A Summer With Bitter Rivals - Chapter 92

Chapter 92: You Wouldn’t Know

Even after that day, Zenon continued visiting the Delzeier mansion—but he never saw the Duke again.

Naturally, he couldn’t see Emeline either.

Word of his actions eventually reached the Marquis of Trancium, and on the day Zenon received his acceptance letter from Robelque University, his father forced him to study abroad.

“You rotten brat, if you’re going to keep acting like that, just leave the country and don’t show your face here again!”

The fact that he had already been accepted to Robelque University wasn’t enough to convince the Marquis.

The Marquis unilaterally arranged Zenon’s overseas studies, once again dragging Zenon’s mother—his usual target—into the matter to coerce him.

It was infuriating, but Zenon had no choice but to obey.

He felt endlessly stupid and powerless for being unable to do anything but suffer at the hands of a man like that.

With his departure confirmed and just a few days left, Zenon wrote a letter to Emeline to inform her about studying abroad.

He wanted her to be able to receive it once she was released from punishment.

[Sorry I couldn’t keep our promise, Emeline.

It’ll be hard for us to see each other for the next four years, but if you send even a single letter to the address below, I’ll always write back.

No— even if you don’t write first, I’ll send letters regularly. If we get the chance, maybe we’ll be able to meet briefly. Though our promise to attend university together has fallen through for now, I still believe that someday, we’ll see it come to fruition in some form.

Even if it’s hard for you, I’ll make it happen. Because it’s a promise I made with you.

I’m going to miss you a lot. I’ll probably think about you from the moment I wake up until I fall asleep again, but don’t let it be the same for you. I’ll carry the missing and longing for both of us.

Don’t get sick. Stay well.

I love you.]

His hand stopped after much thought as he wrote the letter.

He felt utterly miserable.

Leaving Emeline behind, knowing she was being locked up and suffering under her family’s oppression—without being able to help her—and disappearing himself…

It was crushingly painful.

Frowning at the letter he had written, Zenon finally let the pen fall from his fingers.

‘Your father has a point. Someone like me doesn’t suit you at all.’

There was no doubt they were meant to be—but it was also a fact that he wasn’t someone worthy of her.

‘Wait for me, Emeline.’

I’ll become someone who belongs by your side and come back, so wait for me.

By then, he would overcome this oppressive world and all the walls that stood between them.

So on the day Zenon left for his studies, he boarded the carriage holding a letter he had received in reply from a servant.

He opened it in the departing carriage.

That alone was enough to bring him joy. That he could receive a reply from her before leaving.

‘If the letter reached me, then maybe she was released from confinement, or had gained a bit of freedom.’

But the letter he had opened with excitement was… strange.

After reading it, his mind went blank. Soon after, a scoff of disbelief escaped him.

‘What is this?’

The letter was filled with curses and resentment.

More than half of it said that meeting him had been a regrettable past and childish mistake—that she wished she could erase it.

Of course, the entire thing was in Emeline Delzeier’s handwriting.

Still, Zenon read each word and was certain.

‘Emeline didn’t write this willingly.’

Zenon believed he knew her as well as anyone could, having observed her so intently.

So he began to wonder—

Could she have been threatened by the Duke to cut ties with him, forced to write this letter?

‘I don’t know why she sent it through our secret drop, but she must’ve been forced to write these words.’

For a brief moment, he even wondered if their secret place had been discovered.

But then he remembered the servant who had silently delivered the letter to him.

If their drop location had been exposed, that servant—one of Trancium’s loyal men hiding inside the Delzeier household—would surely have faced retaliation.

In that case, he would’ve found a way to alert Zenon.

Not just casually deliver a handwritten letter from Emeline as if nothing was wrong.

Reading her letter again, Zenon let out a hollow laugh of disdain.

Even if he was her father—wasn’t this going too far?

At the time, Zenon never imagined the Duke of Delzeier had gone even further.

That he would forge a letter, perfectly mimicking his daughter’s handwriting.

‘Even if she sent me such a letter… I’m sure Emeline is vowing in her heart to wait for me.’

With that unwavering faith in her feelings, Zenon left for another country.

There, he quietly built a small business to become someone worthy of her.

So that when he returned, he could take the heirship from his delinquent older brother and claim his rightful place—to stand proudly before her.

Then, in the second year, Zenon received notice from his father about his engagement.

‘Labore? She’s Allen’s lover. They’re extremely close… There’s no way they’d allow me to marry her.’

Knowing that his supposed fiancée would never actually marry him, he sent a letter to Emeline explaining the situation.

But no reply ever came.

