CH 120

Evan blankly looked across the room.

Laria’s room was completely blown up, and not a single proper trace remained. It was a perfect erasure as if she should never be remembered.

This, too, must have been her intention.

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There were no clues left in her room that could even start a search. When he slowly returned to his room, there was a package from the Magic Tower on the table. At that time, all the photos he entrusted were printed.

In the photo, Laria was smiling with a slightly awkward expression in the backyard. Even when he took this photo, he thought he would be with her for the rest of his life. He never imagined that he would be looking at this picture by himself.

“I will find her.”

“What are you going to do if you found her?”

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Gazing at the picture in his room, he calmed down a little.

‘What am I going to do if I found her…’

Olivia was right. She was brought in knowing that she was terminally ill, and she didn’t even tell him about it. Although he seemed to have been stabbed in the back of the head like this, it seemed that the person he would really want to spit on was Duke Icard.

Of course, she wouldn’t want him to find her. Originally, he would have listened to her.

‘She just wanted to get away from us and disappear, so I should let it be because I’m a good kid… I should.’

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“I will never do anything that bothers you. So…”

…However, he had once won a bet with her.

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“My wish is that you never leave me.”

Obviously, the contract was a cute bet half-joking, and it was embarrassing to bring it up now. And if he asked Laria her she broke the contract and why she didn’t keep it…

‘It must look really empty.’

Evan’s eyes seemed to prey on some people, and he thought quietly.

‘…But, I’m always a bargain for Laria.’

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The contract with her name on it was tucked between the storybooks. In other words, it was the first book that Laria had given to him as a gift before. In that book, a cute bear crosses a mountain and a river to find a star.

“Conversation? What are you going to say in a catastrophe like this?”

What he was most curious about right now was Laria’s illness. Based on the contents of the letter, it seemed to have been better, of course, but…

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‘But maybe…’

Could it be that Laria went into hiding to hide her death, fearing that he would be too heartbroken to make him think that she must be living somewhere well? If nothing else, he had to make sure she was alive and well.

For the world in which she existed and the world in which she did not exist were completely different to him… whether she was with him or not.

“Evan.”

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He was going crazy because there were so many things he wanted to say and ask.

“Thank you for all this time.”

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He couldn’t even tell her not to say that. Evan quietly put the notes in the storybook. She couldn’t let anyone who had bothered him go… If she was going to leave, she shouldn’t have treated him like this and left.

He was gasping for breath when he heard a knock.

“Come in.”

“Young Duke.”

Morand came in with a bunch of papers.

“Didn’t you hear it? I won’t be doing the Duchy’s work for the time being.”

“Not that…”

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Saying that, Morande carefully placed the papers on the desk.

“Actually, these are the things Miss Laria did.”

“…What?”

“The day before yesterday, she handled everything perfectly in less than a day.”

He glanced at Laria’s round handwriting and felt as if she had hit him in the head once again. What did he actually know about her until now? Meanwhile, Morande calmly told him about the day before yesterday as Evan wiped his dark face.

‘Sh*t…’

Evan couldn’t help but swear inside.

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‘Even in the middle of this, she’s cool…’

Morande seemed to have a similar idea.

“Young Duke, I am ill.”

“What illness?”

“It’s an illness because I want to take Miss Laria as my real Madam quickly.”

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“….”

“I am now unable to serve another Madam. Please, go find her.”

In his memory, Morande had never asked for something so desperately. After he earnestly appealed to him and left, Evan was lost in thought for a while before calling Nathan.

“Nathan.”

Then, he told Nathan to stop everything he was doing and once again declared that he would find Laria.

“From now on, I will somehow find Laria…”

Nathan couldn’t help but be nervous at the sight of his master’s cool red eyes.

“Don’t announce that she is missing, but say that she is not feeling well and is confined to the Duke’s mansion… And, secretly investigate.”

“Why, why…”

“I still don’t know exactly what Laria wants. That’s why I try to refrain from spreading strange rumors as much as possible.”

He would find Laria and get down on his knees.

Now that he knew his father’s will, he would beg that he had no intention of marrying any woman other than her anyway… No, he would tell her the truth that he couldn’t leave her alone like this because he couldn’t stand it because he missed her more than anything.

Even though he knew the situation was complicated, he was determined to hold on to her until the end. It couldn’t end like this. They could talk about everything they couldn’t say, and then let’s think about the future together…

“Laria prefers expensive and nice things, so she can never live a simple life among commoners.”

“Ah… Yes.”

“So, she must have taken the name of a noble. Investigate, starting with a low-class noble who has no presence… A person who obviously has a name, but no one has seen him.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Especially in the Southwest. If you think something is strange, check the reality right away.”

While making a plan to find Laria himself, Evan thought…

It’d been a while since they’d come of age, so their childhood was over.

17. Laria’s Hidden Man

“The Duke’s residence must be in a mess by now.”

I was lying in bed, thinking quietly.

“But what…”

Still, since I left a letter, it didn’t seem to be that much of a mess. Everyone must be cursing at me by now that even though I knew everything, I pretended to be kind and naive. Even the attending doctor that was hired was a swindler and stole the property of the Duchy…

Still, in good conscience, I did not take from the budget allotted to me as an adult. Of course, jewels and things like that were all moved one by one, but the liquidity wasn’t that good anyway.

“Of course… that doesn’t mean that the fact that you cheated will disappear.”

Lady Olivia would be expressing her resentment by saying, ‘As expected, she’s the kind of kid who laughs at Kallaudin’s jokes.’ Evan would say that it was fortunate that the rooms were separated, and he might ask to start the work on my room and use it as a storage room.

To be honest, it was a bit of an impulsive decision.

The feeling was too strong because of the fairy’s breath. Besides, too many incidents broke out at the Imperial Palace banquet, so in a state of panic, I worked too much in panic.

Nonetheless, I did not regret what I had done.

“How do you go back to the past?”

While I heard in the past that it removed the cause of death, that was something I didn’t know as I wasn’t a doctor.

If I went back to the past, I wouldn’t be Lady Icard anymore. Evan wouldn’t go to the academy, and he wouldn’t marry me at thirteen, whom he didn’t even know. He would become an adult and start dating naturally…

“Do you like me as a woman?”

“…No.”

At that time, I thought he was just confused and didn’t know what to do, but I was a little hurt when I thought about it again? Did he have to embarrass people by cutting it that far? Even though I was his wife…

“If you want that, you should have been nice and kind. Why did you treat people so well and only say pretty things?”

Of course, I knew why.

“…It was because I asked him to get along with me like a best friend. He listens very well.”

I muttered quietly to clear my mind.

“Let’s not think it’s bad. It’s not Evan’s fault that he doesn’t like me as a woman.”

Still, my heart didn’t flinch.

“Though if you make me sad, you’re a bad guy, even if you’re not at fault…”

Nevertheless, I wanted Evan to be happy. I wanted all the sad and painful memories to go away, and I wanted him to be loved and spend a warm childhood again.

I also wanted Duke Icard to start over again. Considering how good he was to me, it was obvious that he would have been a good father if Matilda had only been alive. Of course, I would not be in that harmonious family.

“Isn’t this what true sacrifice is like? I guess I’m the type with a lot of lingering emotions…”

I wondered if going back to the past would mean that all my thoughts and decisions would disappear anyway.

“By the way…”

Of course, I couldn’t just think about Duke Icard.

“Why are you here?”

It was because there was a really unexpected presence next to me.

“Nya.”

…It was Neo, the cat who was said to be the embodiment of the devil.