Your Greatest Regret Has Returned - Chapter 2

It was their first reunion in three years.

 

The kiss between Arnaud and another woman after going through hundreds of hurdles.

 

The world could not have been this cruel.

 

The woman who continued to pull Arnaud’s face soon realised that his gaze was looking elsewhere and turned her body in the direction he was looking at.

 

Looking ahead, the woman’s attire was more impressive.

 

She wore fine clothes, but her breasts were halfway over the corset.

 

“Oh, there was an audience.”

 

But she only tilted her head as if she wasn’t ashamed of being a woman caught in the act. She also had a bright smile.

 

“Oh, really… Be ashamed, Arnaud. You shouldn’t have taken off my clothes if you knew someone was there.”

 

Then she looked back and forth at Arnaud and Isabelle, and wrapped her naked torso. It didn’t seem like she was really ashamed of being sloppy.

 

“…”

 

But Arnaud didn’t further open the woman’s clothes or kiss her again.

 

He just stared at Isabelle without saying a word.

 

Her eyes seemed to contain the coast of Poibe, a speciality of Imaronia.

 

It was obvious, judging from the nostalgic feeling.

 

Unlike Isabelle, he didn’t seem to think of or know her. It was an ambiguous look that could not be determined as either side.

 

The public called him insensitive, but Arnaud, in Isabelle’s memory, was not a person who was suitable for such an adjective.

 

Just as the silent confrontation continued, a woman who seemed to have roughly adjusted her clothes pulled his shoulder.

 

“Arnaud, I shall get going. You didn’t forget your promise not to kiss at the main ceremony, did you?”

 

“Well, then, Camille. I can’t forget it.”

 

At the woman’s fawning, Arnaud quickly lowered his head.

 

His face was full of affection as he made eye contact with the woman.

 

It was that affection that had only belonged to Isabelle three years ago.

 

Contrary to the words of going, Isabelle recalled a scandal in the prayer room when the two entangled their tongues once more.

 

It was a scandal that the beautiful blonde hair had turned white because he had been so hard to live in confinement.

 

Isabelle rather wished the scandal was true. She hoped the man in front of her wasn’t him.

 

He seemed to be able to live.

 

After a few kisses, the woman withdrew, and Arnaud, who had waved his hand intermittently until she disappeared at the end of the hallway, looked back at Isabelle with an impassive face.

 

Golden curls as if painted in oil paint, dense eyelashes as if they were falling every time he blinked, and a soft, graceful nose bridge below them.

 

Unfortunately, there was no doubt.

 

“That’s right. Arnaud…”

 

Isabelle sighed in embarrassment.

 

Seeing that his dress was a white ceremonial dress similar to Isabelle’s, she couldn’t deny it all the more.

 

‘I’d rather ask, who are you? Just shake your head, saying you don’t know me…’

 

Isabelle looked at him anxiously, but Arnaud’s answer was different.

 

“Isabelle.”

 

‘Am I Isabelle? It wasn’t a name he would call.’ She slowly shook her head and approached.

 

“Elizabeth, it’s Ellie. You don’t have to call me that…”

 

“Ah, then you are the Madame de Chateau.”

 

Then Arnaud took a step back and said. He meant they don’t come close.

 

Chateau.

 

It was an honorific title she did not want to be called. Arnaud was calling out the terrible title Henry had stamped on her like a brand.

 

“It’s not Chateau. It’s Elizabeth. Grand Duchess of Imaronia…”

 

“Are you talking about the King’s henchmen?”

 

The dagger didn’t stop, and he let out a laugh.

 

“I once led a delegation. I dare to say that it was the biggest mistake of my life.”

 

“…”

 

“I have met the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who will inherit it. I promised to marry her, but she died.”

 

‘In the end, he even killed me while I was still alive.’

 

There was surprisingly no emotion in Arnaud’s voice when he said that.

 

“I, I am Elizabeth. Although I can’t use it now if I ever meet you-”

 

“Princess Elizabeth I knew would not sell her chastity for a single title. She didn’t even become the King’s courtesan.”

 

“No, it’s not like that. I didn’t. I, Elizabeth, am like this… alive, just to… just to see you…”

 

“Elizabeth is dead, Madame de Chateau.”

