WHCP 33

Chapter 33

How am I supposed to get through this predicament…?

She’d clearly said she understood at first. But after sleeping on it, had she changed her mind?

That said, it’s not like I can do anything about a night’s sleep that’s already happened.

Mio guessed that Marriage Aletheia’s attitude was because she had declared a “three-month trial period,” and replied accordingly.

“But last time, you admitted that we both needed time, didn’t you? You said you needed time too—for that thing, what was it, studying?”

“……Back then, I was briefly mistaken about something.”

“Either way, I chose this method because I was thinking about whether we could live well together far into the future.”

See? It’s reasonable, right?

However, Aletheia still looked confused. She had said she wasn’t particularly interested in things like a wedding, and that if they were going to live together starting today anyway, it didn’t matter. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t understand the three-month time limit at all.

I’ll need to make her feel that the present is what matters.

So that she wouldn’t even be able to think about worries three months from now… It was a drastic decision. Mio stood up from her seat and moved over beside Lete.

“I heard you were in pain the whole time after returning from the banquet that day. Is that why you couldn’t eat?”

“……I told you this is how I usually am.”

Aletheia answered like that and rubbed her face as if she were suffering.

She wanted to click her tongue and say it was because she didn’t eat or sleep properly that she’d ended up like this, but seeing her like that made her feel more sorry than anything. Mio asked carefully.

“Is this related to the noise too?”

“Who knows. I’m not sure.”

“Let’s try it once. See whether it gets better or not.”

When Mio held out her hand, Aletheia frowned and looked down at it. Mio urged her on.

“Come on. There’s nothing to lose.”

After hesitating slightly, Aletheia finally took Mio’s hand. The unpleasant static-like noise that had been crackling nonstop, as if receiving a faulty signal, vanished in an instant. Aletheia immediately thought to herself:

This is really strange.

The first time she’d held Mio’s hand at the banquet hall, it was true that she’d believed she’d finally found a way to end the curse, and nothing else had entered her sight. Her vision had literally gone red.

Fortunately, after suffering memory loss, the lava-like turmoil in her head had cooled somewhat—but questions still remained.

This woman. She keeps postponing the marriage, but what exactly is she trying to do by being so kind to me?

Since she seemed to have gotten along reasonably well with her former self, Aletheia had scraped together what little patience she had and told her, “You don’t have to do anything you dislike.” And yet, with a face that looked like she knew nothing at all, she was the one to reach out her hand first.

It was the same even when she’d lost her memory and acted like an idiot.

She ran away every time, but she also came several times saying she’d take care of me.

Maybe it was because the curse had gone quiet, leaving things too silent. Her thoughts felt deeper than usual. Unable to resist the impulse, Aletheia quietly asked,

“……Why are you doing this?”

If she ran away outright, I could chase her down and drag her back. But instead, she stays by my side and says the marriage will happen three months later. Is she trying to test me or something?

Is marrying me something she thinks she can tolerate for a while—or the opposite? The more she thought, the more confused she became. Naturally, she had no idea how she was supposed to act in front of Mio.

It was truly a feeling she’d never experienced before. Difficult and exhausting. For Aletheia, who’d never needed to deal with such things her entire life, it was especially hard… and yet, one thing was certain: she wanted to keep learning more.

“The reason?”

“Yes. The reason. There’s no need to worry about things like this, is there?”

You act considerate, saying your feelings might change, and try to back out of the marriage no matter what—yet you come into the mansion and even try to take care of meals. Anyone can see that those actions don’t line up.

Mio looked quietly down at their joined hands and answered.

“Well, Aletheia-nim, you’re a patient right now. You’ve lost your memory, too….”

With a right? kind of look, Mio gazed at Aletheia. Aletheia said,

“If I said I’d recovered my memories—”

“Let’s not talk about that anymore. Getting healthy is more important than memories!”

At her firm reply, Aletheia vaguely realized one thing.

I see. A patient….

She’d heard that such people existed. People who could never pass by someone who was sick without taking care of them. When you went to a battlefield where all allies had been wiped out, stories like that about fallen soldiers would always circulate.

Back then, Aletheia had never believed those kinds of rumors—but looking at Mio, she thought maybe not all of them were lies.

Just then, Mio lightly shook their joined hands and said,

“Did something come back to you? Some kind of memory?”

Aletheia answered instinctively.

“……No. It’s the same.”

Some time later, Aletheia was able to eat a small amount of food. Mio smiled with satisfaction, like someone who had completed a mission.

At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before the vault acknowledges me as its owner.

Thinking that she might become the owner of the vault in a much shorter period than Lady Selene’s records, Mio congratulated herself early in her heart.

Seeing that, Aletheia asked casually,

“What’s got you so happy?”

“Oh, um… th-that Lete ate her meal……? Haha.”

Startled that her inner thoughts might be exposed, Mio laughed awkwardly and changed the subject.

“By the way, Lete. I’m going to go see Rosa for a bit. You remember the maid I introduced earlier, right? I’m worried whether she’s unpacked properly. She’s a child I care about a lot.”

It was a precautionary remark. If she said it like this, Rosa probably wouldn’t get hurt by anything unnecessary. Of course, that only applied as long as Mio didn’t offend Aletheia’s temper.

By the time I run away, I’ll evacuate Rosa first anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

Aletheia nodded to say she understood. At the same time, Mio practically bolted out of the dining room and headed toward the servants’ quarters. Rosa had looked extremely tense since morning; Mio worried that she might have reverted to her true fox form by now.

“Mio-nim! Mio-nim!”

As she was crossing the backyard, Jamie came running after her belatedly, calling her name. Mio stopped and waved her hand.

“Jamie. You don’t have to follow me…….”

“Oh dear. Still, you can’t go around alone anymore. Even without a hand, I can at least escort you, Mio-nim. By the way, are you going to the servants’ quarters?”

“Yeah. Rosa’s still a kid.”

“If you’d told me, I could’ve brought her to the main building.”

“I wanted to take this chance to see what the quarters look like.”

“Haha, we do our best to keep them clean, but I don’t know if you’ll like them.”

While they were talking, the servants’ quarters had already come into view. The small, modest annex was indeed kept neat and tidy, just as Jamie had said.

“Rosa-yang will be using the room at the very end of the first-floor corridor.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

When Mio greeted him as if to say that was enough, Jamie picked up on it and withdrew.

If Rosa has turned into a fox, I can’t exactly bring an outsider in.

After confirming that Jamie had disappeared down the corridor, Mio carefully opened the door to the servants’ quarters.

“Rosa. Are you in your room? It’s me.”

“Mio-nim!”

Rosa burst out through the slightly opened door and threw herself into her arms. Mio stroked Rosa’s red hair and stepped inside.

“You’re still keeping your form. That’s a relief. You were really tense today.”

“Of course. You said I absolutely have to stay like this here. But you know, that man I saw today looks really scary. He kept glaring at me……. Hiiing.”

So it was Aletheia. Mio chuckled softly and soothed Rosa. Looking up at Mio with teary eyes, Rosa said,

“Do you really have to live with that man? Can’t we just go back?”

Normally, Roy would’ve handled this kind of role, but with Roy gone, Rosa looked just like a child. Seeing her look like she’d had candy taken away, Mio smiled fondly.

“Shh. You remember what I said, right? You can’t say things like that. You’re not even allowed to think them.”

Rosa nodded and stepped back. Then she pulled out a sheet of paper she’d kept in her pocket and began to read it. It was a drastic measure to clear her mind.

“…And then the wind tried to strip the traveler of his clothes….”

Rattle, rattle-rattle!

At that moment, one of Rosa’s pieces of luggage began to move in a strange way.