My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 26

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

Episode 26
Chapter 3. Upheaval (6)
Lucius surveyed the room, thick with restrained tension.
Standing among those who rifled through documents with cautious movements, he cut a figure as formal and composed as if he had just stepped out of a portrait frame.
“My lord, I regret to inform you that we cannot locate any documents concerning the Southern Noblewoman you mentioned.”
At those words, Lucius’s expression darkened for an instant.
Kabel, one of his adjutants and his milk brother besides, moistened his dry lips.
The bewilderment of Lucius’s sudden summons, followed by this inquiry into the Southern Noblewoman—Kabel ventured to ask cautiously.
“Is there any other information you recall?”
“I heard she was a woman who was nearly to become my betrothed. Is there truly nothing more you know?”
A woman who had nearly become his betrothed—that was a story more than two years old.
Fragmented though his recollection was, for the sake of his lord who had lost his memory, even forgotten pieces had to be held fast.
Fortunately, not long after, Kabel’s expression cleared as if he had recalled something.
“Ah, now that you mention it, there was a lady known as the Princess of the South among the eligible noblewomen once considered as your betrothed.”
“The Princess of the South?”
Lucius, who had been standing at an angle by the window, lowered the papers he held to just beneath his chin with a light movement.
“Yes, my lord. The eldest daughter of House of Marquis Larendel, a household that effectively controls the granaries throughout the Southern Region. She is said to be beautiful, accomplished in learning and refinement alike, and is treated in Southern noble society as nearly a princess in her own right.”
“She was nearly to become my betrothed?”
“There were three young ladies of notable families considered as your betrothed at that time, my lord. All of similar standing, and all favored by the Duke and Duchess. The young lady of House Larendel was the strongest candidate because…….”
A glance sideways.
Kabel set down the documents he had been organizing and spoke while observing Lucius from the corner of his vision.
“There were rumors that she and you were once lovers.”
…….
“In fact, the young lady of House Larendel made no secret of her feelings for you, my lord.”
Lucius’s fingers scraped lightly against the windowsill they had been resting upon.
As Kabel finished speaking, Lucius closed and opened his eyes slowly. His gaze remained steady, but his mind churned without cease.
“So I had a lover…….”
There was something self-mocking in his tone, and Kabel furrowed his brow as if troubled before speaking.
“I cannot say for certain, my lord. There were merely such rumors at the time.”
“You said you were always at my side. And even you know nothing of this?”
“That is…… I confess I do not fully understand that particular matter, my lord. You were never one to reveal private affairs, and you possessed no inclination to speak lightly of matters involving other women.”
Even as he spoke, Kabel continued to study Lucius’s expression.
Noting that gaze, Lucius composed his features. As his breath trembled thinly and faded beneath his ribs, Kabel at last ventured the careful question.
“But why do you suddenly ask of this matter, my lord?”
What reason could there be for that young lady of the Southern nobility, revered as a princess, to seek him out and speak of their “future”? Lucius swallowed the thought.
Even in supposition, it did not sit well with him.
Perhaps, as Eleanor had said, concerning Celia……. Hmph.
‘I asked Mother to tell her not to visit for now, but…… would such a measure be enough to end the matter?’
Once the thought had emerged, it bred others, tangling their threads and tightening around his mind.
Lucius pushed aside the disturbance threatening to show on his face and strove to recover his composure.
“I happened to hear something when I asked Mother about the past, and my curiosity is now satisfied. It is no matter.”
“Then I am relieved, my lord. Is there anything else you wish me to do?”
Night was descending with a sharp, cutting wind.
Though he breathed in the chill air with something like pleasure, he found himself wishing to turn his gaze from the sunset fading below the horizon.
Lucius, having stepped back from the windowsill, steadied himself against the table as he paused to choose his words.
His fingertips pressed against the table’s edge with the faintest pressure. He himself did not consciously register the force.
“……Celia.”
“Yes, my lord?”
“I arranged to see Celia tonight. Would you prepare warm tea beforehand?”
