Chapter 99

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: A Broken Promise
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Cesare doesn’t lie to Aileen. He would choose silence over falsehoods, so to Aileen, he was always true.

This time, too, Cesare had to be serious. If Aileen promised him, Cesare would tell her everything she wanted to know.

But Aileen could not make that promise. It would shake the very foundation of her being.

Her mother had always taught her that their lives belonged to the Prince. Even her last words to Aileen were for the Prince’s sake.

“My dearest Lily.”

“Live for the Prince.”

With a face pallid with sickness, her parched lips trembled, and her eyes held a bizarre gleam. That gaze, a mixture of jealousy, anger, and love, embedded itself in Aileen’s heart and took deep root. Her last words were like a curse.

But Aileen willingly accepted her mother’s curse. Truthfully, even if not for her mother, she would have lived for the Prince.

Therefore, Aileen could not lie and say she would not die for Cesare.

As the silence stretched on, Cesare smiled quietly. A twisted smile hung on his lips, as if he had known from the start that Aileen would be unable to answer.

The moment she saw that smile, the words slipped out on their own, before her mind could even properly register them.

“…You too, Cesare.”

It was instinct. The same feeling she’d had before, when she saw his smooth, scarless palm and asked how he knew about the wedding ring in the diary. Once again, the intuition from that day seized Aileen powerfully.

“If you promise you won’t die for me.”

Aileen slowly moved her lips and spoke.

“Then I’ll promise, too.”

She had thought it was ridiculous the moment it crossed her mind, but saying it out loud was simply absurd. Cesare, giving up his life for her. Cesare himself must be dumbfounded to hear it.

Even while thinking the sky falling was more likely, Aileen couldn’t stop herself from speaking. She didn’t understand her own heart, but in this moment, she desperately wanted a firm answer from him. She wanted to be promised life, not death.

Having finished speaking, Aileen lowered her gaze, which had been meeting Cesare’s. She was afraid of how Cesare would react to her nonsense. She just hoped he wouldn’t mock her too cruelly.

As she waited nervously for his reaction, she heard the sound of laughter. Aileen cautiously lifted her head.

Cesare was laughing. At a glance, he seemed to be laughing in amusement, but there was a chill to his laughter. Aileen’s shoulders hunched even more.

“This is a problem.”

He looked at Aileen, his eyes curved into crescents from laughing. Then he whispered words she couldn’t understand.

“I’ve already broken that promise.”

Aileen couldn’t understand what he was saying. She wondered if she had misheard and considered asking him to repeat it, but she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Cesare pulled his chair a little closer. Aileen found herself all but trapped between his legs. He took Aileen’s hand without asking for permission.

The gesture seemed careless, but the hand that held hers caressed it gently. As if just holding it wasn’t enough, Cesare took off his leather glove.

Skin met skin. It was just a handhold, but she felt a tingling sensation deep in her lower abdomen. She became strangely conscious of the firm thighs that had trapped her legs. Aileen’s gaze lost its focus and wavered.

Since marrying him, they had only been intimate twice. After that, Cesare was so busy that it was rare for them to even sleep in the same bed together. Most of the time, she would fall asleep first, and he would stop by the bedroom for a while before leaving before she woke.

Aileen swallowed without realizing it. Unlike Aileen, who was already trembling with nervousness, he said nothing, simply lowering his gaze and toying with her hand.

He stroked the length of her fingers, rubbed the tips of her nails. Then, slowly, he interlaced their fingers. Their fingers tangled, fitting together tightly. Was it because her senses had become so sensitive? Even the simple act of her hand being caressed felt sensual.

After playing with Aileen’s hand as he pleased for a while, Cesare suddenly pulled it.

“Ah!”

Just as Aileen let out a surprised sound, her upper body tilted forward, and their lips met. He kissed her naturally, as if they had planned it from the start.

As he pushed his tongue between her parted lips, he squeezed their interlaced hands hard enough to make them ache slightly. Aileen shivered at the tingling sensation that came with the faint pain.

