Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: True Feelings in the Sickroom
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Meanwhile, the moment Roselia returned to Kaltstein and slipped away from the duke as if fleeing, she headed straight to her room.
Thud—!
The instant she slammed the door shut with force, Roselia flung herself onto the bed.
The fluffy down comforter enveloped her body, but it was nowhere near enough to calm the storm raging in her heart right now.
'Aaaahhh!!'
Thump! Thud!!
She buried her face in the pillow and let out a silent scream.
Even kicking the covers wildly with both feet like a madwoman.
It burned.
Her face felt so hot it seemed like it would burst into flames and vanish.
'I'm crazy, crazy! Why did I do that? No, why did the duke say something like that?!'
The events from just moments ago flashed through her mind like a panorama.
The cold lake bottom, the tingling sensation when their hands clasped together under the pretense of resonating mana.
The solid chest that had wrapped around and protected her beneath the massive blade of the Dragon Fang Sword.
And those words he spoke in the carriage, staring right through her.
You alone are the only truth to me.
"Aaaah...!"
Roselia punched the pillow once more.
Her heart pounded so fiercely it felt like it would explode.
Hearing lines straight out of a romance novel—lines she'd only ever read in print from some male lead—spoken aloud, from that handsome face no less, right in front of her... the impact was beyond imagination.
Thanks to that, she could barely utter a word and had jumped out of the carriage like she was running for her life. How ridiculous must she have looked?
"Get a grip, Roselia!! This is just gratitude—nothing more!"
She bolted upright, yanking at her disheveled hair as she yelled at herself.
"Don't delude yourself! The Duke of Kaltstein is just a chaotic variable who's thrown my life into disarray! And we're strictly business partners!"
That's right.
This was purely a contractual relationship.
He had entered an unwanted engagement for the treasures of the dragon's lair and for Kaltstein, and she had joined hands solely for survival.
Once everything wrapped up neatly and the crises of the original story passed, they'd part ways coolly with a "Good work."
Harboring strange feelings here? That was a straight path to ruin.
Above all, it would be betraying Seria.
"Yeah, let's stay rational. Getting fluttery means you're losing. My heart's racing because... I got startled by that monster earlier. Yeah, that's it."
Roselia took deep breaths, slapping her heated cheeks with her palms.
As she rolled around on the bed, desperately trying to calm her leaping heartbeat, it happened.
Knock knock.
A sudden knock echoed through the quiet room.
"Eep."
Roselia sprang up from the bed, quickly straightening her posture.
She brushed back her messy hair in case someone saw, smoothed out her rumpled clothes.
Then, after a loud fake cough, she mimicked the most dignified and elegant voice she could muster.
"Ahem... Who is it?"
A maid? Or maybe the duke sent some luggage?
As she tilted her head with such thoughts, the response from beyond the door came from someone completely unexpected.
"Roselia, it's Leonier."
".......!"
"I have something to discuss. May I come in?"
Leonier Baldinmar.
Another variable in this novel, a fellow transmigrator like herself—and a regressor to boot.
Yet even after confirming the identity of the knocker, Roselia tilted her head in puzzlement for a moment.
'Why is Leonier here? I thought she'd go to him since the duke's back.'
But soon, she recalled what Noxion had casually mentioned before departing for the dragon's lair.
He'd had a brief talk with the Lady Baldinmar, and at some point, she had left with a look of utter despair, as if she'd lost everything in the world.
He'd only asked when she planned to leave Kaltstein—nothing more—and couldn't understand her reaction.
She probably had something to say to me about that.
'Well, we did form an alliance... but anything involving the duke would make her sensitive.'
Was it a sense of kinship? Or guilt for stealing the fiancée spot beside the man she loved?
Roselia instinctively knew she couldn't refuse a conversation with Leonier.
"...Come in. The door's open."
Click.
The doorknob turned, and the door slowly opened.
Leonier stepped through the gap.
Not in her usual flashy southern dress, but simple indoor robes.
Unlike her typical proud and haughty demeanor, she carried a somehow forlorn air.
Above all.
"Uh..."
Roselia couldn't continue upon seeing her face.
Leonier's eyes were red and swollen, as if festering.
Her moist gaze, like that of someone who had just stopped crying, turned toward Roselia.
"S... Sorry to interrupt your rest, Roselia."
Her voice cracked weakly.
Roselia climbed down from the bed and awkwardly stood to greet her.
It was mortifying to think of how she'd been kicking the covers and mooning over love just moments ago.
But embarrassment was one thing—what needed doing was another.
She slowly approached Leonier, who stood dazed at the doorway, and pulled her into a hug right there.
"...!!"
"I... heard a bit about what happened... You must have had a tough day."
"..."
