Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 124

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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 124
When I asked why she abandoned me, the Marchioness stood rooted to the spot, her gaze fixed upon me.
Her lips were pressed firmly shut, yet….
The subtle trembling of her body revealed just how turbulent her thoughts had become.
I didn’t press her, simply waiting to hear what she would say.
But beneath my composed exterior, my anxiety was reaching a fever pitch.
Thump.
The Marchioness’s legs gave way beneath her, and she collapsed to the floor.
Yet her eyes never once looked away from mine.
Finally, as if she had decided to reveal that I was her child, she wept torrentially and cried out in anguish.
“I didn’t abandon you…! I only wanted to save you, Tania!”
“….”
“How could I ever abandon such a beautiful child, one I carried for ten months and birthed through pain….”
Her face contorted in agony, twisted beyond recognition.
“How could I possibly abandon you?”
Yet my expression grew cold as I stared down at the Marchioness.
“If you didn’t abandon me, then why did I have to grow up alone as an orphan without parents?”
“I…?”
Her eyelashes trembled with confusion.
“Isn’t that right? If I wasn’t an abandoned child, why do I have no memories of being raised by my parents? Why was I thrown into the Monster Forest and torn to shreds by monsters dozens of times? Why did I have to survive as an orphan, scrounging for food people had discarded, barely clinging to life day after day?”
With each word I spoke, the confusion on her face deepened into sheer horror.
“That’s… what do you mean? Tania, you were surely with Aiden….”
“Ha.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
It meant that after giving birth to me, she had entrusted me to Aiden and never once came looking for me.
She crawled across the floor toward me and grabbed my legs.
“I know this sounds like nothing but an excuse, but entrusting you to Aiden was the best choice I could make at that time.”
The Marchioness was right.
Everything she said sounded like nothing but excuses to me.
“If you had no other options, you shouldn’t have met Aiden in the first place.”
Emotions swirled violently within me, erupting savagely.
“If you were going to abandon me so irresponsibly, you shouldn’t have given birth to me at all!”
Why was she asking for forgiveness now, after all this time?
“Tania, you’re free to resent and blame me for the rest of your life. But please, don’t say I shouldn’t have given birth to you. Please….”
I was agitated, barely managing to steady my ragged breathing.
Then I bent down and slowly wiped away her tears with my thumb, tracing the wetness across her cheek.
Her shoulders stiffened in shock.
She looked fragile and precarious, like a glass figurine that might shatter at any moment.
I was the one who was abandoned, so why did she wear such an expression?
As if I were the one who had hurt her.
“How presumptuous. What do you know of my life that you can so confidently declare I would have been happier if I’d been born?”
Who was it that planted such thoughts in my mind? Was I supposed to soften my words out of consideration?
Yes.
In this timeline, I have lived a rather happy life.
But this—all of it—was something I achieved only after restarting my life anew.
The life I lived before turning back those twelve years was filled with nothing but misery.
Now, I had become a noble lady of the renowned Duke Papiope’s Household in the Empire, my business ventures flourished, and in every way I presented an ideal image.
Because of that, the Marchioness could have eased her guilt when looking at me.
She might have even convinced herself that her choice was the right one.
After all, I was living well.
The thought that she had assuaged her guilt in such a manner….
It twisted something deep within me.
I seized the Marchioness’s hand and brought it to my heart.
She flinched at the contact but yielded to my guidance.
Could she feel my heartbeat beneath her pale, slender fingertips?
“I died not long ago—stabbed through the heart by an assassin sent from the Tempus Duchy.”
“Y-you died….”
Her voice trembled, and the words she uttered never reached completion.
“Is this life—forever hunted by assassins—what you wished for your child to experience?”
“T-Tania… What do you mean, you died? You’re standing right before my eyes, alive. What are you saying?”
“You must have suspected something of my abilities by now, haven’t you?”
I added in a low voice.
I can turn back time.
“But in exchange, I cannot die as I wish. When I die, time always reverts to before my death.”
“Then the story about being abandoned in the Monster Forest and dying dozens of times….”
“Yes. Every word is the truth, untainted by a single lie. The death by the assassin’s hand was also real.”
Perhaps now she could grasp just how cursed my existence had been.
I straightened from my lowered posture to meet her eyes, looking down at her instead.
I had poured out my emotions freely, yet nothing brought me peace.
If only my biological parents had never appeared before me in my lifetime—then I would never have felt this terrible anguish.
“If you were going to abandon me and wash your hands of me, then don’t pretend to be delighted when we meet again. What audacity made you approach me and feign familiarity?”
You should have remained a complete stranger.
Even if you recognized me at first glance, you should have pretended not to know me until the end.
“Disgusting.”
I shot the Marchioness a look of contempt, then turned away without hesitation and left.
I had confirmed the truth. There was nothing left for me to do with her.
From the beginning, I harbored far greater resentment toward Aiden, who had entrusted me to Uncle and departed, than toward the Marchioness who abandoned me at birth….
His betrayal cut deeper, his absence burned hotter.

✦ ✦ ✦
“Bring Aiden to me at once.”
I returned immediately to Duke Papiope’s Mansion and found Aiden.
The servants, noticing my icy gaze and the change in how I addressed him, trembled with fear and scattered to search for him.
It didn’t take long for the servants to locate him, who resided at the Papiope Residence.
“Tania, I heard you were looking for me. What’s wrong?”
As if the servants had informed him that something was amiss, he burst into my office with an urgent expression.
His gaze swept rapidly over my body from top to bottom, as if checking whether I was injured anywhere.
Not a single tear had fallen when I faced the Marchioness, but the moment I saw his face, tears streamed down my cheeks.
My body had grown cold, yet the tears that welled up burned hot, as if they embodied my betrayal. It felt like I was being scalded.
“Tania…?”
Seeing me cry without a word, he rushed over and embraced me, trying to comfort me.
“What’s happened? Tell me. Come on? Who made you cry?”
I stood rigidly in his embrace.
My hands instinctively clenched into fists, but they trembled without force, quivering helplessly.
“You….”
After a moment to steady my breathing, I spoke in a low voice.
“You’re the one who made me like this.”
Perhaps he sensed the deep resentment laden in my voice.
The strength drained from Aiden’s arms as he held me.
He pulled away and examined my face.
I didn’t want to cry, yet tears kept flowing unbidden, and it infuriated me.
Only after irritably wiping away the tears with my sleeve could I finally see his bewildered expression.
“Tell me, Aiden. Why have you been deceiving me all this time?”
“…What?”
After a moment of silence, his rough voice echoed the question, his expression piercing like a thorn.
His eyes were wavering.
Seeing that expression, the shattered fragments of my emotions spilled out like something being chewed and spat.
“You’re my real father! You were my father! You were truly, truly my father….”
Betrayal surged up, overwhelming and indescribable.
I hadn’t asked for much.
Whether it was a lifetime of being hunted by assassins or anything else, what I needed as a child was simply the existence of parents.
That was all.

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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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