A Summer With Bitter Rivals - Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Nemesis and Savior

After spending a day in confusion, Emeline prepared early the next morning to receive Mathis.

Since the accident, Mathis had contacted her to say he would visit once she had regained some stability.

With the help of a servant, Emeline quietly suppressed a sigh.

She had to meet her fiancé after what had happened with Zenon Trancium the day before.

Even if it was merely a passionless relationship formed for convenience, it was only natural to feel guilty.

But what troubled Emeline most was not the situation itself, but the fact that even now, she still couldn’t stop wondering about Zenon Trancium’s real answer.

She completed her preparations with mixed feelings.

While Emeline was getting ready, Mathis had already arrived and been led to the drawing room.

Emeline, with heavy steps, made her way to where her fiancé awaited.

‘Pull yourself together.’

Even if she had discovered something strange about Zenon, she couldn’t let that interfere with the smooth progress of her engagement.

‘Yes, this is the right thing to do…’

To let one person create or invite disruption was going too far.

So insisted Emeline’s rationality, with all its might.

She took a shallow breath and headed to the drawing room where Mathis waited.

Forcing a smile to avoid raising suspicion, she greeted him brightly.

“Mathis, you came.”

“Miss Emeline.”

Turning toward her, Mathis rose quickly from the sofa and approached. His face was filled with concern.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, as you can see, I’m healthy.”

Emeline demonstratively spread her arms slightly to the sides. Mathis glanced over her briefly, then let out a sigh of relief.

“I was very worried. You seemed quite shocked that day—are you feeling better now?”

“…Of course.”

What had stunned Emeline that day wasn’t merely the fear of the sculpture crashing down on her.

It had been Zenon Trancium’s actions as he saved her.

Recalling him, Emeline’s mood dipped again.

“Let’s sit, Mathis. You must’ve come a long way—I’d feel bad keeping you standing.”

She gently took his hand, still heavy with worry, and led him to the tea table. She even spoke in a deliberately affectionate tone.

Mathis followed her without protest. His warm gaze only made Emeline feel more burdened.

Seated across from each other in the airy drawing room with its wide windows, they shared refreshments. Emeline said what needed to be said.

“I’m sorry you had to witness such a scene that day. My father was very upset. He’d wanted to make a good impression.”

“There may have been an accident, but everything was still admirable. It was just deeply upsetting that you were almost hurt.”

“I heard the support holding up the sculpture was weak. They said they’ll reopen after making improvements. Let’s go together then and take a proper look.”

At Emeline’s gentle words, Mathis slightly raised his eyebrows. He seemed displeased by something.

When she didn’t ask and only smiled quietly, he spoke first in a subdued voice.

“Miss Emeline, right now I’m concerned about your well-being. I don’t understand why you’re suggesting we go back there. Isn’t it the place where you nearly had an accident?”

At his grave tone, Emeline blinked and responded with a calm smile.

“Well, I’m scared of the place too, but this is something I ought to say to you.”

To Emeline, their relationship was nothing more than a calculated exchange of utility and gain. That’s why she simply repeated the lines predetermined by her father’s wishes.

And it had been Mathis Renier who initiated this transaction.

It was her father and Mathis who joined hands—she had been dragged in without a say.

For a while, she had made efforts: to appear fine in front of Zenon Trancium, to try and love Mathis—but, well…

As things stood now, it was difficult for Emeline to regard Mathis as anything more than a business partner.

Perhaps she had been too disappointed in him for failing to understand her.

Even though she knew Mathis’s reactions were rational, Emeline had given up on him.

Painfully enough, it seemed there was no one in this world who could satisfy her but Zenon Trancium.

Even if all his affection had stemmed from a mere game, it didn’t change the fact that he had seen through to her inner self.

For that reason alone, Emeline couldn’t erase Zenon.

Perhaps because of the aftermath of yesterday, she could no longer suppress the emotions that slowly began to flood her.

The more she tried to define him, the more tangled her emotions became.

Hatred and affection, resentment and hope, disdain and desperation.

And… something special.

‘…Don’t do anything suspicious in front of Mathis.’

Her unfocused gaze fixed on Mathis.

For some reason, he looked taken aback.

Perhaps, being a clever man, he had noticed the clear line drawn within Emeline’s words.

