Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 101
Margaret seemed unusually cheerful today. The maid asked cautiously as she watched her giggle continuously.
“Miss, do you have some good news?”
“Oh? No, no!” Margaret shook her head and covered her mouth with her hand, unable to suppress her laughter.
She had just seen Cecilia in the hallway.
Cecilia had passed by Margaret’s room, licking her lips with a distressed expression.
“Ugh, my tongue feels numb…”
She must have drunk it all down without knowing anything.
‘She shouldn’t have taken what’s mine without permission!’
Margaret felt satisfied having taught her a lesson. She thought she could now sleep comfortably with her legs stretched out for a while.
The sorrow and rage from sending Mary away felt somewhat eased.
* * *
Cecilia dreamed for the first time in a long while.
She was dressed in a white gown, holding a bouquet, her cheeks flushed with excitement, her heart pounding so fast that she was constantly short of breath.
Today was the day he would put a ring on her and vow his eternal love.
She was nervous.
Soon, he approached her. The man, who looked so fitting in a navy uniform, was now dressed in a black tuxedo.
He still looked splendid.
Perfect in any attire, beautiful no matter his expression.
No…
She didn’t know.
His smiling face. His crying face. His face filled with excitement and joy.
He was always expressionless.
His lips were stiff, maintaining only the necessary courtesies.
They were about to become husband and wife.
‘Is this really okay?’
Excitement and worry coexisted.
She did not dislike him, but his heart was hard to read.
If he had confessed the truth to her before this day arrived.
If he had hinted that he already had another lover and couldn’t love her.
Cecilia would have willingly, by any means, let him go.
Even if she had no right to do so.
‘I would have done my best to help you.’
But he confessed the truth at the very last moment.
“Cecilia, I despise you.”
It was the worst possible timing, irreversible and undeniable.
* * *
“Really, there’s not much time left.”
Mary’s words snapped Cecilia back to reality.
“Not much time for what?”
“The day your fiancé arrives!”
“…Is that so?”
She counted the days on her fingers; it added up.
“I thought His Lordship would visit us earlier since he said he’d come during the summer. I didn’t expect it to be at the very end.”
“That’s possible. Sailing has many variables.”
Cecilia replied curtly, her gaze distant as she looked out the open window.
‘I actually knew.’
Today was officially the day they first met.
It was the first time she saw the man who was more handsome than his portrait.
Cecilia reminisced about Logan during that time. His hair was a bit longer during the wedding. His silver hair shimmered as if breaking the sunlight.
He was the most handsome man she had ever seen, and the only man who had not yet hurt her in her past.
She couldn’t help but love him.
Desperate for love as she was, she simply felt relieved that he had not yet hurt her.
No one knows what the future holds.
“…Noisy.”
Cecilia irritably covered her ears.
“What?”
“The sound of the cicadas… it’s too loud.”
“Ah, should I close the window?”
“No… then it’ll be too hot.”
It’s painful whether it’s closed or open.
Sometimes, such moments do exist.
* * *
At the crow’s nest of the ‘Queen Vastolla’, a ship of the Western Sea Fleet’s Third Fleet, a man narrowed his eyes and watched the distance.
A salty sea breeze mixed with sand blew in. The smell of the mainland, the land of his mother.
The dock was not far off.
The man lifted his telescope. At the edge of the wide, blue coastline, a faint greenery was visible. It was the last island they passed before reaching the mainland.
No one lived there. However, occasionally, lost monsters and such were sighted, so the sailors did not let down their guard until they disembarked.
