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Listening to all sorts of nonsense from Gerard, Ayla suddenly recalled her days working as a minor extra on film sets.
Back then, she was often treated like a disposable item.
She had to wait without time for meals and was scolded for ridiculous reasons.
Whether she had lines or not, she felt miserable.
“Excuse me, the timing of your turn is too fast! Match the atmosphere a bit.”
“Seriously, you standing there! Don’t try too hard. You’re just background!”
Accommodating all sorts of demands and swallowing her resentment was the fate of a minor actor.
Maintaining a calm face, whether she was upset or not, was also a kind of skill.
So Ayla could pretend to be calm. No, she could act like she was calm.
Of course, she didn’t know what Rosia had been up to behind her back with Gerard.
‘She must have acted pathetic, just like in the original story.’
But Ayla was confident she could act better than her.
Soon, Ayla’s eyelashes fluttered.
But she never shed tears.
Sometimes, restraining emotions can look sadder than revealing them all.
“I’ve never ignored Rosia.”
“So you’re saying Rosia is lying?”
“It’s not like that. Rosia is a noble, and I’m now a commoner. So I was just keeping my distance. It would be presumptuous of me to readily accept Rosia’s friendliness.”
That was true.
If Ayla had been too casual with Rosia, that would have been a problem too.
But Ayla’s words weren’t enough to dismiss the sight of Rosia still struggling so much.
Gerard tried to steady his wavering heart, thinking about that, but Ayla’s trembling voice continued.
“And you asked why I had to take the top spot in this exam. Should I have lived my whole life with Mana insensitivity, like a fake daughter?”
“……”
“You told me to take care of myself from now on. So I just tried my best.”
Gerard opened and closed his mouth slightly at her point-by-point response.
Soon, his face flushed.
Because there was nothing wrong with Ayla’s words.
“Besides, breaking off the engagement with Kadin and becoming Felix’s lover was also unavoidable.”
“……”
“Kadin is going to be engaged to Rosia soon anyway, so I thought it was right to yield first. To show Kadin clearly that I have no feelings for him.”
Ayla carefully lowered her gaze.
“And in that situation, Felix was the only one who took care of me when I was isolated. So I can’t abandon him just because he’s a commoner.”
There was an unknown appeal in Ayla’s voice.
Perhaps that’s why Gerard could only move his lips without strongly refuting her.
In this situation, Ayla didn’t even shed tears.
As if there was no one to help her even if she cried.
The sight of her enduring with strength in her eyes was… indescribably heartbreaking.
At least yesterday, he could wipe away Rosia’s tears and comfort her when she was crying.
But now Ayla knew.
‘That I can’t comfort her.’
His gaze turned to Ayla’s stubbornly closed lips.
Unlike Rosia, who was crying her eyes out, she was desperately trying not to show weakness.
Seeing that, he suddenly remembered that Ayla hadn’t been welcomed by anyone since she was kicked out of the Noble house.
‘…How lonely must she have been all this time.’
The reason she couldn’t abandon Felix, a commoner, was because he was the only one who took care of her when she was isolated.
Only then did Gerard realize what he had been missing.
He had always thought he had to protect Rosia, who had lived a difficult life.
But in the process, he had never properly looked into the path Ayla, who had been pushed out of the Noble house, had taken.
Soon, an unmanageable sense of guilt washed over Gerard’s heart.
He had a bad feeling that he was doing something terribly wrong.
The image of the pitiful Rosia kept popping up in his head, disturbing his thoughts, but he couldn’t resist the emotions flooding his heart.
Soon, Ayla drove a wedge into Gerard.
“And you know how long I’ve been suffering from Mana insensitivity.”
Ayla’s eyes were very red, but the tears welling up in them didn’t fall.
But her voice was filled with indescribable emotions.
“I’ve only just overcome it, and now you’re telling me to quit the Academy right away. You know better than anyone that my dream has always been to become a great Mage…”
At those words, Gerard felt a shock as if his heart had dropped.
‘That’s right. I knew better than anyone what Ayla wanted…’
What had blinded him to say such cold words to her?
Gerard soon realized why he felt sorry for Rosia.
‘I was reminded of Ayla when I looked at Rosia.’
The reason he felt sorry for Rosia was because she overlapped with Ayla’s past self, who had suffered because she couldn’t meet her family’s expectations.
Back then, she would always take exams like Rosia and blame herself and cry.
And Gerard always felt sorry that he couldn’t take that pain away.
A light returned to his blurred eyes for a moment.
He stared at Ayla’s face for a long time and whispered quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked as if he was ashamed of himself and didn’t know what to do, with a shocked expression.
Ayla was momentarily startled by his ready apology.
“I really…”
Gerard couldn’t finish his sentence.
He just turned around, holding his head with a confused look.
As soon as Gerard left, Ayla let out a tired sigh.
No matter how prepared she was, unexpectedly encountering her family was a huge mental burden.
‘But I handled it well.’
She thought her acting just now was perfect. Gerard seemed to have completely fallen for her act as well.
It would be right to feel proud of herself, but strangely, her heart was filled with turmoil.
It was because of Gerard, who had said he was sorry to her at the last moment.
‘Gerard’s brainwashing seems more severe than before. Even Cedric, whom I met last time, wasn’t that reckless…’
Ayla sighed deeply again.
Fortunately, he seemed to have come to his senses to some extent after talking to her, but if he returned to the mansion, it would only be a matter of time before he was brainwashed again.
Ayla felt the need to quickly cure her Mana insensitivity.
It was to have the power to resist Rosia’s Magic.
‘To do that, Duke Argenta needs to realize that Felix is his son as soon as possible.’
Only then would she be able to receive that precious ‘God’s Step.’
That herb, even its name was grand, was a gift from the Temple directly to the Argenta Duke.
It was a very precious item, with only a few roots in the Empire, and the Argenta Noble house had always been well aware of the herb’s value.
‘So they said they keep it in a very special place.’
In the original story, Felix had a lot of trouble getting that herb.
But that was after Duke Argenta had passed away, so it must have been even harder.
Felix is currently meeting with Duke Argenta steadily, so if the fact that he is his son is revealed, getting the herb won’t be a problem.
‘I should subtly hint at it to one of them soon.’
Perhaps Felix is also getting a strange feeling as he meets Duke Argenta.
The feeling of blood ties is sometimes surprisingly sharp.
Just like Ayla’s mother, who continued to pour out her love even at the moment she was no longer her daughter.
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