WHCP 21

Chapter 21.

Mio, who had fallen into despair, soon realized that the true culprit behind all of this was Aletheia.

‘Aletheia. The source of this tragedy. Like an obstacle in my life…’

That’s right. Mio’s life had been cursed by the existence of Aletheia—and in the worst possible way.

Seeing Mio’s eyes naturally sharpen with hostility, Aletheia flinched and said,

“I told you, I can’t hear your thoughts.”

The way he added that if she had something to say, she should just say it outright made him look nothing like the insane man who had once committed a public marriage proposal.

There was only one point of consolation. Aletheia had lost his memories.

‘Haah. Right. What’s the point of getting angry at someone who can’t even remember?’

He was a patient. A former madman who had become somewhat docile after losing his memories.

The only advantage of Patient Aletheia was that, unlike before, he didn’t suddenly snap and run off to the temple in the middle of the night…

‘At this rate, it’s no different from losing even that one remaining advantage.’

What on earth was she supposed to do with this bastard, Aletheia? Because of getting tangled up with him, everything that had been steadily coming together had been completely ruined.

That thought made her anger flare up—then she remembered he was a patient and forced it back down, over and over again. As a result, Mio’s face alternated between looking like a cat with its claws out and the expression of a beggar who had lost everything. Only Aletheia, who was terrible at reading people’s expressions, watched this with a serious face.

“I realized after visiting the ducal castle today. I think it’s fine to increase the number of servants at the mansion now.”

“……”

“I’ll try to make it comfortable for you when you come. And if there’s a servant you like, you can bring them along.”

Aletheia said that no matter what the Duchess said, he would make sure to get permission for that. As they passed through the castle gates with a chilly atmosphere, Mio openly scratched her ear.

‘Is that really the problem right now?’

From the sound of it, it seemed like Aletheia’s attempt at persuasion, but it was a carrot that didn’t work on Mio.

To begin with, everyone in Kelt Castle avoided Mio, calling her a villainess. There was no way she had a favorite servant.

When Aletheia opened the front door, Simon spread his arms wide and welcomed them.

“Oh! I didn’t expect the two of you to return together!”

“I told you we were going to Kelt Ducal Castle.”

“Haha, well. Was that the natural outcome?”

“Simon. From now on, we’re going to hire more servants. People who can attend to Mio.”

Mio, who had been silently half-listening the whole time, abruptly cut into their conversation.

“Aletheia-nim. Simon. There’s no need for that. I’m only going to stay here for a very short time before leaving.”

Mio’s words—that she was only visiting as a guest—could also be taken to mean that she intended to remain nothing more than a guest forever. Aletheia’s expression darkened rapidly.

But Mio had no time to worry about that. She still had something extremely important to take care of upstairs. As soon as she finished speaking, Mio hurriedly disappeared up the stairs.

“Ah…”

Before Simon could add anything, Mio vanished from the entrance. The two men left behind followed her disappearing figure with their eyes.

An oddly lonely silence seemed to flow along the empty staircase. Simon swallowed dryly and spoke.

“Um… did you two fight on the way back?”

“…I don’t know.”

Aletheia murmured gloomily, lowering his gaze.

“I guess this is what they call push and pull, Simon.”

Bursting into Aletheia’s bedroom, Mio hurriedly checked under the bed.

‘…It’s gone!’

While Aletheia had been away yesterday, Mio had deliberately lost one of her belongings in order to test the function of the safe.

‘The prenuptial agreement I left behind has disappeared without a trace!’

At the time, the fact that the item was a prenuptial agreement had felt rather regrettable. But perhaps because Aletheia had declared today that he would protect it no matter what, the prenuptial agreement had become something Mio wouldn’t miss even if it vanished overnight.

In any case, the experiment was a success. If anything, the fact that she had wagered an item she wouldn’t regret losing only made the results more satisfying.

To be certain, Mio carefully searched under the bed once more, recalling the hypothesis she had formed yesterday.

‘I’m sure of it. The safe has a special function too.’

The promotional line about picking up even a single button dropped on the floor probably meant that it automatically collected items that fell to the ground.

But that raised a problem.

‘Then where is the safe itself?’

No matter how powerful the magic placed on it, how could it collect and store items without a physical form? The only clue Mio had regarding that was an old safe key.

‘If it’s functioning, then the safe I saw back then must be somewhere in this house…’

As Mio stood up and paced beside the bed, pondering the safe’s true form, the bedroom door opened with a faint sound.

Step. Step.

Someone was approaching her. Mio didn’t feel the need to check who it was.

“Mio.”

Naturally, it was the owner of the room. Aletheia.

“About our marriage, seriously—”

Aletheia tried to remember Simon’s advice as he entered the room, but the moment he saw Mio standing with her arms crossed in front of the bed, all the words he had prepared vanished.

Why did it have to be in front of the bed again? Aletheia felt a sudden surge of guilt.

“…It must be because I forgot the memories I shared with you…”

If his future self had gone so far as to use the Alcmel Oath to marry someone, it must have meant he had committed an act worthy of taking responsibility for. Yet not only had he forgotten all of it, he was now suggesting rushing through a wedding ceremony—an event of a lifetime—in the blink of an eye…

‘Simon was right. No one would want a wedding like that.’

When he had first lost six full years of memories, Aletheia had even doubted Mio’s very existence. But after feeling the curse fade, he decided to believe in fate. Whatever he had done six years later must have had its reasons.

“Hm? What did you just say?”

Mio, who had finished organizing her thoughts and felt somewhat lighter, turned around. Aletheia slowly approached her.

“I’ll try to do something about that issue. It’s impossible right now, but… if even a little of my memory comes back—”

“Your memory is coming back?!”

Mio exclaimed in shock.

“What I mean is, when the time comes… that is, what you want, we could again… by then, even if my memory doesn’t return…”

Aletheia rambled incoherently, his face flushed red.

‘What the hell is this guy even talking about right now?’

Mio frowned and stared at Aletheia. The more she listened, the less she understood. “By then”? What did that even mean? Skipping over the parts she couldn’t make sense of, Mio decided to ask the most important question.

“So… your memory hasn’t come back, right…?”

“…Not yet.”

Aletheia answered, lowering his head. Mio let out a sigh of relief.

‘Phew. That scared me.’

What possessed him to suddenly spout ominous things like “if my memory comes back”? Didn’t he know the saying that words have power? Just imagining it sent chills all over her body.

Feeling a sense of crisis that the truly insane Aletheia might actually return, Mio quickly began imitating the kind, gentle female lead.

“Haha. Your memory doesn’t have to come back, Aletheia-nim.”

“Really? But—”

That was 100 percent sincere. She honestly hoped Aletheia’s memories would never return. To be frank, it was for his own sake too. Surely, living in this harsh world would be easier as he was now than as a madman.

“I don’t lie. This is my true feeling, from the depths of my heart. Whether your memories return or not, Aletheia-nim, none of that matters to me at all.”