My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 80

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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 80
Chapter 8. Arrangements (10)
The branches grew bare and skeletal, and the season of plummeting temperatures crept closer.
The summer heat she had loved so dearly had already scattered like a worn-out remnant. All that remained was the tail end of a year before the bitter cold arrived.
“I’ve found one more reason to hate autumn and winter.”
No matter how powerful one became, there existed state ceremonies and social obligations that could not be avoided. And chief among them, without question, was the Foundation Festival.
Whether House of Windmere or House of Brickwell, there was no escaping this official function.
Damn it.
This year was no exception.
Banners announcing the Foundation Festival already hung along the main avenue that crossed the Capital, and a procession of carriages toward the Imperial Palace never ceased. The Plaza overflowed with people—there was scarcely room to stand—and the Order of Knights moved about in preparation for the parade.
Celia gazed down from the window and swallowed a sigh.
“I’d rather be down there. Anything but being trapped up here.”
Watching the crowd clustered together in excitement, she felt a pang of envy. She was neither a bird in a cage nor one being cooped up, yet dressed so elaborately that food could barely be pushed past her teeth. Her patience wore thin as the waiting stretched on.
“We completely forgot about it, didn’t we?”
……
“That the Foundation Festival was practically at our door.”
To soothe her, Lucius rose from the sofa and drifted toward her.
She discarded half the invitations that came for her without even opening them; and Lucius, caught up in recent business and scrounging up every memory he possessed—real or imagined—had been as busy as she. Both of them had been consumed with matters these past few days.
“This year seems to have slipped away more chaotically than usual.”
“……Yet your memory of this year is only half-formed. Don’t say that.”
“Fair point.”
Celia turned to face him.
Fluffy white fur trim climbed all the way to her neck, softly grazing her smooth cheeks. With her face half-buried in the fur, she hunched her shoulders deeply into her Coat.
“It’s all so tedious……. I want to go home.”
She wrinkled her nose.
Lucius slowly lifted his hand from where it rested near her hip and drew it around her waist, his touch becoming bolder—he’d been careful at first, afraid she might pull away.
“You’ve worked hard preparing for the Foundation Festival.”
“……That much wasn’t true. I didn’t even host the Festival.”
“You rushed to have my clothes fitted. You were busy organizing and looking after the people I needed to bring. I know you had your hands full.”
Wasn’t that just the ordinary duty of a lady of the house?
Celia, who had not once fulfilled her obligations since marrying him, rolled her eyes dramatically.
“If you don’t mind, how about we take a trip after the Foundation Festival ends—as thanks for your efforts?”
A trip.
Celia, who had been stiff and rigid, suddenly brightened.
“Where?”
What she liked and what she disliked.
Now that the distinctions were clear to Lucius, he dangled the bait before her eyes without difficulty.
“Now that the weather’s turned cold, I think somewhere in the Southern Region would be best. I’ve heard there’s a lake there. It never freezes even in winter, and it’s said to be quite beautiful. Shall we go riding horses around it?”
Celia loved to travel.
Edmund, who preferred stability, did not care for travel. So whenever the chance came for Celia to venture far, she was thrilled.
She squeezed the hand wrapped around her arm.
“Well…… I’m fine with it. It’s not that I want to go so much as it is that you’ve been working hard lately too. Taking a breath and going wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“I’m glad you’ll come with me. I’m thinking of purchasing a villa nearby, and once we visit, I’ll have it registered under your name.”
Lucius said this as if merely making conversation.
Celia, who had acquired an entire villa with just a few words, blinked in surprise. She wasn’t one to refuse a good thing, but her curiosity got the better of her.
“Suddenly?”
“The villa overlooks the lake and is quite lovely. I think you’d like it, and I want to give it to you as a gift before the year ends.”
“Is that really necessary?”
What’s yours or what’s mine—it’s all the same anyway. Celia, with plenty of her own money and the kind to spend Lucius’s wealth even more freely than water, thought to herself: property of her own was only necessary in the event of—
Ah, divorce.
