Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 94

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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 17. There Was No Happy Ending (2)

Emma and Gregory poured out their fury like fire.

“Bring them before me right now, Shane Blancarde!”

“I feel the same way, but Edelaine won’t allow it.”

“Just bring them secretly. Don’t act innocent.”

“I’m sorry, Madam Bertrand, but Edelaine is listening.”

Emma huffed and turned to look at Edelaine. Edelaine was watching the angry Emma with a slightly disgusted expression, then smiled brightly when their eyes met.

‘The fishy smell won’t wash away with tea water…’

The fishy smell rising from her esophagus and stomach was terrible. She couldn’t carelessly open her mouth. What on earth had Lloyd made for her…

Gregory covered Edelaine’s ears and said.

“Just tell me. Where did you hide them?”

“It hurts my feelings when you speak as if I spirited them away. I want to kill them more than anyone.”

“You’d understand the heart of parents who nearly lost their child they just got back.”

“Oh my. My heart is about to soften.”

Though Gregory was covering her ears so she couldn’t hear, seeing Emma’s face sneering at Shane’s affectionate smile and words, she could tell he was talking nonsense.

Emma knew how to curse with her eyes.

‘Mother… is strong…’

Edelaine reflected on her childhood.

In front of her youngest daughter, Emma had been elegant and gentle. She cried often and laughed often too.

It was somewhat different from the reputation she heard after debuting in society, but since people naturally have different public and private sides, she had let it pass without much thought.

Usually people put on airs in public settings, while their true nature shows in private.

However, no matter how she looked at it, Emma seemed to have been putting on airs only in front of her youngest daughter.

Especially after their reunion, Emma had shown tears particularly often in front of Edelaine, and it had all been calculated emotional acting.

When she lifted her head to look up, her eyes met Gregory’s.

Gregory smiled gently at his youngest daughter looking up at him, his eyes melting softly, and slightly removed the hand that had been covering her ear to whisper.

“Edelaine, could you just nod for me?”

“…?”

“Come on, it’s okay, so just nod.”

She almost did as he asked without thinking.

Edelaine, suddenly remembering what conversation Emma and Shane had been having just moments before, drew in a breath and shook her head. Gregory looked very regretful and covered Edelaine’s ears again.

“So that’s how it is.”

“What are you acting so proud about when you can’t even persuade your own daughter?”

“Neither can you.”

“What did you say?”

“…”

“Of course I can’t either. When have we ever won against this child?”

“No one has ever won.”

Shane nodded as well.

Though she couldn’t hear what conversation was taking place, she was somehow certain they were talking about her. This was a situation she absolutely could not overlook. She had reached her limit.

Edelaine removed Gregory’s hands covering her ears and stood up abruptly.

“I’m going to wash up!”

She was dying to brush her teeth.

*

Only after brushing her teeth three times in a row did the fishy smell finally go away.

Edelaine thoroughly washed away the remaining blood and grime with the bath water Lloyd had prepared, then came out with a towel wrapped around her head.

The indoor clothes she had been wearing were a mess with bloodstains and dirt, and torn in several places. Even with thorough cleaning, it didn’t seem like they could be salvaged.

Edelaine threw away the indoor clothes without regret and only put on a robe.

Not a single bruise remained on her body. It was another testament to how capable Saint Genevieve was.

‘Surely two or three ribs must have been broken.’

She had definitely heard the sound of bones breaking. When she was mercilessly trampled by the mage’s boot.

After taking a bath, it all felt like something from a previous life.

It felt more like a previous life than her actual previous life.

‘How many times am I going to live again?’

Including the time spent in dreams, she had lived at least several decades.

She applied sweet-scented toner to her face and carefully applied oil from the ends of her wet hair. If she forgot this, Lloyd’s nagging would be tremendous. Even when they lived alone together, he never let her skip this.

The place Edelaine had returned to was neither the Blancarde Estate nor the Bertrand Estate, but the single-story house where she had been confined until just before.

Without servants, it was much more comfortable to stay, but she couldn’t understand why it had to be this place specifically.

