About Becoming My Ex-Husband's Mistress - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104. I Had Regretted It
I pretended not to notice and turned my gaze toward the sea.
As if I were simply enjoying the view of the azure waters.
‘It’s just my imagination. There’s no way he’s looking at me.’
No one could possibly recognize me. He would surely move on to somewhere else soon.
Yet contrary to such thoughts, tension seized me and my heart began to race. His presence was both welcome and deeply confusing.
Sir Jester.
The very man who had disembarked earlier—why was he boarding the ship again?
“….”
I wanted to turn around.
To see if he was still there, or if he had gone elsewhere.
I stood gazing at the sea with my hands clasped together, and then I made a decision.
‘I can check when I return to my cabin, can’t I?’
With that resolve, I turned my body.
“Oh my, what a fright!”
I truly startled and cried out without thinking.
When had he drawn so close?
Sir Jester stood directly before me, staring intently at my face.
He shouldn’t be able to recognize me. He couldn’t possibly notice.
“Well, what a coincidence meeting you here.”
“What, what is it?”
As I deliberately averted my attention, Sir Jester’s brow furrowed slightly as he posed a question instead.
“What on earth has happened?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you pretending not to know me? How have you been all this time? Have you been well?”
His voice carried absolute certainty.
I couldn’t fathom how he had recognized me, but I decided to deny it.
“Do you know me, sir?”
“Of course I do, Priscilla.”
I was startled by how precisely he had identified me.
“I believe you have mistaken me for someone else.”
Flustered, I tried to hurry past him.
But I could not move as I wished.
Sir Jester, whom I had thought would remain still, seized my wrist.
Without exerting much force, he gently turned me around to face him, and his smile turned bitter.
“I cast a spell on you before, so I can recognize you.”
“What?”
His words struck me like a thunderbolt. He had cast magic upon me without my consent, in secret.
“When did you cast such a spell…?”
In that moment, the corners of Sir Jester’s mouth lifted slightly. A peculiar glimmer appeared in his eyes.
“Now we can actually talk. I couldn’t have placed such a curse without your consent.”
He was testing me.
As I stood speechless and dazed, Sir Jester’s eyes curved like a crescent moon.
“It’s been so long—aren’t you going to ask how I’ve been? How heartless.”
Embarrassment flooded my face, and I struggled to find anywhere to look.
That’s when three men approached, rolling up their sleeves.
“Miss, is this guy bothering you?”
“Should we throw him in the sea?”
“Just say the word if you need fish food.”
Sir Jester’s eyes widened in shock.
“…Who are these broad-shouldered fellows? They don’t seem to be your actual siblings?”
My embarrassment deepened, and I pressed my palm to my forehead.
“It’s fine. I need to talk with this person.”
The three men scowled at Sir Jester, but at my intervention, they turned back to me and bowed respectfully.
“If he makes you uncomfortable, just call for us.”
“Thank you for looking out for me.”
After they left, I bowed my head to Sir Jester.
“I’m sorry, Sir Jester. I’ve been hiding the fact that I’m Priscilla because of circumstances.”
“I suspected as much.”
His casual nod left me feeling awkward.
“Have you…been well?”
“You’re only asking me that now?”
Sir Jester smiled sadly before answering.
“How could I have been well when you left?”
“….”
“I regretted lifting the curse and letting you go. I wished I hadn’t done it. I wondered if my confession had burdened you, and I wished I hadn’t confessed.”
“….”
“You left with nothing but a single letter, so I checked the mailbox every day hoping another letter would come, but there was nothing but silence.”
He continued speaking in a flat tone.
“If magic had still existed in this world, I could have found one person easily, but even that was impossible, and it frustrated me beyond measure.”
I understood his feelings, yet the lingering tenderness in his words made my throat tighten painfully.
Along with the guilt I felt for the betrayal he must have experienced from my ungrateful actions.
“…I’m sorry.”
I bowed my head deeply once more.
“Sir Jester, I’m truly sorry.”
“Yet you apologize.”
“….”
I had nothing to say.
Then Sir Jester extended his hand toward me.
“If you’re truly sorry, will you give me your hand?”
I readily offered my right hand. Sir Jester took it gently and asked.
“There must have been circumstances. But whatever they were, you won’t disappear without a word from now on.”
As I nodded, Sir Jester brought my fingertips to his lips.
“Good. I forgive you. I’m glad to see you again.”
In the end, Sir Jester and I sat across from each other in the Ship Cafeteria with a cup of coffee each.
