Chapter 1.9
In my previous life, even on days off, I was cooped up in a corner of the house reading. Or at best, taking a walk to the bookstore.
Ernst liked that about me very much. He said he wanted a quiet, flower-like wife. In addition, he wanted someone who read many novels but knew little of the real world.
But now, the ideal wife you want is gone, Ernst.
“Like a childish brat, you could say. I’ll leave that testimony to you, Mr. Aiden.”
“As you wish, Lady Irene.”
“Thank you.”
I lowered my head.
I was glad Aiden wasn’t close to Ernst.
Around the time I married Ernst in my previous life, Aiden was a soldier stationed at the Western Fortress. He’d come home maybe once every two months. Having even spent his adolescence at a military academy, he always seemed awkward around his family.
But awkward would have been a blessing.
One year after our marriage.
Aiden gets pushed off the path to success due to an incident where he failed to protect a prince, and from that day on, he starts truly falling out with his family.
Especially his relationship with Ernst became severe.
Ernst looked down on Aiden, calling him ‘someone who can’t even use his body properly,’ and Aiden ignored his brother. Because of that, any gathering with the two brothers was always a bed of thorns for me…….
Just then, a sudden important question came to mind.
On the day I died.
Why did Aiden return to his hometown in such a hurry?
Why, at the moment I was dangling, did he push through the crowd and run towards me?
As my expression hardened at the sudden question, Aiden asked, flustered.
“Lady Irene?”
“……It’s nothing.”
The man before me now is Aiden Freier from three years ago. I can’t ask him, ‘Why did you do that three years later?’
Also, now that I’ve decided not to marry Ernst, Aiden is not even a brother-in-law, but a complete stranger I’ll likely never meet again.
Let’s stop questioning it.
“Mr. Aiden, I’m sorry to have made you spend your precious leave on our personal problem. I’ll pay for this and leave.”
“That’s……. It’s fine, but.”
Just as I tried to stand up.
Suddenly, he reached his hand across the table.
His large hand covered mine like a canopy. It wasn’t in a way that restrained me, but it alone was enough to hold me there.
“Mr. Aiden?”
“I want to ask you one thing. I know it might sound like a crazy thing to say, but…….”
His violet eyes turned to me.
“Haven’t we met before?”
“……Pardon?”
Startled from thinking about the future three years later, I answered with an obvious excuse.
“What are you saying that’s so obvious? On the occasions the Freier family invited me to dinner gatherings, I saw you a few times when you were on leave, Mr. Aiden.”
Before the marriage, whenever I joined the Freier family gatherings for meals, I got indigestion every time from the tense exchanges between Aiden and Ernst, so I remember clearly. I only encountered Aiden twice before the wedding.
But Aiden didn’t seem to be talking about meal gatherings.
His brow furrowed.
“No. I’m certain I’ve seen you outside of meal gatherings……. Quite a few times, at that…….”
“Could it be that you happened to see me when you were on leave? I’ve lived in this city for eight years, so it’s possible we ran into each other.”
“…….”
After a moment of thought, Aiden lifted his head and stared intently at me.
A sharp gaze, as if trying to dig into my mind.……Surely not.
Is this man also regressed like me?
To not give him a chance to spin a lie.
I asked abruptly.
“Mr. Aiden, let me ask you one thing!”
About the incident one year from now that would change the promising young soldier he was.
As my voice grew urgent, Aiden, rarely flustered.
“Pardon?”
“Do you remember the incident that happened in the northwestern Scourge Valley? In 988!”
- An incident occurs in the northwestern Scourge Valley where the prince is chased by monsters and falls. Aiden, who was the commander of the monster subjugation force in the Scourge Valley at the time, was demoted for the responsibility.
The Marquis of Freier certainly gnashed his teeth, saying the famously reckless prince must have caused the accident. They say that even before this, the prince would stick his head into all sorts of places on inspection and mess things up, and only the working-level officials who cleaned up the mess would lose their heads. But the Marquis wasn’t brave enough to argue that outside the house, nor did he care for Aiden enough to risk anything.
From that day on, Aiden completely fell off the path to success and was treated as a disowned child within the family. As a reaction, Aiden threw himself into monster hunting, even gaining the notoriety of being a ‘battle-maniac,’ the ‘True Monster of the Western Fortress.’
If Aiden had regressed, there’s no way he wouldn’t know about this incident!
Just hearing the ‘Sc‘ sound of ‘Scourge’ would make his blood pressure rise and his eyes turn fierce, right?……But Aiden looked utterly clueless. After a moment’s thought, he even points out my words.
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