Acidity of Regret Ch 12
- Dec 15, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
Under his escort, the carriage rolled on for quite some time.
The place Declan brought her to was none other than a lake nestled deep within the forest.
The scenery, where the pouring sunlight splintered through the gaps in the leaves, was exquisitely picturesque.
A tea table had been set against the backdrop of the lake, where silvery spray danced over the water under the sun. This perfect setup was the work of the attendants following him.
[Declan] "This is the only place in the duchy worth seeing by day rather than by night."
With that, he finished his explanation of the location.
Certainly, if it were night, with only moonlight for illumination, one would not be able to appreciate this kaleidoscope of colors.
Just as there are places where the night view is impressive, there are bound to be places where the daytime aesthetic reigns supreme.
Vanessa felt grateful that he had brought her here.
The scenery, where the green—the color of life—and the dark blue surface shimmering with silver blended in harmonious perfection, was so beautiful that her heart felt at ease.
It was just as she sat at the tea table, enjoying the breeze.
[Declan] "Today, the decision was made to strip the Rohawk family of its title."
His voice flew like an arrow released from its string, embedding itself heavily in her chest.
She had expected it.
Wasn't it obvious?
As long as they were branded with treason, the stripping of the title was inevitable.
It was more accurate to say the Rohawk family had been exterminated rather than merely collapsed.
Her father was dead, and Vanessa, the only remaining kin, had been sold into slavery before being barely salvaged by the Grand Duke’s hands.
She had wanted to protect her family, but it was beyond her power. All she could do was barely keep her own lifeline intact. It was bleak and wretched, not knowing she would learn of her own weakness in such a way.
Her heart, which had just felt refreshed by the brilliant scenery, suddenly became heavy, as if a slab of lead had been placed upon it.
A chilling reality blew in, dropping the temperature of the air by several degrees.
He crossed his legs as he sat and spoke in a low voice.
[Declan] "I heard there were marriage talks between you and Hayden in the past."
Vanessa, who had been maintaining her silence while gripping her teacup, felt her gaze waver. She quickly lifted her head.
Resting his chin on his hand, he was observing her with a casual expression. It was a gaze that seemed somewhat persistent, as if he were trying to uncover something.
Hayden.
Chewing on that name brought his position into sharp relief. The fact that he was a man close enough to the Imperial Family to call the noble Crown Prince by his name without a second thought.
It was as if weights had been attached to her lips; she could not move them in the slightest.
She couldn't prioritize whether she should ask if he, too, cared about the Rohawk Count’s treason at this moment, or if she should explain the marriage to the Crown Prince that almost happened.
In other words, she didn't know whether to treat him as a collateral relative of the Imperial Family or as the man who saved her.
[Declan] "Did you intend to go through with it? The marriage?"
He asked with a gaze that had sharpened like that of a wolf encountered in the night.
Seeing a look on his face that seemed somewhat displeased, the answer popped out automatically. Vanessa quickly shook her head.
[Vanessa] "No. That proposal was already rejected."
[Declan] "Why?"
[Vanessa] "Because... I could not give him my heart."
In this aristocratic society, marriage was never a matter where emotion took precedence. It was merely a trade. A business strategy to flesh out power and scrape together every last bit of influence stuck in the corners.
From that perspective, her answer was quite flawed. To reject a marriage proposal from the Imperial Family due to private feelings.
To kick away a chance to become a member of the Royal Family for such an absurd reason. It was a foolish action that would make the privileged class slap their knees in lamentation.
If she had accepted the marriage proposal from Hayden, would the situation have unfolded differently than it has now?
She didn't know. The future is something one cannot experience in advance. What mattered was the present, not a future one could only guess at.
Therefore, she did not regret refusing the marriage with the Imperial Family, and she confessed the reason honestly, just as it was.
At the same time, she wondered if he was testing her right now. His uncharacteristically probing behavior gave rise to such keen suspicion.
She didn't particularly want to show it off, but it wasn't an emotion she wanted to hide deeply either. Her feelings were not so hideous that they needed to be concealed.
Also, the situation was very different from the previous banquet.
Vanessa was more certain now than she was then. About her own heart, and about his heart toward her.
If Declan had no interest in her, would he have gone through the trouble to come and save her?
Mustering her courage to meet his gaze, she saw his blue pupils still staring straight at her. Deep, viscous eyes whose depths could not be fathomed.
Her heart shrank and tingled under the pressure of his eyes, which silently demanded she speak her desires clearly. Her thoughts reached that point, and her lips parted softly.
[Vanessa] "I... had someone else in my heart..."
Having spat out the simple answer with difficulty, she gazed at him intently.
Her look was quite blatant, as if she wanted to let him know that the 'someone else' was the very man her eyes were touching.
Declan, who carefully faced the emotion permeating her green eyes, soon tilted the corners of his mouth crookedly. It was a strangely satisfied smile.
