Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 6

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

Chapter 6
Trembling, trembling.
My mind went blank, devoid of all thought.
What had the past two years with Hugho been like?
‘The people around me disappeared….’
Countless faces overlaid themselves upon the visage of the man who had become a cold corpse in the Black Forest.
“No one ever comes to this place.”
“….”
“Surely you didn’t come here to see me?”
His crimson eyes held not a shred of emotion. How chilling—to kill a person and remain so unmoved.
“Are you going to keep letting me do all the talking? I really hate this.”
Hugho’s lips twisted with displeasure as he grumbled.
His voice remained soft, yet irritation at his boredom was unmistakable.
My instincts whispered urgently.
‘…If I stay still like this, I’ll die.’
Hugho—or rather, that madman—I couldn’t predict what he might do next.
I decided to play ignorant.
“I, I’m n-not sure what you m-mean. Have we m-met somewhere before?”
My voice came out shamefully trembling.
The stutter I’d thought I’d conquered returned. As terror stripped away my reason, my tongue betrayed me without mercy.
‘Calm down.’
I grasped desperately at the last thread of reason threatening to evaporate.
“You don’t remember? You clung to me so desperately before.”
Clung.
He was twisting my attempt to give him the ring into something else entirely.
“When I’m drunk, I, I do tend to cling to anyone…. Did I perhaps grab you?”
“What. So you were really just clinging to me because you were drunk?”
The man’s disappointed response didn’t sound convinced. On the other hand, his expression seemed to suggest his interest had waned.
‘…What’s this? Something’s definitely off.’
Hugho showed no sign of remembering me.
It seemed he regarded our meeting at Leyton Bridge as our first encounter.
“But what brings you here?”
“I c-came to s-search for a m-missing p-person….”
“You mean this bastard?”
Tap.
Hugho nudged the cold corpse with his foot.
The old Hugho was someone who would gently escort a collapsed stranger to the infirmary….
This was far too different.
…Could this unfamiliar face be the real Hugho?
Was everything I’d seen of him until now nothing but an elaborate lie?
“No.”
Freena’s expression hardened immediately.
“Then?”
“The people I came looking for are just ordinary folk. They went missing while transporting goods.”
Good. My voice trembled slightly, but at least I’d stopped stammering.
“Transporting goods into the Black Forest, you say.”
But Hugho’s expression seemed strange.
“Were they trying to smuggle in illegal merchandise?”
“No. They were just food supplies…”
“Ah, food? Then drugs?”
“No. Just ordinary sacks of grain, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers…”
Even at Freena’s answer, a flicker of disbelief crossed the man’s face—as if questioning why anyone would transport such mundane provisions into the Black Forest.
That was because of the villain in the novel… the passage had been blocked due to the triumphal procession. How could I explain that?
Of course, there was no need to tell Hugho any of this.
“Hmm, I see. You came looking for Workers?”
“Yes.”
Hugho stroked his chin as if recalling something. His hand, clad in jet-black leather gloves, caught my eye.
…The Hugho I knew always wore gloves when meeting with Freena.
‘…He said he had obsessive tendencies.’
He’d apologized to Freena about it, asking for her understanding.
Yet he’d always held her hand with his bare skin.
…The man before me seemed to have completely forgotten this, so it appeared only she remembered.
“Come to think of it, there seemed to be a heap of something in the forest.”
…A heap?
…Could he possibly be referring to the Workers?
It was an expression the Hugho I knew would never use. I was beginning to doubt whether this was truly the same person.
“Those must be your Workers, then?”
“Y-yes, I think so.”
They weren’t exactly my Workers, but I agreed anyway. The precise facts didn’t really matter.
What mattered most was…
‘Whether I can survive leaving this place alive.’
I had to appease this madman as much as possible.
“But you came alone, my lady?”
He seemed to find it strange that she’d come by herself to search for Workers who’d vanished in this notorious land.
Freena felt compelled to explain actively.
“Dispatching a search party was difficult. Since I happen to know the forest’s geography fairly well, I came instead.”
“You work at a terrible place.”
It wasn’t a good workplace, certainly. The place was infested with troublesome people.
But looking at the man before me, those troublemakers seemed like angels.
“Still, it’s a curious coincidence. To meet you again in this place, of all places.”
“….”
“Besides, I regretted letting you go like that last time.”
Why would he regret that?
“Would you like my help?”
No…?
I truly did not want his assistance.
“I’m fine, really. And you must be busy….”
Freena saw the corpse collapsed beneath Hugho’s feet.
I’ll just pretend I didn’t see anything, so go ahead and finish what you were doing.
