I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 131
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“I’ve seen him from afar, but really just a little. Everyone liked the Meius Marquis, but he didn’t appeal to me. So would that perhaps help overcome the past?”
“Ah.”
Ekian muttered with a dumbfounded expression.
“…That’s also quite unpleasant in its own way.”
“Well, you’re right. In the end, it means the masked appearance was more attractive to me.”
“Hearing that explanation makes me feel even worse.”
“Oh dear… But that’s the truth.”
Ekian pressed his forehead as he looked at Judith clicking her tongue.
Seeing this, Judith tried to comfort him.
“That doesn’t mean your face is ugly though. I’m sorry for asking before if you’d ever been rejected for being ugly. I really spoke without knowing anything.”
Of course, it didn’t seem very comforting.
Ekian blinked slowly and muttered.
“You really are still the same. Still, well…”
Anyway, Ekian also seemed somewhat shocked by the truth he learned belatedly.
“The misunderstanding about mother has been cleared up. It seems she thought of me as her son after all.”
“Yes. Whether in terms of ability, circumstances, or character, she’s better than my mother in many ways, so don’t hate her anymore. Understood?”
At Judith’s firm words, Ekian burst into a hollow laugh.
Another awkward silence flowed for a moment. When Judith said nothing, Ekian murmured quietly.
“Ever since I learned that I wasn’t the true son of the Meius Ducal House, I never even imagined that I could be happy.”
“Ah…”
“Really, I lived because I couldn’t die. I thought I was just a burden wherever I went. Having lived so happily until seventeen, I might have been more frustrated by that sense of disparity.”
Thinking of seventeen-year-old Ekian who was inevitably cast out from a perfect family, a groan escaped from between Judith’s teeth.
Just thinking about it made her feel somewhat sorry for him.
He probably suffered a lot.
Growing up as a young master of a noble family lacking nothing, then starting with bare hands and running such a large information guild without even revealing his appearance.
Living through such hardships, he was destined to die a dog’s death from an untimely bombing accident, so even his birth mother, the Last Shaman, tried to somehow change that future.
“But Judith, if only you stay by my side… I think I could live happily again. Creating that perfect family I had taken for granted once more, and anew.”
When Judith unconsciously showed a pitiful expression, Ekian glanced at her.
He seemed to feel that she was genuinely heartbroken.
Then Ekian subtly whined in a slow voice.
“Judith, if you don’t stay by my side, all of this actually means nothing to me.”
It seemed he had noticed that evoking sympathy was working well.
Not for nothing had he come this far from rock bottom – he was a man with incredible intuition.
Judith narrowed her eyes and watched the man continue his litany through verses two and three.
“I’ll keep losing sleep, wasting away day by day like this, and eventually reach the brink of madness and come to drag you and the child back, forcibly keeping you by my side while suffering alone, and then eventually die young.”
“Are you threatening me now?”
“I’m just stating facts.”
He bowed his head so deeply it nearly touched the ground and continued in a sighing voice. The sight was both cunning and absurd.
“Then I’ll entrust this domain to you, Judith. The heir will naturally be our child.”
Judith quietly looked at the man before her who was now even leaving a will.
Honestly speaking, his face wasn’t unfamiliar.
After all, hadn’t she shared a room with Ekian Meius for several days? Though his hair color was different, he was definitely the man she knew.
However, unlike Ekian Meius who had always looked healthy and wore well-groomed clothes, the Marquis before her looked quite exhausted.
As he said, it seemed he hadn’t slept properly in a long time, and having rushed here right after dealing with barbarians, his appearance was terrible. His under-eyes were black and his lips were chapped.
Nevertheless, objectively speaking, he was very handsome, though not comparable to the Ekian Meius she had seen in the capital.
But because of this, she could tell how much mental anguish this man had suffered.
Perhaps he had suffered more than she had during this time.
She had been somewhat angry with him, but if that was because of Elizabeth… and thinking about how carefully he had considered everything, that anger subtly dissipated.
“Well, I understand your life plan very well. Then I also have something to say while we’re at it.”
Judith slowly looked at him and began to speak.
“Actually, probably… even if I had never learned about mother’s situation, I would have stayed by your side. Because the Last Shaman asked me to. To make you happy.”
Ekian, who had been holding his head with his face buried, slowly raised his head.
“Thanks to the Last Shaman, I’ve repaid my debt. So I wanted to fulfill that request. I’m not someone without business ethics. Of course, if my mother had made things difficult for you, it would go against the request to ‘make you happy,’ so I was going to leave.”
“Then…”
Hope began to gradually appear in Ekian’s eyes.
Judith found this increasingly annoying, yet looking at that rough face, she unconsciously continued gently.
“Even when entering the Marquis’ Estate, I had made up my mind that way. Even Huyd said that since you’re the child’s father, I should naturally accept you, things like that. But somehow that didn’t seem like the right answer, and staying by your side that way felt somehow unsettling.”
She too had thought a lot while staying alone at the Marquis’ Estate.
It was because if she just quietly let time pass, she felt she would simply become the Marquis’ wife.
While everyone else found this natural, she alone felt complicated.
But only after hearing Ekian’s words did she know the answer.
“But I think all of that was wrong. Those people were wrong and I was wrong too. I knew I was wrong, which is why I had so many thoughts during that time.”
“Judith, you…”
“I love you too.”
Judith declared gently.
“Honestly, the things you deceived me about were so absurd that I didn’t want to admit it… But that was the answer. I loved the Master who did his best to protect and think of me, and in the end, I couldn’t help but love you who acted the same way.”
Ekian looked up at Judith in a daze.
Judith found that expression so amusing that she thought she would remember his face until the moment she died.
To think that a man who looked so cool, sharp, and decadent could make such a stupid expression.
“Of course, it’s a bit foolish.”
She said, shaking her head.
“I could probably make you suffer more mentally. Anyone who knows our situation would advise that. But then your face would get more damaged, and in the end, wouldn’t only I lose out since I have to live with you for life anyway?”
“Ju, Judith.”
“Not because of the child, not because of the Shaman’s request, not because I’m sorry and grateful that you arranged everything so carefully because of my mother…”
“Judith, then…”
“Don’t interrupt. I’m not finished yet. Anyway, because I want to, by my own will, I’ll stay by your side. Eventually I’ll become the Marquis’ wife, but… I’ll do well.”
She said firmly.
“I’ll do my best. Actually, I had grown attached to this domain too.”
Having declared her position so resolutely, Ekian didn’t seem to care much about her resolve regarding the Marquis’ wife position. Instead, he muttered in a daze.
“Then may I call your name now?”
“Yes.”
“And may I come closer?”
“You may… Mmph!”
Ekian immediately stood up, approached Judith, cupped both her cheeks, and leaned down to kiss her.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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