Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 14

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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 14
Click—
A firm hand clad in black leather gloves shut the Guest Room door with cold finality, blocking her view entirely.
A low voice drifted down from above her head.
“It seems you’ve come to work again today.”
Freena shifted her gaze from the Guest Room back to Hugho.
From the crown of his head to the tips of his toes, not a single strand out of place—he maintained that perfect, elegant composure.
Let me think… Hugho is Declin’s substitute knight.
Did that mean he had just been inside with his master?
‘So right now, inside that room is Declin…’
The thought sent a chill racing down my spine.
I supposed I should count myself fortunate that the one standing before me was Hugho and not Declin.
“Y-yes, that’s right. I’m swamped with work.”
The mere thought of Declin made my voice tremble.
“You came from that direction?”
Hugho’s gaze, tilted at an angle, drifted slowly toward the far end of the Guest Room.
His crimson irises, fixed upon Count Seiton’s space, deepened with intensity.
“Now that I think about it, I believe I picked up Felt near that room a few days ago. Quite the curious coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”
The smile lingering at the corners of his lips was utterly gentle, yet beneath that soft voice lay a familiar, razor-sharp edge.
‘Familiar? Why does it feel familiar?’
Ah, now I remembered.
During our relationship, when I spent time briefly with another man, Hugho had grown jealous. His voice had sounded exactly like this then…
“Are you interrogating me right now?”
At those words, Hugho’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“…Did it seem like I was interrogating you? I thought I asked quite affectionately.”
Hugho looked at me with an expression of wonder, as if asking how I could possibly have known.
You always interrogate while pretending to be affectionate.
Anyone who didn’t know him would never have noticed.
“…Aren’t you the escort knight of Caesar?”
Perhaps I’d been too direct. Hugho’s expression stiffened momentarily.
But Hugho himself had just emerged from Declin’s Guest Room. In this situation, I could no longer pretend ignorance.
Judging from the fact that he’d left the Guest Room, he was surely heading down to the Banquet Hall.
And he would drink the ceremonial wine from House Seiton.
‘The wine I switched out.’
So Hugho would not die.
“H-hang in there. Take care of yourself going forward. And do your best, in moderation…”
“…Are you saying goodbye to me right now?”
“Yes, yes.”
Now my connection with Hugho was truly severed. Even if I couldn’t return the ring…
He had plenty of money. Let him buy himself a new ring.
I stared at the ornate clothing Hugho wore. Those buttons—are they gold?
‘He mentioned a precious ring, which bothers me somewhat… but if it were truly precious, surely he wouldn’t have given it to me?’
I had successfully diverted the poison as planned, and there was no longer any reason to encounter him again.
I walked past Hugho.
He made no attempt to stop me, merely gazing quietly at my retreating figure.
An inscrutable smile playing at his lips.
* * *
After leaving the Banquet Hall, I carefully transferred the diverted poison into a wine bottle and returned to the Imperial Kitchen.
Soon the poisoning incident would unfold, and Count Seiton would depart without having killed anyone.
‘But why did Count Seiton resort to such a reckless method?’
He faced charges of treason once the banquet ended because of Declin, yet he dared to poison the ceremonial toast he was presenting with his own hands.
Even cornered as he was, such reasoning was beyond my comprehension.
Nobles, in any case.
Then and now.
‘But how do I dispose of this.’
I had brought it here, but I had no idea how to properly discard poison…
…Should I take it home?
…Poison?
Yes. Perhaps someday it might prove useful.
I decided to store the wine carefully in a corner.
“Freena, what are you doing?”
That’s when my coworkers caught me red-handed. The Workers, who had grown idle once the banquet began, approached me.
“Huh? Isn’t that wine? Were you trying to sneak off and drink without telling us?”
“How disloyal! Let us have just a sip too!”
I panicked.
This wine contains poison! No! Stop!
“Shouldn’t you two be working? What happens if the chefs catch you!”
I hastily stopped the Workers.
“Freena, you think about getting caught after it happens.”
Heavens. This place was crawling with madmen who lived more recklessly than Count Seiton himself.
“If you get caught doing that, you’ll have your wages docked. Besides, this isn’t wine from the Imperial Kitchen—it’s a returned bottle that came to Daisy Hall, and I accidentally brought it by mistake, so I need to take it back.”
“Tch.”
The Workers’ mouths fell open like beaks.
The Workers who had rushed over excited at the sight of wine scattered with disappointed expressions.
Just as I was about to hide the wine in a place out of sight with a sigh of relief.
My gaze fell upon a silver spoon resting on the shelf.
As if entranced, I picked up the spoon.
Why was that?
The entire process unfolded with an unnaturally smooth progression.
As I uncorked the wine bottle, the flowing liquid poured out over the silver spoon.
…the color hadn’t changed.
‘What, what is this?’
Freena rubbed her eyes roughly and glared at the silver spoon with burning intensity.
Silver was supposed to turn pitch black when it touched poison. So why did this spoon retain its clear, luminous silver sheen?
This wine definitely contained poison, didn’t it?
Then shouldn’t the spoon have reacted?
‘Wait. If this wine I stole never contained poison in the first place….’
My thoughts froze cold.
‘Then why did Hugho die from drinking wine without poison?’
“Freena, where are you going so suddenly!”
The startled Workers of Daisy Hall cried out as Freena rushed away.
There was still time.
So I had to hurry to the Banquet Hall.
* * *
Before Hugho lost his memory.
There was a time when a terrible rainy season descended, threatening to swallow the capital itself.
And on that day, Freena was cursed with the cruelest misfortune.
She was swept away by the River, swollen mad with torrential rain, and found herself on the brink of suffocation with no escape.
The roaring waters were ferocious enough to devour a boulder the size of a house at any moment.
The people on the bridge, terrified by the violent current, could only shuffle their feet helplessly while watching her die.
Cold, murky water pierced my lungs, my vision flickered into darkness, and just as I was about to surrender my final breath.
Only one person unhesitatingly threw himself into that hellish river to save me.
After being pulled from the water, beyond my hazy consciousness, Hugho’s voice poured down.
I remember it clearly.
“Stay alive, Freena. Please, force yourself to breathe.”
“This is not where you’re meant to die….”
As if I had fallen back to that day.
His moisture-laden voice echoed in my ears.
‘If the poisoned wine reaches Hugho, he will die.’
Even a crow, lowly as it is, repays kindness.
‘…so I’m saving you.’
That was why I kept running despite my throat feeling raw, burning as if it were on fire.
Even if his tenderness concealed something chilling beneath, I could not abandon him to an unjust death.
‘Just this once.’

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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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