Adelina shook her hand, and the servant lowered their head and exited the room.
Left alone, Adelina let out a heavy sigh.
"Is this for the best?"
They had definitely escaped the life where they had to worry about surviving day by day. However, she couldn't shake off the feeling that, instead of having overcome a crisis, she had only dug herself deeper into a hole. The people devotedly bringing in their luggage were servants by name, but they were actually people who were stationed here to watch them.
She was able to save Nisha, but she ended up turning her family into hostages in the process.
"Did you say that the General was staying in the capital?"
"Yes, ma'am. I heard that he arrived last night under Imperial orders."
She heard that her marriage partner, the General, was stubbornly refusing to obey the Imperial decree and told the emperor that he would never marry her.
If this marriage didn't happen, then everything Adelina had wanted to protect would disappear.
Getting up from her seat, Adelina rang the bell on the table. A servant entered the room.
"I must get ready to go out."
"Where are you going?"
The path that she had chosen to take… She had already received the reward that came with it.
"I am going to see the General."
The servant's eyes widened at Adelina's words, but Adelina remained calm.
It was a bit ridiculous for a woman to go to the man before their marriage, but in this situation, she was the more eager party.
Adelina swallowed her shaky breath and smiled.
* * *
Ethan received the Imperial decree to marry the daughter of Scarr, whose family had been restored to their previous status. Ethan refused to obey, and the Consort clung to the emperor, but the emperor still did not back down.
After having left the Palace, Ethan still did not plan on going through with the Imperial decree. There was only one thing that was making him consider changing his mind.
'This marriage must never happen! You must take back the Imperial decree no matter what!'
Consort Min's reaction was strangely fierce as she protested this order. For some reason, Ethan's curiosity was piqued. This was different from a normal protest against having him marry the daughter of an abandoned noble.
"Huu."
Leaning back against the seat of the carriage, Ethan closed his eyes. He wanted to return to the bamboo grove this instant, but the emperor had ordered him to stay in the capital until his decree was carried out.
"Master, there is a guest waiting for you."
Ethan's eyes narrowed at the news.
With the exception of the time when Cedric had barged in here without notice, Ethan never let someone into his personal space. Because he absolutely hated interacting with other people outside, one of the first things John did was get to the location first and hold Ethan's spot.
"They said if they waited for you somewhere else, it would be difficult to meet with you, so they said they'd wait outside. However, that didn't seem proper, so Elly let them in. But they said they didn't want to be a nuisance, so they insisted on waiting outside the receiving room."
Hearing John's report, Ethan entered his residence with a stiff face. Just as he said, a lady with a hooded cape was standing quietly in the wide yard.
"Mm?"
He had definitely believed he'd never see this woman again.
She was no longer wearing the worn clothes that were easy to move in. They were replaced by wide silk skirts. Her ponytail tied up with a worn out piece of cloth had disappeared and was replaced with a braid.
Her unusually tranquil expression and the quiet aura were still the same, but it made everything feel more amiss.
"I came without permission. I apolo— … Ah!"
As soon as she saw Ethan, Adelina quickly lowered her head and caught her breath.
Unable to speak in such a confusing situation, Adelina furrowed her brow.
Even if it were a coincidence, how could this be? The rude, terrifying man was Consort Min's son and the General. She felt as if she had hit a wall before she'd even started.
"I never expected we'd meet again."
"If you planned on apologizing, then you shouldn't have come here from the start. Isn't that right?"
John trembled when he heard Ethan's terrifying reply.
Ethan had always caught the eyes of many ladies. However, he shunned them and never trusted them. Therefore, when a woman showed interest and approached him, they'd end up running away, pierced by his cold words.
As if she'd been flustered by his speech as well, Adelina flinched, but her normal expression soon returned. A calm voice left her lips.
"I am Ju Adelina. I had something to discuss with you, so I inevitably made the trip here."
Ethan's brow flinched when he saw that she wasn't intimidated by him. He knew that she wasn't the type of person to let the other have the last word, but now that they were face to face like this, he felt even more uncomfortable.
There was no way a woman could be so calm if she hadn't known everything beforehand.
"Did you already know what would happen that day?"
"Excuse me?"
She had gone outside because she had heard a shrill voice. Adelina was about to tell him this was all a misunderstanding, but Ethan spoke up first.
"I have nothing to say to you. Go back."
He cut her off before she could make an attempt to speak with him. As expected, there was no way a man who refused an Imperial decree would change his mind just because of her words.
However, with no other choice, this was the best Adelina could do.
"I won't take long. Just a little bit of your time is enough for me, so I would like to speak with you."
"It seems that young ladies these days are bold enough to personally visit a man who may or may not be their marriage partner. Either that or you just don't think at all."
Whenever she tossed him one, he'd return with ten. She didn't know how the most difficult man she'd met in her life ended up becoming her fiancé.
"If there is something you must take care of first, then I will wait."
"What if I don't give you an opportunity at all?"
"Then I will still wait. That's all I can do."
He knew she wasn't easy when they first met, but the more they interacted, the more he realized how stubborn she was. The person who'd be disappointed was her, and in her position, she should lower herself and ask for mercy. But instead, she was telling him that she'd wait and endure. For some reason, this bothered Ethan.
Either way, she's a woman who will return to the Crown Prince. Even though she had the Crown Prince, she still came to see him. This was unbelievable.
"Do you know that the sight of you just makes me angrier?"
Anxiously enduring this treatment, Adelina's body flinched and trembled. Seeing her reaction, Ethan's brows furrowed.
Although she acted strong, she had transformed back into a weak maiden. This was such a familiar sight that Ethan's deep-rooted resentment began to twist inside his chest once again.
The more he saw her, the more she reminded him of his mother.
He wanted to kick her as soon as possible, but he didn't think this woman would leave that easily.
"Come in."
It would be better to make it so that the word 'marriage' never left her lips. Either way, this stubborn woman was no different from his mother.
Taking his eyes off of Adelina, Ethan began to walk up the steps.