 

The tone was firm. If she were alive, he would go and kill her.

 

It wasn’t even that Arnaud didn’t recognise her. He obviously knew Isabelle.

 

“She didn’t speak very well in Shatvien either. Unlike the Madame, who had grown up here.”

 

“Arnaud, if the pranks are so nasty-”

 

“Pranks are meant for playing with people.”

 

It felt like the stairs she had climbed for years were actually flat.

 

She couldn’t figure out why Arnaud was doing this. His eyes were not those of a true stranger.

 

Isabelle finally sat down. Because she couldn’t support her body any longer.

 

She sat down abruptly, and the pannier* in her skirt broke with a loud noise.

[T/N: Panniers or side hoops are women’s undergarments worn in the 17th and 18th centuries to extend the width of the skirts at the side while leaving the front and back relatively flat. This provided a panel where woven patterns, elaborate decorations, and rich embroidery could be displayed and fully appreciated.]

 

Because it was made of wire, it never broke bluntly, and in the end, the broken pannier stabbed Isabelle’s leg deeply.

 

Although she was in great pain, Isabelle didn’t even have time to grab her leg.

 

“I’ll see you at the cathedral.”

 

This was because Arnaud, who had not looked at her until the end, soon turned around.

 

She had a hunch that he would never be seen again unless he was caught.

 

“Oh, no!”

 

Isabelle didn’t know that her blood had soaked into her skirt, so she crawled over to him and grabbed the hem of his trousers.

 

Arnaud hesitated momentarily, but then he began to walk as if nothing was under his feet.

 

Isabelle’s elbow was mercilessly dragged on the ground with that single step. Her wedding dress was already bloody.

 

However, Isabelle held Arnaud’s ankle as much as the intensity of her pain. She didn’t know when it came out, but the tears didn’t stop.

 

After taking so many steps, Arnaud finally stopped his body.

 

She could see his clenched fists about to explode over her head. Isabelle cried out and said.

 

“I wanted to meet you, I wanted to… How did you hold on? You told me, Arnaud, you did!”

 

“I never asked you to meet me.”

 

“You said you would come pick me up; you did…”

 

She had so much to say but could only hear resentment in return. Isabella howled with a voice that was not even human.

 

Arnaud, who didn’t even look down at Isabelle, looked into the air and bit his lips, then stomped his foot and threw her away.

 

The recoil knocked Isabelle down like spilling water.

 

“The maids will come soon. The henchmen from Imaronia will also come. You can say it’s my fault.”

 

“Ahh, uh, uh…”

 

“Enough then.”

 

Her tousled hair obscured her view, but only Arnaud’s coldly turning shoes were visible.

 

Isabelle sobbed as he walked away.

 

***

 

Alethea, with the other maids, soon found Isabelle.

 

It was as Arnaud said.

 

Her condition must have been so dire that even the hurriedly running doctor did not know how to open her unconscious eyes while looking at her thighs and wedding dress covered in blood.

 

“The King is thoughtless. What the hell are they going to do with that idiot? He is in the capital!”

 

Everyone seemed to be worried about Isabelle, but when you look at it, her condition was only a trap for cursing Arnaud.

 

The only one truly angry with her was her handmaid, Alethea.

 

“I’ll go and talk right away! The Princess has never intermingled with the King!”

 

Even though she kept her mouth shut, Isabelle seemed to have grasped the truth about her. Alethea’s shrill voice resounded in the powder room where all the maids had left.

 

But Isabelle just shook her head.

 

She couldn’t believe it. She was rash but did not want to see him look at her like an enemy again.

 

The ceremony went ahead.

 

They could have postponed the ceremony, but contrary to the concerns, no one considered her condition.

 

She wanted to use the bloody wedding dress as an excuse to buy time, but the maids immediately brought the wedding dress worn by the previous Princess.

 

“Why is the fabric so old? Didn’t you match the new wedding dress?”

 

“No matter what she puts on that gloomy impression, she can’t get enough of it. It will look like a doll walking!”

 

“It looks like the last night with His Majesty was intense. Seeing that she can’t even walk…”

 

“Oh, she can hear you!”

 

Mocking came from everywhere as she limped across the main prayer hall in her veil.

 

‘It seems that my appearance was funny.’

