For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 49

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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 49
Vanessa looked between Kirious, whose eyes held a distant softness, and Ian, whose gaze was utterly serious. She tilted her head and smiled faintly.
“One night should be fine, shouldn’t it?”
A jubilant cry erupted from somewhere—”Whoop!”—ringing in her ears.
Kirious sprang to his feet, clenching his fists.
“No, no—I’ll have people prepare everything right away. You two just come back with your bodies intact, that’s all. Should I give you money? Never mind. Just use my name and eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, enjoy whatever you want. I’ll cover everything.”
Kirious bloomed with a foolish grin, patting Ian’s shoulder twice before moving with sudden energy.
“Well then, I’d better get going—there’s so much to prepare for your successful date! Oh, to think I get to help with your date like this. I’m so happy I could skip dinner tonight and still feel full.”
Ian let out a hollow laugh.
The restaurant fell silent except for the clink and clatter of dishes as they were left alone.
Ian watched Vanessa chewing the last of her food, then released a soft cough.
“Did Kirious ask you to come along?”
“Hm? Ask me what?”
“To take you out.”
This one always had uncanny perception.
Vanessa dabbed her mouth with the napkin beside her plate.
“It’s a honeymoon—we haven’t really had a proper date yet, that’s all.”
“Did I… disappoint you?”
Both Kirious and Ian seemed to think the same way.
Why did they assume she’d be upset?
While the two of them were sparring, she’d toured the Northern Mansion and found plenty to see in the surrounding area. She hadn’t been bored.
Vanessa met Ian’s gaze for a moment, then shook her head.
“Not at all. There’s nothing to be upset about. It’s not like you did it on purpose.”
“I received a request from Duke Parbian.”
“I figured as much. You wouldn’t go to that trouble without reason.”
At her words, Ian’s eyes widened in surprise, then softened into a barely visible smile.
It was oddly comforting to be understood without having to spell out the meaning of his actions.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“No, I’m not particularly hungry.”
Vanessa smiled faintly at Ian’s sparse words.
“The food here is good, but I think I prefer Gayen’s Cream Pasta. It suits my palate better.”
Maybe it’s the spices in the Northern Region being too strong. They make my tongue burn a little.
At her murmured words, Ian’s eyes changed.
“Should we head back right now?”
If Kirious had been there, he would have cheered on the spot.
Though of course, that wasn’t going to happen.
“I find this disappointing. If I didn’t attend your friend’s wedding, shouldn’t I at least serve as your guide?”
Kirious reappeared at the restaurant wearing a cheerful smile, saying they should just leave whenever they were ready, that it didn’t matter how many days they stayed, to relax and rest easy—only to have his face harden like clay.
Afterward, Kirious fixed Ian with a look that said ‘What kind of madman does this?’ but Ian paid him no mind.
“Your wife’s feelings are what matter most. She might not wish for my company throughout the journey.”
Ian forced out this weak protest, his gaze turning toward Vanessa.
“Vanessa, what do you think?”
Vanessa looked between Ian, who asked for her opinion, and Kirious, whose eyes were pleading. She blinked.
“It doesn’t really matter to me.”
She needed time to ask about the Calming Herb anyway.
And looking at Kirious, if the two of them left for the hot spring alone, he’d probably show up again by the time they returned to the Eastern Region.
“It seems the lady has spoken.”
Unlike Ian’s satisfied gaze, Kirious’s face drained of color as he leaned closer to Vanessa.
“…No, my lady… why are you doing this? Weren’t you supposed to help me?”
“What?”
“You were going to give me freedom—”
“Kirious Parbian. Take one more step, and…”
Without even drawing his sword, the metallic ring of a threat seemed to cut through the air.
“I’ll show you what training in hot water looks like.”
At the menacing threat, Kirious shot Ian a look of resentment.
…I feel oddly sorry.
If not for the Calming Herb, I would’ve let Kirious have his way.
But he looked like he’d bolt the moment I turned my back.
Now that I think about it, he didn’t come to the wedding either.
If you’re that close, you’d come no matter how far away—unless something was wrong.
Having thought that far, Vanessa turned to Kirious with a bright smile.
“Master, I’m grateful for your company throughout our travels.”
