Because She Had A Time Limit, She Became The Villain’s Daughter-in-law - Chapter 120
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
* * *
Evan stared blankly at the room across from his. Laria’s Room, completely obliterated, bore not a single trace of its former self. It was a perfect erasure, as if demanding that he never remember her at all.
This too must have gone exactly as she intended.
There wasn’t a single clue left in Laria’s Room that could even begin a search.
When Evan slowly returned to his own room, a package from the Magic Tower sat on his table. The photographs he had left to be developed had all been printed.
In the photographs, Laria smiled with a slightly awkward expression in the Mansion Garden. When I took these pictures, I thought we would spend our entire lives together like this. I never imagined I would be looking at them alone.
“I’ll find her.”
“And what will you do once you find her?”
Evan stood in his room, gazing at the photographs while quietly settling his heart.
‘And what will I do once I find her….’
Olivia was right. He had brought her here knowing she was terminally ill, without even telling her that fact. He himself felt as though he’d been struck from behind, but for the person involved, she probably wanted to spit on the House of Icard itself.
She naturally would not want him to search for her. Normally, he should have listened to her wishes. ‘She wants to leave us and disappear into hiding, so I should let her be.’ That’s what a good person would do.
“I’ll behave well. I’ll never do anything that bothers you. So….”
But he had won their bet before.
“My wish is that you don’t leave me.”
Of course, that contract was a cute wager made half in jest, and bringing it up now was pathetic. If he were to accuse Laria of breaking that contract, asking why she didn’t keep it….
‘I would look utterly pathetic.’
Evan sat quietly, his eyes gleaming as though he could devour several people.
‘But I’ve always been cheap to Laria anyway.’
The contract bearing her name was tucked between the pages of a fairy tale book. The very book Laria had given him as a gift long ago, for the first time. In that book too, the cute little bear crosses mountains and rivers to find the stars.
“Conversation? What on earth would I say in this catastrophe?”
What he was most curious about now was Laria’s illness. Based on the contents of the letter, it seemed she had naturally recovered, but….
‘Still, what if….’
What if Laria had disappeared to hide her death because she feared his heartbreak so much? To make him think that she was living well somewhere else?
Regardless of anything else, he had to confirm that Laria was alive. Because a world where she existed and a world where she didn’t were completely different to him. Regardless of whether she was with him or not.
“Evan.”
There was so much he wanted to say and so much he wanted to ask that he was going mad.
“Thank you for everything.”
He couldn’t even say the words telling her never to say such things.
Evan quietly slipped a promissory note into the fairy tale book as well. Anyone who had tormented him even slightly could not be left alone. If she was going to leave, she shouldn’t leave after treating him so well until the very end.
As he breathed heavily, a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in.”
“Young Master.”
Morand entered carrying an armful of documents.
“Didn’t you hear? I’m not handling Duchy affairs for a while.”
“That’s not it….”
Morand carefully placed the documents on the desk.
“Actually, these are all tasks that Laria completed for you.”
“…What?”
“The day before yesterday, in less than a day, she handled everything perfectly.”
Evan stared at Laria’s round, childlike handwriting and felt as though he’d been struck once more. What had he truly known about Laria all this time?
Morand quietly recounted the events from the day before, and Evan’s face drained of all color.
‘Damn it….’
Evan couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
‘And she made it look so graceful….’
Morand seemed to share the sentiment.
“Young Duke, I confess I am afflicted with an illness.”
“What illness.”
“The sickness of wishing to serve Laria as the true lady of this house with utmost urgency.”
“….”
“I have become a man incapable of serving any other mistress. I beseech you to find her without fail.”
Evan had never heard Morand plead with such desperation before.
After Morand made his earnest appeal and departed, Evan fell into thought for a moment before summoning Nathan.
“Nathan.”
And he declared once more that he would abandon everything he was doing and find Laria.
“From this moment forward, I will find Laria by any means necessary….”
Nathan couldn’t help but tense at the sight of his cold crimson eyes.
“Don’t announce her as missing. Say she’s unwell and confined to the Count’s Manor. And investigate this in secret.”
“B-but why….”
“I don’t yet know precisely what Laria wants. So we must prevent any strange rumors from spreading to the outside world.”
He would find Laria and fall to his knees. Now understanding Father’s wishes, he would beg her—saying he had no intention of marrying any woman but her.
No, more than anything, because he couldn’t bear not seeing her, he would speak the truth: he simply cannot let you go like this.
He knew the situation was complicated, but he wouldn’t end it this way—he would cling to it until the very end. They would lay bare everything they’d left unsaid, and only then would they think about what comes next together….
“Laria prefers expensive and fine things, so she would never live humbly among commoners.”
“Ah… Yes.”
“So she must have used a noble’s alias. Start investigating the lower nobility with no substance—those with names but no one who’s ever seen them.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Especially focus on the Southwest. If anything seems amiss, verify it immediately.”
As Evan devised his plan to find Laria himself, he reflected.
Though he had come of age long ago, their childhood was only now truly ending.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————