"Im sorry but I really can't do this, I'm fed up with living under others' shadows, be it under your father's shadow or my father's shadow, I'm fed up with being treated like a commodity sold to you by those in the high society, even though they treat me with respect when they are in my front but at my back, they relate all my success to our father's influence and believe that I have everything handed to me," Leonard said with pain evident in his voice, this is the first time he is bearing his emotions, especially his pains bare to someone, even Alaric can only guess based on how long they have been together but even in front of him, he has never openly shown his feelings.
"Vivian even if everyone did not know, you know right, you know how much I worked for this, you know if only we had fallen in love normally without our parent's influence whereby my father had not gotten me engaged to you in exchange for more power and wealth then maybe I would have been like those noble men at your door begging for your love and affection, hoping they can have your hand in marriage but unfortunately there is no maybe in this world, we can not go back to the past and I can't bring myself to accept this marriage so im sorry Vivian, have a good night rest, I will see you tomorrow" he said before he starts to walk away, he did not want to look back and see her sad face with the fear that if he should look back he might end up going back on his discussion so because of this, he didn't dare look back.
And this time around Vivian did not try to stop him because even if she wanted to, her heart hurt too badly for her to, the only thing she could do was to lie down on her bed gently, give herself up in the blanket, and cry herself to sleep.
"This is why it is not good for someone to fall in love," Vivian thought to herself before going to sleep.
On the other side, after leaving Vivian's room, Leonard waited for a while before leaving, he could still hear her silent sobs despite how good the soundproofing of the castle was, he was also hurting inside but he could not reveal his emotions for others to see because he is the duke of Southern region of Leuhtaz empire, he can't let others catch hold of his weakness.
A lot of people have the misconception that he is in love with Lady Isla but it's nothing but a silly assumption but the only reason why he never made the attempt to clear the rumor is because first of all, he felt like the rumor could work in favor of his plans.
He knows that women are jealous beings so he plans to use the element of jealousy to push Vivian into wanting to divorce him and why Isla and not any other noble lady people may ask.
Because no other noble lady would be stupid enough to want to seduce the archduke's daughter and the emperor's beloved niece's husband and use her to build her influence in the noble circle except for Lady Isla.
He knows that she has a motive because she keeps popping up in front of him at Random places in the name of coincidence or fate which he does not believe a bit of it, although he's still trying to figure out which of his subordinates have been feeding her with his information, he still can not find out who is the mouse.
He knows that Lady Isla is trying to use him and he allows her to use him, fooling her into believing that she is actually in control when they are both actually using each other in reality and also the only reason why he could tolerate her that much is because of the fact that he can see the shadow of Vivian in her, beautiful and confident and yet naive even though Isla is a scheming woman unlike Vivian who is so innocent, that little shadow is enough to spare her for a while.
"If only she was not so obsessed with earning my affection and stopped dressing boring like my mother, she would definitely shine more brightly than Isla, with her beauty and noble saint-like aura, nobody would be able to be compared to her," Leonard thought to himself, Vivian is already the most beautiful woman in the Leuhtaz empire when she is not dressed up then having her dressed up will definitely leave no room for competition.
He once again takes a deep breath and clears his head of all the distracting thoughts, Vivian has already agreed to the divorce and that should be his main priority right now then followed by how to deal with his father who loves to interval in his matters too much and then the overprotective archduke and heir including the royal family.
Even if the royal family and the archduke did not act openly because of their image, they would still try to make things hard for him and even if Vivian did not hate him and decided to protect him from their anger, he still had to deal with his father and all his spies and supporters by himself which will cause him quite an headache due to how deep his father's influence runs in the southern region and the Valerion family including the royal court.
Leo's father, the former Duke and family head of the Valerion family is a very greedy man who is always thirsty for more power and wealth, he did not hesitate to marry a wife from the northern region so has to spread His influence into the northern region despite the difference… in culture and lifestyle so it is obvious why he did not hesitate or bother to ask for his son's opinion before agreeing to the marriage agreement between the two families when the archduke brings forward the topic, in his own world, only two things matters and those power and money alone.
Author's Note: sorry for the late update guys, not feeling well.