The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 48

“Ah.”

Lillieta shook her head slightly as if waking from a dream and looked up at her brother.

“No, it’s nothing. I danced well without any problems, right?”

“You danced beautifully. So much so that even Father cried.”

“Dad cried?”

Leonhardt gestured slightly with his chin. Duke Raskail sat at the head table with his face covered by a handkerchief, his head bowed. His shoulders trembled finely. The Countess, who looked composed—perhaps having already cried before entering the ballroom—was comforting the Duke.

It was undignified behavior for a great noble, but as a father, it was a warm and touching sight. Her head, which had felt like it might burst, calmed down.

‘Right, let’s think about problems without conclusions later and focus on the debutante ball for now. I need to show Mom and Dad what a well-raised daughter looks like.’

Rita smiled softly. Leonhardt also smiled and offered her his arm.

“Father is in that state, so you’ll have to make the rounds with me, Rita.”

“Okay.”

She placed her hand on his arm.

The nobles were craning their necks to watch them. The debutante, who was today’s protagonist, had no time for other matters. Lillieta began greeting the nobles alongside Leonhardt.

* * *

The Crown Prince, who had spilled wine on his jacket sleeve, happened to meet footman Ethan who was waiting outside the hall.

He guided the Crown Prince to a secluded lounge and called for a maid to clean the jacket. Hanna, who happened to catch Ethan’s eye, was assigned this role.

“Th-the Crown Prince’s jacket? How could I dare?”

“Wine needs to be cleaned quickly or it’ll leave stains. I’ll go find His Highness’s attendant, so you handle it somehow in the meantime.”

“Aaah, eaaah…”

After Ethan left, Hanna headed to the lounge where the Crown Prince was waiting, carrying salt and carbonated water to remove the wine.

‘Hic.’

As soon as she opened the lounge door, Hanna swallowed the scream that was about to burst out. She immediately met the Crown Prince’s golden eyes.

She quickly lowered her gaze and missed seeing the Crown Prince’s expression.

“I-I came to clean your jacket.”

The black jacket embroidered with gold thread was placed on the lounge table. Hanna trembled as she approached the table, set down the items she brought, and examined the jacket sleeve.

‘It hasn’t been long since it got stained. I need to clean it now to remove it completely!’

Seeing the task at hand helped her regain some composure. Hanna quickly sprinkled salt on the wine stain.

The Crown Prince sat on the sofa right next to the table, wearing only his silk shirt. Hanna somehow felt like he was staring at her intently, but dismissed it as her imagination and focused only on her work.

If she had turned her head just slightly, she would have realized her feeling wasn’t imagination.

Gideon was staring at Hanna with his breath held, not even blinking. Continuously since the moment she entered the lounge.

Unlike his frozen body, his hand that had been loosely resting on the armrest couldn’t hide his agitation and trembled.

Looking closely, there were quite a few differences. Even their impressions were different.

But she resembled her. Among the countless candidates he had searched for so far, she resembled her the most.

Rita Pascal.

Slightly tousled reddish-brown hair. Hair that shone red under lamplight and darkened like wet tree bark in shadowed places.

A delicate, slender neck. A narrow jawline. Slightly upturned corners of her mouth. A high, sharp nose bridge and a small, cute nose.

Light freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose. He remembered how lovingly those freckles on her nose bridge moved when she smiled.

His gaze, which had been finding traces of Rita in Hanna’s face one by one, suddenly narrowed.

She really resembled her, but the eyes were different.

Rita Pascal had slightly upturned eye corners with elegantly curved eyebrows.

The eyes nestled between long eyelashes were a pretty reddish-brown like acorns hidden among fallen leaves. When she was lost in thought and lowered her eyelashes, those shadowed eyes would deepen like a well.

The maid named Hanna had gently drooping eyes and round eyebrows. The eyes visible between short, thick eyelashes were a light brown like walnut shells. She looked affectionate and sincere, but didn’t have Rita’s sharp feeling.

Thanks to that, he barely maintained his reason.

