Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 64

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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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64.

My body lifted cleanly off the ground.
“……?”
The Grand Duke had hoisted me up with one arm.
‘What—what is this?’
Lumiere hung suspended in his grasp, blinking in confusion.
A moment ago, we’d been locked in a romantic back-embrace; now I’d been reduced to a piece of cargo.
Something deflated inside me, and my shoulders went slack.
In one fluid motion, the Grand Duke nudged aside a massive wooden table with his boot and settled me onto the sofa.
“Where are you hurt?”
He dropped to one knee, bringing his eyes level with mine.
“Nowhere, really. I scraped my knee a bit, but—”
“May I take a closer look?”
“I’m sorry?”
“I need to examine the wound.”
“No, it’s just a scraped knee. I’m fine, truly.”
It would just be a little red, nothing more.
It wasn’t torn or anything serious, so fussing over it seemed like overkill, no matter how I looked at it.
But beneath the soft lamplight, faced with those dark, unblinking eyes fixed steadily on me, my stubbornness crumbled.
He looked willing to stay there all night—all night and then some—until I complied.
‘He really does make a fuss over everything.’
I sighed and gently lifted the hem of my skirt.
My knee, now exposed, was merely flushed as expected, with nothing else amiss.
“…….”
His calloused fingertips traced the edges of the reddened skin, almost hovering, almost touching.
“It may bruise by tomorrow. Should anything seem unusual, send for your physician.”
I started to say there was no need for that, then thought better of it and held my tongue.
He came to mind as he’d been at the inn—the one who’d wrapped my wrist in bandages.
He’d examined my bruised wrist with such grave eyes, treating it with such care…….
That gentle warmth flooded through me, and my lips softened into a smile.
I was probably the only person who received such tenderness from this man.
Satisfaction bloomed inside me.
…Perhaps something closer to possessiveness.
But such thoughts didn’t linger long.
“I’m sorry for startling you. Go back to sleep.”
I couldn’t interrupt his rest after he’d only just returned; I needed to let him recover. I ought to leave him be.
Besides.
I lowered my skirt and bolted toward the bed like a frightened creature.
‘I’m losing my mind.’
I was far too old to be ignorant of what I’d been sitting on just moments before.
Buried under the blankets, I pressed my face into the pillow and silently screamed, drawing my knees up tight.
If I didn’t, I feared I’d thrash about like some indecorous fool, kicking the quilt with my heels.
‘Ah, if only I hadn’t fallen so stupidly……!’
My knee’s pain had long since faded, but that solid sensation pressed against my rear lingered, impossible to erase.
The breath at my nape, the strong arms wrapped around my waist, the thundering of his heart.
Most of all, what I’d been sitting on continued to haunt my mind like residual warmth, making my body pulse with a dull, insistent ache.
In the quiet, intimate darkness.
Lumiere buried her face in the pillow, clutching the quilt to her chest.
‘The Launching Ceremony is tomorrow—how am I supposed to sleep like this…….’
Suddenly, I understood that maintaining a purely platonic marriage while married to a perfectly healthy man was far harder than I’d anticipated.
After tossing and turning for some time, I finally managed to slip into sleep.

In the stillness of night.
Axid pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes.
Sleep had fled as if it were a lie.
In truth, he’d been awake from the moment she opened the door.
A body hardened by life on the battlefield was sensitive enough to haul consciousness up from sleep at the slightest sound.
Yet he couldn’t open his eyes.
The small hand resting on his chest, its warmth as it patted him clumsily like one soothing a child—he felt it would be withdrawn the moment he stirred.

“Thank you, Grand Duke.”

Her whisper, brushing past his ear, pressed heavy against his chest.
He feigned disinterest and pretended sleep, accepting the touch of her hand without response.
Even as he heard her gratitude, his body harbored different intentions.
More than that, when she swayed, he’d nearly pulled her close and thrust against the hardening beneath him.
‘Pathetic.’
There was no way the Grand Duchess hadn’t noticed the state of his body pressed against hers.
Yet she’d chosen to overlook it, and here he was, composing himself as though unaware of her kindness.
He was stifling a hollow laugh when his body shifted.
But then.
“…….”
The Grand Duchess’s scent, drifting through the bedroom, suddenly burrowed deep into his nostrils.
It was a fragrance he knew well.
Yet tonight it clung unusually thick and heavy.
‘What’s this……?’
His brow furrowed.
Heat crept slowly up the back of his neck, a low fever crawling along his spine.
He’d never caught so much as a cold, even during field campaigns in frozen wastelands.
The thought that something was amiss lasted only briefly.
Whether mere imagination, the fever soon began to subside.
He lay with his arm bent beneath his head, staring at the ceiling.
…Somehow, sleep seemed far away.

