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the Villainess they took for granted

Chapter 136: Spring · Oct 27, 2026

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Chapter List (304)

Page number / 7

101 Chapter 101: I Missed You 2026-10-27
102 Chapter 102: A Moment of Peace 2026-10-27
103 Chapter 103: The End of Questions 2026-10-27
104 Chapter 104: Beside Her 2026-10-27
105 Chapter 105: The First Move 2026-10-27
106 Chapter 106: The First Ripple 2026-10-27
107 Chapter 107: The Crown Prince Moves 2026-10-27
108 Chapter 108: The Last Olive Branch 2026-10-27
109 Chapter 109: Between Storms 2026-10-27
110 Chapter 110: The Name 2026-10-27
111 Chapter 111: The distance between us 2026-10-27
112 Chapter 112: What do you want? 2026-10-27
113 Chapter 113: Just Cassian 2026-10-27
114 Chapter 114: Then What? 2026-10-27
115 Chapter 115: The Audience 2026-10-27
116 Chapter 116: A Father’s Argument 2026-10-27
117 Chapter 117: And What of My Son? 2026-10-27
118 Chapter 118: Why Him? 2026-10-27
119 Chapter 119: If I Refuse 2026-10-27
120 Chapter 120: The Future 2026-10-27
121 Chapter 121: The Weight of a Crown 2026-10-27
122 Chapter 122: My Son Deserves Better 2026-10-27
123 Chapter 123: For the Best 2026-10-27
124 Chapter 124: Good News 2026-10-27
125 Chapter 125: The Road Ahead 2026-10-27
126 Chapter 126: Letting Go 2026-10-27
127 Chapter 127: The Proceedings 2026-10-27
128 Chapter 128: His Nephew 2026-10-27
129 Chapter 129: How Did This Happen? 2026-10-27
130 Chapter 130: My Brother’s Son 2026-10-27
131 Chapter 131: The Price 2026-10-27
132 Chapter 132: The Cost 2026-10-27
133 Chapter 133: Ashford House 2026-10-27
134 Chapter 134: Patience 2026-10-27
135 Chapter 135: Yours 2026-10-27
136 Chapter 136: Spring 2026-10-27
137 Chapter 137: The Invitation 2026-10-27
138 Chapter 138: The Season 2026-10-27
139 Chapter 139: Afterward 2026-10-27
140 Chapter 140: Questions 2026-10-27
141 Chapter 141: Attention 2026-10-27
142 Chapter 142: Answers 2026-10-27
143 Chapter 143: Waiting 2026-10-27
144 Chapter 144: His Grace, Duke Ashford 2026-10-27
145 Chapter 145: Home 2026-10-27
146 Chapter 146: Welcome Home 2026-10-27
147 Chapter 147: The Space Between Them 2026-10-27
148 Chapter 148: This Dance 2026-10-27
149 Chapter 149: Reality Returns 2026-10-27
150 Chapter 150: The Ring 2026-10-27

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: Spring

The engagement had been dissolved three months ago.

The Empire, unsurprisingly, continued to function.

Reports still arrived every morning.

Meetings still filled his afternoons.

Ministers still argued.

Petitions still required signatures.

The sun still rose.

The seasons still changed.

Life, Adrian had discovered, possessed a remarkable talent for moving forward without permission.

At first, that realization had irritated him.

Now he found it oddly comforting.

The first weeks had been the worst.

Not because of the dissolution itself.

That part had been inevitable.

No.

The worst part had been the silence afterward.

No negotiations.

No investigations.

No decisions.

Simply the absence of something that had existed for eighteen years.

One eventually becomes accustomed to absence.

Or at least learns to live around it.

Adrian had done what he always did.

He worked.

And when work proved insufficient, he worked more.

The result was predictable.

The Empire benefited.

His advisors appeared delighted.

His workload somehow doubled.

He preferred it that way.

Work was uncomplicated.

Reports did not ask difficult questions.

Budgets did not evoke memories.

Trade agreements rarely lingered in one’s thoughts after midnight.

Life became orderly again.

Predictable.

Manageable.

Elena remained at court.

That, at least, had not changed.

They still encountered one another during official functions.

Still exchanged polite conversation when circumstances required it.

Yet the friendship felt different now.

Not hostile.

Not uncomfortable.

Simply distant.

Adrian found that he preferred it that way.

Elena had never been the problem.

He knew that.

The fault had never been hers.

Yet it was impossible to look at her without remembering everything that had followed.

