The Heroines Are After My Fortune

46 – Farewell.

Beneath a dark, star-strewn night sky.

I sat in the Roen family garden, waiting for someone.

Soon, I saw a figure approaching from afar.

“You’ve arrived.”

“…Yes.”

Her name was Rhen Este.

She said she had something she wanted to talk about separately, so I called her to our mansion. I’d made it clear to the servants that they shouldn’t even think about setting foot in the garden for a while, so there would be no one to interrupt our conversation.

“…………….”

“…………….”

Yet still, we spoke not a word, fell silent.

A hazy feeling washed over us.

That today held a very high chance of being our last.

It was Renée who broke the silence first.

“Will Sir Caesar’s problem be resolved smoothly, do you think?”

“Yes, it seems there shouldn’t be any major issues.”

Caesar, though a high-level criminal with a record of numerous assassinations, is said to be receiving a degree of pull from the Imperial Faction as thanks for taking the head of a key Noble Faction figure. Of course, the fact that the push was greatly helped by the paintings I offered as bribes is undeniable.

Anyway, if we wait a bit, he’ll be cleansed, so no need to worry. I tell Renée this, indirectly, and she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Phew, that’s good. Once things have calmed, I’m thinking of returning the Este Estate to Lady Sasha. Though of course, that’s if she wants it…”

“A good idea. Lady Sasha will surely be pleased.”

Even if Raphael has shit all over it, a family with the heritage of the Este Marquisate is rare. If we consider only Sasha’s future, following her mother and receiving the Este Estate is a very good choice indeed.

My words are met with another silence,

She studies the atmosphere, then soon asks me.

“Aiden, you said back then, that after it was all done, I could resent you.”

“Yes, I did say that.”

“Is it because you were planning all of this from the start?”

At Renée’s question, I closed my eyes for a moment.

I quietly nodded.

“Yes, from the start I knew I’d be locked in a fight to the death with Marquis Raphael. Lady Rienne, she was…how to put it, used, in all of this.”

“Used, you say.”

“Truth is, this whole affair was a massive gamble with nothing solid to hold onto. A gamble where your very life was on the line. If I were truly thinking of you, I’d have let you run away on your own. But instead, without even telling you how dangerous this was, I just used sweet talk to stop the wedding, and dragged you into this.”

“…………….”

“I guess I thought, if you were going to die anyway, it’d be less of a burden on my conscience if it happened in my plan.”

Rienne’s face turned serious.

If she’d grown attached to me during our hundred days, I thought, I’d need to break it.

“Why do you keep acting like the bad guy?”

“……Huh?”

“It wasn’t only my life on the line. Yours was in danger too. It doesn’t make sense that if you were thinking of me, you’d have made me run away. If you did, I wouldn’t have the strength to survive on my own. And Aedan, you wouldn’t do that.”

I’d failed spectacularly.

Not a trace of ‘anger’ could be found in her expression.

Why does she think so highly of me?

“From the start, I’d been living comfortably under the protection of the Marquis’ family, so what could I even do after throwing it all away and running? Thanks to your plan, I had so many new experiences and was able to think about the meaning of my own life for the first time. How could I possibly hate you?”

“Uh, well……”

Sweat beaded on my forehead.

Rienne, who had been smiling at me, now squinted her eyes.

“Of course, that day, when you played with my body so roughly, that was a bit much…”

“Someone might misunderstand if they heard that.”

“Hmph, let them.”

Rene, head whipping away, feigns offense.

Anyone who knew her usual self wouldn’t even imagine she possessed this side. Soon, her playful mood settling, Rene met my eyes with a somewhat somber look.

“I… I received an offer from Varran, to become the head of the family.”

“I did think it was a possibility, but still….”

I knew there was something dramatic about her expression, it was indeed about the family head position.

In this empire, it is extremely rare for a woman to become the head of a noble house. Even more so when the Este family, who secretly upheld ‘only men,’ does this kind of radical thing.

If she becomes the head of the Este family like this, her place within the empire will shift fundamentally. Considering most young ladies come onto the marriage market as mere ‘children’ of noble houses, she, coming with the ‘head of family’ position, would hold a thug-like power in the strategic marriage market, even princesses can be dismissed as ‘nothing’.

‘I knew her stature would grow, but not to this extent.’

Now she’s become a marriage prospect worthy even of the imperial family or a foreign royal house. It is a little bitter, but it’s a good thing for her.

