The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 182

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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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Side Story 03-1.

Casian Artez had indulged in what could only be called adorably wasteful spending.
The old cottage where we’d first met and spent time together looked utterly transformed from how it used to be.
In place of the dilapidated single-story cottage that had originally contained only one room, a two-story cottage now stood, expanded to four rooms with a kitchen and living space carved out.
Even the path leading here had been paved into a proper road suitable for carriages, replacing the old rutted dirt track.
“Mother mentioned this area has grown rather bustling lately.”
As I murmured this aloud, he took my hand and asked.
“It’s a precious place to me… Are you angry?”
“How could I be?”
Not the slightest intention of scolding him, I stretched my arm toward him as he gazed at me playfully.
Rising on my toes to embrace his neck, he naturally wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed kisses to my forehead and cheek.
“We’ll likely come here often in the future, and the previous owner was elderly and settling their affairs, so—”
Casian opened his mouth as if apologizing, bothered that he hadn’t properly mentioned it to me beforehand.
“You asked Mother to let you know if it came on the market, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I actually hoped you’d be happy about it rather than scolded for it.”
I laughed softly at those words.
To begin with, this region wasn’t particularly expensive, and the cottage itself had been affordable enough that I could rent it as a child with pocket money.
In other words, considering the scale of Casian’s personal wealth, this was hardly a dent in his finances.
Even when the Emperor had pushed him toward the battlefield, he’d meticulously accounted for his own life’s worth and accumulated wealth, managing his assets well enough that he possessed the greatest private fortune among the Imperial Family.
Though the Emperor never discovered this fact, even until we left the Winter Palace—and perhaps doesn’t know it still.

*

The cottage’s advantage was that the surroundings held no commotion whatsoever, making it wonderfully quiet, while its drawback was that reaching anywhere required an hour’s carriage ride.
Though really, the drawback hardly qualified as one.
Neither Casian nor I harbored any great longing to see the sea, and thanks to Casian having purchased the surrounding land and tended to the landscaping, the forest grounds were pleasant enough to suffice.
And beyond that, there was one more thing.
“Why does your cooking skill keep improving?”
His contribution to satisfying my palate, which loved delicious food, was also considerable.
“Because I want to be alone with Rose?”
On the second day at the cottage, he spoke while skillfully preparing ingredients for the evening meal.
“Rose is generous to me, so you’d endure even mediocre food and eat gracefully, but I love the happy expression you show when you eat something delicious.”
The expression on his face as he said this seemed happier than the one I showed when eating something delicious.
Honestly, I found this reaction peculiar since I held no great interest in cooking itself.
While I did enjoy eating delicious food, I preferred simply filling my stomach adequately rather than bothering with elaborate preparation.
But a certain change had begun to occur.
“Because of Ian, I don’t think I can get by on just anything anymore.”
As I spoke with a slight whine, he laughed softly.
“Why worry about such things? Would I establish you in the position beside me officially and then leave you alone in the Riedern County while I work?”
“That’s not it, but—”
“I have no intention of becoming incapable of accompanying you when you travel to Clupea Territory, so stop worrying needlessly.”
He paused in his ingredient preparation and turned toward me with his gaze.
“People often say that capturing a lover’s palate is one way to remain together for a long time.”
“…But then there’s hardly anything I can do for Ian.”
I’ve cooked for Casian only a few times, and one of those was that disastrous meal from childhood, while the other occasions amounted to what one might call meal-kit-style cooking where I’d gathered all the ingredients, seasonings, and broths from others.
Yet Casian simply laughed softly and, seeing the slight furrow in my brow born from thought, kissed my forehead and spoke.
“I’m already accustomed to Rose’s cooking.”
“What?”
“The most grateful and happy meal I’ve ever eaten in my life was the one young Rose prepared for me.”
“You didn’t seem pleased with it at the time.”
“And now you’re trying to deny responsibility for completely transforming my life with that meal, Rose?”
That wasn’t a matter of taste, was it?
As I stared at him in disbelief, he this time pressed a light kiss to my lips and laughed softly.
“Whenever I recall my childhood, every memory I deemed happy had Rose in it, and each time I remembered the taste of meals I’d eaten with you then. If you say I’m not accustomed to it, that would disappoint me.”
“That’s just—”
Though his lips parted, dissatisfied with my response, I burst out laughing at Casian’s expression.
“You’re saying you simply enjoy eating with me. That shouldn’t be called becoming accustomed, I think.”
“It is becoming accustomed. You ought to acknowledge your own influence more.”
Soon he kissed me deeply.
As if by habit, he drew all my breath into himself, then smiled as though satisfied with his feast.
That day, we ended up eating supper later than expected.
Even having married half a year ago, and counting the nearly two years we’d spent together as a couple even before the ceremony, he still acted as though I was always falling short.
Of course, that wasn’t merely him alone.
But due to our natural differences in stamina, I often reached my physical limits while he never missed those signals.
“I can’t let Rose go hungry.”
Even as I heard him say this, I could only laugh at the regretful look in his eyes.
It was somewhat absurd and endearing—how he’d drain me of all strength unless I consumed something immediately, then act as though that wasn’t enough.
Led by Casian’s hand, I washed up, and during a brief rest, a delicious aroma soon wafted through. By the time I’d finished bathing, I had no strength left to lift a finger—the novel I’d brought sat unopened, uselessly heavy baggage—yet I could still respond.
Seeing me rouse myself from where I’d been draped over the armrest, Casian smiled and opened his arms.
“My affectionate Rose won’t deprive me of the chance to carry you, will she?”
At those words, I giggled and naturally reached out to embrace his shoulders, opening my mouth.
“Ian—”
“Yes.”
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Yes, because you find even my annoying manner of speaking endearing.”
“This is terrible—my tastes have become strange because of Ian.”
Of course, I wasn’t thinking it was truly terrible in the slightest.
Casian pressed a kiss to my cheek and replied as if relieved.
“I can accommodate whatever tastes you develop.”
Weren’t you the one who caused this in the first place?
This time genuinely irritated, I poked his shoulder, and he laughed with delight.
And watching him, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
It was a déjà vu I’d been feeling often since leaving the Winter Palace and arriving in Riedern.

