The Problem Is, My Ex-Boyfriend and I Are Both Dating Other People - Chapter 12

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 12

The saving grace was that I’d gotten good at pretending to be someone else. I straightened my posture.
What Daemon demanded of me was clear: marriage, and to stay away from Riharde.
The first could be handled given enough time, but the second required immediate action. Knowing how impatient Daemon was, this already felt overdue.
He’d surely already figured out that Riharde was here right now.
I opened my mouth slowly.
“That’s right. Daemon blackmailed me.”
The atmosphere shifted in an instant. Riharde’s jaw clenched visibly.
Meeting his gaze, I continued.
“An ex suddenly showed up and he’s been on edge lately. He threatened that if I played around, we’d both die—made such a scene he even cried.”
I acted as lightly as possible, as though this were nothing at all. I shrugged and raised both hands, the picture of helplessness. Like someone saddled with a lover who’d gotten cold feet over his past.
“You might not remember, but Daemon has this narrow streak, you know?”
“So he cried?”
“Doesn’t suspicion always bring tears?”
I was skilled at this kind of packaging.
“……What?”
“We were pretty loud back then? It’s only natural Daemon’s being sensitive. Look at your own actions, Riharde. The moment the Northern Region’s hero came home, you rescued me from a funeral. If you have ears, you must know what people are saying about us.”
His sensitivity was on a level that couldn’t be explained away so easily, but it was plausible enough that Riharde couldn’t bring himself to object. Never thought I’d live to be grateful for troublemakers.
Watching his lips move before pressing shut again, I shrugged.
“Still, it should be fine going forward.”
“?”
“Didn’t you say you’d become Sasha’s guardian?”
“……?”
Riharde’s expression shifted subtly. He seemed not to understand my meaning.
Or perhaps he hadn’t grasped what it meant for him to become Sasha’s guardian at all.
Puzzled at how he wouldn’t know this, understanding dawned on me soon enough.
‘He never did have an eye for those kinds of things.’
Even ten years ago, he was stuck to Asta or Ista and completely oblivious to what was happening around him.
A forgotten memory suddenly surfaced, and my lips twisted.
“How convenient. The hero who saved the princess marrying the princess—like something out of a fairy tale.”
“Wait. Isabella, what exactly are you——”
“Your Grace, I believe you need to come at once!”
Before Riharde could finish, there came a knock and an urgent cry. I frowned.
No matter how urgent, it would be better to hear what Riharde had to say——.
“Noah has returned, Your Grace!”
The steward’s expression was a wreck. Like a wall that had never crumbled in any circumstance, he laid bare his bewilderment for all to see.
“You must go at once. There’s blood——”
The steward, about to say more, caught sight of Riharde and fell silent. His frozen face had gone beyond pale, turning a sickly white.
There was nothing more to hear. I rose from my seat at once.