“Congratulations.”

“…I haven’t accepted yet, you know?”

“………?”

Rene pouts again.

I was bewildered.

“Wasn’t that what you were trying to say, by telling me?”

If you become the leader of such a grand family, the gains you’d receive would be overwhelming. The fact that there’s nothing to even think about was my personal opinion.

“…Aiden, do you…want me to become the head of the family?”

“Isn’t that obvious? It’s the family head position, no less…”

I said, but then I looked at Rene’s face and instantly swallowed my breath.

Tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sorry, why is this, all of a sudden…”

A tear, then another, traced a path down her cheek.

I thought I had a vague sense of what her tears meant.

“If I don’t want to wake from the beautiful dream you showed me, is that greed?”

“…………”

For Rene, this journey of a hundred days seemed to hold a significance far greater than anything the immense title of Marquis’s heir could offer.

‘…Is it the same for me, as well?’

The things we’d achieved together, racing heedlessly toward the same goal, held no light meaning for me, either.

But I couldn’t play the director forever, and Rene, a high noble, couldn’t be an actress forever, either.

A dream, in the end, is something you eventually wake from.

And the more beautiful it is, the more painful it will be, just like now.

“To confine you to that dream is by no means for your own good.”

“I know, everyone I ask will tell me to become the heir. But you’re the one who showed me that it’s okay not to live as others say.”

“……..”

I couldn’t say a thing.

Her trembling hand took mine.

“Heirship or whatever, it doesn’t matter. What do *you* want, tell me what’s truly in your heart.”

Her words, as if pleading for me not to leave,

I felt many things I had firmly resolved shaking greatly in that moment.

Rene, who already possessed a lethal beauty like a rose’s thorns, had matured greatly on the inside through this experience. Surely, to marry her and build a family would not be a bad choice.

‘But not yet…, neither I nor she should stop here.’

Thinking of my old world, of Elena, it wasn’t easy for me to choose to stay by Rhena’s side. A day might come when I’d regret this choice.

But right now, I decided I’d whisper these words to her.

A line so familiar to her, the star of my film.

“…The moon’s beautiful tonight. Don’t you think?”

Rhena, she froze, still as a stone.

“…………….”

Just staring into my eyes like that, without a word—

“Pffft…!”

She burst into laughter.

She laughed like that for a long while.

“…That’s just like you. Hiding the truth in these nonsensical words and actions, always making me realize things.”

Rhena’s hair, fluttering in the cool breeze.

With a smile as fresh as the new moon, she asked,

“Eiden-nim, would you like to dance with me?”

“I would.”

Rhena, replying to my line as Daniel, with her line as Luna.

Our hands joined, we stood face to face.

Neither of us saying who started, we naturally began to move, stepping in time, one foot after the other.

The chirping of the insects was our music,

The brilliant moonlight was a spotlight.

“………….”

“………….”

They simply danced, without words, eyes locked onto each other. In clasping hands, they’d tacitly agreed.

To create an unforgettable memory, then bid each other farewell.

But first, there was something to be done.

A key to reaching ‘unspoken truths.’

A ‘half-lie’ was needed.

“What do you think my strengths are, Miss Rhene?”

“Umm, being handsome and rich…?”

“Could you at least put some effort into your lie, Miss Rhene?”

“…I’m not very good at lying.”

Quietly, she murmured ‘—for you,’ Aiden thought it a lie because he didn’t see himself as handsome, but the lie she’d told lay elsewhere.

‘Your true strengths aren’t looks or wealth.’

Rather, she felt those prominent exterior traits obscured the real ‘Aiden Loen’.

The courage to stand boldly against the Marquis, even at the risk of death, the warmth that led him to endure hardships for a single woman he could’ve left to die, the wisdom to devise a way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Even just now, so many strengths were coming to mind.

Right now, they had no choice but to lie to each other,

but someday, she wanted to tell him, truly.

It was Rhene’s turn to ask.

A question she’d held in her heart for quite a long time.

“Between me and the Saintess, who’s prettier?”

“……………”

His face, caught in a checkmate, instantly stiffened.

Even if the situation demanded a lie, could he just blurt out that the Saintess was prettier? Yet, saying Renée was prettier would become a backhanded ‘actually the Saintess is prettier’, making the situation even more dreadful.

‘The important thing is the intention behind the words!’

“The Saintess is pret- ugh—!”

