Chapter 5: Fall from Grace

“Lovey! I don’t know what that woman told you, but it’s all lies! You know I’m the one you love, right, huh?”

“So won’t you just let this go, just this once?”

Pedro practically begged for his life, bowing his head.

He thought Seiana, who longed for his love, would naturally waver at these words and take his side.

“Pedro Saxen. Are you really going to stoop this low?”

“Lovey…”

“Fine. If you’re so wronged—okay then. Let’s get to the bottom of this, shall we?”

“Summon the mage,” Seiana ordered one of the onlooking servants with a cold voice.

Pedro’s face turned even paler at the sight.

How could she be so heartless toward him?

Pedro cried out her name like a scream.

“Seiana!”

“If you’re so confident, then go ahead. If the mage confirms you’re telling the truth, I’ll give you the wealth I promised after marriage. So what are you staking? Your life?”

“This house—it’s mine. The knight commander title? My family gave it to me. That sword on your waist? I gave you that. And the Saxen estate isn’t even yours. You don’t own a damn thing—so what gave you the confidence to pull this stunt?”

“Seiana, how could you do this to me…!”

“You’re the one who shouldn’t be doing this to me!”

“Why not? Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

“Huh? Ngh—!”

Seiana lifted her foot and stepped on Pedro’s thigh as he knelt.

The sharp heel of her stiletto pierced into his leg, making him writhe in pain, but he was restrained by her guards and couldn’t move an inch.

It’ll definitely bruise.

Seeing his agonized face, Seiana felt a bit of her anger subside and smiled.

“Are you feeling betrayed now that I’m no longer blindly devoted to you?”

“Don’t kid yourself. You’re the one who betrayed me. You must’ve thought everything would be fine just because I kept forgiving you. But that was your delusion.”

“…Men! Men naturally look around! Everyone keeps a mistress after marriage!”

“Sure, in a typical noble marriage. But you’re not a typical case, are you? You were being sold to our family for your body and now you talk about having a mistress?”

Tch.

Seiana twisted her lips in a smirk as she saw Pedro speechless.

“You ruined the one valuable thing you had. I was going to buy your body—the one no one else would take—for the highest price. But now it’s damaged from being passed around. Why would I still want that?”

Only now did Pedro realize how serious the situation was.

His usual sweet talk wouldn’t save him this time.

His mind went blank.

If the illegitimate child’s existence was confirmed, his honor would be the least of his problems—everything he enjoyed would vanish like a mirage.

Pedro hadn’t exactly been dirt poor, but life hadn’t been generous until he met Seiana.

He moved to the capital and became a palace-affiliated knight, even if only a minor one.

And now he was supposed to lose it all and go back to that life?

I can’t let that happen.

Even though the Saxen and Estarote families profited together, Pedro’s family would never have saved any of that money.

And if Pedro had gotten his hands on it, he would’ve spent it all on luxury.

If he went back, the heir was already his younger brother—if Seiana abandoned him, he had nowhere left to go.

“Lovey, please…”

Now truly regretting everything, Pedro sobbed.

He reflected on how he had relied solely on her love and behaved so arrogantly—but it was already too late.

It seemed she had kept a mage nearby, because a servant quickly returned with one.

“The paternity test results came back positive.”

With what was effectively a death sentence, the guards pinned the struggling Pedro down.

But he couldn’t let it end like this.

“It’s a lie! It’s a lie!”

“That’s what it says.”

When Seiana looked at the mage, the mage seemed visibly offended.

These kinds of tests were done with the mage’s personal reputation and name on the line—denying the results was akin to an insult.

With a scornful look, the mage glared at Pedro.

“I’ll write an official document with my signature. If this goes to trial, I’ll also testify as a witness.”

“Oh my, thank you very much.”

“No!”

Though he hadn’t meant to, Pedro had completely offended the mage—digging his own grave.

Seiana gave the mage a heavy pouch as compensation and dismissed him.

Then she clapped her hands twice to draw attention.

“Well, now that everything’s settled, it’s time to clean up, right?”

“What…?”

“Get out of my house. Everyone, throw out all this trash.”

With a flick of her finger, the servants began carrying Pedro’s belongings out of the room.

Some were expensive, but the servants handled them roughly. If he had been a better master, would they have treated his things more gently?

