Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 37

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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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37.

Winterheim’s provisions were preserved mostly by freezing or drying them, a necessity in the bitter cold and arid climate.
But the meats that graced the noble’s table were stored differently.
Aged meat, oil-cured meat—things with deep flavor and tender texture would spoil if kept that way.
So Tera had maintained a separate insulated storage room in the castle’s basement, managing it meticulously—until the precious meats had turned to garbage.
Cold had seeped in through a ventilation shaft that hadn’t been properly sealed.
“The spoiled stock is beyond saving. Have the servants clear it all out.”
Tera’s face hardened as she summoned the staff at once, while Lumiere watched the wasted meat being carried away with an expressionless gaze.
“I beg your pardon, Your Highness.”
“Nonsense. This isn’t your doing.”
She shook her head at Tera’s repeated apologies, offering what comfort she could.
Even if the household management had fallen to the stewardess until now, the fault lay elsewhere.
‘Remarkably convenient timing.’
In her past life, this sort of problem had never arisen.
Had it, she would have inspected the storeroom before anything else.
“Your Highness, what should we do?”
She crossed her arms and worked her tongue against her cheek, thinking, before she spoke.
“We’ll sort that out later.”
Even the finest provisions could be procured for enough coin.
…Though quite a substantial sum, admittedly.
“It’s too much of a coincidence to call it simple negligence. Wouldn’t it be wise to hold the staff accountable?”
In truth, troublesome incidents had been accumulating for days.
Minor problems, to call them that—but now that something serious had come to light in the storeroom, her suspicions had hardened into certainty.
Even accounting for the reorganization of duties, this kind of disorder shouldn’t have occurred.
“Holding them accountable is too grand a gesture. Simply impress upon the staff the need for greater care.”
“Shouldn’t we still identify the culprit?”
“It’ll likely turn out to be innocent bystanders anyway. All that’ll do is unsettled nerves. A little wariness is sufficient.”
Besides, this wasn’t the end of it.
Whoever had done this would be dealt with once irrefutable evidence surfaced, and whoever had orchestrated it from behind would come forward in time, to be handled then.
To call them a mastermind sounded grand, but if her suspicions were correct—and she believed they were—that person would make an appearance soon enough.
When the time came, she could sweep them from her husband’s life forever. What was a little patience in the meantime?
It was then that the Chef, who had hurried down upon hearing the news, spoke with a face drained of color.
“Your Highness, if I may speak freely, there’s very little meat left in the kitchen stores. I was meaning to replenish them at dawn tomorrow, but…”
“How much remains?”
“Only what’s needed for this evening’s service.”
It was fortunate that no visiting dignitaries or banquets were scheduled for the coming days, but if her husband returned early, matters would become decidedly awkward.
She didn’t care what she ate herself, but she had no wish to serve him tough, stringy frozen meat.
“We’ll need to purchase additional provisions elsewhere.”
“Yes, I know of a reputable merchant. I’ll see to that matter.”
The Chef spoke with a dark expression.
The meat he’d spent months carefully aging had become refuse—it weighed on him.
“I’ll inquire with His Highness as to when he plans to return. You see to clearing the storeroom and kitchen.”
“Yes, I shall.”
Lumiere left the staff to clean up the storeroom and continued her inspection of the remaining provisions.
Problems surfaced elsewhere, but aside from the storeroom matter, they were minor—scarcely worth the name of cleanup.

***

Early morning, thick with fog.
Axid stood gazing down from the castle walls.
Prisoners were loading monster corpses onto carts at the soldiers’ direction in the grey dawn.
He watched the scene with indifferent eyes until he sensed a presence behind him, and turned.
“Your Highness, shouldn’t you return to the castle today?”
It was Brian.
“I mean to stay a few days longer.”
“There’s no need for Your Highness to remain. You’ve dealt with the larger creatures yourself, after all.”
Brian was right.
For the time being, the Fortress faced no great danger.
The Cursed Land beyond the mountains regurgitated monsters by the hundreds each time.
On rare occasions thousands would surge forward, but the Fortress was not so fragile as to crumble under such an assault.
Moreover, battles did not occur every day.
Yet he continued to delay his return, using the dwindling traces of Ogres and the rising tide of monsters as his excuse.
“Your Highness, I imagine Lumiere awaits your return.”
In that instant, his sharp eyes—which had been fixed unmovingly on the wall below—trembled faintly.
“You departed for the Fortress on your wedding night, and were absent for days thereafter.”
“Brian.”
Brian fell silent at the edge in his lord’s voice.
The Grand Duke had spent his entire life imprisoned by the Curse.
Brian had watched for years how deeply he despised his own bloodline, serving him faithfully all the while.

