Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 81

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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 81
I lifted my head quietly and gazed at the source of the voice.
Aiden’s guilt-stricken face tormented me.
I wiped my tears away roughly with my sleeve and opened my mouth.
“What are you apologizing for? I’m the one who got angry unilaterally.”
“Regardless… Father is sorry.”
Aiden had referred to himself as ‘Father.’
Perhaps emotions that burned as fiercely as flames cooled just as quickly.
Why did my anger dissipate at such a sight?
I couldn’t understand myself.
I hadn’t wanted to forgive him, yet my anger had already melted away, leaving me irritated.
I buried my face in my knees.
“I know better than anyone that you’re not the kind of person to get angry over trivial matters.”
Aiden lowered his head before me like a condemned man.
“…Even if I don’t remember, there must have been something that hurt you.”
To feel guilt and apologize for something he couldn’t even remember—it was extraordinary.
The fact that I had been angry at such a person tormented me.
“Did you feel the same way when I was adopted by the Duchess?”
“…”
Aiden’s pupils trembled faintly as he looked at me.
“I didn’t want to feel jealous of Lucian, but in that moment, I was so angry.”
Why could he say so easily a title I hadn’t been able to call out for over a decade?
“It’s not that I didn’t want to call you Father. I never expected to be scolded for it.”
“…Tania, when you said you were being adopted by the Duchess.”
Aiden knelt on one knee and lowered himself to meet my eyes.
If his amber eyes, meeting mine up close, seemed to resemble mine—that must have been an illusion.
“I wanted to stop you. I wished you would become my daughter, not the Duchess’s.”
“…”
“Even though I knew living as a New Maid in Duke Papiope’s Mansion would be far more advantageous for you, I couldn’t let you go.”
Aiden’s face was filled with guilt as he spoke.
“I envied and resented a Duchess I’d never even seen.”
“…So you were angry too, just like me.”
“Yes.”
“You pretended to be fine for my sake?”
“Yes. In truth, I was barely holding back a crumbling heart.”
Learning that Aiden felt emotions similar to mine, my heart finally began to settle.
“…That’s enough. That’s all I needed to hear.”
If Aiden endured it, I should too.
I exhaled deeply.
“To be honest, it’s not true that all my resentment has disappeared. You must have had your own circumstances.”
The Old Gentleman wasn’t the type to grow angry with me without reason.
When I thought about it carefully, this was actually a golden opportunity.
I’d never imagined I’d call him Father for the rest of my life.
“In any case, I’m going to use this situation to drive a permanent wedge between the Duchess and the Old Gentleman—making it impossible for them not to become husband and wife.”
“Wait. That’s….”
He fumbled for words, but I immediately activated my ability and rewound time.
[Calling Checkpoint 1.]
I returned to the moment when Lucian had boldly asked the Old Gentleman if he could call him Father.
I took a small, measured breath and spoke as if making a declaration.
“Then I’ll call you Father too.”
“Tania…?”
It was the Duchess and the Old Gentleman who were taken aback instead.
Even though they knew their courtship was a sham, my sudden declaration to call him Father must have caught them off guard.
“Why not? Lucian calls you Father, so there’s no reason I can’t, is there?”
I answered brazenly, then quickly added something to appease the Duchess.
“From now on, I’ll call the Duchess Mother, and the Old Gentleman Father.”
It had been just over a year since I’d entered Duke Papiope’s Mansion.
Yet I still hadn’t called the Duchess Mother.
At first, it was less that I couldn’t say it and more that the word felt foreign on my tongue….
But now it was closer to deliberately calling her the Duchess instead.
I couldn’t call the Old Gentleman Father either, so I simply couldn’t bring myself to call the Duchess Mother.
Still, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to reorganize these titles now.
If I kept calling them Mother and Father, perhaps those words might eventually become reality….
When I declared I would call them both Mother and Father, the Duchess—who had initially seemed flustered—broke into a radiant smile of pure joy.
“Tania, Mother has been waiting for the day you would call me that.”
After confirming the Duchess’s reaction, I turned my head sharply toward the Old Gentleman.
“Father doesn’t mind, do you?”
“…Yes.”
The Old Gentleman, who had held my gaze with a complicated expression for a moment, eventually nodded with the look of someone who had made a decision.
He seemed to have accepted the fake courtship with newfound seriousness.
“Then, as Lucian said, from now on Father will join us in the Dining Room for dinner! We’re going to be a family soon.”
But there was one person who disapproved of this heartwarming scene.
“I have no idea what I’m seeing and hearing. They haven’t even gotten engaged, and you’re calling yourselves a family—! Stop this nonsense at once.”
“Grandfather, are you saying that if they simply get engaged, you’d have no objection?”
The Duchess asked as though she were ready to hold an engagement ceremony that very moment.
At that, Grandfather suddenly began backpedaling.
“Ah, no! An engagement alone isn’t enough. Only after they’ve completed the wedding ceremony…!”
“Father.”
The Duchess met Grandfather’s eyes and spoke with a seriousness unlike anything she’d shown before.
“You don’t know this because Tania has called you Grandfather from the start, but I’ve been imagining this moment for the entire past year.”
“Viviana….”
“Aiden is also my precious beloved. So how do you think I’d feel if Father were to reject him like that?”
Precious beloved, she said.
Even knowing this was a fake relationship, her words made my heart flutter in an unexpected way.
I had simply acted as I normally would, but when the Duchess came on so much stronger than anticipated, Grandfather floundered in confusion.
“No, I wasn’t trying to reject Aiden! I’m just saying things are moving awfully fast, aren’t they?”
Grandfather had a point.
With only the fact of our relationship just revealed, it was indeed abnormal for Lucian and me to be calling Aiden “Father” already.
Grandfather continued, perspiration beading on his forehead.
“Looking at how things stand now, I suppose I should be calling Aiden my son-in-law.”
Then Aiden, who had been watching this entire awkward situation unfold, bowed respectfully to Grandfather.
“I would be honored to be called that, Father.”
“W-what, what, what?!”
Grandfather’s mouth fell open in utter shock.
So the quiet cat climbs onto the stove first, as they say…!
I too stared at Aiden with my mouth agape.
I never imagined he would take such an aggressive stance.
It seemed quite possible that this fake relationship might become real before long.

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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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