The Problem Is, My Ex-Boyfriend and I Are Both Dating Other People - Chapter 2

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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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Chapter 2

The funeral rites of the Central nobility are peculiar.
When the Family Head dies, the body is buried in a cemetery prepared in the Capital for roughly a hundred years. Only after all who remember him have passed does it transfer to the Estate.
It was a custom born from the fact that successive Family Heads spent more time in the Capital than in their territories.
My task today was simple: to cast a handful of earth onto my father’s coffin in the depths of the cemetery. In other words, this multitude had gathered just to witness that single handful of soil falling.
“Well, everyone’s simply dying to see how the Duke of Bellua will react to his former lover’s appearance, aren’t they?”
Noah, assisting with the ceremony from behind me, helpfully explained the situation. The problem was how entirely unnecessary that kindness proved to be.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. This happened over a decade ago—why is everyone making such a fuss?”
“Because no couple has caused a scandal quite that magnificent since. You’ll have to bear with it.”
As if I were running a relay race and needed a baton handoff. I was exasperated, but I said nothing more. There was no time for it anyway.
The solemn tolling of the noon bell began to fade gradually.
‘Time.’
The new Family Head was to bid farewell to the old.
I walked, relying on the fragmented view between the dense veil’s weave. At some point, the noise around me vanished. I felt all my senses converge on the scene unfolding before my eyes.
I stopped before the deep, excavated grave. The coffin, hidden beneath banks of flowers, was not even visible at its edges.
“What use is a girl besides becoming empress!”
Perhaps because everyone was dredging up old stories. By cruel chance, it was my father’s harsh voice from ten years ago that reached my ears.
How strange. The girl he said would never succeed has become the Duke of Bellua, Father.
‘I wonder if he’s still furious.’
I let out a low laugh, gazing at the coffin. No tears would come even now, yet with so many eyes watching, I ought to at least pretend to weep—
“Good heavens, he actually came.”
“I heard he passed through the Capital checkpoint at dawn… Did he come straight here then? Abandoning even the Princess?”
Murmurs.
Whispers.
My train of thought, which had been drifting in that peculiar excitement, snapped abruptly. I froze where I stood.
Rihardt. He had come.
Why?
The first thing that filled my mind was a question.
Why? Why on earth did he come? Does he still resent me? Or has he come to spit on my father’s grave?
“Could it be he still harbors feelings for her?”
In that moment, someone’s whisper burrowed into my ear.
Feelings.
He still—
I jerked my head up reflexively. My body moved faster than my mind.
‘Ah.’
A heartbeat too late, I realized I shouldn’t have done that.
Three days since my father’s death. Having been worked to exhaustion managing his affairs on less than three hours of sleep in that time, the moment I faced the sun, dizziness washed over me.
I only realized my body was tilting when the sky came into view. I could not find my center.
‘Damn it, Father. Is it because you think this is the last time that you want to see my face?’
In the deep grave lay the coffin, and above it thousands of flowers lay in blanket. So even if I fell, I would not die.
Probably.
The moment I clenched my eyes shut and cursed inwardly, someone gripped me roughly. Hot, solid hands braced my arm. Another hand immediately supported my body as it began to give way.
As my body was pulled upright amid gasps of alarm from all around—
“…Rihardt.”
I murmured his name, then lost consciousness.