Sir Jester sat with his arms crossed, gazing at me intently before breaking into a broad smile.
“With makeup like that, you look like a completely different person.”
I couldn’t help but ask.
“How did you recognize me?”
“I’d know you even if you just brushed past me.”
“…What?”
Startled by my reaction, Sir Jester shrugged.
“Isn’t it stranger not to recognize you?”
His words left me bewildered.
Since I’d applied makeup that bordered on disguise, no one had recognized me—yet Sir Jester found it odd that they wouldn’t.
“Even with makeup like this… can you still see my original face?”
Sir Jester chuckled softly.
His answer that followed was even more startling.
“I recognized you by your scent.”
Startled, I quickly brought my arm up to my nose.
“Do I… have an odor?”
I wasn’t entirely sure, but I felt genuinely concerned.
If I had a scent, then perhaps everyone I’d met until now had been enduring discomfort.
This time his smile softened.
“It’s not unpleasant—it’s sweet, like flowers.”
“…”
“Ah, let me correct myself. Not a scent, but a fragrance. A pheromone, if you will.”
“…”
Sir Jester took a sip of his coffee and smiled brightly.
“Not many people would notice something like that.”
After that, he asked me various questions about my well-being, and whether I’d met Luderne again.
“His Highness is in the Capital, after all.”
I’d sent him a letter before departing, so Luderne would soon learn that I was Priscilla.
I nodded.
“Yes, I have met him.”
“That’s a relief. He was searching for you when you disappeared.”
His words seemed almost unbelievable.
“His Highness was… searching for me?”
“Of course he’d search for someone dear to him who vanished.”
It was truly unexpected.
“That can’t be right.”
“Why do you look like you didn’t know?”
I studied Sir Jester’s expression carefully, wondering if he was lying.
Then he let out a small sigh.
“They tore through the island like hunting for rats that day. I was called out of bed and learned that you were the Prince’s lover.”
Called out of bed—another unbelievable claim.
But there was only one thing I could say, so my head drooped naturally.
“I’m not… a lover.”
Sir Jester rolled his eyes and nodded.
“Well, you didn’t seem to be a public lover. More like a secret mistress, I’d say. So what’s the situation now?”
Once he went to the Capital, it was only a matter of time before he learned about my relationship with Luderne.
Since I was caught, I had no choice but to be honest.
I told him everything that had happened since I left Heril Island.
Meeting Madame Laber on Heril Island, competing in the Royal Elegance Contest, working as the main designer at the Salon now, and staying at Luderne’s Townhouse after losing the Mansion to a fire.
As I spoke, Sir Jester simply nodded repeatedly with an intrigued expression.
“So His Highness knows you as the Salon designer ‘Priscilla’ and not as Priscilla?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still his mistress?”
“That’s right.”
“Listening to this…”
Sir Jester stroked his chin with one hand before asking again.
“You seem to think His Highness still doesn’t know your true identity, is that correct?”
It was a question that needed no thought, so I shrugged.
“He didn’t know. But he will soon.”
“I don’t understand?”
“I left behind a letter revealing the truth and apologizing.”
“Revealing the truth? What kind of…?”
Sir Jester seemed not to understand my words.
I, in turn, didn’t understand his reaction. If he didn’t know my identity, then logically the truth I needed to reveal could only be my identity.
The conversation seemed to hang suspended in the air.
“That I’m actually Priscilla, the mistress he met on the island, not just ‘Priscilla’ the designer he knows…”
Even though I answered precisely, Sir Jester tilted his head and countered.
“Why would that be a truth His Highness needs to know?”
“What?”
The question was strange, so I stayed silent and he continued.
“There’s no way His Highness wouldn’t recognize you.”
“That can’t be. He seemed to have no idea.”
Sir Jester tapped the tip of his nose with his finger.
“This distinctive scent of yours—His Highness doesn’t know it? When he was closest to you on the island?”
“…”
“You recognized me from the start, didn’t you? You were just pretending not to know?”
“…?”
Luderne had known it was me from the beginning and pretended otherwise?
Why?
I carefully retraced the moment we reunited in the Capital.
We had met again at Countess Dora’s house party.
At that time, he had asked about my background and what I did. After the cocktail glass shattered, Madame Raber had made an appeal, and he had mentioned sleeping arrangements.
The innocent, boyish expression he wore then had left quite an impression on me.
What he said next was truly an unexpected apology.
｢…The fragrance is too strong. I’m truly sorry.｣
He had definitely apologized like that.
And then came the massive investment that followed.
“The fragrance is too strong….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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