For the Lady's Wise Regression - Chapter 50

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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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Episode 50
Kirious swallowed hard and shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea what the other man was talking about.
“Me? When? That’s not it. Aren’t you mistaken?”
…….
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a taste for admiring another man’s body. Unfortunate for you, isn’t it? Since I’m the only one here who’ll see that body you’ve worked so hard to maintain. Why didn’t you just go to a mixed bathing pool instead? The Duchess would be far more interested than I——”
“You shouldn’t have said anything.”
Ian, who had been listening in silence, twisted one corner of his mouth upward.
“If something you’ve cultivated is visible enough to catch the eye, then you’re interested. I thought your taste ran to skeletal frames, the way you’ve been pretending otherwise all this time.”
Kirious’s mouth fell open.
This lunatic—did he really think he was crazy just because people kept saying he was?
How could he twist his words like that?
Kirious backed away slowly as Ian drew near, but it was futile.
The difference in their strides was as wide as the difference in their frames.
After only a few steps, Ian stood before him, and Kirious looked up at him with wary eyes.
What was he going to say now…….
Ian tilted his head slightly toward Kirious’s ear, and his lips parted slowly.
“Don’t worry. Even without your coaxing…….”
The night is long.
Why spend it with you, you madman…… You’re married…….
Someone who had never experienced love before being thrust suddenly into marriage was bound to suffer the side effects that came with it—and Kirious was experiencing them firsthand.
Though he couldn’t fathom why he should be the one to endure it.
‘Why did Father have to impose such a condition……!’
He was aware that his chronic illness was an obstacle to his position as heir, but he had assumed it could be hidden.
Besides, a Duke didn’t exactly labor with his body.
He merely grew short of breath sometimes; it didn’t impede his daily life.
Moreover, unlike the Ducal House’s own heirs, his chronic illness had plagued him since birth, so he already knew deep in his bones exactly how much caution was necessary.
Of course, for an empire that needed to maintain the Five Dukes system, it made sense they would worry about the Northern Region falling into the same situation, having already weathered a heir’s health crisis in another Ducal House.
His mind understood the reason well enough.
But the unfortunate truth was that had he not been a Duke, he would have lived as a wastrel without a care in the world. Even now, he had no desire to be entangled in politics—complicated, exhausting as it was.
Honestly, if it weren’t for Ian, his breath wouldn’t catch at all.
No matter how much it might be for his sake…….
‘Too much. Far, far, far too much!’
He had thought that once married, the Duchess would visit the Northern Region less often, but if she was like this, it seemed little would change between before and after the marriage.
So Kirious resolved to make a plan.
Rather than the wall that was Ian Ruscliffe, he would make the flower that bloomed upon that wall—the Duchess—his ally.
‘If she wants for nothing, then I’ll create something she wants.’
Among all the regions, there were certain places famous as honeymoon destinations.
Since Ian Ruscliffe had received Delpiro as a wedding gift from the Crown Prince, it was obvious he would choose that place as their honeymoon destination while also searching for clues about his curse.
That man hated wasting unnecessary time.
But it was the Duchess who had suggested the Northern Region as their honeymoon destination.
If it had been during the Snow Flower Festival, he would have assumed she had come to see it.
But judging from the tone of the letter he had received, it seemed less like she had chosen the Northern Region as a honeymoon destination and more like she had come here for business and decided to combine it with that.
‘That’s actually fortunate.’
Had it been a mixed bath, he would have been stuck with Ian and her both, unable to get a word in.
This was his only chance.
That moment when they each enjoyed the hot spring and gathered at the entrance.
Kirious planned to reach Vanessa before Ian, using a shortcut only he knew.
Of course, that was merely the plan.
***
Vanessa carefully dipped her feet into the hot spring.
The warmth rising from her toes seemed to warm her entire body in an instant.
“How lovely…….”
The drowsy sensation that came over her all at once was not unpleasant.
In the distance, Snowood Mountain was visible.
Snow fell and melted, fell and melted, until finally the mountain peak turned white.
She wanted to climb it sometime, given the chance.
But with Ian and Kirious staying close together more often than not, she hadn’t been able to bring up the subject of the Breath Technique.
Though given his chronic illness, she couldn’t say she didn’t understand.
