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Chapter : 8
Marriage Vows
“Ughk.”
Lowell let out a strange sound as she lifted her upper body from the table.
“You slept for quite a while.”
While Lowell was still dazed, Leon’s indifferent voice reached her. Startled back to her senses, Lowell finally noticed the displeased expression on the person sitting across from her.
“Did I… fall asleep?”
After sitting there blankly for a moment longer, Lowell asked. Leon answered by simply nodding downward.
Following his gaze, Lowell looked down and discovered a cushion that had been placed there at some point, along with a wet spot right in the center of it.
“Haha. I’m sorry. I must’ve been really tired…”
With an embarrassed laugh, Lowell slid the damp cushion aside, fervently hoping that the moisture wasn’t drool she’d left while sleeping.
Watching her, Leon couldn’t help but raise one eyebrow.
To be fair, just moments earlier Leon had been quite flustered by Lowell’s sudden tears. He’d been rummaging through his scant knowledge, trying to figure out how to stop someone from crying…
“Phew…”
There was no need after all. When he turned at the sound of breathing, he saw that Lowell had stopped crying and fallen asleep.
“Hah.”
Leon was rendered speechless. After staring at the soundly sleeping Lowell for a long while, he simply pushed a cushion over to her.
After observing her for some time, the conclusion he reached was this: this woman was nothing but strange.
“Hahaha…”
Unaware of what Leon was thinking, Lowell let out an awkward laugh while avoiding his eyes—completely oblivious to the fact that it only made his brow furrow deeper.
“How can someone have such poor basic stamina? You recite a few spells and you’re completely drained.”
After a long silence settled between them, Leon finally spoke in a displeased tone.
“…I didn’t know casting spells consumed this much stamina.”
Even as she stiffened and read the room, Lowell didn’t back down and muttered her complaint.
“……”
Thanks to that, a question surfaced in Leon’s mind: just why did someone like her possess such tremendous magical power?
“We’ll go to the temple tomorrow.”
After watching Lowell lower her head and grumble on and on without interest, Leon spoke again in the same detached tone.
“Huh?”
“We’ll do the marriage vows first thing tomorrow morning.”
“All of a sudden?”
Caught off guard, Lowell’s mouth fell open.
“Weren’t you the one who said there wasn’t much time?”
“Th-that’s true, but…”
“It’s something we have to do anyway. If we’re going to do it, we might as well get it over with as quickly as possible.”
At those words, Lowell slowly closed her mouth. Thinking about it, he wasn’t wrong. Time was of the essence for her. Once the marriage vows were done and she began living with Leon, she’d be able to investigate the reason she needed to save Aria much more quickly.
‘But…’
Lowell couldn’t shake the image of Aria’s listless expression. If her only close friend suddenly got married and left her side, Lowell had no idea how Aria—who already seemed to have given up on everything—might react.
“Then please give me just one day. I’ll settle everything within a day. From the day after tomorrow, I’ll be able to live with you.”
Her eyes sparkling, Lowell clenched her fist. Leon briefly scanned her face, then turned his head away and replied curtly, “Do whatever you want.”
“That—open it.”
As Lowell held up her tightly clenched fist, muttering things like “I can do this!” to herself, Leon tossed a small box onto the table.
“A ring?”
When she opened the elegantly painted white wooden box, she found a pair of rings set with sparkling gems.
“If you go to make vows without rings, people will find it strange. Just think of it as having received a proposal and wear it.”
“Where did you get these?”
Convinced Leon wouldn’t have prepared rings just for her, Lowell asked immediately.
“I got them when I was in the knight order. Some marquis’s daughter gave them to me when she asked me to date her. I shoved them into storage, and now they’re finally useful.”
Speaking as casually as if it were nothing, Leon picked up one ring and slipped it onto his fourth finger.
Lowell watched the entire sequence with an uneasy look.
‘How can he be so unfazed?’
Seeing Leon, who looked not just calm but downright lazy, Lowell felt a pang of pity for the nameless noble young lady who must have devoted her affection to this narcissistic man.
“Is it really okay for me to wear this?”
“Do you want us to go ring shopping together like a loving couple or something?”
“Huh? No, that’s not what I mean. It’s just—if the person who gave you the ring were to see me wearing it…”
“Why would you worry about that? Rings are everywhere. How would anyone know whether this is that ring or not?”
Leon dismissed Lowell’s concern outright, wearing an expression that clearly showed he genuinely didn’t understand why she’d worry about such a thing.
Faced with his shameless words and behavior, Lowell shot Leon a brief glare… then quickly gave up.
‘I’m sorry.’
It really wasn’t the right situation to ask him to buy new rings. She could just wear it this once and stop wearing it afterward—there’d be no problem.