“Are you worried about me? How delightful.”
Worried? What exactly was there to be worried about?
“But I’m more concerned about the lady. I should help. Come with me.”
Freena truly wanted to refuse.
Yet what actually escaped her lips was….
“Y-yes… Th-thank you so much….”
A pitiful voice born of desperation to survive.
* * *
Crack!
My heart leapt at the sound of a dry branch snapping beneath my feet. The face of the corpse I’d seen moments ago flickered before my eyes.
Freena followed him in hushed silence.
‘What on earth is Hugho thinking?’
What if this was some scheme to slaughter both me and the Workers?
‘No. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have bothered offering to guide us.’
He could have killed me right there and disposed of the Workers without any trouble.
…Yet no matter how I tried to reassure myself, the heavy footfalls of the man walking ahead utterly crushed any fragile sense of comfort.
“My love, Freena, whenever you have worries, always tell me.”
“When I see Freena suffering, it pains me too.”
The Hugho of old would always match his stride to Freena’s when they walked together.
If she fell behind, he would stop and wait for her, and sometimes he would drape his coat over her shoulders.
The man walking ahead now had not once looked back.
‘But… it really does seem like he doesn’t recognize me at all, doesn’t it?’
After parting at Leyton Bridge, I’d wondered if he was deliberately pretending not to know me to make the separation easier….
But now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all.
‘Has he truly lost his memory?’
What could have happened to Hugho during the year we were apart?
Could he have lost his memories and become a deranged murderer because of it….
When we were together, Hugho would laugh whenever Freena laughed. He always watched her expression first, and only smiled once he was certain she was alright.
Seeing such a man laughing over a corpse—the shock of it had not faded.
As I recalled it again, my heart raced wildly.
A memory I’d been trying to suppress rose to the surface.
Long ago, when I was dating Hugho, something similar happened. In a winter alley….
“Lady, aren’t you curious about anything regarding me?”
“Pardon?”
Hugho, who had been walking ahead, suddenly posed a bewildering question.
“Like, why I’m in this forest, things like that.”
“Oh, no…”
It felt like something I shouldn’t ask about.
“I killed someone—you’re really not curious?”
…Should I be curious?
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely uninterested, but as an ordinary person, I had no desire to become deeply entangled in this affair.
“Surely you must have had good reason….”
“That’s right. I did have good reason.”
“Ah… as I thought… I understand.”
“The author tried to kill me first.”
Freena, who had been staring at the ground as she walked, looked up in surprise. All she could see was Hugho’s back.
She couldn’t tell what expression he wore.
…Someone tried to kill Hugho?
“So this could be considered self-defense.”
…Then why was Hugho in the Black Forest in the first place?
Judging by Hugho’s neat appearance, he didn’t seem to have been dragged here by force. His composed demeanor seemed far removed from someone under threat.
Freena simply pretended to accept it.
“Ah, there it is.”
It was when I reached the mouth of the Gorge, carefully composing my expression as I followed Hugho.
“…!”
What lay before my eyes was chaos.
Horses and Workers, crushed beneath the weight of magical corruption, lay tangled and unconscious.
‘Just as I thought—they’ve been corrupted by magic!’
This was serious.
I had to treat them quickly.
I rushed toward the Workers but stopped, looking back at Hugho.
The lie about medicinal herbs in this forest to cure magical corruption was just that—a lie.
But the truth was, I had a way to treat the Workers. Through my divine power.
“Oh dear, are they already dead?”
Though his voice carried sympathy, Hugho seemed barely interested in the Workers.
He walked past them toward the wagon laden with provisions, then opened the canvas covering it to inspect the interior.
Hugho pulled out a nearby crate and opened several more. They all contained ordinary vegetables.
“Hmm. Really just provisions?”
It seemed Hugho’s reason for bringing me here was to inspect the wagon.
If it had contained contraband, what would he have done with her and the Workers….
It was strange that a man who had killed someone in the forest would suddenly act so sensitive about legality.
“Feel free to examine further if you wish.”
Freena intended to dispel Hugho’s suspicions and send him on his way. Only then could she tend to the Workers.
“No. I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“Then you’re leaving now…?”
Just go already.
“Yes, I am.”
Hugho’s eyes narrowed with a smile as he observed Freena’s desperate expression.
“One last thing, though.”
Shing—
As Hugho drew his blade from its sheath, Freena’s eyes widened in shock.
The sword’s edge pointed toward the throats of the unconscious Workers.

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