Chapter 12. What’s Meant to Happen Will Happen

‘She must be someone who can’t freely enter this place.’

Even though the gathering allowed relatively free entry, guests who didn’t match the proper status were treated as unwelcome intruders and chased away after being beaten.

Despite this, she was someone who had donned men’s clothes because she absolutely needed to meet someone. Since she tried to sneak into the hunting grounds, the person she came to meet must be one of the men who went on the driven hunt.

Come to think of it……

They say Andrew Thompson’s wife in the past wasn’t a noble but a butcher’s daughter. The family’s opposition was fierce right up until the marriage, but she wasn’t sure why this thought suddenly came to mind.

“Perhaps the person you came to meet is…… from the Thompson family.”

She didn’t even need to finish saying the name. The woman’s eyes had already begun to tremble like aspen leaves.

‘Ah. Could it be.’

Even though she wanted to remain ignorant, she kept making assumptions.

Somehow, Andrew and this woman had felt a powerful attraction to each other.

But the man already had a fiancée, and this fact would be publicly announced at this hunting gathering.

The woman had resigned herself, yet her heart hadn’t fully accepted it, so she had rushed here impulsively.

Before it became irreversible, she wanted to meet the man.

‘What’s meant to happen will happen.’

As if to prove that saying with her whole body, there was a man and woman who had finally met despite all manner of obstacles and missed connections.

To them, Lottie herself could only be a villainess separating the two because of her selfish desire to live well alone.

‘What…… was I trying to do?’

She didn’t want to be a villainess. She never wanted to sacrifice someone else’s happiness for her own.

Lottie looked at the woman with strangely bright eyes. After looking at the leather shoes the woman wore, which were only slightly too big for her, she shifted her gaze to her own shoes.

Her decision didn’t take long.

“Miss. Take off your clothes. I’ll bring that man to you.”

* * *

Shortly after, someone wearing a dark green jacket and pants with tall boots carefully slipped out of the small house’s garden.

Being taller and slimmer than the woman who had worn the clothes before, there was no unfortunate dragging of clothes on the ground like a bundle.

With all her hair twisted up and hidden inside a hat, Lottie moved forward quickly while surveying her surroundings.

It was almost noon. The time when tired hunters would gather at the small house to rest and boast about their trophies.

The man who was supposed to receive his fiancée’s handkerchief, as arranged by adults without any regard for his wishes, would be forcing his reluctant feet to move.

— A red number card was placed in my hand before I knew it. I thought there couldn’t possibly be someone with the same number among the hundreds of cards, so I was about to leave when……

When the good girl who helped her father hurried to the entrance of the Grand Park, a neat young man who had drawn the same number was standing there, she said. It was Andrew.

Despite the cunning interference of someone who had glimpsed the future, the man had still managed to draw the same number as his wife from his previous life.

What else could you call that but fate?

Lottie exchanged a few more words with the woman as they swapped clothes, and she became convinced. That what’s meant to happen will happen. That predestined connections cannot be severed by human power.

And so the two of them would have inevitably fallen in love, with no way to prevent it.

But Andrew Thompson was a good son who dared not defy his family elders.

So while his heart was elsewhere, he would have forced himself to write formal letters to his fiancée.

Lottie wanted to tell this foolishly good and naive man what he would lose while being good and listening to his family elders.

‘He should definitely come back this way…… Why can’t I see him anywhere?’

Lottie walked almost at a run, anxious. Thankfully, she was wearing comfortable shoes.

* * *

At that moment, Calyx was wandering alone through the hunting grounds, separated from the main hunting party.

He knew his every move was being monitored, but he hadn’t expected Luka to follow him to the hunting gathering he had decided to attend just the day before.

He recalled Luka’s face as he pretended they had met by chance after hurriedly following him.

How amusing it had been. The memory was still fresh of Luka falling on his backside, startled by the barking of hunting dogs as he nervously watched Calyx, afraid he might make contact with hardliners of the Cream Party like Councilman Bermian.

He remembered that the person who extended a hand to the fallen Luka was, coincidentally, Andrew Thompson.

— If you don’t want that woman to fall into the crown prince’s hands, isn’t this the best outcome? If left alone, she’ll become another man’s woman.

