Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 262

Whenever Adam so much as opened his mouth…

“Investment is out of the question. So go wherever you please. Since I’d like to sleep in, you may as well have breakfast before you return.”

She had drawn a line colder than ice.

Adam scoffed and stepped out through the front gates. That was how he gradually became even more of a libertine.

‘It’s all because of you.’

If you had kept holding onto me back then, I would have given up in the end.

But you weren’t pure or virtuous enough to change me.

When I first met you, I thought you were a saint. I thought you had come to cleanse me.

But in the end, it was you who became tainted by me.

That was all you ever amounted to.

‘You were… truly a woman who did not suit me.’

Adam mainly sought out women who were the complete opposite of her.

Women with flimsy morals, who understood how harsh the world was, and therefore could accept his depravity. Women who molded themselves to suit him.

There were many such women.

But even among them, Lilith was particularly striking.

A breathtakingly beautiful woman.

Anyone who watched her dance would fall into a trance.

By the time the music ended, a possessiveness would rise unbidden.

In that moment, Adam had removed the ring from his left hand and risen from his seat.

He had confidently walked over to the woman surrounded by a swarm of men and invited her to dance.

After several refusals, he was finally able to waltz with her.

Face to face at last, their eyes met.

Everything about her was different from Evelyn.

Rather, she resembled the women who always conformed to him.

But there was one thing—one thing that seemed unchanging, eternal—that captivated him.

Her gaze.

That unmistakable innocence born of ignorance.

The unshaken belief in eternity that he could no longer find in the Evelyn he had sullied.

He was likely the only one who had glimpsed that purity in a woman already so defiled.

It had been a remarkable discovery.

As if spellbound, he had spoken—

“Be with me.”

“And who do you think you are?”

“A man with wealth and status.”

“I already have more than I can count of those.”

“But among them, is there anyone who will take responsibility for you forever?”

Eternity.

He had anticipated that word would shake her.

Adam had even forgotten his own circumstances. He had never intended to deceive her until the end. It was merely that his hand had been light.

His hand had been light, and so he had momentarily forgotten his own position. That was all.

“If you must love, then you should love a man who can take responsibility for you.”

“…Can you truly be that man?”

“Of course.”

Adam had spoken with conviction, raising his empty left hand.

“My love is an empty place. If you fill it, only then will it be complete.”

…He does not think it was a lie. By then, he had already ceased to love Evelyn. And so, the ring had been nothing more than a formality.

He had loved Lilith, and even now, he continued to love her. As promised, he had taken responsibility for both her and her child.

Perhaps when he grew older, his love might cool slightly, but… He would uphold his responsibility.

As long as Lilith loved him to the end. As long as she did not grow clouded like Evelyn.

“You never loved me, nor did you ever stand by my side.”

The eternal young noble lady of Lasphilla—Evelyn Lasphilla.

That is why I had no choice but to kill you.

* * *

Past midnight.

The Garnet Room was dark. Cecilia lit the oil lamp.

“Miss Lilith, do you still have that dress?”

“You mean… the former Countess’s wedding dress?”

Lilith hesitated before carefully opening the wardrobe and retrieving a box from the corner.

“Yes, it’s still here.”

“…I see.”

While she had been in Mannheim, Lilith had likely barely used this room. She must have spent most nights with Father instead.

That meant there had been plenty of opportunities to search an empty room. Even if it hadn’t been Louise, any of the other maids of Coffret Manor could have come and gone under the pretense of cleaning.

‘Had it not been found? Or had it simply not been taken out?’

Even in her past life, no major event had occurred after she returned from the capital, so it was more likely that it had not been found.

Because she knew that future, she had left the dress untouched until now.

But she did not know what would happen from here on.

“Let’s… burn this.”

“B-But it’s a keepsake! If we treat it carelessly, the Countess’s spirit will haunt us.”

To believe in such superstitions—that’s really just like her mother.

“It’s fine. If anything, she will be grateful for having her traces erased.”

“D-Do you think so? To be honest, I did feel a little uneasy keeping it around…”

“Yes. It’s okay to burn it.”

The former Countess’s original intention had been to find someone capable of identifying the substance hidden within this dress.

That someone had become her.

‘I will inherit your vengeance.’

So, Evelyn Lasphilla, the true mistress of Coffret Manor.

‘May you finally rest in peace.’

Cecilia later burned the wedding dress and scattered the remaining ashes far away.

Hoping that, carried by the western wind, she might travel freely wherever she wished… And finally settle upon some warm, peaceful plain.