“It is comfortable, but…”

“Just bear with it for a while.”

“Shane. What about my parents?”

Shane stopped as he was entering the room. Why was he doing that? Edelaine said.

“You can come in.”

“They went home. They said your rest comes first.”

“…They didn’t spirit away the culprits, did they…”

“Who knows.”

“Don’t let my parents become criminals.”

Because that might become a flag too…

‘Ah, right. There’s none of that now.’

Maybe there never was any from the beginning.

If she didn’t have nightmares tonight, it would be proof that all the possibilities that had been prepared for Edelaine’s future had disappeared.

But even if the nightmares hadn’t ended, it would be okay.

Whatever was waiting, hiding and avoiding would be of no use. It had taken too long to realize that point.

Shane continued his explanation.

“You’ll have to stay here for a while.”

“I’m fine with it, but why?”

“We decided to hide the fact that you and Saint Genevieve were kidnapped. The fact that a royal guard was a spy would damage the imperial family’s prestige, so Her Majesty the Empress personally ordered us to keep quiet about it. Thanks to that, Saint Genevieve was able to kill her husband herself.”

Thinking of Saint Genevieve left a bitter taste in her mouth. Edelaine couldn’t shake off the guilt that the woman’s life had been ruined because of her.

Though Saint Genevieve would get angry again if she knew she was thinking this way.

“Thank you for granting my request, Shane.”

“I’ll do anything if you want it.”

“…Why do I feel so good…?”

“Yeah, why is that?”

Shane kissed the ends of Edelaine’s wet hair.

‘There must still be unresolved things.’

There had been more than one or two secrets she was hiding.

Even without prying into what he was hiding, Edelaine had decided to confess everything once it was all over.

She couldn’t even begin to gauge where and how to start explaining, but it seemed like she couldn’t move forward or backward if she buried this and pretended not to know forever.

Moreover, seeing Shane acting as if nothing else mattered just because he heard one word that she liked him made her feel newly guilty.

It seemed like a lie that he had been fighting so desperately, even resorting to confinement. Where did the person go who had threatened that they couldn’t go anywhere unless she confessed what she was hiding…

To the point where even she thought it was trashy, she thought she had expressed her feelings in ways that made it clear she liked him, even if she didn’t say it out loud, but it seemed it hadn’t gotten through to Shane at all.

Shane had told her he liked her hundreds, thousands of times since childhood.

Though not so much recently.

“You said it was tiresome and bothersome…”

Edelaine let Shane take the towel and dry her hair.

“Did that bother you?”

“Well, you said I was yours whether I lived or died. That you never lied.”

“I did say I wouldn’t let you go even if you died.”

If those words were sincere at face value, that would be terrifying in its own way.

It wouldn’t surprise me if someday after I died, Shane would give my corpse special treatment to preserve it forever.

‘No, let’s not imagine that. It’ll turn into a horror genre….’

I decided not to dig deeper into the fact that I could see nothing but sincerity in those blue eyes. The important thing was just that Shane looked happy. He was practically ready to hum a tune.

No, he really was humming.

“Did you really have no idea that I liked you?”

They say love, sneezing, and poverty cannot be hidden, but Edelaine seemed to have hidden it too well.

Edelaine turned around and hugged Shane.

“I thought you pitied me.”

“No matter how I am, I wouldn’t hold someone close and sleep with them just out of pity….”

“I don’t know. You’ve been picking up people out of sympathy and giving them kisses since way back.”

“…Don’t tell me you’re still talking about when I kissed Genevieve?”

To still be talking about how he kissed her saying she was pretty while bathing Genevieve. That was already years ago.

When Edelaine looked at Shane with shocked eyes, he raised his eyebrows as if forgetting would be strange.

“How could I forget a kiss that happened right in front of my eyes?”

“…Let’s move on….”

Her pretty fiancé had evolved from a persistent kidnapper into a troublesome husband.

Whether it was evolution or devolution was unclear.

*

She didn’t have nightmares.

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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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