That they were only acting according to the nature of their transactional relationship.

At that moment, Emeline spoke the words caught in her throat without even realizing it.

“I wasn’t even hurt to begin with. The one who should truly fear that place is Zenon Trancium, who was injured in my stead.”

The moment she uttered that familiar name, Mathis’s expression hardened like never before.

He looked at Emeline with a complex gaze and, after a moment’s hesitation, spoke, “…Miss Emeline, since the topic has come up, may I ask you something?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“What kind of person is Zenon Trancium to you? Please answer… honestly.”

“A nemesis and a savior, I suppose.”

Emeline knew she shouldn’t fully reveal her feelings for Zenon to Mathis.

That’s why she tried, again and again, to restrain her overflowing emotions.

“Is that really all it is?”

“…What do you mean, ‘all’?”

But in that moment, when Mathis pressed her with a troubled gaze—

Emeline couldn’t stop herself. A cold scoff slipped from her lips.

“He’s the only man who ever truly saw me for who I am.”

As soon as those words spilled from her like a broken dam, she flinched. Wearing a briefly startled expression, she opened her mouth again—then shut it.

Her heart felt like it had turned to ice. What had she just said? Had she lost her mind?

Emeline couldn’t bring herself to look at Mathis’s face.

She had spoken of someone like Zenon Trancium—a man lacking in dignity, from a family hostile to hers—as if he were someone special.

As confusion crashed over her, Emeline let out a dismayed sigh.

In the end, she had no choice but to stand.

“I’m sorry, Mathis. I’m feeling a little unsettled right now…”

If she stayed any longer, who knew what else she might say.

Especially after what had happened with Zenon yesterday—she couldn’t bear to face Mathis any longer.

“Miss Emeline.”

Mathis reached out urgently to stop her. Emeline paused and looked at him. But she was already prepared to walk away.

Though Mathis looked like he had much to say, he furrowed his brow, suppressing himself, then relaxed.

At last, he spoke in an extraordinarily composed tone.

“…It seems the shock of the accident still lingers. Please contact me again once you’ve recovered.”

“I will. Thank you for understanding.”

Emeline gave him a careful farewell and turned her back.

Until she left the drawing room, Mathis’s gaze remained fixed on her.

Emeline did her best to ignore him and walked away completely.

***

Emeline lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The room was dark with the lights off, but she couldn’t sleep at all.

‘I must be insane.’

To say something she shouldn’t to her fiancé, to deliberately push him away…

The more she thought about what happened during the day, the more she laughed bitterly at her own foolishness.

She knew better—at least in her head. But her body had completely ignored her will.

Emeline couldn’t make sense of her own actions.

It all started after Zenon Trancium saved her.

She had lashed out at her father, ignored her confinement order, and gone to the hospital to see him—causing a scandal—and now, she had done something that might ruin her engagement.

She was like a ticking time bomb. Never in her life had she been this uncontrolled.

After tossing and turning, Emeline rolled onto her side.

The moonlit terrace came into view.

She half expected a paper airplane to fly in, or to see a man perched in a tree, waving enthusiastically with a wide grin.

And when she glared at him disapprovingly, he’d instantly lose his playful grin and look sheepish.

Recalling the past, Emeline held her breath.

You… always shake my world.

She tightly shut her eyes, trying to erase the memories.

But now, other memories began to torment her.

That day she went to the bookstore to find him, Zenon Trancium had asked:

“Emeline Delzeier… Do you still like me?”

He’d sandwiched that question with all sorts of humiliating remarks.

As she recalled his words and actions, Emeline shuddered once again—but in the end, she accepted it.

‘Yes, I like you. I tried to hate you so much I could ignore you for the rest of my life, but I still like you. Is that what you wanted?’

After all the years of desperately pretending not to know her own feelings, she finally acknowledged them.

With a heavy heart, Emeline buried her face under the covers.

In the book Zenon had gifted her from the bookstore, it said that as long as one didn’t kill their will or feelings, some opportunity would eventually come.

She hadn’t yet extinguished all her longing for what she wished for—so now, she wanted someone to recognize that.

Though she had acted like she was content to stay in place and let life carry her—

The truth was, more than anyone, she wanted her life to change.