Seeing that man, he became convinced that his helper’s words were entirely correct.

He knew that if he just stayed out of it, it would be the best possible outcome. For himself, for his comrades, and for the woman who would become that man’s wife.

‘So in the end, I’m the only problem?’

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but it was difficult to shake off.

Andrew Thompson’s eyes, as transparent and honest as that woman’s, made spending time with him increasingly unbearable, and Calyx eventually broke away from the returning group.

Walking aimlessly like this, he could understand why that woman walked persistently whenever her thoughts became complicated. Although he was now comfortably seated on a saddle.

— Next time, I’ll teach you horseback riding, my lady.

It was now an empty promise with no use.

He should stop now. With that thought, Calyx tightened his grip on the reins he had been holding loosely. The white horse that had been walking slowly stopped with a snort.

At that moment, a black figure burst out from a thicket.

“……!”

A deer with light green eyes. No.

“Charlotte.”

“……?! What are you doing here again?!”

‘Again.’ The word made the name of the woman he had unconsciously called out seem out of place.

What a face, as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have. And what about her own appearance?

“And what about you, my lady? From the look of things, you don’t seem to be here to enjoy tea time.”

His tone became sharp unintentionally. Look? Lottie’s brow furrowed, then her expression changed as if suddenly remembering something she had forgotten.

“Since time is short, I’ll ask my question briefly. Do you happen to know where the gentlemen you were hunting with are?”

It was no coincidence that Andrew Thompson came to Calyx’s mind at that question.

Ah. So the impatient lady came not for tea time but to enjoy the hunt?

“Am I obligated to answer you?”

“I believe you’re not the type who lacks that much generosity.”

“Based on what?”

“Be-because you’re a gentleman.”

“The idea that every gentleman in the world must show manners to you seems rather weakly founded.”

Calyx spoke teasingly, then straightened his face, which had been mixed with laughter.

She couldn’t waste time trading jokes here when time was of the essence. Lottie took a step forward, then froze in place, seized by déjà vu.

Calyx Valdea looking down at her from atop his horse. The rifle slung over his shoulder.

His eyes, cold as ice despite his smile.

“……You committed a terrible wrong. Against me…… and many others.”

The moment he heard Lottie’s trembling words, Calyx recalled asking her before if he had ever wronged her greatly.

“I believe that responsibility for wrongdoing…… is something that any human being, not just gentlemen, should bear.”

“Take responsibility without even knowing what my wrongdoing is.”

“You won’t need to know the specific details since I won’t ask for any further responsibility.”

And because the price you’re paying is far too small compared to the wrong you committed!

Lottie swallowed those words. Even to her, the logic of making him pay in this life for wrongs committed in his past life seemed forced. But given the nature of the matter, she decided to be brazen.

“And if it’s not too presumptuous, I’d like you to get off your horse for a moment……”

“Pfft…… Hahaha!”

The laughter coming from the saddle was so cheerful that Lottie momentarily thought she had made a joke worthy of a royal court jester.

Calyx Valdea was laughing on his horse.

With a gun ready to fire at any moment slung over his shoulder, as if he found something utterly amusing and delightful.

‘Why on earth?’

Well, because you’re the first person to talk about wrongdoing in front of the deposed prince who killed his father.

Through his own uncontrollable laughter, Calyx Valdea became certain.

In front of this woman alone, he didn’t have to be the infamous Calyx Valdea.

She didn’t fear him despite his notorious reputation, which had been inflated enough to obscure the truth; she demanded he take responsibility for his wrongs, and then presumed to forgive him herself.

That audacity made him laugh.

“Haha……”

Not understanding why he was laughing, Lottie eventually chose to follow suit and laugh vacantly. Meanwhile, Calyx decided to grant her request.

Calyx jumped down from the saddle and strode toward Lottie.

His eyes, shining in the midday sun, narrowed into crescents as they focused on Lottie.

His eyes were a fresh reddish-brown, as if they contained the forest trees. Not the dead blue color from Lottie’s final memory.

“Let’s go.”

“What?”

Lottie’s sense of dissonance didn’t last long. The Calyx standing before her suddenly pulled her toward his horse.