* * *

“Honestly. I was so exasperated when the physician said you were sleeping soundly. You have no idea how I felt.”
The moment I opened my eyes, Noah launched into a lecture.
“Why didn’t you sleep? I distinctly watched you enter your room—I made absolutely certain of it!”
“I only lay down in bed to look over some urgent documents…”
“Hah!”
I couldn’t help it that my concentration improved on a bed.
As I looked away, Noah clicked her tongue disapprovingly. She threatened to remove the nightstand and lamp from my bedroom entirely, but then she sighed and spoke.
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“About what?”
“The unwelcome guest who’s occupying the reception room, insisting he absolutely will not leave until he sees with his own eyes that you’re well.”
“…Don’t tell me the unwelcome guest is Rihardt?”
“Who else but that man would have the audacity to plant himself in another’s drawing room without so much as an invitation?”
I jolted upright in alarm.
“You should have mentioned that first!”
The dark window outside caught my eye before anything else. How many hours had I slept? Somehow my body felt lighter.
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
As I crossed the bedroom, chiding her, an exasperated reply came back.
“Wake someone who’s collapsed from exhaustion? For a knight who could probably strangle monsters with his bare hands?”
“Rihardt’s reputation seems to be improving.”
Just days ago Noah had called him a dog, but now he was a knight. She grumbled beside me as I threw on my coat haphazardly.
“I’m simply acknowledging the debt of gratitude for saving you, Miss.”
Ah. That was it.
He had done me a kindness. If I’d fallen onto the coffin then, I’d have been the talk of gossip for years to come.
There were more than a few who enjoyed spreading scandal while pretending to fret over the Duchy of Bellua’s welfare. And as for my uncle Jerard and aunt Claire—well.
I pushed thoughts of the household elders to the back of my mind and asked about Rihardt.
“So he’s still in the drawing room?”
“Yes.”
“Has he eaten?”
“Why would we provide meals for a guest who invited himself and won’t leave?”
Why had she turned stingy again?
“You starved him?”
“I gave him some light refreshments. If you have the mind to worry, worry about yourself instead. That man could go days without food and be none the worse for it.”
I left Noah’s clicking tongue behind me, quickly tidied my appearance, and headed straight for the door.
“A couple more hours won’t hurt!”
Won’t hurt? I’d just left a knight to go without food for over half a day!
I hurried down the corridor.
My heart began to pound with a strange anticipation.
Let me look at the facts objectively.
Rihardt came to a funeral he wasn’t invited to. He saved me, and now he’s been waiting in the drawing room for over half a day just to see my face.
No one goes to such lengths merely to pour out resentment.
If that’s the case, there’s only one reason, isn’t there?
‘Still.’
If he still has feelings for me.
My pace quickened with nervous energy.
Perhaps we could begin again.
When I grasped the drawing room door handle, my heart was racing so fast it seemed ready to burst from my chest. I heard servants hurrying toward me in alarm, but I was faster—I pulled the door open before they could reach me.
“Ri…….”
“Oh my.”
The chandelier cast a soft glow over the drawing room, and the fireplace’s warm flames flickered gently.
A beautiful woman reclining at ease on the deep beige sofa smiled at me.
‘What?’
Who was this woman I’d never seen before, and what was she doing in the central drawing room of the Duchy of Bellua?
I found myself studying her without thinking.
Her long pale pink hair was waved thickly and voluminous, and her clothes, as if from long travels, bore the North’s characteristic leather reinforcements in several places.
“I was so worried when I heard you’d collapsed—are you alright, Duchess?”
Her deep blue eyes narrowed in a smile. Though I’d never seen her before, I knew who she was.
Why?
Because she had the same cursed eye color as Daemon.
“Your Highness, the Princess?”
“Oh. You recognized me? Princess? Don’t use such a stiff title—just call me Sasha. If you’re that close with Rihardt, then you’re my friend too!”
“……Ah, yes.”
I stammered out my answer at the sight of that brightly smiling face.
Your friend is my friend, and we’re all friends—it was a way of thinking I hadn’t engaged in since childhood.
Behind the cheerful warmth that didn’t belong in high society, the shadow that had been lurking rose to his feet.
Hair black as the deepest night, eyes the color of dark blood settling with weight. He wore leather on his shoulders as if he carried the very chill of the North itself…….
“Rihardt Winston.”
Facing the now-cold visage of the man who, in that distant summer long ago, had shone like the warmth of high sun, I stood mute and whispered his name.
“You two are supposed to be close friends, yet you’re so tense. Duchess, there’s no need for such formality. Despite how he looks, Rihardt is quite affectionate.”
Sasha suddenly interjected from the side. She seemed convinced she was mediating between estranged friends. Then she turned to Rihardt and asked.
“Isn’t that right, Rihardt?”
That was my pet name for him.
A pet name meant only for me.
I suppressed the surge of emotion rising in my chest and studied Rihardt. If this were the man I knew, he’d warn Sasha firmly to maintain her distance.
But then.
“That’s right, Sasha. I’m always kind to you.”
His voice emerged soft and warm, deeper and richer than I remembered it.
The cold gaze that had swept past me melted like spring sunlight the moment it touched Sasha.

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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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