“I shall accept this marriage proposal. However, when the time comes, I intend to release her—keep that fact to yourself.”

The man who had once sworn never to keep anyone at his side had accepted the Marriage Proposal from the Empire and spoken these words.
As a subject of the Grand Duchy, Brian wanted to dissuade him; as the Grand Duke’s long-serving attendant, he wished only to follow in silence.
Brian had chosen the latter.
And if the Grand Duke meant to release her anyway, it was perhaps fortunate that his bride was the Empire’s princess, shrouded in so much rumor.
If neither of them allowed affection to take root, parting would wound them both less in the years to come.
Yet Lumiere proved to be nothing like what he had anticipated.
Among people who revered and feared the Grand Duke’s house while rejecting the marriage proposal itself, she was the first to greet him with such warmth.
It was no wonder the Grand Duke wavered.
Brian could well understand his lord’s desire to distance himself from Lumiere, rooted in the Curse plaguing his house.
Intellectually, he knew it was the right course.
And yet.
What stayed with Brian was the light in his lord’s eyes when he first beheld Lumiere—a flicker of hesitation.
The face of a man seeing light for the first time, bewildered before a warmth so foreign to him.
…Even if they could never become an ordinary couple, could they not become friends?
If his lord, who had endured a lifetime in solitude, could gain even one person with whom to lower his guard and reveal his true heart.
If that person were someone like Lumiere….
That was all Brian wished for.
“Your Highness, a letter has arrived.”
Brian handed Axid a letter that had come not long before.
“From whom?”
“From Lumiere, Your Highness.”
In the same moment his black eyes sharpened, the envelope left Brian’s hands.

[…It’s the first time I’ve written a letter like this, so casually.
It feels a little foolish, but I kept hesitating, not knowing how to begin.
I suppose I should just say what I want to say.
How are things at the Fortress?
I do hope you’re not skipping meals, and that you haven’t been injured….
……Please, when you return, come back exactly as you were when you left—without a single wound.
If you don’t mind, I’d be grateful if you’d write back and tell me when you might be coming home.
I’ll be waiting.]

Axid’s eyes lingered for a long moment on that final line.
Waiting for him….
What waited for him had always been prescribed.
…The documents piling up in his study, the Fortress with its deteriorating situation, the cold and empty bedchamber, and each year that uncontrollable season forcing him to despise himself.
Yet at her simple words—that she would wait for him to return safely—an ache spread through his chest.
He had deliberately hurt her with words about not allowing attachment, and yet Lumiere spoke to him as though she had never heard such things, her warmth undiminished.
Axid opened his mouth.
“…Is there nothing else?”
“Your Highness?”
“Any other word from the palace besides Lumiere’s letter?”
This was his first letter from Lumiere.
Though there had been no particular mention, her words about waiting somehow struck him with the sudden feeling that he must return to the palace.
“No, Your Highness. No other messages have arrived.”
Axid’s jaw tightened at those words.
Part of him had been hoping that if Tera sent word of some urgent matter, he might use it as an excuse to return.
“Tell Lumiere not to wait for me.”
It had been only days since he’d notified her they would keep separate quarters.
He couldn’t afford to waver over a single letter—not if drawing that line was to mean anything at all.
These small courtesies, these words of waiting.
He had to sever them before he grew accustomed to the thoughtless kindness she offered.
If his own desire might one day drive her toward death, that single slim possibility was reason enough to keep his distance.
Brian’s expression hardened into something rigid.
His eyes carried a rebuke, as though questioning whether Axid truly meant to give such an order, but his lips remained sealed.

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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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