[Declan] "Some of the Count’s servants seem to be still detained in the underground dungeon."
[Vanessa] "..."
[Declan] "I will try to get them out."
He leaned his upper body toward her. His hand swept back her hair, which was gently swaying in the breeze.
Then, a warm heat touched her forehead. He had kissed her.
Vanessa, closing her eyes tightly as if receiving a lover's kiss, clenched the hand gripping her skirt.
She absolutely wanted to decline, causing him any trouble. Just the fact that he had saved her from the slave auction, where death seemed imminent, meant she owed him a debt she could never repay.
Yet, because he kept acting so affectionate toward her, behaving so kindly as if he would grant her anything, the heart she had locked up tight repeatedly melted and unraveled.
[Vanessa] "...Your Grace."
Vanessa carefully wrapped her hand around his wrist, which was caressing her cheek. His wrist, hard even to the bone, was distinct from hers, which felt as if it would snap with a tap. She clearly felt a strength different from her own.
He was strong. Strong, solid, and unyielding. So, wouldn't it be possible for him? Perhaps, if it were Declan...
[Vanessa] "There is something I wish to ask of you."
Shameless. You are shameless, Vanessa Rohawk.
Even though self-loathing surged like bile from deep within her heart, she couldn't block her throat once it had opened.
The only corner she could trust right now was Declan, who had become her sole lifeline. Her voice was desperate, revealing that reliance.
[Declan] "What is it?"
[Vanessa] "I still... cannot believe it. That my father was secretly plotting treason..."
[Declan] "..."
[Vanessa] "My father was not a man to harbor corrupt greed. He was someone who lived striving constantly not to tarnish the honor of a family that has served God. There is no way he would do that."
[Declan] "We cannot know that for sure."
He cut off her desperate plea with a surprisingly tender voice.
She wasn't angry that he left open the possibility that her father's treason was true. It was because Vanessa, while denying it, also had the anxiety of 'what if' springing up repeatedly in a corner of her heart.
The fog obscuring the truth was too thick. To find out, to lift the hazy shimmer and reach the old reality, his help was desperate.
[Vanessa] "...The Captain of the Imperial Knight said he received a tip that the Rohawk family was plotting treason."
That meant a third party could have framed the Rohawk family.
[Vanessa] "Could you... Investigate that for me?"
Declan, a collateral relative of the Imperial Family, could be a fatal poison to Vanessa, who was implicated in the rebellion, but looking at it differently, he was also the entity who could reach the truth more easily than anyone else. He was the sole master of the Grand Duchy of Vinkart and a man of high prestige within the Ingzella Empire.
Power implies nothing special. It merely possesses the ease of shortening the process. To make it so that getting what one needs does not take a long time.
People live so fiercely to obtain power that seems to have nothing special when listed. Because status and class naturally follow that power.
And Grand Duke Vinkart possessed that power. He was a man of power who wasn't comparable even when she was a Count’s daughter, but now the gap was even wider—a difference as vast as heaven and earth compared to her current self.
[Vanessa] "I beg of you."
He tapped on the table. He seemed to be deep in thought. The rhythmic sound was like a melody tightening her heart.
[Vanessa] "I am already grateful just for you letting me stay here. If I was rude, I apologize. If you think I crossed the line, you can pretend you didn't hear it."
[Declan] "And if it isn’t?"
[Vanessa] "Pardon?"
[Declan] "If it turns out not to be true that Count Rohawk was plotting treason, what will you do then?"
If the treason wasn't true?
If the situation everyone spoke of as fact turned out to be a misunderstanding.
The unexpected question caused a blackout in her mind.
She fidgeted with her hands, which were placed neatly on her knees.
If the treason were true, she would likely despair while clutching resentment toward her father.
And if it were not true...
[Vanessa] "...I don't know."
[Declan] "..."
[Vanessa] "I don't know what I should do."
She had faced the destruction of her family without any countermeasures, a doom that would have been terrifying even if she had prepared for it. So, she had crumbled helplessly like a sandcastle swept away by a tsunami.
Could she restore the Rohawk family alone? It felt close to impossible.
Suddenly, she remembered the knights of the Count’s household, not a single hair of whom could be found at the dawn when everything happened.
Where on earth had they gone?
Among the familiar faces, the face of Elliot, who was like a brother to her, floated up.
Did they... run away? Did he?
Perhaps the absence of the knights was related to the mysterious tip-off. Nothing was clear. Everything was full of suspicion. Her head was complicated, like a tangled ball of yarn.
One thing was certain.
[Vanessa] "If it is not true, I want to ask."
To the informant. No, not necessarily that person, but anyone related to this incident.
[Vanessa] "Just... why did they do it..."
What deep-seated grudge did they have to shove her and her family into such an abysmal bog?
Why, of all people, did it have to be her?
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