***
The closer Celia drew to Lucius’s chambers, the slower her steps became.
The corridor, emptied of the evening light, held no one to quicken her pace.
Along the tedious corridors of House of Windmere hung old portraits, and their subjects’ eyes possessed such presence that Celia nearly convinced herself they tracked her as she passed.
‘Every last one of them has the same hateful eyes.’
Why, of all moments, had Lucius called for her tonight?
And at night, no less.
‘I said I would seduce him, but not tonight.’
Yet her father’s command held her fast.
Celia had no right to refuse his summons, and the thought of her father’s eyes and ears, wherever they might be watching, weighed upon her.
‘Do not think too deeply.
She rehearsed only what she must do.
Whisper love to him, cloud his sight and hearing, penetrate the intimate places he did not dare admit to, and uncover the secrets they were both hiding.
Feign love…… feign tenderness…….
But how was she to do such a thing?
By not shouting at him, by not insulting him, by not trying to dominate him?
‘Is such a thing even possible?’
Celia swallowed a breath that had grown twisted somewhere inside, and continued down the silent corridor.
She had already lain with him when she despised him far more than she did now.
It was a truth repugnant, hateful to recall, and infuriating to contemplate.
Merely three years—and for all those three long years they had worn the mask of a “trouble-free couple,” and consummation had been an inescapable matter.
When it became known that they had falsified the First Night, the priests had forced them to endure the humiliating ordeal again before their eyes.
That Lucius had responded with such sensitivity, narrowly preventing them from breaching the threshold in their zeal to confirm the consummation, had saved them both.
‘Or was it…… my own outburst, declaring I would sooner die than mix bodies with that wretch before all those people? Was that what stopped them?’
The memories that followed clung to her back like a shadow, and the more she tried to shake them free, the more vividly they pressed against her.
—If you are going to wear such a pained expression, you might as well weep.
She could not clearly recall what his face had looked like then.
She remembered only the effort to hold back tears trapped behind a blurred vision, the way she had endured the hands touching her body, and the resistance to the unfamiliar sensation—whether anguish or pleasure, she could not tell—that had overwhelmed her.
‘……It was vile.’
The memory of that night alone was enough to make revulsion rise like bile, rendering her pathetic.
‘Will tonight be the same?’
Unwelcome memories lifted their heads one by one.
Just as a clear whimper of “I don’t want to go” bloomed within her chest, Edmund’s voice carved through the darkness in her mind.
—If you say you cannot do this, I will send Diana in your place tomorrow.
She had no choice.
So long as Edmund demanded it, no other path lay open to her.
To soothe her aching stomach, Celia rubbed her arms repeatedly. Before she knew it, she stood before Lucius’s chamber door.
Heedless of courtesy, her hand moved past any thought of knocking and went straight to the handle. Cold fingertips pressed against the door, and it swung open.
“Celia?”
Unwilling to betray even a moment’s hesitation, she strode in with long, purposeful steps the instant the door opened, leaving no time to catch her breath.
Lucius, sitting on the edge of the bed in little more than a loose robe, turned to face her.
It seemed an unexpected manner of entry, for he blinked briefly, a flicker of surprise crossing his features.
“Did you come alone? The hallway must have been dark at this hour.”
Celia came to stand a small distance before him.
He set down whatever he had been reading and rose from the bed.
Droplets of water traced down his neck and followed the line of his collarbone, falling slowly to leave small stains upon the fabric.
“I was meaning to fetch you, but I lost track of the time for a moment, so you’ve made the journey alone.”
Her gaze followed the falling droplets.
“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you——”
The moment a droplet fell from his chin, Celia stepped closer and cut off his words.
“Is that why you called me tonight—because tomorrow is the day for our consummation?”
The smile Lucius had begun to offer froze subtly on his lips.
“……What?”
“It’s fine. A day or two makes no difference…….”
Celia’s fingertips hesitated.
Though she disliked it, heat flooded her cheeks and ears. She forced herself to transform the shame into courage and reached for the edge of her robe.
“Let’s do it tonight.”

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