Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 4

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

Chapter 4
* * *
On the path home from Leyton Bridge.
My head throbbed as though struck from behind.
“Don’t forget me, Freena.”
Don’t forget him, he’d said….
“Don’t abandon me, Freena.”
Don’t abandon him, he’d said….
And yet that man…
“Had you encountered a wicked nobleman, that hand would not still be attached to your arm.”
He’d threatened to sever my arm! I was only trying to return the ring!
‘Is such a thing even possible?!’
Though it had happened mere hours ago, I could scarcely believe it.
Could it be…?
If I forget first, then I’m the one doing the forgetting; if I abandon first, then I’m the one doing the abandoning.
The person I saw today seemed like an entirely different man.
His gaze, his demeanor, his tone of voice—everything was transformed.
Yet why… does this uncanny feeling stir a sense of déjà vu?
‘Has something like this happened in the past?’
Hugho had always been a gentle person….
Yet there were often minor incidents.
He’d suddenly shatter a cup during our dates, or a chair’s armrest would abruptly break—in any case, he broke things quite frequently.
“Ah, I can’t control my strength.”
Was that even a plausible excuse?
Yet I—
Hugho is so handsome, and he’s so strong too!
I’d marveled at it with genuine admiration, even touched by it somewhat.
Was I an idiot?
“It’s fine, Hugho. I sometimes break my glasses too. I understand—honestly, I find these little mistakes endearing, even charming in their humanity.”
“I find you quite charming too, Freena.”
How were breaking glasses and breaking chairs the same thing?
Yet I’d let it slide without much thought. How could I have been so carefree…?
It was because Hugho was so extraordinarily beautiful.
Hugho was a stunning beauty. Being with him often clouded my reason entirely.
Perhaps that was why. I’d accepted everything that happened while with Hugho without question. Hugho could do such things!
I’d been thoroughly blinded by infatuation.
Yet it wasn’t as though I’d felt no dissonance at all.
“Oh no! Hugho, I’ve been pickpocketed. What do I do? That was a month’s wages, and—sob—”
There was even a day when I’d happened to be pickpocketed of my monthly salary and wept over it.
And yet….
“Freena, the Guard Corps found your wallet.”
“Really?”
“Let’s go to the Guard Corps together.”
When I arrived at the Guard Corps, a pickpocket with both arms broken was crying before Freena, tears and snot streaming down his face.
The Guard Corps’ terrifying excessive force had given me slight chills at the time….
‘Now that I think about it, I wasn’t afraid of the Guard Corps members….’
It seemed I had trembled upon seeing her lover.
As strange coincidences accumulated, suspicion grew.
So a year ago, Freena decided to break up with Hugho.
‘Yet things have come to this….’
I couldn’t even return the ring, let alone properly say we were breaking up.
Because Hugho wouldn’t let me speak!
Did he really hit his head during a mission?
Before long, I sighed while gazing at the ring embedded with a crimson ruby stone.
This isn’t even a melodrama… it can’t be. Hugho, really. No matter what, not even giving me a chance to speak was too much.
Setting aside that I couldn’t properly say we were breaking up, I also failed to hand over the ring that had been my headache for a year.
Hmm….
What if the ruby stone was fake? Given my circumstances as a commoner, that was quite likely.
So perhaps Hugho left without hesitation, not even thinking about the ring.
It was when I was desperately trying to maintain hope.
“You’re out late?”
I quickly hid the ring.
It was a familiar face.
The Landlord…!
He seemed to be heading home, thoroughly drunk. Of all times, to run into the Landlord now—my luck was terrible.
“Isn’t it dangerous for a girl to be out this late?”
“…Thank you for your concern.”
It wasn’t exactly a concerned remark, but it was better not to upset the Landlord’s mood.
He was a notorious loan shark in this area, and people who fell out of his favor tended to disappear from the slums without a trace.
“Speaking of which, rent day is coming soon. You’re preparing the money well, aren’t you, Freena?”
As if he didn’t already know my finances were tight.
Recently, the Landlord had suddenly raised the rent by twenty percent.
And I was in no position to prepare that money.
“Well then, I’ll see you on the next rent day. Hehe.”
‘…What do I do.’
Once the Landlord set his mind to collecting, he would squeeze money out of you by any means necessary.
Somehow, thoughts of Hugho had vanished from my mind.
* * *
Capital Slums.
Beyond Leyton Bridge, the landscape of the slums unfolded like shadow and light touching at their boundary.
Abandoned Houses lined the street in succession, their stench of rotting wood vibrating through the air.
And in this place where the reek of blood hung heavy, no one ever came—it was truly abandoned.
“Dispose of it.”
The black-haired man peeled off his blood-stained gloves and cast them aside. He stepped over the pool of blood without hesitation and passed through.
Beneath his feet lay a man bearing the unmistakable marks of torture.
“It seems much has transpired during my absence. Even spies have crawled their way in.”
He sank deep into the chair’s backrest and crossed his long legs with casual ease.
By rights, I should have entered the capital in glorious triumph through a triumphal procession by now. Yet I had slipped into the city unofficially.
The reason: to eliminate the spy burrowed within Caesar.
“My apologies, Your Excellency. This failure is mine alone.”
The Aide bowed hastily.
“It’s fine. We’ve identified who was behind it.”
My crimson eyes turned toward the corpse—cold and lifeless, beyond all torture.
A smile played at my lips.
Such a beautiful facade could bewitch anyone, yet the Aide felt his spine chill involuntarily.
“…And Your Excellency, the search for the heirloom may require more time.”
The ring I always wore—it was Caesar’s heirloom.
My memory had briefly fractured while I was seizing the enemy Castle.
I had no idea when the ring I always carried had vanished.
A shadow fell across my brow.
“Quite strange, isn’t it?”
The ring attuned to me was not something one could simply lose.
I could never fail to notice it slipping from my finger.
If that were the case, then someone had manipulated my consciousness and stolen it…
“Who could it be?”
I stood lost in thought, my crimson eyes growing momentarily hazy.
“Hugho.”
The drunken woman who had accosted me moments ago suddenly surfaced in my mind.
She looked like a rabbit with lovely pink hair.
She was quite beautiful, actually.
In the moment she had grabbed me, I could see only her—a first for me.
The instant I recalled her face, a sharp pain lanced through my head. I furrowed my brow.
Since returning from war, whenever I tried to remember something, a piercing headache would strike. It was proving to be a considerable nuisance.
“…To be frank, Your Excellency, I cannot fathom whether there exists anyone capable of surpassing you. I have no notion how the ring was spirited away without your knowledge. I am deeply sorry.”
Having erased the woman from my mind, I issued a curt command to the Aide.
“Find her.”

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