In the end, the dam she'd been holding back burst.
The moment she was enveloped in Roselia's arms, Leonier broke into sobs like a child.
"Hic... I thought everything was set—I'd finally won that man's heart, could finally relax... But when I opened my eyes, it was all reset. It was utterly horrifying."
Leonier's shoulders trembled faintly.
Her hands clutched at Roselia's skirt like a lifeline.
"Do you know what's the most heartbreaking part? The man I loved... he doesn't remember me at all. The way he looks at me... it's not the gaze of love anymore, just the cold eyes he gives some stranger noble lady... It felt like my heart was being ripped out."
She poured out the emotions she'd been suppressing amid her sobs.
All the efforts and time she'd poured in during the previous loop, adapting to this world as a transmigrator to win Noxion's heart.
Yet the fruit of that hard-won love turning to bubbles due to some inexplicable regression.
Roselia could never, ever fully understand that situation, so she simply patted her back in silence.
As a fellow transmigrator, out of a sense of solidarity.
And as one woman to another, out of pity.
After a long while venting her sorrow in Roselia's embrace, Leonier began to calm down.
With tears still welling in her eyes, she looked up at Roselia and confessed the real reason she'd come.
"So... I just want to tell him everything—honestly."
"Honestly?"
"Yeah. No more hiding. I'll tell him everything from the previous loop. Why I know the future, why I'm so obsessed with him... If I lay it all out, maybe he'll believe me..."
Though she said that, anxiety still lingered in Leonier's eyes.
The fear of being treated like a madwoman.
Or perhaps because she knew from the previous loop how long it had taken to earn his trust.
But such thoughts were fleeting.
Roselia shook her head and hugged her even tighter.
"Good call. He'll definitely understand."
"...How can you be so sure?"
"Well, truth is... I almost got busted on the way back from the lair—er, no, the dragon figured out who I am."
"Huh...?"
Leonier's tears stopped dead, her face going blank.
Roselia smirked at her expression, then whispered with a serious face but mischief still twinkling in her eyes.
"This dragon named Archaíos saw right through me being a soul from another world. And the duke overheard everything."
"Y-You got found out? And? What did he say?"
Leonier asked in a fluster, recalling how Noxion had reacted the first time she'd revealed she was a transmigrator.
Of course, oblivious to the lady's intentions, Roselia eagerly launched into the tale from the carriage.
"I thought I was done for at first. But guess what the duke said? 'You alone are the only truth to me,' dropping this super cheesy line, then just coolly letting it slide?"
"......."
"And even when I told him 'this world is from a novel,' he didn't bat an eye. He even admitted he'd heard my Korean muttering and figured that's why that weird language kept slipping out. How's that? Didn't I handle it pretty slick?"
Roselia puffed up proudly, grinning smugly.
She firmly believed she'd navigated the crisis thanks to Noxion's calm acceptance.
But Leonier's expression grew subtly strange as she listened.
'...He didn't even flinch at hearing it's a world from a novel?'
That made sense, of course.
She already knew Noxion wasn't from this world.
He too was a man with memories of Earth.
In the previous loop, during their deep relationship, under the brighter moonlight and loosened by drink, he'd accidentally spilled his secret.
Leonier alone knew he had been born with Earth's memories.
"Pfft...!"
"Huh?"
Roselia's eyes widened at the sudden laugh.
Leonier, who had been weeping like the world had ended moments ago, was now doubled over, bursting into laughter.
"Ahahaha! Oh man... I can't even."
"W-Why are you laughing? Did I mess up somewhere?"
"No, no. It's just... he hasn't changed a bit."
Leonier wiped tears from her eyes, chuckling.
She'd realized Roselia's boastful tale of triumph was actually her being played by Noxion's deadpan acting.
'That mischievous streak of yours is still there, unchanged.'
For some reason, the currently icy Noxion overlapped with the warm man from her past life.
He was still him.
Memories might be gone, but his essence hadn't changed.
"Thanks for welcoming me so kindly even though I showed up crying my eyes out, Roselia. And thanks to you, I've got my courage back."
Leonier gazed at Roselia with a much lighter expression.
Now she understood.
There was no need to fear telling him the truth.
He was already prepared to accept the different.
"Uh... yeah? Glad I could help?"
Roselia tilted her head, utterly baffled, but smiled back since Leonier seemed cheered up.
That was when it happened.
Bang bang bang—!
A frantic pounding shook the room.
"Your Highness! Lady! This is bad!"
The maid's voice from outside sounded gravely off.
"What is it?"
As Roselia opened the door, the pale-faced maid gasped out.
"The duke...! The duke collapsed in his study!"
"What...?!"
Roselia and Leonier's faces hardened simultaneously.