My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 19

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

19
Chapter 2. An Unexpected Turn (9)
The rain fell gently with the wind, already soaking the sky into a muddy blur.
Celia watched the floodwaters surge through the streets like a tidal wave, and her lips parted slightly.
“……What about our carriage?”
With rain this heavy, the carriage wouldn’t be able to move at all.
She turned to look at him, hoping she was wrong, and a troubled sigh escaped from between Lucius’s red lips.
“As you can see, neither the horses nor the driver can see the way ahead, and the carriage wheels keep skidding.”
When Celia turned to look at the servant, who had become a drowned rat from the downpour, he bowed his head deeply.
“Then how do we get back?”
Standing rigid at the window, Celia’s gaze followed the cascading rain.
The road surrounding the Opera House had long since been covered in murky reflections like a dark mirror.
Lucius tilted his head back and deliberated for a moment. It was clear he was wrestling with whether to speak, before he finally opened his mouth carefully.
“We’ll need to stay at an inn nearby for the night.”
“……An inn?”
Celia’s voice wavered slightly. As if he’d anticipated this reaction, Lucius explained promptly.
“The nearest nobleman’s townhouse is half an hour’s walk from here. You’d definitely catch a cold. The inn may be full due to the sudden downpour, but I can try to sort that out.”
She disliked sleeping away from home, and an inn—where travelers stayed, no less. The words tumbled uselessly in her mouth.
“Where exactly is the nearest inn?”
“If we run……we should be there shortly, so don’t worry too much.”
Lucius gestured with his hand, and the servant, dripping water onto the floor, disappeared to fetch information about the inn.
“If you really don’t want to go to the inn, we could always wait here until the rain stops.”
“How would we even know when it stops?”
Waiting for that downpour to cease seemed even more foolish.
“I thought as much.”
……
Many nobles were already murmuring in displeasure, scattered about. Though the Opera House had provided shelter, it was completely full.
“A thunderstorm could strike, so we should leave before that happens. Is that acceptable?”
How could anyone run through rain like that?
Her vision darkened.
This was all Lucius’s fault. If he hadn’t insisted on coming to see the opera, she wouldn’t be in this predicament.
“I can’t run.”
“Mm.”
“Do I look like I could run through the rain?”
Her cheeks flushed with indignation. Gripping her dress hem tightly and looking up at him, Lucius gave her a mysterious look.
“Then what if I carried you?”
An ominous look always came with ominous reasoning.
“What……?”
“It would be difficult for you to run on your own. I have a rough idea of the inn’s location, so it would be faster if I carried you.”
Who carries whom?
Celia parsed each word as though learning a language for the first time.
Soon, shock swept across her face at this entirely unacceptable reality.
In that moment, Lucius glanced outside once more, then lowered his torso by planting his hands on his knees. With his head slightly bowed, he looked up at Celia at an angle. As he brushed aside his fallen hair and met her gaze, the gesture was unnervingly natural.
“I’m sorry. I’m the one who suggested we come see the opera, and I’ve made things difficult for you.”
Against her will, her fingertips twitched involuntarily.
“I can’t promise the inn’s facilities will be good. I’ll do my best, though you might get a little wet.”
……
“But I can’t leave you standing here when we don’t know when the rain will stop.”
A word of refusal rose to the tip of her tongue.
The man trying so hard to persuade her was utterly strange. Lucius was not someone who usually accepted her stubbornness graciously.
Her fingers fidgeted repeatedly before, at last, Celia parted her lips.
“What if I catch cold from being cold and wet and uncomfortable?”
Even at her probing words, he smiled.
“That’s my problem to worry about.”
He swept his hand through the air and slowly extended it toward her. She looked down at the palm offered as if asking her to take it.
“I won’t let a single raindrop touch you.”
The sound of rain striking the earth flowed beneath his words.
The sound from the sky was ominous. It sounded as though lightning might strike at any moment, so there seemed no point in delaying further.
So this was an unavoidable choice.
“Do as you wish.”
Even at her reluctant answer, Lucius looked pleased.
“My apologies.”
The moment both his arms wrapped firmly around her waist, her feet lifted off the ground.