“You may begin preparations now, if you please.”
A servant entered and delivered the message.
Now came the opening declaration of the Foundation Festival, followed by the parade and procession of the Order of Knights. All Celia and Lucius had to do was sit like dolls and clap.
Faced with tedious yet simple work, Celia’s mood shifted in an instant.
“Are we leaving right after the Foundation Festival ends? For that villa in the Southern Region?”
“Not immediately. We’ll need time to prepare…… How about a month from now?”
“I’m fine with whatever.”
Even the tangled problems, even Lucius’s lost memories—it all felt as though they would find resolution once this Foundation Festival ended.
‘Yes. Once this Foundation Festival is over……’
Perhaps she should have a serious conversation with Lucius then, lay bare her deepest heart.
No more putting it off.
Determined to bring this situation—hurtling toward its conclusion—to an end, she quietly steeled herself.
“Come. Let’s go, Celia.”
Following the attendant’s guidance, Lucius led her forward.
Though winter’s chill lay ahead, the day felt warmth without measure.
***
The weather is foul.
“I’ll stoke the fire higher.”
Celia, who felt the cold keenly, had even commandeered Lucius’s Outer Garment and trembled despite it.
The Foundation Festival was named a celebration, but for the nobility it was something else entirely—a trial of endurance. There was nothing to do but sit still in place and watch for hours on end.
When several events concluded and a brief respite came before the next ceremony, her foul mood did not lift.
“If you’re very cold, would you like some warm tea?”
“Tea……rather than tea, I’d prefer spirits.”
“Spirits may seem to raise body heat quickly, but they actually steal the warmth from within, making things worse. Let’s have a cup of warm tea instead and reconsider.”
Celia curled herself into a ball and shifted her shoulders restlessly.
Without time to even observe his first Foundation Festival, Lucius was too busy soothing her.
“Ginger? I hate ginger tea.”
“It’s a bit spicy, but it will warm you.”
“Something else……”
“I’ll bring you something else right away. But just try a sip of this first.”
At Lucius’s insistence, those who happened to pass nearby stared in astonishment. The sight of his broad frame hunched down, holding various drinks to her lips, was so foreign to anyone who knew him that they could hardly believe their eyes.
Blegh.
Unable to resist the cold, Celia swallowed a mouthful of the ginger tea in the meantime.
“I’ll fetch some warm milk. Just wait a moment.”
He pressed his lips to her cheek once before standing. Fortunately, the unpleasant ginger tea seemed to be having an effect; the numbness in her mind began to thaw into clarity.
‘What are they all staring at?’
Celia turned her head away sharply from the lingering gazes, though her attention soon wandered elsewhere.
‘Come to think of it, where is Father?’
Since this was the Foundation Festival, he must surely be in attendance.
And the Duke of Windmere would naturally be here as well……
‘Don’t tell me they’ve run into each other?’
Since their nominal Reconciliation, they no longer traded open insults, but the words they exchanged with their smiling faces were the diplomatic equivalent of desecrating the other’s ancestral tombs.
Unwilling to be trapped in the middle of such a vicious standoff, Celia cast about urgently with her eyes.
Lucius, returning in the meanwhile, handed her a cup of warm milk into her reddened hands.
“Were you very cold? Your expression has gotten worse.”
……
The seat near the Emperor’s throne might not have eased her nerves, but Lucius filling her entire field of vision proved oddly effective at settling her.
“No… I’m fine.”
She managed to breathe a little more steadily. But even that calm did not last.
“Sister.”
A shadow fell across her as the unwelcome visitor robbed her of even this brief respite.
“Evandor.”
Celia lifted her head and spoke his name flatly.
Standing with the sun at his back, his features were swallowed in harsh shadow, yet his presence was unmistakable. His silver-white hair gleamed coldly, and beneath it, his blue eyes seemed as cutting as glacial melt. A shallow dimple formed at the corner of his mouth in what had become his familiar habit—but Celia recognized it at once as a twisted smile.
He narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“Spare me a moment.”

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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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