‘Who else could possibly manage you but me?’

*

Though I am a Reincarnator, I don’t actually possess clear memories of my past life like the characters in novels do.
That’s partly why the story about Casian, which I’d thought of as a ‘novel,’ remained a more vivid memory.
As it turned out, it wasn’t a novel at all, but a world created by a Deity who has since departed from this realm, using my life as its motif—leaving the original destiny behind like an appendix.
In any case, I honestly have almost no memory of how I died in my past life, at what age, or what sort of life I led.
Perhaps I wasn’t reincarnated due to accident, but because I’d ended my life well, pulled into this world in that form—that’s my speculation.
Generally, people say that forgetting progresses in the afterlife anyway.
Yet despite this, whether I’d lived similarly in my past life or not, persistent fragments of efficiently-handled tasks remained as experiential memories, which I did put to good use.
To summarize: I neither longed for my past life nor held any regrets about it.
But from near the end of my time at the Winter Palace, and after arriving in Riedern, something began seeping through like fragments.
It was mostly phrases that a certain ‘person’ beside me would casually drop, and unfortunately that manner of speaking resembled far too closely the way Ian acted when he was being deliberately annoying.
“What’s wrong, Rose?”
Moreover, because Casian’s actions often overlapped with those memories, a peculiar thought kept occurring to me.
And thinking it over slightly, resolving my curiosity didn’t seem like it would cause any real problem.
In fact, it seemed as though he was signaling me to solve it.
“Listen, Ian. There’s something I’m curious about.”
“Mm?”
“Do you know something? About me? Not just the me now or the other ‘Rozelita’ you’ve met—something else?”
At my words, he blinked for a moment, then a beautiful smile spread across his face.

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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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