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Chapter 74
“Shasha.”
“Why…?”
“Did a memory come back?”
“No?”
Artif’s lips curved into a sly, mischievous smile at my quick response.
“Really?”
“…….”
I wanted to play dumb and deny it, but it was already obvious. I was screwed.
As I remained silent, Artif’s playful smile grew even more pronounced.
“Shasha.”
“……Why.”
He took a step closer and asked,
“Why do you think I’m such a shameless guy?”
“…….”
“Hmm? Shasha, why do you look so upset?”
I avoided his persistent, crimson eyes.
“At the time, I didn’t understand a word you were saying, but when we said it was Eluna and Kalix…”
Trailing off meaningfully, Artif continued,
“Am I right in my guess?”
“……It looks like Seth is looking for me. I should go.”
As I tried to leave, Artif blocked my way.
“Bringing up another guy now is just cruel.”
It seemed impossible to escape this topic of conversation. If I couldn’t wriggle out of it, I had no choice but to leave confidently.
“Why are you bringing up something from the past? That’s way too petty.”
“Why did you lie?”
“It’s not a lie. I just remembered.”
“No, I’m asking why you said we weren’t lovers.”
Eluna and Kalix were in love, but strictly speaking, they weren’t a couple.
“We weren’t lovers, that’s true.”
Artif blinked as if he didn’t understand my words.
“Didn’t we spend the night together?”
“Kalix and Eluna did, not us.”
Artif’s face stiffened, clearly shocked.
“……Kalix said he didn’t accept Eluna’s confession.”
“Yes.”
“……But at night, he found her?”
It seemed Artif had misunderstood completely.
The reality was that Eluna, despite planning to leave, had tried to seduce Kalix out of selfish desire.
‘Do I really need to correct him?’
I casually added,
“It was only once.”
“…….”
This time, Artif was speechless.
Serves him right for being so persistent in questioning.
“I have no memories of my past life at all.”
This time, Artif said confidently,
“You do. You said you dreamed about it before.”
“That’s the only memory I have—Kalix searching for Eluna.”
Now Artif referred to his past self as Kalix. He couldn’t identify with that scumbag.
The tables had turned.
“But just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean it wasn’t you. I didn’t remember that night either, yet you just now practically accused me.”
“It wasn’t that bad……”
“Anyway.”
After a long pause, Artif struggled to speak.
“I’m sorry, Shasha. But one thing is clear—Kalix loved Eluna. That’s why, not finding her, he took his own life.”
Regret was evident on Artif’s face.
Seeing him apologize for something from his past life, even though I had insisted on it, made me feel somewhat guilty.
More than anything…
‘Eluna, you were wrong.’
When Eluna had met Hilia and received the ring, her wish was simple:
For Kalix to survive. To live on and forget her, finding happiness.
If he couldn’t forget, then at least in the next life, she wished he would forget her and be happy.
But Kalix, having lost Eluna, had given up on life, and Artif still suffered under the curse of his past, waiting for me to escape Chase.
“That’s not true……”
I finally had to speak the truth.
“Kalix wasn’t that kind of scumbag.”
At my sudden firmness, Artif blinked and muttered nonsense.
“Are you defending another man in front of me?”
“Another man? You mean your past life.”
“Different. You’re not Eluna either.”
“That’s true… but when did you keep calling it ‘ours’?”
“I was just trying to tie it together somehow.”
Artif, speaking brazenly, frowned sharply.
“Shasha. Do you remember everything that happened that night?”
The memories of my past life were so vivid it felt like yesterday, which explained my indignation.
“Why ask something like that?”
My face flushed as the events of that night replayed automatically in my head.
As I tried to cool down, covering my cheeks, Artif, exuding a sinister aura, grabbed my hand and pulled it down.
“Don’t remember.”
“Huh?”
“That’s not you. So forget everything that happened with that man.”
“……Are you jealous?”
Artif silently wore the fearsome face of Duke Redmond. But it no longer scared me; it actually looked cute.
“But that man is you, Artif.”
“So… you blushed because you imagined it as me?”
“Not really.”
That would be too perverted if it were the case. Besides, even blushing for that reason seems perverted.
“So don’t recall it. Why keep dwelling on someone else’s romantic acts? That’s voyeurism.”
Artif scolded me harshly, as if I were the perverted god Odros.
Being treated like that felt extremely unpleasant.
“Hah, who was the one who brought it up first?”
“Alright, I won’t. We’re different from them anyway. Thinking about it, there’s no need to mention past lives—we’re already a tangled skein of relationships.”
“……That metaphor doesn’t sound very good.”
“I like it. We’re so tangled that it will never unravel.”
Though he didn’t fully understand, Artif seemed to lighten up, which made me happy.
Thinking about the jelly I had offered to his paw made my hand tingle even now.
Now that I had no more jelly to give, it would be awkward if he got sulky.
As I was watching the unusually cheerful Artif, someone knocked on the terrace window.
Peeking through the curtain, I saw Seth. He looked anxious.
I quickly opened the window, and Seth came in.
“What’s going on?”
“The Third Prince has been kidnapped.”
“What? He was just with Her Majesty the Empress.”
I had just blessed the Third Prince only a few minutes ago.
“Charles arrived at the terrace, and Her Majesty immediately went to rest. And it seems he was lost immediately afterward.”
“Does that even make sense?”
“All the maids and guards who were with the Third Prince were found unconscious.”
It was a bold crime.
To kidnap the Third Prince on the day of his birth celebration, bypassing the palace’s strict security—it was audacious.
“What about the Crown Prince?”
Even without evidence, he would likely be the prime suspect.
“They are searching for the Third Prince.”
“The Empress wouldn’t want that.”
“The Empress insisted the Crown Prince be detained, but there’s no evidence.”
I understood the Empress’s suspicion. But it didn’t make sense that Chase would commit such a crime.
Targeting the Third Prince on the day he received the most attention was reckless.
It would have been far easier to use demons at another time and create an alibi.
‘I don’t know who it is, but I didn’t expect them to move so fast.’
The image of the baby I had just seen, smiling after receiving my divine blessing, came to mind.
“So currently, the palace is locked down, and no one can enter or exit.”
“Then we should go out and see. Artif, let’s go together.”
I turned to Artif.
“That doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’ll take another exit first.”
“If we don’t reveal we were together, they might suspect. How many could bypass the guards to kidnap the Third Prince?”
“I’m actually in a position where using the Third Prince works in my favor, so it’s fine.”
Artif seemed hesitant, worried that Chase would make things difficult for me if he knew we had been together.
“But……”
“Shasha. If you care for me, follow my lead. I’m far more… tormented than you realize.”
Reluctantly, I nodded after thinking it through.
Because my greed from a past life had caused Artif pain, in this life I wanted to follow his wishes and make different choices.
“You can do this, right?”
“The only person who doubts my ability is you, Shasha.”
“It’s not doubt, it’s worry.”
Artif grinned, clearly pleased.