After offering the greatest apology she could to the unknown young lady, Lowell slipped the ring onto her own fourth finger.
And so, a matching pair of rings adorned the hands of Lowell and Leon—just like a real couple.
The next morning, as soon as day broke, Lowell told Aria about the conversation she’d had with Leon the day before—about the marriage vows.
“You’re… getting married.”
“…Yes.”
Despite the fact that this wasn’t the first time she’d lied, for some reason Lowell couldn’t bring herself to meet Aria’s eyes. So, even as she spoke of something as important as marriage, her gaze stayed fixed on the floor.
“So you’re quitting your job too.”
With Aria’s words, a heavy silence settled over them.
As the silence dragged on, Lowell suddenly wondered if it might be better to explain everything honestly.
That I’m leaving you to save you. That I’ll free you from this repeating time—not through erasure, but another way.
Maybe it would be okay to tell her. Maybe, just maybe…
“It’s a bit sudden.”
When Aria spoke in that listless voice, Lowell had to erase those thoughts completely.
Aria’s voice, calling it sudden, felt like thin glass—fragile enough to shatter under the weight of the truth.
“I’m sorry.”
So all Lowell could do was swallow the truth and pour all her reasons into this brief apology.
“No, it’s fine. I decided to participate in the war anyway. I can’t exactly take you to the battlefield with me, can I?”
In response to Lowell’s apology, Aria quickly regained her composure and gently curved her lips into a smile.
“I’ll explain things properly to everyone else.”
“Thank you, my lady.”
Even then, Lowell still couldn’t lift her eyes from the floor. Aria’s unchanging kindness was palpable even without eye contact, making it all the harder to look at her.
“Lowell, look at me.”
At that moment, Aria’s firm voice reached her. Perhaps because of that gentle command, Lowell’s gaze immediately shifted to Aria’s face.
“Even after you leave, you have to be happy. You know that, right?”
Aria smiled faintly.
“…Yes.”
As she answered, Lowell clenched her fist tightly beneath her skirt. She needed to keep herself from bursting into tears right then and there.
“Waaah…”
A few days later, standing in front of the carriage, Lowell found herself unable to take a single step forward.
“Hey, stop crying already. Lowell has to go now.”
“But leaving so suddenly like this—how could you?”
Her fellow maid, Ella, was clinging to Lowell’s clothes and refusing to let go. On top of that, she was sobbing so hard that it was difficult to pry her off.
“Waaah… If you cry like that, it makes me want to cry too.”
Soon, the tears spread, and the other maids standing nearby began crying as well. It was only a matter of time before the rear gate of the estate turned into a sea of tears.
“Good grief. Yes, it is sudden, but… Lowell, so who are you marrying, anyway?”
After calming the younger maids and growing exhausted, the head maid suddenly asked Lowell.
“Um… just an ordinary person.”
From the fact that he was a noble expelled from his family, he was anything but ordinary—but everyone would find out after the vows anyway. Not wanting to cause a commotion, Lowell glossed it over.
“Thank you for everything, Lowell.”
Aria, who had been watching the tearful scene from a step back, walked over to Lowell. As she did, the crying quieted a little.
“…Yes. Thank you too.”
Taking Aria’s hand, Lowell thought about what Aria meant by “everything so far.” It likely referred to all the time they’d spent together—from their first meeting through countless repeated regressions.
“Write to me when you arrive.”
Aria added with a bright smile.
“And write to us too!”
The others chimed in from behind. Moved by the warm send-off, Lowell smiled softly and climbed into the carriage.
As the luggage-laden carriage moved away from the estate, Lowell leaned out the window and shouted back,
“I’ll write!”
“You… by any chance…”
“Hm?”
As Leon helped carry Lowell’s luggage in front of his tower, he suddenly spoke. At his call, Lowell turned to face him.
“Did someone beat you up and tell you you weren’t allowed to get married or something?”
As he asked, Leon frowned habitually.
He examined Lowell’s face as she looked up at him—and whatever had happened overnight, her face was badly swollen. Her eyelids in particular were so puffed up he wondered how she could even see.
“Ah, it’s fine. I cried too much in the carriage…. Don’t worry. The swelling will go down by the time we go to do the marriage vows.”
Lowell assumed Leon was worried about showing people a bride-to-be with a swollen face, so she answered that way, putting extra emphasis on telling him not to worry.
“I can just put the luggage inside, right?”
A moment later, Lowell slung her bag over her shoulder and walked ahead.
Leon watched her back for a moment—this woman who had cried until her eyes swelled, yet was acting as if nothing were wrong. Soon, however, he shook his head, brushed away his stray thoughts, picked up the remaining luggage, and followed her inside.
After all, their relationship was purely contractual. Even if a flicker of concern crossed his mind, it was best to put it away immediately.
