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Chapter 20.
The moment Mio saw that face, she became certain of one thing: Aletheia was still in a state of having lost the memories of the past six years.
Seeing his face—which looked normal at a glance, that is, not insane—made it clear that this was the case. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was now completely confusing, though.
Anyway, once she was sure that Aletheia was still suffering from amnesia, Mio somehow felt all the strength drain out of her. She muttered gloomily.
“…Still, bottling up your emotions like that isn’t good. You could just curse me out, you know. Really…”
Even Mio’s unusually generous offer—that just for today, she’d pretend the promise written into the prenuptial contract didn’t exist—failed to sway Aletheia. He spoke quietly.
“I trust you. But now that I think about it, it seems you don’t believe the story I told you last time.”
“Huh? What story are you talking about…?”
“I told you I can hear the thoughts of everyone except you. So discerning the truth isn’t difficult for me.”
“Oh.”
Was that it? Was that why the villainess pattern didn’t work? Because Aletheia had mind-reading abilities?
‘Well, if you can hear someone’s inner thoughts, figuring out whether they’re lying or not would be easy.’
Still, there was something that didn’t quite sit right. To begin with, the villainess pattern wasn’t about fabricating falsehoods out of things that weren’t true. It was about slightly distorting existing facts so that others would perceive them differently.
Thinking about it from that perspective made the ending of this villainess pattern even harder to understand. How, exactly, had Aletheia avoided being swept up by the rules of this world?
Various hypotheses came to mind, but unorganized ideas only made her thoughts more tangled.
‘Whatever it is, it’s too early to jump to conclusions. I’ve only gone through the villainess pattern once.’
Mio decided to postpone tracing the cause for now. While she did, Aletheia was murmuring to himself.
“…So that’s why you put such strange promises into the contract…”
“Huh?”
Startled by the word “contract” that she caught in passing, Mio reacted.
“Don’t worry. Now I understand your situation completely.”
Aletheia said this with a resolute expression, as if he had made up his mind about something. Mio looked up at him, utterly confused.
“No matter what happens, I won’t break what was written in the prenuptial contract. I promise. I’ll keep it without fail until the day I die.”
As he said that, he tightened his grip on the hand he was holding. In that instant, Mio felt a chill run down her spine. His words sounded exactly like ‘Until I die, you won’t be able to escape.’ Even the hand he was holding felt like a shackle. Mio screamed inwardly.
‘Lethe. That’s something I set up specifically to be broken…!’
Because of that, she couldn’t just calmly accept his solemn declaration of keeping the promise. It felt like watching an escape route she had painstakingly created being sealed off right in front of her eyes. Of course, it didn’t feel good. Her head was a mess in more ways than one.
Left with no choice, Mio awkwardly changed the subject. She wanted no more talk about the prenuptial contract.
“…More importantly, what brings you all the way here?”
Hadn’t he said last time that he only considered coming, but didn’t actually come? And this time, it wasn’t like he’d been out of contact for days, either.
Aletheia answered as he slowly walked ahead.
“Yesterday, while I stepped away briefly, you left without saying anything.”
“……”
That was just stepping away for a moment?
It made her look like she’d run off again. In truth, while he was gone, she’d thoroughly searched the room and then, thinking this is my chance, left feeling refreshed—so Mio was momentarily at a loss for words.
“…You didn’t tell me to wait.”
She rambled on with excuses, saying she’d fallen asleep because he was sleeping, and when she woke up and he wasn’t there, she’d simply gone home. Fortunately, Aletheia didn’t press the issue further.
“Actually, the Duchess sent me a letter. She said she had something to discuss regarding marriage and asked me to visit without fail.”
So the duchess was the culprit after all. Considering that Aletheia had mentioned adoption during that earlier chaos when the villainess pattern had activated, it seemed the duchess had temporarily changed her target to him for the sake of the adoption process.
‘Phew. No matter the process, it’s a relief that Aletheia refused the adoption. From now on, all I have to do is avoid the duchess properly, right?’
With the convenient excuse that Aletheia opposed the adoption, the duchess wouldn’t be able to do much more.
Even that villainess pattern, whose ending had felt unsettling, had yielded something of value. Mio decided to take comfort in that. Just as she was整理ing the stormy moments and about to let out a sigh of relief, a maid suddenly popped out of a room.
“H-Hello—ah!”
The maid, who had reflexively bent at the waist, recognized Mio’s face and jumped in shock. Then she saw Mio holding someone’s hand and was horrified.
“I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t see anything!”
Clutching a bundle of bedding, the maid fled with her eyes squeezed shut, as if she had witnessed something she shouldn’t have.
“……”
Feeling the sudden chill of the now-empty corridor, Mio finally realized that she had been holding Aletheia’s hand for an unnecessarily long time—like they were actually lovers or something!
When Mio hurriedly pulled her hand away, Aletheia also seemed to realize it belatedly. Seeing him freeze with a startled expression, Mio complained grumpily.
“You said you can hear people’s inner thoughts, but I guess you didn’t know what that maid was thinking just now.”
“That’s…”
She knew. Because he was touching her, his mind-reading ability had been turned off, so he hadn’t known what the maid was thinking. As for her, she’d received looks like that more than once in this mansion—she could tell just by reading expressions.
Completely unaware of Mio’s thoughts, Aletheia muttered dejectedly.
“But it’s true. My curse—”
“Your ability! You said it was a cheating-level ability.”
“Yes. My abili—anyway, it’s true. I wasn’t lying.”
“Alright. I never said I didn’t believe you.”
She’d just been teasing him a little. Mio replied coolly while secretly curling the corners of her lips upward. Thanks to that, her mood—which had sunk because of today’s strange villainess pattern—was lifting a bit.
But they say life is like a merry-go-round.
“We should hurry the marriage.”
Not much time had passed before Mio’s slightly improved mood crashed straight into the ground. Inside the carriage heading to the Moro estate with Aletheia, he had suddenly spouted utter nonsense.
“W-What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”
Mio asked through clenched teeth. What is wrong with you, Lethe? Have you lost your mind? We were peaceful just a moment ago. Huh?
To Mio, who had planned to go to the Moro estate, confirm only what needed confirming, and then bolt, it was like being struck by lightning.
Aletheia replied with a calm expression, as if he were the only one at peace.
“The Duchess was extremely distressed when I refused the adoption proposal. She’s planning to visit His Majesty soon.”
She’d thought everything was resolved with that refusal—but adoption was still the problem?
Hearing even the duchess’s inner thoughts, which she hadn’t known about, Mio’s face went pale. Watching Mio chew on her nails, Aletheia hesitated before speaking.
“Of course… I also genuinely don’t want you to stay there for even a moment longer.”
He carefully added that if it wasn’t about adoption, there was no real reason for her to remain with the Duke of Kelt’s household. But Mio, who was basically holding bombs in both hands, half-listened and cut straight to the point.
“So you’re saying that if I don’t want to be adopted, I have to get married quickly. Right now.”
“…Yes.”
Adoption or marriage—both were equally the worst possible choices for Mio. There was no need to compare them. If either one happened, her status would change. And then…
‘The swamp of infinite repeated revisions!’
Mio swallowed a scream. Once she had swallowed it completely, an overwhelming sense of emptiness washed over her. Soon, hollow, vacant eyes stared into the void.
As if being falsely branded a villainess weren’t enough, now even the disembarkation right in front of her was being obstructed. What kind of cursed luck did it take for things to go this badly?
