Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 19

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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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19.

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From the moment Lumière arrived in the Northern Region until now, the Grand Duke’s Castle had known nothing but turbulence.
The tension had been suffocating enough when the existing trading partners were replaced wholesale, and with Becky’s expulsion on top of it all, the entire atmosphere had grown unsettled.
‘It seems I wasn’t the only one losing sleep.’
Unable to summon rest, her mind drifting instead to unwanted memories, she’d thrown a shawl over her shoulders and slipped out of her bedchamber for a brief walk.
But with the ceremony tomorrow, lamps burned throughout the castle despite the late hour.
“Oh—Your Highness, the Princess. We greet you.”
The servants carrying laundry baskets froze the moment they spotted Lumière.
“You’re all working so hard.”
She wasn’t about to devour anyone, yet everyone looked at her as though she were death itself whenever they crossed paths. It was rather absurd.
‘Still, perhaps it will improve with time.’
The fear and tension they harbored wasn’t inherently wrong.
It was better than contempt or revulsion, at least.
She resumed her steps.
But then—
“Mm?”
A faint glow was seeping through the slightly ajar door of the Sewing Room.
‘Surely she isn’t still working?’
Peering through the gap, she found Hanna bent over the Wedding Dress, absorbed entirely in her needlework.
Lumière watched her for a moment.
The skill with which Hanna had sketched the dress design was impressive enough, but her actual sewing was something else entirely.
Despite the dim light of night, the speed of her needle was extraordinary.
How long had she been standing there watching?
“There! It’s done!”
Hanna spread open the hem of the dress with a triumphant cry.
“You’ve done well.”
“Oh! You startled me!”
Lumière stepped inside with a light laugh.
“I seem to have taken you by surprise.”
“Your Highness, what brings you here at this hour…?”
“Sleep eluded me, so I was taking a brief walk. I didn’t expect to find you still at work.”
“Tomorrow is the ceremony, so I wanted to do one final inspection.”
“Thanks to you, I’ll be able to stand before everyone without shame tomorrow.”
Hanna seemed at a loss, clearly flustered by the praise.
Yet as the joy of completion faded from her face, a shadow began to gather in her eyes.
“……”
Her gaze wandered, searching, lost.
Her lips parted briefly, then closed again.
She wanted to ask something but didn’t dare.
Guessing at what lay behind that hesitation, Lumière smiled faintly and spoke.
“You’re wondering why I’m not afraid of this marriage, aren’t you?”
“I—I’m so sorry! That wasn’t what I meant to—”
“It’s all right. It’s only natural it seems strange to you.”
She offered a gentle smile at Hanna’s flustered denial.
In this land, to be the Grand Duke’s bride was to be spoken of as one already dead. It was only natural it seemed odd.
Even the Grand Duke had asked as much when they first met.
Whether this marriage frightened her.
But she harbored no ill will, for part of her had longed for someone to ask.
Because—
“There is no Curse.”
She hoped that the ominous gaze cast upon the Grand Duke might lift, even if only a day sooner.
And she hoped that the truth might reach him—this man who had come to believe himself a monster—even if only a day sooner.
“So there’s no reason for me to be afraid.”
“But still……”
“It will be difficult to believe now, but in time, you’ll come to understand.”
Hanna gazed at her with wavering eyes.
As though knowing something, she wore an air of ease and unshakeable conviction.
Those unwavering violet eyes offered silent testimony that her certainty had grounds.
Could it be, perhaps…….
The thought that those words might actually be true flashed through Hanna’s mind.
“In any case, you’ve worked hard enough. It’s late—go on inside and rest now.”
“I, I’ll just finish tidying up and then go. You should rest too, Your Highness. You need to wake early tomorrow.”
“Very well. See you tomorrow, then.”
Lumière nodded and slipped out of the Sewing Room.
‘…There was no curse.’
The day she learned that truth remained vivid still.
It was perhaps ten years or so after my death.
A woman in a worn Robe came to the Grand Duke’s Castle.
The woman knelt before Axid, her trembling hands drawing back the fabric.
In that moment, the air in the Audience Hall froze solid.
A woman who existed only within a portrait stood before them, bearing the unmistakable pallor of illness.

“What scheme is this? Peddling my mother’s face for what gain?”

His voice was sharp as a blade’s edge.
A natural reaction, surely.
His mother was known to have died not long after bearing him.
The woman bowed her body until her forehead touched the ground, and spoke at last.

“…I feigned my death and fled. If my life was forfeit anyway… I wanted to spend my remaining years as I chose.”

