Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 20

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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 20
He hesitated, but only for a moment.
He still didn’t know her true identity.
…As long as he didn’t discover that she was Orbannon’s illegitimate child.
“You won’t answer me?”
Decklin’s voice was unhurried and leisurely.
“Or should I call you Renia Felt?”
“…That’s right. My name is Freena Crowell.”
A smile played at Decklin’s lips, as if pleased by her answer.
“Why did you lie?”
Did he truly not understand?
He killed people before her eyes, displayed his suspicious nature openly….
‘Of course it’s natural to want to hide it.’
Though my name was nothing grand, it was far from worthless, and I had no desire to reveal it.
Decklin would surely understand the reason.
“…I apologize. I thought we wouldn’t meet again.”
He was simply leaning back in his chair, savoring my reaction.
“But you said we’d meet again. I’m disappointed.”
“…Most encounters never happen twice.”
It was a perfectly reasonable answer.
Even if a commoner had deceived a Grand Duke, Decklin would gain little satisfaction from it.
I hoped that would be the case.
“Then our encounter must be no ordinary one. How many times have we met now?”
Decklin’s eyes curved into crescents.
“Perhaps it’s fate.”
As he spoke those words, his voice grew distinctly cold.
‘You don’t actually believe in fate.’
My hands, clasped beneath the table, trembled. His tone was gentle, but the implication was unmistakable.
These frequent encounters were deeply suspicious. Especially what happened in the Banquet Hall.
“It suits you far better than the false name Renia Felt.”
“…Yes.”
“Freena. In the ancient tongue, it means flower.”
“…It’s a common name.”
Decklin gazed at me, then laughed softly.
“All flowers are common, after all. Yet they’re beautiful, are they not?”
I paused to consider.
Flowers, at least, shared the common trait of beauty, but I wasn’t certain people possessed the same quality.
“It suits me well.”
Perhaps.
I was hardly someone who could be called beautiful.
“I said next time we should meet normally, didn’t I? It’s nice seeing you like this.”
This is… a normal meeting?
Any more “normal” and someone would die.
“I heard Your Excellency summoned me. Did I… do something wrong?”
Freena gathered her courage and asked.
‘Stay calm.’
She had prevented a poisoning, not attempted an assassination.
By any reasonable standard, there was nothing wrong with that.
“Wrong? Yes, I do have business with you, Miss Freena.”
If it were Decklin, he would never ask how the poison was handled.
Instead, he would direct other suspicions toward Freena…
“Did Miss Freena steal the poisoned wine?”
He sidestepped her expectation with ease.
‘Is he really asking this so directly…?’
Decklin seemed to have no intention of hiding his own machinations.
His demeanor suggested he had nothing to hide when they were alone.
Five seconds of bewilderment at the unexpected twist.
“Yes, that’s right. I took it.”
Freena answered honestly to his straightforward question.
Decklin’s smile deepened, but his eyes remained utterly cold.
“Why?”
It was a casual question.
Yet answer wrongly, and multiple charges would attach to her here, condemning her to the Underground Prison forever.
“Count Seiton was trying to assassinate Your Excellency, wasn’t he?”
Freena decided to play dumb.
His gaze fixed on her face, as if gauging whether her words were truth or clumsy lies.
Decklin began twirling a fountain pen between his fingertips with fluid grace.
“How did you know that wine contained poison in the first place?”
Because I read the original story…
She couldn’t answer that.
“At first, I didn’t know. But after I bumped into the Attendant carrying the wine, something seemed off.”
“Off, you say?”
“That Attendant came from the Servant Passage.”
Decklin’s expression didn’t change. As if asking, so what?
“The wine for the Banquet Hall comes through the Main Entrance Corridor. The triumphal procession has set routes for all servants. But that Attendant… emerged from a place where no one would notice.”
After being dispatched to the Imperial Kitchen, Freena too had been informed of the designated routes.
“You noticed all that?”
“…No. There’s one more thing. The Attendant carrying the wine… was gripping the bottle by the neck.”
“…What’s wrong with that?”
Decklin’s voice carried a hint of exasperation.
“An Attendant wouldn’t do that. When presenting a ceremonial drink to a distinguished guest, the wine bottle is laid horizontally on the tray with the label facing upward, supported with both hands, and then carried. That’s proper etiquette.”
“….”
“But surely an Attendant presenting a ceremonial drink to His Excellency wouldn’t be unfamiliar with proper protocol, would they?”
Of course, the Assassin that Decklin had brought was someone who had learned etiquette quite well. However, that etiquette was subtly different.
But there was no need to elaborate on that point.
“So you noticed?”
“I had a bad feeling about it, and then I became anxious and secretly verified it with a silver spoon.”
Decklin seemed lost in thought.
Freena stared at the quill pen rolling slowly between his fingers.
“So to summarize your claim, Miss Freena: an ordinary maid like you sensed something amiss in that brief moment and risked your life to save me. Is that correct?”
When put that way, it certainly sounded highly suspicious.
‘But it’s the truth!’
I had tried to save Hugho, not Decklin, and things had become complicated when I discovered that insane truth.
“Yes. I thought someone was trying to assassinate His Excellency.”
“I see.”
Freena looked at Decklin. The suspicion in his gaze seemed reluctant to fade.
“Actually, there’s one more real reason why I acted so recklessly.”
“What is it?”
Freena met his dry gaze.
“I wanted to look good in Your Excellency’s eyes.”
A pause.
The quill pen that had been turning between his fingers stopped.
“…I-I’ve admired Your Excellency for a long time. So… the truth is, the reason I went near the Banquet Hall was hoping to catch even a glimpse of Your Excellency’s face….”
“….”
Freena deliberately stammered, feigning shyness and embarrassment.
Since his return as a war hero, Decklin’s reputation in the Empire was at its peak.
“There are many friends like me. So those who admire Your Excellency… ah.”
“….”
“I-I don’t know what I’m saying… I’m sorry, Your Excellency.”
Freena rambled on, claiming that her repeated encounters with him near the Banquet Hall were due to her admiration.
As she said, there were many who admired Decklin, and this wouldn’t be his first experience with such a situation.
So to the man before her, it would be a thoroughly familiar and unremarkable excuse.
“…That’s enough. You may go now, Miss Freena.”
Freena exhaled and glanced sideways at Decklin’s firm hand holding the quill pen.
Why wasn’t he wearing the family heirloom of the Caesar Family—the ring—that was never omitted in the original novel?
Not in their last meeting, nor the one before that.
Since their encounter at Leyton Bridge, he had consistently worn no ring.
A vague, unpleasant suspicion that had lightly brushed past her mind now swelled like a snowball into something massive, transforming into a fear she could no longer ignore, overwhelming her entire being.
Could it be, truly…?

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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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