun, are you really okay? Can you forgive a woman who was your fiancée, seeing her in the arms of another man?
– …Because I loved you. And, now that it’s all over, can’t we help it?
he had said that I loved her And that it is unavoidable. But he never looked okay. No, he had a very sad expression on his face, as if he was about to shed tears at any moment.
…I hated that. That’s why I didn’t like that woman. I hated that woman who gave you pain.
“I will give you one piece of advice. Sarah Cernard.”
Even though she knows Sarah’s intentions well, she emphasizes the word ‘Sernade’ as part of it. As if putting an indelible mark on the sinner.
“If you’re going to abandon Cain, you’d better say that from the beginning. As you did in the past, if you intend to stay by Cain’s side and switch to the Duke of Tournigen, then you should reveal your true feelings from now on.”
I just don’t understand. Why did you bring the woman who once betrayed you so close? After being betrayed, why do you trust this woman? alternatively, why?
“If that’s difficult, if you intend to stay by his side until the last moment like in the past and then betray him-“
“In the end, you will only prove that you inherited the blood of the people you hate so much.”
There was no ridicule in the princess’s voice towards Sarah. There was only a certain resolution and solemn judgment.
Leaving Sarah with a blank expression behind her back, the princess turns around her new model. At Sara Cernard, she let out a self-deprecating sneer, saying that a woman like herself had no right to say such things.