Cesare kept one hand interlaced with hers and caressed the small of her back with the other. Each time his long fingers traced down her straight spine, vertebra by vertebra, Aileen let out a small moan.

“Hngh…”

As the moan escaped between their briefly parted lips, Cesare immediately pressed his mouth to hers again, swallowing the sound. The rough slide against the sensitive roof of her mouth made her tailbone tingle.

Her mouth completely plundered by the intruder, Aileen’s head spun from lack of air. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them. For a brief moment, their lips parted. The moment she inhaled, the kiss resumed.

It felt as if the kiss was stealing her very mind. As heat rose and clouded her thoughts, an idea suddenly occurred to her.

*‘So in the end, you won’t tell me anything.’*

Are we just going to move past it like this again? Of course, Aileen hadn’t met his demand either, but…

Helplessly swept away by the kiss, Aileen gently pushed against Cesare’s chest with her free hand. She also tried to pull her intertwined hand free. It was a signal to stop kissing and talk.

But Cesare seemed to take it differently. He did not permit her refusal. His grip not loosening, Aileen called his name the moment their lips parted.

“Cesare…”

But he didn’t answer. There was no time to say anything. Aileen was kissed so thoroughly she couldn’t find a moment’s respite.

When the kiss finally ended, Aileen looked at Cesare, her eyes full of unspoken words. He gently wiped her wet lips with his hand and said,

“You’re fine not knowing, aren’t you?”

Back when she was his child, it would have been fine. But she didn’t want that now. When Aileen shook her head, Cesare looked directly into her eyes. It was a gaze that searched her thoroughly, as if trying to uncover something he didn’t know.

“What is it you want to know so badly? When you can’t even make a promise.”

Feeling wronged, Aileen immediately retorted.

“Y-You can’t make the promise either, Cesare.”

“So you’re saying you can’t?”

“Yes…”

He gave a short laugh. Soon, all expression vanished from Cesare’s face. Faced with his blank expression, Aileen froze. The realization that she had been too impudent came too late.

“I’m sorry.”

Even though she apologized immediately, Cesare remained silent. He just looked at Aileen like that for a while. It wasn’t a long time, but to Aileen, it felt like an eternity. Unable to bear the sharp silence, she moved her lips.

“I just…”

At her thoroughly cowed mumble, Cesare covered his eyes with his hand. After covering his red eyes for a moment, Cesare stood from the chair and turned away. He walked to the window, gazed at the forest beyond the glass, and then turned back to Aileen.

All that time, Aileen had remained frozen in place. She was so tense she felt as if her body was growing cold.

Cesare looked down at Aileen and opened his arms. The gaze that had been as sharp as a honed blade had somehow dulled. Aileen quickly stood up and fell into his embrace. Cesare whispered a low excuse.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

His hand, patting her faintly trembling body, was gentle. This was the Cesare Aileen knew well. How long did she remain in his arms? Cesare muttered as if to himself.

“Difficult. I think you listened better when you were younger.”

She was an adult now, so it was only natural that she would be different. But she tactfully swallowed the response she wanted to give. Instead, she said something else.

“I wasn’t scared.”

She hadn’t frozen because she was truly scared of Cesare. She was just afraid, for a moment, that his affection for her had waned.

It was a relationship with no guarantee of permanence. An endlessly one-sided, top-down relationship where the power dynamic was clearly defined. Everything could only be obtained with his permission. The hidden truth, and affection…

There was nothing Aileen could have for herself.

A wave of emotion suddenly surging, Aileen stood on her tiptoes with all her might. And then she pressed her lips to the corner of Cesare’s mouth.

She had intended to kiss his lips, but she was trembling, and her aim was off. Cesare’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Aileen, watching his reaction, gently kissed his lips this time. All the while, Cesare let Aileen do as she pleased.

She couldn’t possess his affection, but she could at least express her own. Of course, this too was only possible within the bounds Cesare permitted. Aileen sought from him the expression of affection she was allowed.

“Hold me…”