Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 45

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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 9. The Perpetrator Forgets Quickly (2)

 

When Shane returned after washing up, Lloyd had already disappeared from the bedroom.

 

Shane was aware that he was a petty and narrow-minded man. At least when it came to Edelaine, he had been that way since childhood.

 

When Edelaine said she would take in Lloyd and raise him, he had simply wanted to separate that child because he was dangerous, but after learning that when she disappeared, she had taken only that child with her, he felt genuinely jealous.

 

Why did she keep only that child by her side?

 

While abandoning me first.

 

One day, Edelaine suddenly began pushing him away.

 

When he brushed off the cookie crumbs stuck beside her lips as she spoke of breaking their engagement and told her not to play such pranks, she declared that she would no longer meet him.

 

“I’m serious! I won’t see you anymore!”

 

“Why are you suddenly angry?”

 

“I’m not angry, but anyway, I won’t see you. Don’t come looking for me either!”

 

“Okay, I’ll come again.”

 

“Ah, really! I said don’t come!”

 

He thought even her anger was cute.

 

Even though she avoided him saying she wouldn’t meet him, they were still engaged, and they had no choice but to meet once a month. They had to see each other’s faces, even if just for a brief moment.

 

Though she seemed to turn away coldly, Edelaine ultimately couldn’t leave Shane alone. She seemed to think she had drawn clear boundaries, but if Edelaine had truly been disgusted, Shane wouldn’t have been able to follow her around for so long either.

 

He would have found another way.

 

When he pleaded, her guard would loosen.

 

If he even cried, Edelaine would make a tearful face as if she were the one in more pain.

 

“At least tell me the reason, I’ll fix anything. I can fix everything.”

 

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

 

“Then why are you like this? Edelaine, do you… hate me now?”

 

“…”

 

Foolish Edelaine. Even while crying, Shane couldn’t help but laugh and had to cover his mouth with his palm.

 

That won’t do. You can’t cut me off if you leave behind something as ambiguous as pity.

 

You should say that you hate me so much you can’t stand it, that my existence disgusts you.

 

But Edelaine couldn’t bring herself to say those words.

 

Rumors about what his dead mother had said about him were already widespread. That he was disgusting like a reptile, that she hated him so much she couldn’t stand it. His mother would hysterically scream at the drop of a hat.

 

Edelaine’s face turned bright red with anger when she heard those rumors.

 

He loved that so much he thought his head might explode. Shane felt the urge to bite and devour Edelaine’s reddened cheeks whole. Then no one else could see them, and they would be entirely his. Was it even allowed for a person to be this pretty?

 

“I don’t mean to disparage reptiles, but you don’t look like them at all! Do you know how pretty your blue eyes are? Ah, of course you know since you look in mirrors!”

 

“It’s enough if they’re pretty in your eyes.”

 

“If you ever have doubts, look in the mirror, Shane. There will be an angel there.”

 

“…Even so, having such a narcissistic hobby…”

 

“You have a face that deserves some narcissism. Next time someone says such things in front of you, bring them to me.”

 

“Will you scold them? You?”

 

“My hands are really harsh.”

 

“I should be careful not to get hit.”

 

Perhaps such memories came to mind, and she was afraid he might be hurt if she said she hated him.

 

Only Edelaine was like that.

 

No one else even thought he might get hurt, but she treated him as if he were a freshly cracked egg. She worried about him as if he were something so fragile that even a fingernail’s touch would leave a dent.

 

Shane firmly believed that Edelaine didn’t hate him.

 

That she pitied him enough, so if he persistently clung to her, she wouldn’t be able to abandon him. In reality, far from cutting him off, she couldn’t even say a word about hating him. Though not affectionate, she spent time with him.

 

That’s why he was shocked that she tried to run away from him even in death.

 

‘Well, even if I had known she really hated me, nothing would have changed.’

 

As if he could have done something as noble as giving up.

 

Shane pulled back the covers and lay down beside Edelaine.

 

“It’s no use saying you hate it now, Edelaine… How unfortunate.”

 

That someone like me is clinging to you, how pitiful.

 

He brought his lips to her eyes, red and swollen from crying. The heat remained, making them hot. He also kissed her long eyelashes.

 

One factor tormenting Edelaine was enough—himself.

 

Even if she didn’t tell him why she had cried like this, there were many ways to find out. He smiled crookedly.

 

***

 

“Jenny, how about lying down now?”

