A Rabbit's Burial and the Broken Breakup Letter
The one before me was the eldest daughter of the Miller Duke family. Helio, the knight who served beside the Billet Duke, would not have missed it. He acted with proper decorum, yet he refused Noah's demand.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace the Billet Duke ordered us to discard the rabbit.”
“I’ll bury it myself!”
That single word—“Wait”—was more comforting than anything else. Combined with the betrayal of the father and Helio she had trusted, and the overwhelming relief of seeing the only person who knew her name, a wave of emotion crashed over Adeline.
With her allies appearing, Adeline’s confidence surged. She shouted in defiance. Helio let out a heavy sigh at the stubbornness of these pampered young children.
“Forgive me. I only obey the orders of the Billet Duke.”
Helio passed them by without a glance. Adeline stared anxiously at Noah, wondering why he had come. Noah raised an eyebrow, as if questioning her decision.
The light of hope fading from Adeline’s eyes, a tear the size of a chickpea dropped. Noah realized in that moment that he had done something pointless by intervening. But once he saw those tears, he could not turn away. He had never pitied anyone before, and this was strange. Even as he told himself to ignore it, the tears kept catching in his chest. Noah ran a nervous hand through his hair, annoyed at his uncharacteristic behavior.
“I’ll buy it.”
“What?”
Helio turned around, doubting his ears.
“That rabbit. I’ll buy it.”
Noah tossed a pouch of gold coins onto the ground.
Helio had no choice but to pick up the gold and report it to his master. When the Miller Duke heard the situation, he laughed boisterously.
“Even for a beast, it would wound the heart to discard something that has formed a bond. Noah seems to have intervened out of concern for the young lady who might be hurt.”
“To form affection even for something as small as a rabbit. If you worry about such trivial things, how would you handle greater matters?”
“The Billet young miss is the duke’s daughter; she will never inherit the title. My son takes after his mother’s nature. Let them be. They are still children.”
Thus, the rabbit could once more return to Adeline’s arms.
That day, Adeline and Noah dug in the earth together.
“Why do I have to do something like this?”
Noah complained openly, but when Adeline began to cry again, he rolled up his sleeves in irritation.
“Thank you. It’s all because of you.”
Adeline buried the rabbit and sorted through her feelings. The belated grief over the rabbit’s death was replaced by a greater gratitude at being able to send her beloved away with her own hands.
“He was my friend. I didn’t have any friends before… I didn’t know why he died even though he was fine until yesterday. It’s fortunate I can say goodbye like this.”
Noah stared at Adeline fixedly. Adeline smiled awkwardly. Noah reached out and gently wiped the tear from her cheek.
“Stop crying. Even if you cry, your friend is dead. Nothing will change.”
The words were harsh and cold. Yet Adeline read the warmth beneath them. Whether his tone was cold or not, Noah was comforting her.
“Noah is warm.”
“What?”
Noah frowned, confused by her remark. Adeline, who had forgotten she was crying moments ago, laughed and took Noah’s hand—the same hand that had wiped her tears.
“From today, you are my friend.”
Noah looked at Adeline’s dirt-covered face with wide eyes. Then his face flushed red. Perhaps it was embarrassing that he had not noticed his own hand was dirty, or that comforting Adeline had made him ashamed.
Noah turned his head away, his face still faintly flushed.
From that day on, the two became friends.
He was such a warm person.
“How did… I catch this damn disease?”
Adeline lay sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling patterns for a long time. Noah’s worry kept her mind in a whirl.
A tear fell from the corner of her eye.
***
The breakup letter was ready in an instant. Noah had prepared it in advance, waiting for the moment when he would truly feel the reality of the engagement that Adeline had mentioned in passing—once or twice through her letters, in dreams of her from childhood, or the sudden moment she crossed his mind.
After a minor supplement to the letter he could not send because of its lack of grounds, Noah called for Adeline.
“Billet young miss. Did you enjoy your meal?”