The arguments.

The investigations.

The dissolution.

The cost.

None of it had been Elena’s doing.

But she had become tied to those memories all the same.

And so, over the past months, an unspoken distance had settled naturally between them.

Neither objected.

Life simply moved on.

Winter eventually surrendered to spring.

Snow disappeared from the capital.

The gardens awakened.

The roads became crowded once more.

And with the arrival of spring came something far more dangerous.

The Season.

The capital immediately became unbearable.

Nobles arrived daily.

Invitations multiplied.

Rumors spread faster than official announcements.

The dissolved engagement.

House Valmort.

Lady Elena.

The Emperor’s judgment.

The names continued appearing.

Again and again.

As though society had collectively decided to relive the previous year.

Adrian ignored it.

Or tried to.

The fastest way to encourage gossip was to acknowledge it.

So he continued working.

Attended functions.

Smiled when required.

Spoke when necessary.

And gradually convinced himself that the Season would be no different from any other.

The illusion survived until the opening reception.

The ballroom glittered beneath hundreds of lights.

Music drifted through the hall.

Conversation filled every corner of the room.

The opening reception of the Season was always one of the largest events of the year.

Hundreds attended.

The Empire’s most powerful families.

Foreign guests.

Military officers.

Courtiers.

Ministers.

Everyone who mattered.

Adrian stood near one of the receiving lines, accepting greetings with practiced ease.

Smile.

Nod.

Respond.

Repeat.

Years of experience made the process almost automatic.

A servant approached.

Routine.

Unremarkable.

One announcement among hundreds.

Nothing more.

The servant bowed.

”Lady Marian Valmort has arrived.”

The world did not stop.

Music continued.

Conversation continued.

The ballroom remained exactly as it had been moments before.

Yet for one brief instant—

everything seemed strangely distant.

The announcement should not have mattered.

He had known she would attend.

The Season had begun.

Of course she would attend.

The possibility had existed for weeks.

Yet somehow the reality felt different.

Lady Marian Valmort has arrived.

The servant moved away.

The next guest approached.

Adrian heard none of it.

Against his better judgment, he looked toward the entrance.

And saw her.

For a moment—

the air seemed to leave his lungs.

The reaction was so immediate that it almost angered him.

Marian stood near the entrance speaking with one of the chamberlains.

Nothing extraordinary.

Nothing unusual.

Nothing he had not seen countless times before.

And yet—

it felt as though someone had struck him squarely in the chest.

Adrian stared.

The pale gown suited her.

The light caught in her hair.

A faint smile curved her lips as she listened to something the chamberlain was saying.

Beautiful.

The thought arrived instantly.

Effortlessly.

Without permission.

Adrian frowned.

Marian had always been beautiful.

Everyone knew that.

He knew that.

Didn’t he?

Then why did it feel as though he were seeing her for the first time?

The thought unsettled him.

Because it was absurd.

He had known Marian for eighteen years.

Eighteen.

Years.

There was nothing new here.

Nothing unfamiliar.

Nothing unexpected.

Yet his eyes remained fixed on her.

The pale gown.

The graceful posture.

The easy confidence with which she moved.

The familiar smile.

Every part of her should have been familiar.

Instead—

she felt startlingly new.

Or perhaps not new.

Perhaps real.

For years Marian had simply existed beside him.

A certainty.

A future so obvious that he had stopped examining it.

Now she no longer felt like a certainty.

She felt like a woman.

Not an obligation.

Not a political arrangement.

Not a name attached to his own.

Just Marian.

The realization was unexpectedly difficult.

Adrian looked away.

Then found himself looking back.

A pointless exercise.

And a ridiculous one.

The engagement was over.

The judgment had been delivered.

The matter had been settled.

There was no reason to keep watching.

No reason at all.

Yet his eyes continued returning to her.

As though they possessed a will entirely separate from his own.

Then—

quite suddenly—

Marian looked up.

Across the ballroom.

Their eyes met.

Adrian’s heart stumbled.

A single misplaced beat.

Nothing more.

Yet the sensation was so unexpected that it almost felt embarrassing.

The Crown Prince of the Empire.

Twenty-two years old.

Unable to control his own heartbeat.

Because a woman had looked at him.

No.

Not a woman.

Marian.

The distinction somehow made it worse.

For one suspended moment, neither of them looked away.

Long enough for recognition.

Long enough to remember.

Long enough to realize that nearly a year had passed.

And somehow—

it felt like no time at all.

Tbc

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