 

But that was nothing compared to Arnaud, who looked down on her indifferently beside the archbishop.

 

When they recited their wedding vows, applied holy oil, signed the vows when they kissed for the last time…

 

He was terribly insensitive. When she kissed him, he didn’t even mix his tongue.

 

Finally, being hit by the scattered petals inside the cathedral, Isabelle struggled to hold back her tears.

 

She just knew that today would be the last.

 

“…Still no news?”

 

Isabelle had been waiting for her husband for two hours.

 

At banquets, she could tolerate no one talking to her, but the silence in this way was excruciating.

 

So she decided to open her mouth.

 

“Sorry. Because Monsieur hid his whereabouts…!”

 

The three maids, who were only staring at each other at her words, soon lowered their posture and said.

 

The ceremony was over immediately, but it was not over until the beginning of the night.

 

Arnaud should have known, but that might be why he didn’t come.

 

“Oh.”

 

A laugh came out. If it was just the two of them, the idea of having to tell that everything collapsed helplessly in his absence.

 

He wouldn’t even come at all. Isabelle fixed her eyes on the window, and she asked again.

 

“I’d like to ask if that happened often.”

 

“What?”

 

Then, the bewildered voices of the ladies-in-waiting were heard. One even leaked her voice.

 

“Well, it’s been three years since he left the palace. No wonder you don’t know.”

 

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

 

“Just go out and see. He will come someday.”

 

Isabelle put one hand on her forehead, and her other hand fluttered at them.

It was their first reunion in three years.

 

The kiss between Arnaud and another woman after going through hundreds of hurdles.

 

The world could not have been this cruel.

 

The woman who continued to pull Arnaud’s face soon realised that his gaze was looking elsewhere and turned her body in the direction he was looking at.

 

Looking ahead, the woman’s attire was more impressive.

 

She wore fine clothes, but her breasts were halfway over the corset.

 

“Oh, there was an audience.”

 

But she only tilted her head as if she wasn’t ashamed of being a woman caught in the act. She also had a bright smile.

 

“Oh, really… Be ashamed, Arnaud. You shouldn’t have taken off my clothes if you knew someone was there.”

 

Then she looked back and forth at Arnaud and Isabelle, and wrapped her naked torso. It didn’t seem like she was really ashamed of being sloppy.

 

“…”

 

But Arnaud didn’t further open the woman’s clothes or kiss her again.

 

He just stared at Isabelle without saying a word.

 

Her eyes seemed to contain the coast of Poibe, a speciality of Imaronia.

 

It was obvious, judging from the nostalgic feeling.

 

Unlike Isabelle, he didn’t seem to think of or know her. It was an ambiguous look that could not be determined as either side.

 

The public called him insensitive, but Arnaud, in Isabelle’s memory, was not a person who was suitable for such an adjective.

 

Just as the silent confrontation continued, a woman who seemed to have roughly adjusted her clothes pulled his shoulder.

 

“Arnaud, I shall get going. You didn’t forget your promise not to kiss at the main ceremony, did you?”

 

“Well, then, Camille. I can’t forget it.”

 

At the woman’s fawning, Arnaud quickly lowered his head.

 

His face was full of affection as he made eye contact with the woman.

 

It was that affection that had only belonged to Isabelle three years ago.

 

Contrary to the words of going, Isabelle recalled a scandal in the prayer room when the two entangled their tongues once more.

 

It was a scandal that the beautiful blonde hair had turned white because he had been so hard to live in confinement.

 

Isabelle rather wished the scandal was true. She hoped the man in front of her wasn’t him.

 

He seemed to be able to live.

 

After a few kisses, the woman withdrew, and Arnaud, who had waved his hand intermittently until she disappeared at the end of the hallway, looked back at Isabelle with an impassive face.

 

Golden curls as if painted in oil paint, dense eyelashes as if they were falling every time he blinked, and a soft, graceful nose bridge below them.

 

Unfortunately, there was no doubt.

 

“That’s right. Arnaud…”

 

Isabelle sighed in embarrassment.

 

Seeing that his dress was a white ceremonial dress similar to Isabelle’s, she couldn’t deny it all the more.

 

‘I’d rather ask, who are you? Just shake your head, saying you don’t know me…’

 

Isabelle looked at him anxiously, but Arnaud’s answer was different.

