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Side Story 2-10

Side Story 2-10: Flashback (10)

'This is my last chance, and if it doesn't work out, I'll......'

One day in her fourth year of marriage to Cliff.

Lizé has been waiting for this day, even as she feels herself going crazy.

The day of the final episode of the original story, the one where Lizé wins the heart of the imperial family.

"Where are you going?" Cliff asked.

"I thought you decided not to care where I go?"

Lizé was fed up with Cliff making expressionless faces and asking questions mechanically, as if he did so because he had little sense of obligation left to fulfill the prenuptial agreement.

She slammed the carriage door as if to erase the dry look on Cliff's face from her mind and ordered them to set off.

'A month before the National Day ball, a slave auction was held on the outskirts of the capital......'

In the original story, Lizé is trying to buy a gift for the Duke and Duchess to celebrate National Day, but mistakes a slave auction for a shop, and finds a lost relative of the imperial family.

Of course, she didn't know his identity at first.

She just impulsively brought him along because she felt sorry for the way he was being treated.

The boy claims to have no memory of his past, but is surprisingly intelligent and knowledgeable about aristocratic etiquette.

Lizé is so impressed with the boy that she makes him her errand boy, until Princess Catherine arrives at the mansion and is surprised to see him.

'It's a top secret that the Emperor's nephew has been kidnapped.'

Recognizing her cousin at once, Catherine invites Lizé and the boy to come with her to the palace, where the boy's biological mother, whom Catherine had called in advance, has an emotional reunion with her long-lost son.

The ending of the original story is that Lizé, having found the lost imperial relative, is instantly favored by the imperial family, and she and Cliff live happily ever after.

'I don't want to lose anymore. This time I must succeed.'

Lizé's shoulders trembled, even though it was still hot outside.

Thinking of all she'd lost over the past few years, she felt like getting rid of the 13th Edith and replacing her with a new one wouldn't make her feel any better.

The affection of the Duke and Duchess, which she had thought she no longer needed, only after she had lost it completely did she realize how warm and comforting it had been, and Cliff's love, which she had thought was tiresome, could never be replaced by anyone else's.

There were many men who professed their love for Lizé, but they all admired her appearance and her position as the next Duchess of Ludwig.

The more she listened to others profess their love, the emptier her heart became.

'If I can win the imperial family's favor, they'll all love me again. I have to.'

Lizé clutched her hands, which were trembling with anxiety, as she made her way to the outskirts of the capital.

She wrapped herself in the hooded cloak she had prepared in advance, shielded her face with a fan, and waited for the boy's turn at the slave auction house she had entered.