Cristin's POV:

My declaration of rejection hung in the air, sharp and absolute. Collin stared at me, his golden eyes wide with disbelief, as if I had just spoken in a forgotten, alien tongue.

But his shock only lasted for a second. In his arrogant mind, he quickly rationalized my words as just another desperate, extreme ploy to win back his attention.

I looked down at the bewildered driver and spoke coldly. "Take me to the Conrad estate. My business with the Dragon Lord needs to be settled formally, with our families as witnesses."

With a dark, grim face, Collin followed me and forcibly got into the carriage, sitting directly across from me. At his cold command, the bewildered driver quickly set the carriage in motion.

I leaned back against the soft cushions, my posture completely relaxed. I fixed my gaze coldly on the scenery flying past the window, treating him like an invisible, foul-smelling piece of trash.

"Cristin, what on earth are you doing? Is this your new game? Threatening me with the Rejection Ritual over a minor disagreement?"

"Doing? A game?" I turned my head, looking at him as if he'd just told the world's greatest joke. "I'm just stating a fact. Our engagement is over."

"Impossible!" he retorted sharply, his draconic aura flaring. "Our engagement was notarized by a Dragon God Ritual and is protected by the highest laws of the kingdom! It's not something you can just end with a few petulant words!"

I glanced at him coolly, my voice dripping with disdain. "Is that so? But as I recall, the Dragon God Ritual also provides for the absolute legality of a 'Rejection Ritual.' As long as one party officially proposes it and the other accepts, the marriage contract can be permanently voided."

Collin was speechless. He clearly hadn't expected me to be so knowledgeable about these ancient draconic laws. After all, the old me—the foolish, love-struck me—only cared about the roses in the garden and the gowns at the ball, always revolving my entire world around him.

He took a deep breath, trying a new tactic. His tone softened, putting on that hypocritical mask of affection. "Cristin, think about all these years of affection between us. Are you really going to throw it all away because of some trivial misunderstanding?"

"Affection?" I shot back, a harsh sneer escaping my lips. "Are you referring to the 'affection' where you comfortably enjoyed the massive financial support my family provided, all while you were intimately entangled with another woman?"

"I told you, it's not an entanglement!" My words violently stung his fragile ego, and his voice rose again. "I only have a responsibility to Ansley! Her father died saving my mother! I owe them a life debt!"

There it was again. That exact same, nauseating excuse.

Rage built in my chest, threatening to shatter my self-control.

I sat up abruptly, staring directly into his golden eyes, my voice trembling slightly with pure, unadulterated anger. "Collin Fleming, cut the crap with your ridiculous 'responsibility' argument!"

"You have a responsibility to her, so who is responsible for me? Who is responsible for the Conrad family?!"

I stared at him, speaking each word with razor-sharp precision. "When we got engaged, it was because your Fleming family's Dragon-crystal mines were on the verge of total exhaustion! You desperately needed my late father's wealth to keep your title! Do you have any idea how much of my family's liquid fortune I foolishly drained to fill your bottomless pits over the past five years?! I even broke my own mother's heart and severed ties with her just to defend your honor!"

"Now that your domain is stable and your mines are recovering, you don't need us anymore, is that it? Your so-called 'life debt' is just the perfect, noble excuse for your wandering affections and your parasitic betrayal!"

The color completely drained from Collin's face. He seemed utterly shocked that I would lay these dirty backroom deals out so bare.

These were the unspoken secrets among nobles. No one ever tore away the elegant facade so brutally, exposing the ugly truth that the great, arrogant Dragon Lord was essentially a leech feeding off his fiancée's dead father's inheritance.

His lips moved, but he couldn't form a single word to refute me. Because everything I said was the absolute truth.

Looking at his pale, defeated face, the fire in my heart finally found an outlet, turning into a sharp, incredibly satisfying thrill of revenge.

"For your 'responsibility,' you brought your mistress into my home and made me the laughingstock of the entire aristocracy! For your 'benefactor,' you locked me in a pitch-black tower for insane criminals!"

I leaned closer, my voice as cold and lethal as a blade. "Now, I'm done paying for your 'responsibility.' The heavy burden of the Fleming family is one that I, Cristin Conrad, will no longer carry. You and Ansley deserve each other!"

My words hit him like a heavy sledgehammer. He stared at me in shock, his eyes wide, as if seeing me for the very first time.

The coachman's voice cautiously came from outside. "My Lord, Lady Cristin... we've arrived at the Conrad estate."

Without giving Collin another glance, I pushed open the heavy carriage door myself and jumped out.

The familiar, magnificent iron gates of the estate were right in front of me. My heart twisted with a sudden, suffocating pang of guilt. This was the home I had abandoned.

Collin hurriedly followed me out, reaching out and trying to grab my arm, but I shook him off with extreme disgust.

"Cristin, wait! We need to talk!" His voice finally held a genuine trace of panic.

I turned, looking at him with absolute, freezing indifference. "There's nothing left to talk about. Get your three million gold coins ready, Collin. That is the exact price for ending our engagement and repaying my family's investments."