Yet season after season passed.
Dozens of times the world turned, and the woman did not die.
Only then did she grasp the terrible truth: it was no curse that had claimed the lives of all the Grand Duke’s consorts before her.
But it was far too late to return. She could only watch from a distance, thinking that one day when her son fathered an heir, the truth would come to light.
Now, as illness crept upon her and death drew near, she had come at last—afraid the truth would be buried forever.
That day, Axid said nothing at all as the bowing woman knelt before him.
He only clenched his fists until the color drained from his knuckles.
A man who had imprisoned himself his whole life in a curse that never existed—who had abandoned everything and fled in belief of that phantom.
These two met again far too late, after both had lost far too much.
And not long after, her spirit scattered faintly, with no warning at all, and departed this land.
As the memory surfaced, bitter sorrow bloomed within her.
…….
She stopped walking before a familiar place.
Having wandered without direction, she found herself at the spot in this castle where sunlight lingered longest.
The very place the Grand Duke of her past life had given to her.
Lumière drew her shawl gently around herself.
“This is my first time here since the regression.”
To think I would set foot here again while living.
It was a place she had always turned away from, afraid it would feel like revisiting the end of her previous life. Yet somehow, her feet refused to leave.
She gazed softly upward at the moonlight trickling gently through the branches.
Tomorrow was the State Wedding itself, and still it felt unreal.
She feared this was all nothing but a dream born from her own guilt.
Then a low voice came from behind.
“…What are you doing here at this hour?”
She turned to find Axid had drawn close, looking down at her.
Standing in that very spot where he had stood until sunset on every anniversary of her death.
Seized by a sudden unreality, she stood dazed for a moment before her eyes averted of their own accord.
‘…Why am I like this, really.’
It was because she had suddenly remembered how she flailed about so awkwardly in his arms just days ago.
Heat crept up her neck.
Even if she’d found him in her sight the moment she opened her eyes—there was no need to be so flustered about it.
Feeling strangely embarrassed, she drew her shawl closer and spoke.
“…I simply couldn’t sleep. But what brings you here, my lord?”
…….
Instead of answering, he furrowed his brow.
What could our future husband possibly be dissatisfied with?
As she tilted her head, he asked in a low voice.
“…Is that matter weighing heavily on you?”
“That matter?”
“The Wedding Dress.”
“Oh, no—that’s not it. The dress was completed safely, and besides, it’s already past.”
“Kaiden told me. He said you struggled greatly with it.”
“Me?”
Lumière blinked.
The last time she’d seen Kaiden was when she’d chased Becky away.
What could he possibly have noticed in that brief moment?
“I’m really fine.”
She’d been irritated, certainly, but not to the point of genuine hardship.
“In the future, do not hold back.”
“Pardon?”
“There is no one in this land who can treat you carelessly, and therefore you have no reason to endure.”
She regarded his stolid face quietly as she spoke.
“…I’m not holding back. You know that, Grand Duke.”
Her voice came out strangely strained.
The Empire’s people had always thought it natural to treat her disrespectfully, yet here he was, saying such things should never happen.
He gazed down at her in silence for a moment, then draped his Coat over her shoulders as he spoke.
“…That is fortunate, but dressed like that in this weather—if you catch a chill, what would you do?”
Lumière pressed her lips together softly and fell silent for a moment.
Wearing his Coat, warm with his body heat and scent, felt as though she were nestled in his arms…….
The warmth that had subsided in the cold breeze bloomed across her cheeks anew.
“I—I was about to go inside soon. But doesn’t it bother you, Grand Duke?”
“This is nothing to me.”
Accustomed to the cold of the Northern Region, he wore only a thin shirt, yet he did not shiver at all.
“But what brings you all the way to such a place?”
“…I thought the sun would shine brightly here.”
She didn’t know the reason herself.
When she came to her senses, she was already here.
“…At this late hour?”
“I know. I should have come during the day.”
She shrugged her shoulders, then let out a soft laugh.
She had suddenly understood why her feet had carried her to this place of their own accord.
She had wanted to see that person from her past life.
To him, it may have been merely the minimal courtesy one shows to the dead, but to her, it was the only warmth she had ever received while living.
In this life, she had wanted so much to tell him this.
That she had received sincere devotion only in death, and from no other than him—the one she had feared so terribly.
In this lifetime, she would not abandon him in solitude as she had then.
So…….
He need not worry; he should simply prepare himself to find happiness with her.
“But does the Grand Duke feel nervous?”
“Nervous about what?”
Lumière stepped into the main building beside Axid, speaking playfully.
“They say grooms get nervous before the wedding too.”
…….
His silence suggested she’d struck a nerve.
His awkwardness drew a laugh from her despite herself.
“…Why are you laughing?”
“No reason, really.”
So this man, too, could feel something as ordinary as nervousness before marriage.
She walked through the quiet night beside him, their paces matching.

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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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