 

“Are you seducing me?”

 

The bear-like man’s face turned bright red as if set on fire.

 

Saint Genevieve giggled and laughed.

 

“I’ll lie down after I finish drying my hair.”

 

“Ah, let me do it for you.”

 

“You don’t have to…”

 

“I want to do it. Will you sit here?”

 

Harrison smiled gently and took Saint Genevieve’s hand. After seating her on the bed, he brought a thick towel and began wiping the moisture from her hair.

 

His rough hands tapped her hair quite delicately.

 

The husband who touched his wife as if handling fragile glasswork that might break at any moment was affectionate and considerate.

 

Saint Genevieve was slowly developing feelings for the groom she had hastily chosen.

 

‘His Excellency told me to get married within ten days no matter what, so I just found anyone… I was lucky.’

 

He insisted that a marriage announcement must be made, threatening that if she didn’t choose herself, he would choose for her.

 

He said he would support her if she wanted to become empress, asking if she would marry since His Highness Edwin didn’t seem entirely uninterested either.

 

Since he specifically mentioned Edwin as an example, Saint Genevieve felt urgent. She didn’t dislike Edwin, but she absolutely didn’t want him as a husband.

 

‘He’s someone who doesn’t see people as people, and if I ever fell in love with him, I’d be used to the bone, have my children taken away, and eventually be abandoned as useless…’

 

Saint Genevieve had only one condition for a husband.

 

That he be a considerate person.

 

Since she couldn’t put her husband or family first either, it was fine if he had something more precious than her. Harrison was a Knight Guard, so she could understand if loyalty came before love. As long as they could spend their time together affectionately and peacefully, that would be enough.

 

She knew it was a comfortable and easy choice. But it was also a rational choice.

 

Harrison had told her he liked her and gave her faithful affection. He was psychologically stable and had no mood swings.

 

He might be an uninteresting and unremarkable ordinary person.

 

But was that bad?

 

Harrison’s affection was positive and bright. He didn’t have the terribly twisted obsession like Shane, nor did he treat emotions like objects like Edwin.

 

That ordinariness seemed attractive to her.

 

Saint Genevieve had lived an intense life. She was the continent’s treasure born with the goddess’s love and the world’s savior, but the life given to her wasn’t so easy.

 

And when the first person who had been kind to her died futilely before her eyes, Saint Genevieve wished the world would just perish. It didn’t seem like a world worth continuing by purifying it with divine power.

 

This damn world, just collapse completely.

 

Perhaps Saint Genevieve’s purification ability wasn’t that great because she had been thinking such thoughts. Saint Genevieve thought she finally understood now.

 

Edelaine probably never dreamed that Saint Genevieve harbored such dark thoughts.

 

She wouldn’t have known that she liked Edelaine that much either. She had simply been kind, and it was the lonely Saint Genevieve who had given meaning to it.

 

Those who take easily forget.

 

But those who are robbed can never forget for a lifetime.

 

“She was crying so much… I should visit her tomorrow…”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“I mean Lady Edelaine. Today when she heard the news that I was attacked again, she seemed so shocked that she cried.”

 

“Ah… she must be a tender-hearted person.”

 

Harrison spoke with a gentle face. Saint Genevieve made a strange expression.

 

‘Someone who stayed strong even when kidnapped is tender-hearted…?’

 

Nothing could seem more mismatched than that.

 

“She’s not exactly tender-hearted…”

 

“Really? But if she cried from shock.”

 

“She’s a spirited and kind person.”

 

“I’ve heard so much about her too. His Highness Edwin often speaks of her.”

 

“Ah, I don’t think they were particularly good stories.”

 

“They were good stories. That’s how I’ll remember them.”

 

“She’s gentle… and strong, and lovely. To me, at least.”

 

“Then she must be the same kind of person to me. What a wonderful person.”

 

Genevieve leaned her head back. As she rested her weight against Harrison’s firm chest, he kissed her cheek. Genevieve said.

 

“I want to have a child, Harrison.”

 

“Jenny…”

 

“I used to think there was nothing good about living in this world.”

 

“…”

 

“But I think I could love it more if I had more things to love.”

 

Genevieve wished for someone she could love completely.

 

And so, like Edelaine who had been gentle to her, she wanted to become someone gentle to another.

 

Instead of answering, Harrison quietly pulled Genevieve’s slender body into his embrace.

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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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