I Abandoned the Male Lead Who Cheated with the Villainess - Chapter 54
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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“Miss Ivonne, hurry up. We need to move quickly.”
“Yes, yes, I’m on my way. Rix, make sure to eat well. Take your medicine and get plenty of rest!”
Such tenderness. Ivonne continued to show concern for Rix until the very end while following Johann out. The reason Ivonne was sacrificing her precious public holiday to go to the palace was as follows:
That morning, while having a meal with Johann who had brought Rix’s clothes, Johann suddenly became frantic.
“Oh no, what should I do, what should I do! Today, as the department head, I must attend the Crown Prince’s birthday celebration, but just my luck, today of all days! My only brother’s chronic illness flares up! Oh, with my mind so preoccupied with worry, I’ll only make mistakes at the celebration and end up causing trouble for the Crown Prince!”
Although Johann’s overly dramatic reaction and the situation seemed odd, seeing Johann in such a panic and Rix looking a bit strained as if he hadn’t fully recovered yet, Ivonne felt compelled to step in.
What patients need most is peace and rest, and with Johann, who could be considered Rix’s lifesaver making such a fuss, Ivonne had no choice but to offer her help.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
It was natural for Johann’s blue eyes to light up in response to Ivonne’s offer.
Sitting across from Ivonne in the carriage, Johann said awkwardly,
“I feel so bad, asking Miss Ivonne for such a favor.”
“No, it’s okay. We should help each other. I’m just a bit worried about leaving Rix alone…”
Ivonne murmured, glancing back at the hill they had left behind. Watching her quietly, Johann rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
‘She seemed indifferent at first, but indeed, as the Crown Prince said, she’s a kind person.’
Ivonne might not remember, but the supervisor during her palace maid exam was Johann himself. His task at that time was ‘to manipulate Ivonne’s scores’.
‘I didn’t expect her to score perfectly on her own.’
He was surprised then. Following the Crown Prince’s orders, Johann didn’t even conduct an interview before hiring Ivonne. But the look in Ivonne’s eyes on her first day at work left a deep impression on him.
It was exhausted, far more so than during her exam.
‘I wondered how someone so young at 23 could have such deep and resigned eyes.’
A radiant appearance, youthful vibrancy. According to confidential investigations, exceptional magical talent. Yet, she was a commoner rejected by Count Ulfest, creating a pitiable image. Still, she built a solid wall around herself, appearing empty and hollow like a shell. That was Johann’s assessment of Ivonne.
‘My eyes were wrong.’
She took a while to give her affection, and still, she couldn’t give her heart to a world that had hurt her.
Initially, Johann was puzzled why Herix had ordered to keep Ivonne’s exam results a secret.
‘After all, the scores were going to be announced a week before the hiring of maids.’
As the first commoner to achieve a perfect score, the impact of her achievement would have been immense. Thus, Johann was overjoyed at Ivonne’s success, yet he couldn’t understand why Herix wanted to keep her scores as hidden as possible.
But being an aide wasn’t about needing to understand everything; it was about following orders. Now, he thought he understood.
‘That’s some chilling possessiveness.’
Had Ivonne’s worth been revealed then, she surely would have been adored by many more than now.
Among those would have been Blitzen, her former fiancée. Meaning, Ivonne and Blitzen might not have broken off their engagement, implying Herix wouldn’t have had the chance to interact with Ivonne as he did today. Even if a connection had been made, it likely would have been far in the future.
‘Our Crown Prince, not known for sharing, wouldn’t have tolerated such a situation.’
It was all Herix’s strategy. Johann shivered involuntarily at the thought.
Herix was pitifully desperate, cruelly so, to the point of savagery to those around him. To hide spring from the world, one must be prepared to stay in winter, prepared to die if necessary.
Meanwhile, as Ivonne’s carriage moved away, Rix slowly removed his glasses. He handled them as if they were precious, a tool that cleverly transformed ‘Herix’ into ‘Rix,’ made by her for him to momentarily escape his princely duties and enjoy freedom.
Thus, these glasses held an invaluable worth to Rix, beyond anything else in the world.
But the significance of the glasses wasn’t just that. Every time he played ‘Rix,’ it was as if memories shared with Ivonne, spanning eons, came back to life. It felt as though those moments, now only living in his memory, weren’t lies, binding him to Ivonne forever.
I and H, simple words, yet Rix’s purple eyes lingered on them. As if he had caressed the faded I for a long time, Rix spoke.
“Prepare for my return to the palace.”
Despite the absence of any presence or trace, Rix commanded, and within less than a minute, a man and a carriage arrived. The man who would play ‘Rix’ in the cabin looked quite similar to him, though Ivonne would have said not a single thing from head to toe resembled Rix.
