Hiding My Identity From My Husband - Chapter 35

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

Episode 35

Oh, God.
For the first time in my life, I found myself praying.
The situation had become that desperate.
‘No. It’s worse than desperate.’
Sneaking out at night without a word was more than enough to raise suspicion—it positively reeked of guilt.
‘What excuse can I possibly make?’
No matter what I said, suspicion would cling to me like fog. I had no idea how to escape it.
For the first time in ages, my mind went blank—utterly, completely blank. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t speak.
That was when it happened.
“Charel.”
Roux rose slowly from where he’d been sitting.
Then he stepped closer. One step, then another.
Finally, he stopped just a hand’s breadth away—close enough that I could count his breaths.
His face, bathed in moonlight, was clearer than ever, and his eyes held that fathomless quality, a deep lake of indigo catching the flickering light.
Through his slightly parted lips came a shallow breath, and for some reason—embarrassment, perhaps—I found myself shutting my eyes tight without meaning to.
“Where have you been?”
Just as I’d feared. I’d known that question was coming.
My mind was still blank, offering nothing.
So my mouth opened and out came something utterly foolish, without my brain’s permission.
“A night stroll……?”
Immediately I regretted it.
Who takes a stroll through windows at night? I hurried to add more.
“If I used the front door, I was afraid I’d wake the servants. So I went through the window. Haha.”
Roux said nothing.
Instead, his clear, beautiful eyes fixed on me, searching as if trying to peer straight through to my very core.
“I believe,”
came his voice after a long silence,
“that everything you do has a reason behind it.”
Then he gathered the hair that had fallen across my face and tucked it behind my ear.
“I simply hope that reason isn’t something wrong.”
Sharp sting.
A needle of pain twisted through my chest.
I was already deceiving him, already a spy causing harm to the entire Guardian organization.
In other words, I was moving for all the wrong reasons.
So my throat tightened. Nausea crept up, coating my mouth with bitterness.
“The night dew is heavy, and you’re so lightly dressed. You’ll catch cold.”
Roux pulled me toward the sofa and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.
“Let me bring you some tea.”
As the situation began to settle and warmth spread through me, my mind finally started working again.
‘I should have said it was a perimeter check!’
Useless to regret now.
Either way, Roux wasn’t pressing further—he was letting it go. I had no room to add anything more.
All I could do was grip the blanket and wait for this moment to pass.
“Drink your tea while it’s warm.”
Roux, who’d returned with the cup, handed it to me.
“If you catch cold, Mardi will be upset. And I’d be upset too, of course.”
So I hesitated.
The last conversation I’d had with Roux was still vivid in my memory.

—You said you hated Charel.
—You said you hated her so much you could go mad.

And now, after declaring such hatred, he was suddenly worried about me catching cold?
What was he plotting?
As I narrowed my eyes and shrugged my shoulders, I saw Roux’s expression harden slightly.
He held his hand suspended in midair for a moment, then slowly closed it into a fist.
“Some time ago,” he began.
His words came slowly.
“I spoke too harshly.”
Then he bowed deeply. I started in surprise, cast aside the blanket, and grabbed his shoulders.
“No, no—I don’t think you need to apologize that much. Come on, get up.”
I pulled him to his feet quickly. In the dim firelight, his expression looked far more melancholy than usual.
“But my words hurt Charel’s feelings.”
“No, they didn’t bother me that much.”
I drew him to the sofa and sat him down.
“I already knew you disliked me. It wasn’t exactly shocking.”
His large eyes trembled slightly.
But it was only for a moment.
Mardi quickly steadied his gaze, and a playful smile returned to his lips.
“So you’re ignoring all the affection I’ve shown you this whole time?”
“You were joking.”
I answered firmly.
“Why would someone as remarkable as you care for me?”
I was joking too, just like him.
But something seemed off about his expression.
His eyes trembled again, just as they had a moment before, and he stared at me intently.
“Why……”
He squinted one eye and leaned his upper body slightly toward me.
“Do you say such things?”
His expression grew bewildered, as if he’d just heard something utterly absurd.
“You are a remarkable person, Charel.”
His blue eyes, now steady, pierced through me with a direct gaze.
“You’re someone who doesn’t crumble under any circumstance, and even when your life hangs in the balance, you don’t let fear show.”
……
“And after living that way, you still choose to help others.”
The sudden gravity of the moment caught me off guard, and I found myself biting my lips.
Something awkward washed over me, and embarrassment flooded through me in an instant.
So I forced out a playful laugh.
“That’s just… enduring. Nothing particularly remarkable about it.”
“Endurance is the most difficult thing of all.”
But this time, too, Mardi’s voice was unwavering.
“Not everyone can live the way you do, Charel.”
He reached out his hand and grasped mine, which had begun to fidget nervously.
“Some blame their circumstances and crumble. Others simply flee. But you endure it all, and you still smile.”
I felt warmth.
A warmth far deeper than the blanket wrapped around me.
“If that isn’t remarkable, then what possibly could be?”
I tried to open my mouth to respond, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come.
I had always lived this way, thought it was simply natural.
So I’d never considered it to be anything “remarkable.”
No one had ever told me such a thing before.
“So.”
Mardi narrowed his eyes and exhaled softly.
“Don’t say such things again. You’re far more remarkable and wonderful than you believe.”
A moment of silence fell between us.
But I couldn’t calm myself.
My heart raced, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks.
That I was… remarkable and wonderful.
I felt as though I might smile, or cry—my chest tightened with emotions I couldn’t sort through.
“Though even if I say this, you’ll probably forget it by tomorrow.”
Then Mardi spoke again.
“So I’ll have to tell you every day from now on.”
I lifted my gaze, and there was his smiling face. He leaned closer and spoke.
“You are remarkable, and you always will be.”
I looked at him.
Mardi’s face was utterly unremarkable, no different from any other day.
But I was not myself.
My heart would not stop racing.
My cheeks burned for reasons I couldn’t name.
‘Why?’
I couldn’t fathom why my pulse quickened so, or make sense of myself at all.

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