One hand braced beneath her thigh while the other cradled her back. Against Celia’s ribs came the firm, sculpted muscle of his body.
At the shockingly sudden movement, she instinctively placed her hand on his shoulder.
A chill ran down her spine where their bodies touched.
The distance was far too close.
It only struck Celia now that simply having bodies touch and being completely enfolded in his embrace were entirely different things.
His cape, which had been draped over her shoulder at some point, now covered her down to the crown of her head. Lucius drew her closer still.
Warm skin, body heat, breath, his scent.
Unbelievable.
She was being held by him now? She was, by him?
Confusion swept through her faster than the waves of water striking the ground.
Meanwhile, Lucius strode purposefully out of the Opera House.
“Try not to bite your tongue, will you?”
“I don’t… mind.”
Lucius began to run across the wet-slicked stones.
Silence shattered, and the sound of rain filled her ears.
Raindrops fell on her shoulders, numbingly cold, but only for a moment. The cape covering her head and body shielded her from the downpour.
Rain flowed across the road in intricate patterns. The night sky was thick with clouds, heavy and dark, and within it, rain fell ceaselessly.
With each step he took, she felt his legs pressing firmly into the earth, moving forward.
Finally, Celia made peace with herself.
She would think of Lucius as nothing more than a horse.
She was simply riding a horse.
Lucius Windmere, soaked to the bone in this rain, yet determined to protect her alone. What madness could be greater than this?
Each time he drew breath lightly, his exhalation grazed her temple.
The damp, humid night air—and yet his body heat was warm enough to make such things entirely irrelevant.
She lifted her gaze through a gap in the cape.
His hair, heavy with moisture, clung to his forehead, and small droplets hung from the tips of his lashes, trembling.
The rain pouring down on her head felt like a dream, distant and unreal, while the warmth of Lucius holding her was suffocatingly vivid.
‘This really is madness.’
She pressed her lips firmly shut.
***
The scent of saltwater rain and soap mingled in the air.
Water droplets fell from his damp hair and traced down his neck. Lucius dried his head roughly with a towel as he moved about the room.
The inn they’d barely reached was, as expected, far from luxurious.
‘At least we can wash. That’s something.’
It should have been cause for gratitude, yet he found no joy in it.
While he himself didn’t particularly care about his accommodations, having to put his family up in such a shabby place was beneath the dignity of a minor duke.
“I know we should be grateful to have found anywhere to rest at all, but I can’t say I’m entirely satisfied.”
While Celia bathed, Lucius had borrowed the innkeeper’s room to change clothes. Now, surveying his surroundings, he raised a cup of lukewarm water to his lips.
And when he lowered the cup again, the light that had glimmered in the corner of his eye like sunlight was nowhere to be found.
Instead, he settled into his chair and crossed his long legs. Old habits of the body die hard—he draped one leg over the other and leaned deeply into the creaking wooden chair.
His fingertips drummed against the armrest.
Tap, tap.
As if counting something, or organizing it. The rhythm of his fingers matched the pulse of his thoughts, steady yet strangely anxious.
“Why are there so many things that don’t sit right with me?”
His hand at his lips, he murmured to himself.
And……
“Why does Celia guard herself against me?”
His voice was low and deep. His half-closed eyes had grown dark and hollow.
‘Because I’ve lost my memory. Because I’m not truly myself?’
Yet she had said she would see him for who he is, regardless of his state.
That single ray of light falling into his confused world—he could never forget it.
But she never took the first step toward him.
The wariness etched deeply in her eyes flickered with a murky light whenever she looked at him, tightening his chest.
They had known each other since childhood, since they were five, and they’d been married for more than two and a half years.
‘Each time I draw near, each time I show kindness, she looks at me as if I were a stranger.’
Throughout the time she stood beside him, Celia seemed like someone holding something back. In the moments that should have flowed naturally, he’d witnessed her muscles tense, her eyes waver, her composure falter—all the signs of agitation she couldn’t quite hide.
Lucius’s hand clenched into a fist.

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