 

“Isabelle.”

 

‘Am I Isabelle? It wasn’t a name he would call.’ She slowly shook her head and approached.

 

“Elizabeth, it’s Ellie. You don’t have to call me that…”

 

“Ah, then you are the Madame de Chateau.”

 

Then Arnaud took a step back and said. He meant they don’t come close.

 

Chateau.

 

It was an honorific title she did not want to be called. Arnaud was calling out the terrible title Henry had stamped on her like a brand.

 

“It’s not Chateau. It’s Elizabeth. Grand Duchess of Imaronia…”

 

“Are you talking about the King’s henchmen?”

 

The dagger didn’t stop, and he let out a laugh.

 

“I once led a delegation. I dare to say that it was the biggest mistake of my life.”

 

“…”

 

“I have met the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who will inherit it. I promised to marry her, but she died.”

 

‘In the end, he even killed me while I was still alive.’

 

There was surprisingly no emotion in Arnaud’s voice when he said that.

 

“I, I am Elizabeth. Although I can’t use it now if I ever meet you-”

 

“Princess Elizabeth I knew would not sell her chastity for a single title. She didn’t even become the King’s courtesan.”

 

“No, it’s not like that. I didn’t. I, Elizabeth, am like this… alive, just to… just to see you…”

 

“Elizabeth is dead, Madame de Chateau.”

 

The tone was firm. If she were alive, he would go and kill her.

 

It wasn’t even that Arnaud didn’t recognise her. He obviously knew Isabelle.

 

“She didn’t speak very well in Shatvien either. Unlike the Madame, who had grown up here.”

 

“Arnaud, if the pranks are so nasty-”

 

“Pranks are meant for playing with people.”

 

It felt like the stairs she had climbed for years were actually flat.

 

She couldn’t figure out why Arnaud was doing this. His eyes were not those of a true stranger.

 

Isabelle finally sat down. Because she couldn’t support her body any longer.

 

She sat down abruptly, and the pannier* in her skirt broke with a loud noise.

[T/N: Panniers or side hoops are women’s undergarments worn in the 17th and 18th centuries to extend the width of the skirts at the side while leaving the front and back relatively flat. This provided a panel where woven patterns, elaborate decorations, and rich embroidery could be displayed and fully appreciated.]

 

Because it was made of wire, it never broke bluntly, and in the end, the broken pannier stabbed Isabelle’s leg deeply.

 

Although she was in great pain, Isabelle didn’t even have time to grab her leg.

 

“I’ll see you at the cathedral.”

 

This was because Arnaud, who had not looked at her until the end, soon turned around.

 

She had a hunch that he would never be seen again unless he was caught.

 

“Oh, no!”

 

Isabelle didn’t know that her blood had soaked into her skirt, so she crawled over to him and grabbed the hem of his trousers.

 

Arnaud hesitated momentarily, but then he began to walk as if nothing was under his feet.

 

Isabelle’s elbow was mercilessly dragged on the ground with that single step. Her wedding dress was already bloody.

 

However, Isabelle held Arnaud’s ankle as much as the intensity of her pain. She didn’t know when it came out, but the tears didn’t stop.

 

After taking so many steps, Arnaud finally stopped his body.

 

She could see his clenched fists about to explode over her head. Isabelle cried out and said.

 

“I wanted to meet you, I wanted to… How did you hold on? You told me, Arnaud, you did!”

 

“I never asked you to meet me.”

 

“You said you would come pick me up; you did…”

 

She had so much to say but could only hear resentment in return. Isabella howled with a voice that was not even human.

 

Arnaud, who didn’t even look down at Isabelle, looked into the air and bit his lips, then stomped his foot and threw her away.

 

The recoil knocked Isabelle down like spilling water.

 

“The maids will come soon. The henchmen from Imaronia will also come. You can say it’s my fault.”

 

“Ahh, uh, uh…”

 

“Enough then.”

 

Her tousled hair obscured her view, but only Arnaud’s coldly turning shoes were visible.

 

Isabelle sobbed as he walked away.

 

***

 

Alethea, with the other maids, soon found Isabelle.

 

It was as Arnaud said.