But still.
How could the time they spent apart be shorter than the time she spent with him?
Whenever I tried to have even a brief conversation with Kirious, Ian would appear like a ghost, making it impossible to get a proper word in.
I’d been wondering how to draw that man who cries for freedom to the hot spring in the first place.
Fortunately, I was able to come naturally thanks to Ian suggesting it first.
If he hadn’t proposed it, I would have done so myself.
As someone in a position to ask a favor, I didn’t want to leave a bad impression on Kirious.
Though I felt sorry toward him, this worked out well for Vanessa.
It seemed there wouldn’t be much time otherwise.
So I thought there would be at least some opportunity to talk once we came to the hot spring together—but apparently not.
‘Separate baths, then…….’
Vanessa’s lips twitched upward slightly.
I’d been worried he might suggest a shared bath, but fortunately that wasn’t the case.
The reason I’d mentioned the hot spring in the first place was entirely to seize an opportunity to speak with Kirious for even a moment, away from Ian’s notice.
‘There must be a shortcut somewhere.’
One chance was all I needed.
The moment we both finished our baths and gathered at the entrance.
Before Ian appeared, I planned to catch Kirious then.
As for how I knew about this path—I’d even prepared a perfectly convincing excuse, something along the lines of having taken a wrong turn while wandering about on my first visit—but…….
“You, madam……? What are you doing here…….”
……And yet here I was, running into him right at the shortcut’s entrance.
“Why are you here……?”
“Well, that’s what I wonder too?”
“Pardon?”
“I…… come here often, but I’ve never seen this path before, so…….”
“Ah…… I also…… got lost on my first visit here…….”
“Ah…….”
Somewhere nearby, the sound of something shattering echoed—Crash!
Both Vanessa and Kirious looked around at once, then sighed softly in unison.
Ah. That was the sound of my plans breaking into pieces in my head.
Neither knowing the other’s situation, the two of them hesitated before opening their mouths.
“You, madam……!”
“I, young master……!”
“…….”
“…….”
Looking at each other simultaneously, the two of them read each other’s expressions and their faces took on a curious cast.
“……You speak first.”
“No, madam, you first…….”
“You opened your mouth first, so I should go second…….”
Vanessa let her words trail off.
Time was slipping away in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
At this rate, Ian would surely enter the changing room soon, looking for Kirious who still hadn’t emerged.
Kirious seemed to sense this as well, his face hardening with resolve.
“I wasn’t even able to attend your wedding ceremony, was I?”
So sudden?
Vanessa looked at Kirious with bewildered eyes, then let out a small cough.
“Yes, that’s…… that’s true.”
“It’s been weighing on my mind. If there’s anything you’d like, I’d very much like to give it to you as a wedding gift…….”
Before Kirious could finish, Vanessa pressed her lips firmly together.
Oh dear. I really have come a long way to hear this.
“I’m not quite sure what would be an appropriate wedding gift from you, young master…….”
At Vanessa’s words, color rose to Kirious’s face.
“There are many things. I could give you the Snow Sculpture, or an entire guest room here at the hot spring…… oh, or perhaps rare medicinal herbs that grow only in the Northern Region. The Ruscliffe Family deals with these herbs as well, actually,”
“Medicinal herbs?”
“Are you interested?”
“Oh, forgive me. Hearing that they’re herbs the Ruscliffe Family also handles, I became curious…….”
“Not at all. It’s natural to take interest in your husband’s work. In the old days they would say women should show no interest and simply tend to their domestic duties, but surely that’s not how things are done in our time.”
“Is that so? And yet, since Ian hasn’t mentioned this to me, I’m uncertain whether I should take an interest in those herbs at all…….”
Kirious watched Vanessa in silence as she let her words fade and hesitated.
This woman before him—who showed neither greed nor ostentation—was interested in nothing more than herbs primarily used in her husband’s business?
Though he hadn’t said it aloud, their marriage didn’t seem to have come about in any ordinary way.
Ian’s feelings toward Vanessa were genuine enough, but Vanessa had announced her marriage to Ian not long after parting with a long-standing lover.
Still, just watching how the two of them treated each other made it plain that one heart seemed to burn far brighter than the other.
Did they really marry for love?

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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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