And it wasn’t just Pedro’s things being removed—his entire family had been using her townhouse during their stay in the capital, so their belongings were also being thrown out.

Realizing she truly intended to cast him out, Pedro panicked.

If he’d had time, he could’ve sold some of it. But now everything was being dumped like garbage.

“You’re kicking me out? At this hour? Where am I supposed to go with all this stuff?”

He could probably spend the night at the knights’ dorm, but there was no place to keep his things.

Pedro dropped his pride and begged, but she was unmoved.

“Why should I care?”

She said this as she yanked the sword from his waist.

Pedro turned bright red, yelling that it was his, but Seiana scoffed.

“I bought this. So it’s mine. How is it yours?”

“But you—!”

“Sure, I gave it to you as a gift. But you think I’d send you off with something this nice? If you really want it, buy it from me.”

Seiana pretended to be generous, but Pedro didn’t have the money to buy the sword.

His only assets were his knight’s salary, and even that had been squandered on luxury and indulgence.

After all, once he married Seiana, he’d gain access to immense wealth—so saving that pitiful salary had felt meaningless.

Even if he had saved every last coin, he wouldn’t have been able to afford the sword.

“So, are we ending this cleanly, or do you want to drag it out messily?”

“…What?”

“Are you going to sign quietly, or do you want to take this to court?”

She handed him a document—it was the breakup of their engagement.

Pedro’s eyes trembled as he looked at it.

Was this really the end?

Just like that, without a single chance?

As Pedro glared at her in bitter resentment, Seiana snorted.

“You still don’t get it, huh? Hey, you.”

“Y-Yes?”

“What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Me? Uh, what do you mean…”

“You could probably sue him for seduction under the pretense of marriage or fraud. What are you going to do? If you’re thinking about that, we’ll help you. You’ll need money if you’re going to raise the baby alone.”

“Seiana!”

Pedro felt like he was going to faint at the sight of his fiancée encouraging his mistress to file charges.

If this was a dream, he wanted to wake up.

The mistress hesitated, then nodded.

Just a few hours ago, he had been someone she needed to protect.

But after his betrayal, the only thing left for her was the child.

Seiana smiled and clapped at her decision.

Then, as all of the belongings of the Sachsen family were thrown out, she also tossed out the biggest piece of trash—Pedro.

“Seiana! Love! Please! Just forgive me once!”

He knelt and begged for forgiveness, but the firmly closed gates of the townhouse did not open.

After lingering for a long while, pleading, he finally called a merchant to sell off the belongings.

Still, since there was no one to watch over them, most of the valuable items were taken by others, and in his rush to sell, he was left with almost nothing.

***

Maybe Pedro had contacted them—because the next day, the Sachsen family rushed to find me, but of course, I refused to meet them.

Maybe if it had been back when I still found Pedro cute, but now I couldn’t even stand the sight of him.

Meeting his family would only ruin my mood.

After several more attempts, when they saw I remained firm, they started throwing a fit, demanding how I could do this to them.

Truly, they were Pedro’s family through and through.

“This won’t end like this!”

In the end, the Sachsen side refused to sign the engagement annulment.

Even though the blame clearly lay with them, they were probably trying to stick around until my anger subsided.

“Nope. Not happening.”

I immediately filed a lawsuit.

I also submitted a petition to the knight order where he worked.

Should a knight who serves the imperial family be allowed to act disgracefully, toying with two women?

Did you know this was going on?

All of it.

That petition, which could be summarized that way, set the palace ablaze as soon as it landed.

Even though they’d treated me like nothing, they had been shamelessly using the name of the Estarote family for their own benefit, so it seemed the higher-ups were seething.

“What the hell was he thinking, acting so bold?”

Honestly, I wanted to gouge out my own eyes for having fallen for someone like that.

What was so great about him anyway… I may as well have had eyes on the soles of my feet.

Right after I sent the petition, he must have been fired, because Pedro came storming over.

But there was nothing he could do.

He’d lost everything, and he didn’t even have the skills to recover from it.

Just like last time, he got taken down by our family’s knights, writhing on the ground like a worm, unable to do anything but blame me.

“How could you do this!”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

To be honest, I wanted to kill him.

But I kept him alive just to make him suffer even more.

In the end, Pedro left, crying, unable to do anything.

When it became clear that I was unmoved, the Sachsen family tried to negotiate peacefully.

But by then, there was no reason to do so.