***

Was it the unexpected contact?
Or perhaps because today was the Launching Ceremony for the Fund Foundation?
Having slept poorly the night before, her entire body felt stiff when she woke.
Yet the face in the mirror bore not a trace of fatigue.
It was entirely Hanna’s handiwork.
“…Hanna, you’re quite industrious from this early hour.”
Lumiere laughed softly as she watched Hanna, brimming with energy.
First she’d given a full-body massage to reduce puffiness, then brought outfit after outfit for her to try, and finally executed a flawless coordination of everything.
“Failing to make the most of the Grand Duchess’s beauty would be a dereliction of duty.”
“Well, I suppose you have a point.”
When Lumiere played along, Hanna burst into light laughter.
In any case, Hanna always took care with her appearance, but today she was particularly meticulous—not a single detail from head to toe escaped her attention.
“You do like it, don’t you?”
“Yes, very much indeed.”
Looking at the result in the mirror, she found herself thinking she ought to give Hanna a raise.
Hair tidily swept up.
A neat and dignified dress.
Even the makeup had refined her striking features into something calm and luminous.
‘Rather impressive, this.’
For all that she was the Grand Duchess, truthfully she wasn’t of an age that naturally inspired confidence in someone operating an organization like the Fund Foundation, which brought together vast sums of money.
Unless, of course, she had accomplished something to prove herself.
‘Something like… a young parachute executive in her twenties, perhaps.’
Yet the reflection gazing back at her today bore a curiously trustworthy air.
Satisfied, she smiled, then headed toward her husband’s Dressing Room to check if he too had finished preparing.
The door stood half-open.
“…….”
She paused in the doorway, looking inside.
Axid stood before the mirror in clothes she’d selected beforehand.
They were fresh new garments that had arrived from the costume department several days prior.
‘As they say, the hanger makes the clothes.’
His broad back and solid shoulders were fully exposed above the shirt.
The fabric pulled taut with his every movement, revealing the contours of muscle beneath.
Before she realized it, she swallowed hard.
‘Is this… is this what they mean by a national treasure…?’
It would have been a lie to say she’d never seen Axid’s body.
In her past life, she’d stepped away whenever he changed clothes to respect his privacy, but she’d glimpsed his bare chest more times than she could count.
And yet…
Lumiere quickly cooled her flushed cheeks with the back of her hand.
This was all because of what had happened last night.
‘What is he doing, anyway?’
She suddenly sensed something odd.
He’d been standing motionless for a while now, staring intently at the mirror.
Like a soldier facing enemy territory.
“Grand Duke?”
At her sudden call, Axid’s shoulders went rigid.
After a moment of silence.
He turned his head slowly.
“Why are you standing like that?”
“……”
“Does the outfit not suit you?”
“…It’s not that. It’s just a bit unfamiliar, wearing something like this.”
He glanced away evasively.
His ears had flushed crimson—apparently he felt self-conscious about dressing up so carefully for once.
After all, he was a man who’d always insisted on clothes of similar colors and similar styles.
Of course something this dressed up would feel strange to him.
Still, now that she’d put these new clothes on him, they suited him far better than she’d expected.
With his bearing, anything would have looked good.
Lumiere let her gaze drift downward, then stopped short.
Of all places, her eyes had landed on the spot where she’d collapsed last night.
Though she felt her face flush again, she forced herself to appear composed and stepped closer.
“Y-yes, it suits you perfectly.”
Just as she was reaching up to straighten his collar to mask the awkwardness, his shoulders tensed rigid.
Could it be that he was also conscious of what had happened last night?
Her hand hovered uncertainly in the air for only a moment.
She withdrew it slowly, pretending nothing was amiss.
“W-well then, shall we go?”
Lumiere gently took hold of his arm.
The warmth from last night surged back vividly where their skin touched, but she forced herself to ignore it and began walking.
Whether it was her imagination or not, his body beside her seemed just as stiff as hers—more rigid than usual.

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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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