No, It was My Fault for Loving You

Lady Olsen out shopping or something?”

“Yes.”

A little embarrassed, Natalia nodded.

“Vegetables and fruit and some meat for… well, for dinner tonight.”

“Oh, dear.”

No wonder she looked embarrassed.

Natalia, even if she was a daughter of a Viscount, had gone shopping for dinner as if she was a servant.

But neither Beatrice nor Edgar dared to poke at that.
As she nodded silently, Natalia continued to speak.

“We are… poor, so we do most of the things ourselves.
Still, we had one maid who usually went shopping for us…”

Sadness was added to her embarrassing expression, and Beatrice was involuntarily dragged by her memory and almost grasped her hand, but stopped in the air.

Edgar was silently watching them as if observing them.

“The maid left suddenly this morning and has not returned.”

“…you’re worried about her.
I hope she comes back soon.”

“No.”

Natalia shook her head at the words of comfort she had unintentionally spoken.

“Nora… I’m sure that maid will never come back.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, surely never again.”

When Natalia said this sadly, Beatrice recalled a conversation they once had.

— “Everyone is leaving me before I know it.”

— “Every time I had it, every time I found it, I lost it.
My friends, my precious things, my hopes, my dreams, everything.
Yes, all this time.”

— “I was empty.”

Is this… too?

And the maid suddenly disappeared?

I don’t know.
It could just be a coincidence, though.

Right in front of Beatrice.

Natalia held her baggage with a smile while looking absent-minded.

This time, Natalia talks like this with such a look on her face, even to Beatrice, who is merely an acquaintance.

She looked terribly distressed and lonely, and Beatrice felt a pang of pain in her chest.

I decided to stay away this time because I knew it would interfere with your happiness.

I don’t want you to have to make that choice again.
I don’t want to see you cry like that.

All, all because I loved Leopold, I thought.

That was just the beginning.

But then I learned about Alejandro’s dark side.

But, that being said, it was already too late.

I don’t even know what to do with myself after all this time.

Either way, I always find that I’m not much help.

It was true then and remains true today.

…

After that, no one opened their mouths.

Silence reigned over the place, and soon the carriage arrived in front of the Olsen residence, the place Natalia had told about.

“…thank you very much.
I’m sorry I wet the seat.”

“No, then, Lady Olsen.
I’ll see you at the academy after vacation.”

“Yes.
See you at the academy.”

Carrying a paper bag that is about to be torn, Natalia walks into the house.

Beatrice and Edgar looked quietly behind her.