In truth, none of the letters he had sent over the years had received a reply.

Zenon had believed that it was simply because something had gone wrong with their secret correspondence, or that Emeline was in a situation where she couldn’t write.

That’s all he had thought.

So when he returned from studying abroad, Zenon finally received a letter from Emeline.

The letter she wrote herself, announcing her engagement.

‘She said she’s getting engaged, so it’s time for me to be forgotten.’

Those words felt like Emeline was giving up on him and choosing to obey her father’s will.

Zenon felt disappointment, but he never once blamed her. After all, it was his fault for being gone for four years.

Maybe she had waited for him all that time, but in the end, could do nothing but yield to her father.

‘I’m sorry I made you wait. I’m coming to you right now.’

Zenon wrapped up the work he had been preparing and immediately set off for Elvarto.

‘I wonder how much more beautiful you’ve become after four years.’

How much clearer her voice would be, how serene her blue eyes would look when they gazed at him—he couldn’t help but imagine it all.

No matter what he expected, Emeline would surely exceed it.

And then, at a yacht party arranged by his father—a gathering he couldn’t avoid—he unexpectedly saw her.

Standing closely with her fiancé, Emeline turned her head the moment their eyes met, as if deliberately looking away.

“Oh my, just look at Lord Renier and Lady Delzeier. How romantic…”

Zenon watched it all unfold from afar.

Emeline, smiling sweetly at her partner, leaned in and kissed him.

At that moment, her eyes fluttered open, and she looked directly at Zenon.

Just like always, as if it were inevitable, their eyes met.

But then Emeline smiled faintly in mockery and crushed all the hope Zenon had been holding on to.

He couldn’t possibly not know—it had been a kiss made just to show him.

“Ha…”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Though his eyes held no mirth, a dry chuckle slipped out, fueled by the sheer bitterness of it all.

A wave of unreal disbelief crashed over him.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

The betrayal and fury he felt toward her surged uncontrollably.

Had she really submitted completely to the Duke’s will? Was she really trying to end things between them for good?

Fine. Four years could’ve felt long.

‘But you’re tired of this?’

He’d been watching her long enough to pick up on the smallest of habits and tells.

That wasn’t the look of a woman in love.

It was closer to someone dragged along by the will of others—something she’d known all her life.

Emeline Delzeier pretended not to mind, but her eyes always betrayed her yearning for something different.

So along with his anger came immense disappointment.

‘Why are you still letting others choose for you?’

Even that day, when he lost control and she slapped him across the face on the yacht—Zenon had never doubted that Emeline still loved him.

He just believed she was so exhausted that she was beginning to surrender to her circumstances.

But would she ever know?

That each moment of unwavering faith he held during those four years, despite never receiving a single reply, began to crack the moment they met again.

‘What are you really feeling?’

Unlike at first, when he merely felt disappointment seeing her stand beneath others’ will, the more Zenon went to see her, the more he began to feel afraid.

That perhaps the letter he had received before leaving for abroad truly reflected Emeline’s honest feelings.

Despite preparing so much to stand by her side, and knowing he was far more qualified than her fiancé, Zenon always ended up feeling utterly miserable whenever he saw the two of them together.

“What do you mean, talk? Didn’t your letter already say everything you needed to say?”

“…Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I do something so pointless? What memories do we even have to reminisce about?”

The love he’d believed in for four years was slowly crumbling.

Each time she praised her fiancé, looked up at him with admiration, and showed smiles she no longer gave to Zenon—

Each time, Zenon felt like someone utterly insignificant.

Just the absence of her, and it felt like he had lost everything.

He felt like he was finally starting to understand her true feelings—but didn’t want to know anymore.

The moment he truly knew, it felt like his entire world would fall apart.

And her polished behavior beside her fiancé made him resent her all the more.

“…I don’t know what you think you saw, but don’t jump to conclusions. I get along just fine with my fiancée, just as you are living your life so well.”

That’s why he lashed out—became more sensitive by the day. Nursed the wreckage of his emotions, alone.

He was terrified that Emeline no longer loved him.

It was close to resignation.

Yet like a fool, he couldn’t refuse when she invited him to an exhibit hosted by the Duke.

He knew in his head that he should accept it—acknowledge that she had left him and grow to hate her.

But he just couldn’t do it.

And that day, Zenon dove under the collapsing statue and saved her life.

…You really don’t know, do you, Emeline Delzeier?

Just how special you were in my life—and how not even for a moment did I ever stop loving you.

So when I saw that thing fall, I thought dying under it would be far better than letting you get hurt.

And I’m sure you have no idea.