Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 19

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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 19
“Yes, that’s right. You must be quite hungry, aren’t you?”
It seemed she had been training breathlessly since morning.
Just then, Havel took the cart that Freena had been holding.
“Allow me to distribute the food, sister. Please rest.”
“No, Havel. You’re the one who trained hard in sparring. Go rest. This is my responsibility, so just give it to me—”
“It’s fine, sister. I want to do this.”
Havel even snatched the basket from Freena’s other hand.
“Please don’t go… I would be grateful if you would wait here until I return.”
“Havel…”
“…I’m not forcing you at all.”
Havel turned away hastily, his face flushed.
Freena watched his broad back receding into the distance and reflected.
Havel…
You took the cart with you—how am I supposed to get back?
‘He really is such a good person.’
I had been watching Havel for years now.
‘When did that small child grow so much?’
I remembered vividly the moment I first met him.
Unlike now, with his solidly built muscles, he had been small and fit in the palm of my hand, having starved for so long.
That pitiful appearance had reminded me of my own younger brother, and I had grown particularly fond of him.
But when my memories from my past life returned and I realized that Havel was the protagonist of a regression story, endlessly repeating death, I was struck by shock as if a massive tidal wave had crashed over me, my entire body freezing.
Yet no matter how much I pitied that boy, there was nothing I could do for him.
…Because I was merely an extra.
Perhaps that’s why.
“Sister.”
Havel, who had finished distributing the food, approached my side.
‘…Havel’s regression doesn’t have much time left.’
Whenever that fact crossed my mind, lately I found it difficult to meet those clear violet eyes directly.
…Because I knew the future that was coming, yet could only stand by and do nothing. The guilt was unbearable.
“…Sister?”
Even as he called out, I didn’t answer for a long time, so Havel carefully called me once more.
“Thank you, Havel. You must be hungry too—go eat quickly.”
“…Sister, you don’t look well. Are you perhaps ill?”
“Hmm? That can’t be.”
I laughed casually and retrieved the cart that Havel had taken.
To be honest, I even felt sorry for accepting his help.
I know the future, yet there’s nothing I can do for you.
“Sister, is this perhaps because of that person from before… your former lover?”
Huh?
“If that’s the case….”
Havel’s lips parted as though he had something to say.
“Please forget about such a wretched man now.”
I couldn’t fathom what the Coworkers at Daisy Hall had been saying and spreading around.
“No, Havel, I….”
“Rather than such a discourteous wretch, perhaps, perhaps….”
Yet despite his imposing frame, Havel couldn’t finish his sentence.
Whether from shame or embarrassment, his face flushed crimson as he added in a voice barely louder than a mosquito’s buzz.
“If you would only meet with me….”
“Havel! You can do it! Come on, you’ve got this-!”
“That’s right! The passionate fire of youth! Magnificent to behold-!”
Havel’s voice was drowned out by the Knights’ thunderous cheers.
“Havel, what did you say? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the noise.”
Havel could no longer even lift his face properly.
‘Honestly. Stop teasing the boy already.’
But the Knights, having stuffed sandwiches into their mouths, had lost all restraint.
I reached up and gently brushed back Havel’s sweat-dampened hair.
“Sister, that’s dirty!”
Havel recoiled in alarm.
“Dirty? My younger brother swings his sword just like you, drenched in sweat.”
As I brushed away the hair clinging to his forehead, matted with perspiration, Havel’s pale eyelashes trembled delicately.
“Havel, I have work piling up, so I should be going.”
“Ah….”
Perhaps the training under the blazing sun had exhausted him too much.
Or perhaps the Knights’ mischievous pranks had drained his spirit. Havel looked dazed, as though his soul had departed.
It must be because he hasn’t eaten.
“Make sure you eat well. I’ll see you next time.”
“Yes, Sister….”
* * *
‘…How much time remains before Havel’s return?’
I was making my way back to Daisy Hall from the Training Ground.
Until the point when he came of age, less than half a year remained.
By then, Havel would have lived tens, perhaps hundreds of lives.
…Throughout those hundreds of lives, Havel could never defeat Decklin. Because of ‘that power’ Decklin possessed.
“Aaaahhh!”
Had my inner voice suddenly burst outward?
“Do you know who I am, you bastards?!”
