Chapter 18
‘No, seriously, what the hell is this?’
Cynthia decided to stop her pointless struggle with the system here. Otherwise, she would be stuck endlessly repeating “Sob…” while the duke kept replying, “I told you, I don’t remember,” with an increasingly annoyed look, and the system would mock them both forever.
Tired, she selected option 2. All her careful scheming to make things flow naturally… She should have just said it from the start.
“…We’re lovers. We’re engaged to be married.”
“So that means…”
“Yes. I’m your fiancée.”
“My fiancée… you say.”
His formerly brusque tone calmed somewhat. He looked confused.
Still, since he seemed to accept it more naturally than expected, Cynthia was relieved. The urge to punch the system faded, replaced by a thrill of excitement.
‘Good! This is it!’
Cynthia was practically dancing inside.
She had no idea what the developers had changed with the update or how the story had shifted, but everything was flowing in a direction entirely favorable to her.
Not only had the villain lost his memory, but now he was even mistaking her for his fiancée. What a blessing.
‘Don’t you dare suddenly throw in a new villain so the old one has to team up with me or some twist like that!’
If just the villain became an ally, progressing through the game would become far easier. After all, the biggest problem with this game was how he would suddenly appear without warning and chase you.
Since she was already lying, Cynthia decided to tell just one more lie. Given what she knew of the villain’s personality, he could still abandon her or even kill her as a nuisance, regardless of the fiancée relationship. She needed to prepare a safeguard in advance.
“To be honest, I’d love to explain what happened to you, Your Grace, but I truly have no idea either. When I saw you earlier, I wondered if you’d forgotten me since we hadn’t seen each other in years. You haven’t left the mansion at all in ages.”
“…I did that?”
“Yes, you did. For reasons I never understood, you suddenly shut yourself away, so I was overjoyed and excited to see you again after so long… and that’s why I was so rude as to kiss your cheek.”
Pretending to wipe away tears, Cynthia sneaked a glance at him. He looked surprised, maybe confused. His expression was too complicated to read out of the corner of her eye.
“And besides, do you know how much it hurt to think that the Obel family’s efforts for you had all been forgotten? Do you know what it’s like to be the young head of a ducal house who suddenly disappeared, with all sorts of rumors swirling about? Our family took care of every single one of those rumors, and I, who everyone thought had been abandoned by my fiancé, was even pointed at and called a castoff!”
“Something… like that happened?”
“Yes! After all, you didn’t show yourself in high society for years! There were all kinds of disgraceful rumors about you circulating. And it was my family—me, who had supposedly been abandoned by you—who cleaned up all the mess! And just when I was about to come ask you what you were thinking by suddenly throwing a banquet, you lost your memory…!”
Cynthia ended her tale by emphasizing that the only reason his reputation hadn’t been completely ruined during his seclusion was thanks to her. She even made a show of weeping sadly at the end. Of course, she didn’t expect all these lies to work. He wasn’t even human to begin with, and his title of duke was just a disguise.
He was nothing more than a monster living among humans, feeding off their life force. So if he remembered even that, then all her efforts would be wasted, but if he’d forgotten even that, it might make for a perfect leash.
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