No sooner had he spoken, than his foot was stomped on with a solid crunch.

“No, my Lady, this is just a matter of…!”

“Y-yes, ah, I was aware of that, but…”

“Then why…?”

“I’m sorry. Sometimes, a woman’s emotions just overwhelm her reason…”

“Ugh…”

She, too, knew Aiden’s intentions, but as soon as she heard mention of the Saintess, a surge of jealousy had made her foot act on its own accord. It was such an involuntary reflex she was taken aback herself.

The stomping ceased, and Aiden and Renée, hands now clasped together, locked eyes.

Now that they had each acknowledged their true feelings, it was time to bring this to a close.

“…We should probably finish this up. Any final words, perhaps?”

“Yes, there are.”

Renée, gathering her hands together, took a deep breath.

She had a truth she had yet to speak, a truth she was resolved to tell him.

‘But……’

It shouldn’t have been this way.

They should’ve finished like two characters in a film, with a pretty little “I’ll never forget this day,” and then gone their separate ways.

That’s what Aiden wanted, for sure, and Renée would’ve agreed. She squeezed her eyes shut and said,

“I-I’ll become the head of the house.”

Aiden nodded, bitter but as if it were a good choice.

“And then I’ll make the Este family a power second to none.”

“Excellent. I, from the shadows, will always root for you, my lady—”

“But, do you know…? No matter how much I imagine it, not having you in my future is worse than anything.”

“…………!!”

*Aknyeo*,

A wicked, bad woman.

Renée Este wasn’t the kind, obedient woman to drop one thing for another. Even if they laughed and pointed, that feeling wouldn’t change.

“Aiden Roen—.”

She finally pulled out the unsaid truth, that she’d pressed deep down,

“…I love you.”

“…………….”

The moment her words fell,

it felt like time stopped.

*Ah……….*

Breath hitched, forgot even that, just stared dumbstruck at her face. This was her, truly herself, laid bare—more beautiful than ever before.

‘This is… insane, for real.’

Face burning hot, like it was charring.

Her words, that she wanted to walk with me, despite whatever long, thorny path might lie ahead. Never thought, in all my life, I’d get a confession so, so flustering.

How I answer now, it’ll twist the whole damn course of my life.

She’d bared her soul, so now it was my turn to do the same.

And I came to one conclusion:

‘…I won’t answer her confession.’

Or, no, not exactly *not* answering, more like… there wasn’t a need for an answer.

You don’t need words to tell a truth, after all. Like handling a piece of art, with the utmost care, I touched her cheek, met her eyes.

And without a word, she closed her own.

I moved in, slow, towards her lips.

“……”

Our lips, meeting gently.

They stayed like that, unparting, for a long, long time, until, with a lingering ache, they finally drew back.

“…Will you wait for me? Me?”

“For how long?”

“Three years. I’ll come back, I swear, someone who won’t be less than the name of the Duke’s heir.”

“…Three years. You’re saying three years.”

Rene, she’d follow me through those thorns, but I’d never let her walk that road. That was why I chose to meet her, high up above, later. She thought it over a bit, but she couldn’t sway my will.

“Alright, I’ll wait.”

“Truly!”

“But in return, you must fill me beforehand. Three years’ worth.”

“Fill you with… what!?”

It was a sudden ambush.

Renée, lifting herself onto her tiptoes, gently pressed her lips against mine.

Feeling the softness of her lips, I carefully-

“…Eep!”

I’d inserted my tongue, but Renée, startled, pulled away.

Where had her earlier boldness gone? Her face was flushed like a beet.

“What is that. S-suddenly, your tongue….”

“Why are you like this? Wasn’t it you, young lady, who asked me to fill you for three years?”

“That’s right, but… but…!”

A small groan escaped her, and then, with quick steps, she came right in front of me and then, poof, she hugged me tightly.

“It’s the first time I’ve kissed a man, so I was a little surprised…”

“…!”

“If we do it again, it will surely, wa, wait just a—!”

I couldn’t hold back any longer and covered Renée’s lips with my own.

At first, she was flustered, but slowly, she followed my movements.

“….”

“………….”

And so, she and I kissed again and again.

As if determined to tear down the invisible wall between us.

Leaving behind this day’s happiness, we had a long road to travel.

But I felt no fear.

For I held not a single doubt that she and I would meet again and walk the same path.

Under the moonlight, we bade each other a temporary farewell.