It wasn’t.
My eyes widened as I turned toward the source of the scream.
A man, bound at both wrists, was being dragged roughly like cargo by the armed Knights of the Imperial Palace.
It was a familiar face.
The very same face I had seen in the Banquet Hall last night.
‘Count Seiton!’
The Knights in silver armor dismissed the Count’s thrashing resistance as casually as one might brush away an insect’s fluttering wings.
“Your Majesty! I am innocent! This is all a vile conspiracy to frame me!”
His voice carried a pitiful desperation, yet the gazes around him remained glacial.
Whispers rippled through the crowd.
“I heard he embezzled the war funds the Imperial Court sent to Caesar.”
“He must have lost his mind! They say he used the embezzled money to support an enemy nation’s war effort?”
Only days had passed since the banquet ended.
Declin moved with remarkable swiftness.
‘Why did I have to provoke Declin of all people….’
Under normal circumstances, I would have thought exactly that, but now I could not afford such a luxury.
My pace quickened as I hurried back toward Daisy Hall.
‘I was only trying to save Hugho!’
It had been a truly reckless act.
I should have realized sooner that Hugho was Declin!
But by any reasonable standard, the notion that my ex-lover was the mastermind behind everything….
Who in their right mind could have conceived of such a thing?
Wasn’t it more sensible to laugh it off, to think I had gone mad, that such a thing was impossible?
Upon arriving at Daisy Hall, I prayed silently that the day would pass without incident, that my misfortune would not drag me down as well.
“You always seem determined to ruin your own fate. You should have kept your head down. Would it kill you to live quietly like everyone else, holding your breath?”
Suddenly, words my mother had spoken long ago echoed in my mind. Whenever my thoughts grew heavy, I could hear her voice at the edge of my consciousness.
I carved away that fragment of memory and grasped the door handle.
‘But why is it so quiet inside?’
Even though lunch service had ended, the interior of Daisy Hall—where voices should have been raised in the bustle of ingredient preparation and dishwashing—lay silent as a tomb.
It was just as I pushed the door open, deliberately ignoring the creeping chill that washed over me.
The staff of Daisy Hall, who should have been moving ceaselessly, stood frozen in place as if by prior agreement. Their faces had turned ashen, their bodies rigid with tension.
“Ah, Freena….”
One of my Coworkers called my name softly. Knights stood among them.
“Are you Freena Crowell?”
In that moment, I understood instinctively.
“The Grand Duke Caesar has commanded that you be brought before him.”
Declin had managed to uncover my real name as well.
It had come to pass.
As expected, there was no escaping this.
* * *
The Knights escorted me down into the Imperial Underground Prison.
More precisely, an interrogation chamber was located there.
‘My fate…’
A lament escaped unbidden from my lips.
The investigation had concluded that she alone possessed the means to pilfer the poison, and they were right.
I had anticipated this situation would arise.
Long before I intercepted the Assassin’s wine.
So I needed to remain composed.
I had an alternative…
“If only you had listened to your mother’s words, none of this would have happened. Poor Freena.”
The voice that reached my ears shattered my concentration in an instant. Just as my mind began to drift into darkness.
Clang—
The iron door, laden with cold, parted with a chilling screech.
“Ah.”
The smile was gentle as spring, yet Freena felt an inexplicable chill creep across her skin.
“You came?”
The dulcet voice called out her name.
Now I understood.
How cruelly such a gentle voice could speak.
“You may go now.”
The moment Decklin’s words fell, the Knights who had brought Freena bowed their heads as though their task was complete, then quietly withdrew.
What… where are they going…?
My greatest terror in life was standing right here.
Even when we were together, I was sometimes afraid of him, but knowing the truth made it infinitely worse.
It was a fear no ordinary person could bear.
‘But why did Decklin come himself?’
Didn’t he usually send someone else to conduct interrogations?
“Are you going to keep standing there?”
Decklin’s gaze, as he reclined against the chair’s backrest, fell upon Freena.
Though physically he sat far below her, Freena felt an uncanny pressure—as though he gazed down upon her from some distant height.
“Sit.”
It was hardly an invitation.
I pulled out the chair tucked beneath the desk.
“Miss Freena Crowell?”
Decklin spoke my name.
…Not Renia Felt.

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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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