‘I can’t be certain yet. I need to verify…’

Gideon slowly rubbed his face dry. While doing so, he thought more about Rita’s eyes.

Her eyes were sensitive, and her gaze was sharp. Rita had always been observant.

Not that she had good eyesight or was quick-witted. She was rather dull when it came to emotional matters. It meant she quickly analyzed objective situations and interpreted them accurately. Her amazing shooting accuracy was probably an extension of that.

A sharp gaze—rather, he had felt that from the noblewoman he had just danced with.

He recalled the noblewoman’s gaze that had lingered around his right eye and felt that strange irritation again.

He habitually rubbed where the scar used to be. Now he confirmed through the smooth skin’s texture that the scar no longer existed. He slowly closed both intact eyes and opened them. The left first, the recovered right a little later.

The sensation of the world that had been only half there expanding and becoming whole. He knew where his displeasure originated.

Because the noblewoman had looked at him as if she had noticed that he had lived with one eye for a long time. Because it was a gaze that observed him as if finding it strange that he had a right eye.

It was an eye he had lived without for eight years from age 14. After returning four years ago, he had no choice but to act awkwardly for a while. Like turning his head to look at things he could already see, or misjudging distances and knocking things over.

Because having both eyes felt unfamiliar.

‘Are there still awkward points remaining? Did the noblewoman see that?’

That’s why he was irritated.

Just like when he was Gid Pascal, humans who showed interest in his scar and eyepatch had been bothersome.

Gideon disliked anyone taking interest in his weaknesses. Only Rita was an exception. He had always hoped she would show interest in his scar.

Whenever faint guilt or quiet sense of responsibility briefly appeared on her small face as she looked at his empty right eye, Gid would be seized by a strange sense of fulfillment.

In those young and foolish days, he didn’t really understand why he felt that way—he didn’t even properly recognize that he was experiencing such emotions.

But after Rita Pascal disappeared, he came to understand. He had no choice but to understand.

That it was fulfillment born from the certainty that Rita would never leave his side. That it was happiness he felt whenever he realized she regarded him as special and dear.

After she died.

Desperately trying to fill the emptiness somehow, digging into his own emotions, digging into memories, digging into his identity, completely dismantling himself as a human being—through this process, he came to understand things he hadn’t known when he possessed them.

When he clearly realized what he had lost, Gid Pascal went insane.

No, to be precise, it was the second time he went mad.

He hadn’t been in his right mind since picking up the scattered pieces of Rita Pascal’s corpse from the explosion one by one.

“Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

The stammering call pulled his mind back from drifting in the distant past. Gideon looked up in surprise at the one who called him.

Hanna, extremely tense, hurriedly bowed at the waist.

“I-I’ve finished the urgent treatment, so I’ll take my leave now.”

“Wait.”

Stopping the maid who was trying to leave quickly with his words, the Crown Prince hesitated for a moment.

If the return was already complete, if all memories had returned, confirming whether Hanna was Rita would be simple.

No, actually, there wouldn’t even be a need to confirm. She would recognize his face too.

But if Rita was ‘in the process of returning’ as Ethan speculated, the problem became somewhat complicated.

‘I took 3 days, Ethan took 2 weeks, Senior Sera about 20 days, Oli about a month, Senior Is 3 months, and Luca, who was the slowest, took half a year.’

This was the time it took for the returnees to recover all their memories from the Ashen World.

Luca Pascal, who was the slowest, gradually regained memories over half a year, while Gideon, who was the fastest, collapsed and suffered for three days before immediately awakening as ‘Gid Pascal.’

‘I don’t know which memories will return when. We’re the only cases, and we all had different sequences.’

Despite years of searching, they hadn’t found a single other returnee besides themselves, so there were insufficient cases.

‘If Rita is slowly returning over four years…’

Even if she remembered nothing properly, Hanna could be Rita Pascal.

In the first place, if she resembled her this much, it should be considered almost certain. All his comrades had returned with bodies that closely resembled their appearances in the Ashen World, though with slight differences.

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