 

Her condition must have been so dire that even the hurriedly running doctor did not know how to open her unconscious eyes while looking at her thighs and wedding dress covered in blood.

 

“The King is thoughtless. What the hell are they going to do with that idiot? He is in the capital!”

 

Everyone seemed to be worried about Isabelle, but when you look at it, her condition was only a trap for cursing Arnaud.

 

The only one truly angry with her was her handmaid, Alethea.

 

“I’ll go and talk right away! The Princess has never intermingled with the King!”

 

Even though she kept her mouth shut, Isabelle seemed to have grasped the truth about her. Alethea’s shrill voice resounded in the powder room where all the maids had left.

 

But Isabelle just shook her head.

 

She couldn’t believe it. She was rash but did not want to see him look at her like an enemy again.

 

The ceremony went ahead.

 

They could have postponed the ceremony, but contrary to the concerns, no one considered her condition.

 

She wanted to use the bloody wedding dress as an excuse to buy time, but the maids immediately brought the wedding dress worn by the previous Princess.

 

“Why is the fabric so old? Didn’t you match the new wedding dress?”

 

“No matter what she puts on that gloomy impression, she can’t get enough of it. It will look like a doll walking!”

 

“It looks like the last night with His Majesty was intense. Seeing that she can’t even walk…”

 

“Oh, she can hear you!”

 

Mocking came from everywhere as she limped across the main prayer hall in her veil.

 

‘It seems that my appearance was funny.’

 

But that was nothing compared to Arnaud, who looked down on her indifferently beside the archbishop.

 

When they recited their wedding vows, applied holy oil, signed the vows when they kissed for the last time…

 

He was terribly insensitive. When she kissed him, he didn’t even mix his tongue.

 

Finally, being hit by the scattered petals inside the cathedral, Isabelle struggled to hold back her tears.

 

She just knew that today would be the last.

 

“…Still no news?”

 

Isabelle had been waiting for her husband for two hours.

 

At banquets, she could tolerate no one talking to her, but the silence in this way was excruciating.

 

So she decided to open her mouth.

 

“Sorry. Because Monsieur hid his whereabouts…!”

 

The three maids, who were only staring at each other at her words, soon lowered their posture and said.

 

The ceremony was over immediately, but it was not over until the beginning of the night.

 

Arnaud should have known, but that might be why he didn’t come.

 

“Oh.”

 

A laugh came out. If it was just the two of them, the idea of having to tell that everything collapsed helplessly in his absence.

 

He wouldn’t even come at all. Isabelle fixed her eyes on the window, and she asked again.

 

“I’d like to ask if that happened often.”

 

“What?”

 

Then, the bewildered voices of the ladies-in-waiting were heard. One even leaked her voice.

 

“Well, it’s been three years since he left the palace. No wonder you don’t know.”

 

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

 

“Just go out and see. He will come someday.”

 

Isabelle put one hand on her forehead, and her other hand fluttered at them.

 

As expected, the maids’ voices, who had been waiting in line, were heard over the door, and Isabelle felt very uncomfortable.

 

“Just looking at her, so gloomy!”

 

“You can get a good marriage with the fodder. What kind of fawning has she shown to His Majesty?”

 

“I recognised her from the moment she surrendered!”

 

She felt it even when she first came, but the royal castle, Moern Palace, sounded very well.

 

Could this even be Henry’s trick? It was a convincing structure that only a dozen heads were cut off by the authority.

 

‘Moern Palace is a scary place, Ellie.’

 

‘What’s so scary?’

 

‘Sometimes the heads of traitors come up on the table.’

 

Recalling her conversation with Arnaud on this subject, Isabelle bowed her head again.

 

It was such a vivid memory that she could recite it if she had to.

 

It was a memory she would never recall if it were not for Isabelle but for Elizabeth.

 

She seemed to be in tears.

 

Because she was so active, she couldn’t cry as much as she wanted, so she had to press her eyes tightly.

 

Even so, as she tried to wipe away her tears, she heard a door squeak behind her.

 

It was Arnaud, dressed only in a white shirt and pants.

[T/N: Looks like there are a lot of French titles used like Madame de Chateau, Monsieur, etc. Please let me know if these translated titles are not correct. I tried my best to find the most appropriate title translations. :)]

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