I Picked Up My Amnesic Ex-Husband - Chapter 14

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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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I picked up my ex-husband, who had lost his memory.
Chapter 14

Sitting in his study, Ollendo spoke in measured tones to Kaien, whose eyes held a weary emptiness.
“Yes, sir. As you instructed, we’ve detected traces of Mana being continuously emitted from the Magic Tool installed in the Grand Duchess’s chambers.”
House of Dermis was known to possess a unique Magic of their own, yet Wendy Lemea Dermis was said to be someone with virtually no Mana aptitude whatsoever.
How could this be?
“What is the nature of the Mana?”
“It’s far removed from anything malicious.”
“So it’s not a Curse, at least.”
The Mana signature was extraordinarily faint—so subtle that anyone without a keen sense would never have noticed it.
Even Kaien would never have discovered it had he not happened to visit the Grand Duchess’s chamber on business. He had immediately ordered Ollendo to investigate, instructing him to hang a small Magic Tool for detecting Mana in the room under the guise of decoration.
Over the past two months of observation, the servants reported that the tool’s color changed roughly once or twice every fortnight when they cleaned the room.
At first, he had wondered if it might be the residual influence of Mana Stones used on the fields, but the irregularity of the detection—sporadic despite daily visits to the crops—suggested otherwise.
Most of all, the quality of the Mana felt distinctly unusual to him. Yet the report Ollendo had submitted found no particular anomalies worth noting, and the unease remained.
“Keep watch over the Grand Duchess’s movements. If she makes contact with anyone suspicious, have her followed immediately.”
“Understood, sir.”
“And the Grand Duchess went to the forest again today?”
“No, sir. Today being a rest day, she went out to the city in this region.”
At first, she had gathered all manner of plants from the forest and planted them in the fields, but afterward, claiming to fancy the woods, she had taken to visiting twice a week as though on a leisurely stroll.
Whatever the case, it was hardly the behavior of a noble lady.
“She did complete all her duties before departing, though.”
Ollendo added this almost casually, his face as expressionless as ever—but Kaien was not deceived.
“You seem rather lenient toward that woman, Ollendo.”
When she had first arrived at the Grand Duke’s Castle, Ollendo too had shown considerable hostility, yet his tone had grown noticeably gentler of late.
“I do not dislike diligent people. Of course, should it be confirmed that she is Your Grace’s enemy, that would be a different matter entirely.”
Even as Kaien fixed him with a steady gaze, Ollendo spoke unflinching.
“It is common knowledge in society that the second daughter of House of Dermis was never treated well by her family. Surely she has sufficient reason for resentment?”
“That too could be the result of preparation by the Duke beforehand. He sent me a half-sister incapable of wielding a drop of Mana, yet the situation unfolds most entertainingly, does it not?”
Kaien spoke plainly to his butler, who had fallen silent.
“Three years ago was much the same. The moment Alexei fell ill, suddenly he claimed to have a cure ready, as though prepared in advance.”
It had been deeply suspicious, yet there had been no time to raise such questions when Alexei’s life hung in the balance. He had acquiesced only because of that urgency, but Kaien had never truly accepted that situation, neither then nor now.
He simply waited in silence for the right moment.
After three years of secret investigation had yielded no clues to that incident, the Duke’s pressure to marry had grown increasingly severe.
With no particular woman on his mind and no concern for scandal, Kaien had accepted the marriage out of curiosity—to see what might come of it.
The problem was that his wife proved far more unpredictable than he had imagined.
From the wedding night onward, she had been nothing if not extraordinary—indifferent even to his neglect, adapting to his needs while simultaneously voicing her own mind without hesitation.
Had she overstepped, he would have used it as justification to maintain strict distance long ago, but the woman scrupulously honored her word.
Unless necessary, she never sought him out. She managed the household meticulously, including the renovations to the Grand Duke’s Castle, and beyond the vegetable garden she had made in the back courtyard, she wasted not a single coin of the budget.
Even when she mentioned desiring a modest allowance for maintaining her appearance—enough for a dress or two—she never called for a seamstress.
‘Surely the Duke meant for her to stay closest to me.’
He could not tell whether this near-indifference was a strategy to draw his interest, or something entirely sincere.
At times, he wondered if perhaps what the woman had said to the Duke then was merely a false claim.
“Do not lower your guard. Remember that we have now allowed an enemy’s spy into our most intimate sanctuary.”
“I shall keep that in mind, sir.”
Kaien glanced at Ollendo as the butler bowed, then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
The headache was intensifying again.