* * *

We’ll talk again later.
Even as the mansion fell into disorder, Isabella hadn’t forgotten to send him away. Whether she was guarding against problems left behind or concerned about being left behind remained ambiguous, but Riharde paid it no mind either way.
He was already accustomed to being deprioritized in Isabella’s world. Pain at this level could no longer hurt him.
Leaving the Belua Ducal House, Riharde stared ahead and spoke quietly.
“Asta.”
“Welcome back, Captain.”
A woman leaning against the wall lifted the hood she’d been pulling deep over her face, letting out a slight laugh.
With unremarkable light-brown hair and brown eyes, the woman had the kind of face you’d see anywhere on the street. Save for the fact that her hair was matted with dried blood.
Riharde wasn’t surprised by her appearance. The smell of rust had been hanging in the air since they’d left the mansion gates.
“Explain.”
“The long version or the short version? Ah, not objecting, I’m not. Just, it’s not a good place to talk about it here.”
Riharde glanced in the direction Asta subtly gestured. A rental carriage stood in an alley nearby.
A rental carriage among streets lined with grand mansions.
Riharde turned his head slowly, unhurried.
Asta followed behind him at an appropriate distance. As their footsteps grew close enough, Riharde spoke.
“The short version.”
“All of the former Duke’s associates are dead.”
Riharde stared at Asta with an expression of utter exasperation.
“That’s far too brief.”
“Well, I had almost got it cornered when suddenly a Monster appeared, so I prioritized Noah first. We can’t have a handsome face marred by scars, can we? And that insane creature—it was almost as if it was jealous of Noah’s beauty—it went straight for his face anyway.”
There was no middle ground to her rambling whatsoever, and Riharde’s brow furrowed. In fact, aside from the part about the Monster appearing, everything else was entirely unnecessary. Whether Noah’s face bore a scar or not was no concern of his. Yet Riharde did not cut her off.
The simple fact that a Monster had appeared in the Belua Dukedom, adjacent to the Capital, was reason enough to let her continue.
“When I came to my senses, all the thugs were dead, the Monster was dead, and our Noah was unconscious. I was wondering what to do about it, so I decided to bring him here to the Capital. I didn’t know what the situation was like at the estate in my territory, so I was uneasy about going there, and the Capital isn’t that far anyway.”
“Any chance you were followed?”
“I’m sensitive to those things. Don’t worry. The coachman probably thinks what he carried was just flour sacks. I wrapped everything tightly and paid attention to the disguise.”
As she said this, Asta grinned mischievously, flashing her teeth. Now that she mentioned it, there was flour dust on her hands.
From Asta’s demeanor and manner of speaking, there was no hint of surprise at having encountered a Monster in the Belua Dukedom. It was not something fabricated—it must be the truth.
Riharde swallowed a sigh as he regarded her.
Rather than reproach Asta, Riharde cut straight to the matter at hand.
“What rank?”
“D-Rank? No, actually—barely scraped the very bottom of D-Rank. It’s called a Monster, but it was only the size of a rabbit, and its attacks were clumsy.”
With that, Asta produced a Monster Stone from her breast pocket and handed it over. Riharde accepted it and expertly closed his fist around it, then held it up to the sunlight.
“A rabbit?”
“Yes. It felt like it existed at the boundary between beast and Monster. I actually wondered if Monsters and beasts are blood relatives. I always thought there were no beasts in the Northern Region because Monsters had eaten them all, but maybe that’s not the case.”
“Perhaps.”
Officially, there was virtually nothing known about Monsters. But when you grappled with one in the field, you came to understand certain things instinctively.
Such as how strong a Monster was, for instance.
In the Northern Region, Monsters were classified by rank. It was Riharde who had established that ranking system.
D-Rank corresponded to a young beast. Freshly born, and therefore the easiest rank to deal with.
But similar to a beast, you say?
“I’ll need to investigate this further.”
“Mm. That won’t be possible unless you find another Monster. You know—when a Monster dies, it leaves no corpse. It simply disappears.”
As Riharde sank into thought, Asta gestured toward the distant estate with a tilt of her head and asked, “By the way, Captain, are you going to see Isabella again?”
Riharde’s mind, which had been swiftly organizing the tasks at hand, suddenly tangled.
……
“I couldn’t help but hear the talk. A love triangle with the Crown Prince, they said? However did you get pushed into that corner?”
“I wasn’t pushed anywhere.”
“You were pushed by the Crown Prince. They really seemed like a terrible match, the two of you, yet you’re lovers—I was shocked beyond measure.”
Riharde looked at Asta for a moment. Isabella had been in a relationship with Daemon for already ten years. She was only learning this now?
In this respect, Riharde often felt how vastly different Asta was from himself. In many ways, they were alike. For instance, they both harbored someone they could not forget over the span of ten years, and that person held Belua Castle, and they had left despite being able to stay.
But it was precisely on these critical points that they diverged.
If he had been desperate to learn even the smallest detail about Isabella, Asta was the opposite.
She had deliberately cut off all news from the Capital. A complete severance. Perhaps that was why Asta was investing all her heart in this foreseen reunion, as though she had received an unexpected gift.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————