Noah treated Adeline with the utmost politeness. Ever since, he had begun addressing her with perfect deference, keeping his distance. Perhaps it was because of that incident. Though she had a vague idea, Adeline did not feel the need to explain.
“Yes. Thank you for asking.”
“You said you barely ate.”
The moment Noah’s polite words were out, he seized her by the collar. Adeline startled and looked up. The color had returned to Noah’s cheeks, better than in the afternoon.
“I just wasn’t hungry.”
“I see.”
“How can you eat normally when you might lose your friend?”
Adeline uttered the title of “friend” in a flat tone. It was a question: did she remember that she had formed a bond with him before becoming an engagement partner?
Noah offered his usual gentle smile.
“It pains my heart to have wounded the young miss’s.”
“……”
“It seems I cannot be a good engagement partner after all.”
Noah deliberately avoided the word “friend.” To Adeline, that meant he no longer saw her as a friend. Or perhaps she had been the only one to consider them friends from the beginning.
“I signed it first. Once you sign, you are free. Though the central society may seem unfamiliar to you, the gentlemen of society will be extremely curious about you.”
“……Really?”
Noah appeared relieved. His light tone was soft, and the words carried the same warmth. Adeline’s heart tightened; she bit her lip. When she stared at Noah, he suddenly coughed.
“Then, cough, cough… you should be able to find a good husband.”
“Yes…….”
A good husband.
Noah’s relieved appearance was perhaps because he had finally escaped the guilt of holding onto a sickly engagement partner.
He was a terminal case.
He had accepted the day of his death and was waiting. Perhaps he worried that his presence might block Adeline’s marriage path.
Yes. Noah was the gentle person who thought of others first.
“Are you all right, Noah?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you alone? All right?”
“Of course I’m fine.”
It would be a lonely battle. Since Noah had only recently contracted the disease, he had yet to understand just how vicious and terrifying a fight against illness truly was.
Adeline still remembered her grandmother’s daily coughing of blood. The voices of the servants who had turned against her and spoken in irritation still echoed like hallucinations.
“Why are you suddenly grabbing me and scolding? It’s so disgusting and annoying! Do you want to live even if you hurt someone this much?”
The people who had once respected the grandmother in the Billet family gradually came to hate her. She would have known that gaze.
Battling the illness that shattered her body and enduring the changed attitude of others had made her personality hypersensitive. Daily outbursts continued. In the end, the grandmother declared she would not receive care and died alone.
“I regret showing my ugly self. I should have died earlier. Much earlier…….”
Adeline had been the one who stayed by her side. She quietly nursed her without a word. The most painful part was that the patient could sense her suffering.
Illness completely changes a life.
No matter how well one had cared for those around them, no matter their status, to those who nursed them, they were simply a troublesome sick person.
“Come now. Sign it. Young miss.”
Adeline stared at Noah’s smile for a long time. That warm, bright smile would soon fade and hide in the corner.
Adeline did not want to leave the future she had planned behind. She wished Noah would not know the wound her grandmother had suffered, the reality.
Adeline picked up the pen. Noah’s smile deepened.
The next moment.
Tear.
“What are you doing…!”
Tear, tear, tear.
Adeline shredded the breakup letter to pieces. Noah shot up from his chair at the strange scene unfolding before him. The shredded papers scattered across the floor.
“This… what now….”
Noah gathered the scraps with trembling hands.
“Young master.”
Adeline came down from the chair and knelt. She took Noah’s hand. The heat of his skin gave her certainty.
“I will nurse you.”
Just as she had once protected Adeline when she lost her rabbit friend in the past.
“I will stay by your side until you are healed.”
Adeline did not want to give up on Noah. Perhaps it was not for his sake. She might be doing it for herself after losing him and being alone.
Still, she wanted to protect him. His dignity. His daily life.
“Until the day you die, there will be no breakup.”
Even if Noah died, he would die as her engagement partner until that very moment.
Adeline smiled through tears gathering in her eyes. At her shocking words, Noah’s face turned pale. He stared at her blankly, unable to pull away his hand. His lips moved in a dazed voice.
“……Have you gone mad?”