* * *

Floren Forest, visited after a week’s absence, felt wonderfully familiar.
Recently, I had been so occupied handling matters Ciel had asked of me and investigating additional information that I’d scarcely been able to go out.
Fiona followed behind as I walked eagerly deeper into the forest, her voice carrying a note of amusement.
“My lady, you seem to be enjoying yourself so much?”
“Well, of course. When work gets tough, you need a bit of natural therapy.”
“Ther…?”
“It heals both body and spirit. Ah, how wonderful!”
I spread my arms wide and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. They say green is easy on the eyes, and I had to admit—my vision did feel a touch lighter.
I murmured to myself again, speaking softly to my own eyes: ‘Eyes, do you see how much I cherish you? Please, don’t hurt. Let’s stay together for a long, long time.’
Since this was a fantasy world, spectacles existed well enough—but no matter how I looked at it, keeping my natural eyesight sharp was always the better bargain.
Think about it: losing your vision just because one little piece of glass is missing? That made no sense at all.
Now that I thought of it, Serhi, who was Alexei’s friend, wore glasses in the original story too. I supposed that came with being a scholar type who spent long hours hunched over a desk.
As I strode forward, grass rustled beneath my feet. I’d been chattering away like a bird when I suddenly felt something off. I turned to look back.
“Fiona?”
She’d been following me just moments ago, or so I thought—but she was nowhere to be seen now.
It was the same walking path I always took. Why would she have wandered off?
A faint sound reached my ear as I stood there bewildered. I wasn’t sure if “sound” was even the right word, but something had definitely caught my attention.
It was a ticklish noise, like someone whispering directly into my ear.
“What is that…?”
Even as I wondered, I pushed through the trees toward the source of the sound, and suddenly my view opened up.
I found myself stepping into a vast clearing blanketed with pale green grass. At its center stood an enormous tree that reminded me of a sacred world-tree, its massive trunk stretching upward.
But that wasn’t the only thing that took my breath away.
Wrapped tightly around the ancient bark—a trunk that must have been hundreds of years old—was a person.
The moment I saw the face of whoever was bound there, eyes closed peacefully amid the thick wooden coils, I found myself murmuring aloud.
“A person…?”
Going by features alone, they did look human.
But who in the world would be bound like this, alone in the depths of the forest? As if sealed away.
“Wait.”
I approached the tree carefully, and the face of the bound figure came into sharper focus.
Judging by her build, she looked to be a young girl, perhaps just over ten years old. She wore a simple white one-piece dress, and long hair with a faint lavender hue was wound around the tree trunk.
Her face, at first glance, was anything but ordinary. Even in a fantasy world, people with hair that shade of purple were extremely rare.
“But why does she seem familiar…?”
I circled the girl slowly, lost in thought. If I had no inkling at all, that would be one thing—but this half-remembered feeling was the most frustrating of all.
I found myself wanting to stubbornly force my memory to work. Was it just me who felt that way?
“Purple, purple…? The forest in the original story did lean toward purple tones too.”
Essentially, the magical beasts under Draken’s command possessed Mana with a violet hue. True enough—if there was a color to represent evil, it was dark violet.
I was nodding along, reaching that conclusion, when a single fact suddenly struck me like lightning. I jerked my head up, looking back toward the girl.
“Wait, wait, hold on.”
Wasn’t the final boss of this forest supposed to be a colossal plant-humanoid fixed to an open expanse?
The boss known as Floren’s Thorn Flower—its form was a magical beast with the upper body of a human woman sprouting from a massive red bloom, if I remembered correctly.
Its primary attack pattern relied entirely on poison, and those who had come to subjugate it found themselves helpless in the face of it. Only Alexei, being a Dragon with immunity to all toxins, had been able to defeat the boss.
This happened early in the story, and it was one of the incidents I remembered most vividly.
How could I forget? Starting with the description of that incident, readers had begun to sense something was wrong.
Here they were, going through episode after episode of magical beasts causing trouble and wrapping everything up tidily—and then suddenly an event that opened with the narrative of mass deaths among humans.
If you didn’t find that ominous, something was seriously off with you!
“…Could it really be?”
Was this truly Floren’s Thorn Flower?

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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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