This was absurd. Absolutely absurd.
Anyone watching would think she was being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
‘Karma. It’s all karma.’
***
The outskirts of Snowd, capital of the Northern Region.
The moment they arrived at a hot spring nestled in the heart of snow-covered mountains, Kirious asked as if thoroughly bewildered.
“…So we came all this way just to use separate facilities?”
“Is that a problem?”
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t, but… did they have to? On a honeymoon, no less?
Snowd meant hot springs; hot springs meant Snowd.
Of course, one couldn’t overlook the Snow Flower Festival either.
It was barely an exaggeration to say that Snowd’s hot springs owed their fame almost entirely to the Mixed-Gender Hot Spring.
And yet here were lovers who’d traveled all the way to the Northern Region refusing to use it?
Then why come north at all? There were plenty of hot springs in other regions.
Kirious swallowed the question that had risen to the tip of his tongue.
If he’d let it slip, that madman would likely insist on loosening up before even entering the bath—which meant more Training waiting in the wings.
And why did they insist on dragging him along in the first place?
Why not come alone?
This too was the same problem.
He couldn’t bring himself to offend them.
“No problem at all…”
At last, having surrendered, Kirious watched as Ian promptly disappeared into the men’s entrance.
As Kirious glanced toward the women’s side, wondering if the Duchess held the same view, he realized—
“Is this why they married?”
Vanessa had already vanished.
When he’d first heard that Ian Ruscliff loved a woman enough to marry her, Kirious had pitied whoever it was—condemned to a lifetime of hardship at the whim of a madman.
But watching a husband who insisted they use separate facilities despite the existence of a Mixed-Gender Hot Spring, and a wife who answered his reluctance not with words but by moving first toward the women’s bath—
They were cut from the same cloth.
At least they wouldn’t quarrel.
Left alone, Kirious exhaled heavily and trudged forward.
He should have invited the Crown Prince too, in hindsight.
Even if someone else showed up, those two wouldn’t spare them a glance.
It bothered him that he alone was suffering, but what could he do?
The moment he voiced a complaint, the calluses on his hands would only harden further.
Swallowing his grievance, Kirious resolved that if those two ever came north again… he’d bring his twin sisters along instead.
No—he’d greet them together with his twin sisters.
That way, at least he wouldn’t be alone in his torment.
‘What am I even thinking?’
Had he really begun to mirror them after just a few days in their company?
Planning ahead?
The moment he tangled with those two, his carefree days were finished—that much was obvious.
He still didn’t know the Duchess well, but Ian Ruscliff in particular occupied a uniquely distant place among the men he needed to avoid in life.
Why?
Because…
‘Again. Your hips are misaligned.’
‘Again. Your axis is unstable this time.’
‘Again. One more set.’
‘Again. You haven’t been slacking, I see. This is the last.’
‘Again. This is truly the last.’
‘Again. This time I mean it.’
Because that man subjected him to three straight hours of Endurance Training while spouting such lines!
That accursed “again,” that endless “last.”
Every time, despite knowing full well he was being deceived by false hope, Kirious found himself falling for it all over again—those were words of dangerous magic.
And when he finally heard it—”the last of the last of the last of the last of the last…”—only then did his hope shatter completely, and he staggered to a halt, drenched in sweat.
At which point he had to watch that bastard grin.
‘Looking at how obediently he follows orders, he plays exactly as recklessly as he looks.’
It was just a polite way of saying he was as crude as a dog.
Before, he’d only heard it up to “the last of the last of the last…” before stopping.
This time, the real mistake had been overlooking it all—caught up in the sudden marriage and the foolish hope that perhaps he’d stop coming around now that he’d finally married.
He married, yet somehow I’m the one who lost my nerve.
Tsk.
Kirious stared at Ian’s firm back before quietly changing into fresh clothes.
To think he studied pharmacy because of a curse, wielding a body like that.
There’s no waste quite like this waste of talent.
And to think I have to face a succession struggle I never asked for because of him…….
“What.”
Ian, who had finished changing, regarded Kirious with an indifferent gaze.
“……What.”
“You’ve been staring at me this whole time.”
The man’s perceptiveness was uncanny…….
Did he have eyes on the back of his head?

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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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