Chapter 66
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: 10. The Dam That Broke Without Warning
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Though Ethan didn't show it, he was growing more anxious the longer he was trapped in our house.
Still, with the passage of time, the number of monsters around the mansion had dwindled significantly.
But the few that lingered before the stone gate showed no signs of leaving.
‘What the hell is with those things? Did I spread honey on the gate or something?’
I just couldn't figure it out.
‘Anyway…’
I wonder where Harrison is.
I thought to myself every day as I climbed onto the roof and surveyed the town with my binoculars.
I was sure Harrison would find his way to Happy House safely. I had to believe it—I was the one who’d asked him to come.
He had always put me first. Of course, that was only until he married Knox's sister, Isabella.
‘He was my first love.’
I muttered, peering at the town through the binoculars.
Harrison had been my first love back in my adolescent years. What did I like about him…? His face?
But I put those feelings neatly aside when he married Isabella. I call it a first love, but in truth, what I felt for Harrison was closer to a schoolgirl’s admiration.
Harrison never saw me as a woman, either. He probably never even thought to put me in that category.
In any case, I got along quite well with Isabella, Knox’s sister and Harrison’s wife. There was no reason not to like her—she was pretty, kind, and an absolute beauty.
Her death was a huge shock, not just for Harrison, but for me as well.
Of course, since she’d suffered from a chronic illness for a long time, her death had been somewhat expected. Still, how could you not be devastated when someone you love passes away?
As I said, I thought of Isabella as family. Since she was Harrison's wife, she was my family, too.
“There you are.”
Just then, Knox hopped lightly onto the roof.
“Were you looking for me? Why?”
I asked without taking my eyes from the binoculars.
I sensed a presence next to me. It seemed Knox had taken a seat. Only then did I lower the binoculars and turn to look at him.
Ugh.
For a brief moment, my head spun. It felt like vertigo.
It was such a fleeting sensation that I thought nothing of it. I quickly composed myself and added good-naturedly.
“As a matter of fact, I was just thinking about you, Mr. Ludpersher.”
Knox looked surprised at that.
“About me? Why…?”
“Because I was missing Isabella.”
At my words, Knox fell silent. The polite, social mask he wore vanished from his face.
Hmm. Witnessing that significant change in his expression, I recalled Isabella and Harrison’s wedding.
Back then, I never would have guessed that the woman about to marry our family’s lawyer was the sister of the second male lead in *Love in a Ruined World*, the very novel I’d been reborn into.
Laying it all out like that, I realized Knox and I were connected in a surprisingly complicated way.
“Why didn't you attend the reception at the wedding?”
I asked something I had been secretly curious about for a long time. Knox had only made a brief appearance at Isabella’s wedding before disappearing.
That was why I said he and I were ‘almost’ strangers.
Knox had never once attended a family event with the Marquess Ludpersher's household.
His reason for always being absent was that he was too busy as a promising, elite doctor.
“I believe I explained the reason back then. I was too busy.”
Answering thus, Knox fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a lollipop. He then offered one to me.
When I shook my head to decline, he shrugged and put it back in his pocket.
He unwrapped his own lollipop and stuck it in his mouth.
Watching him, I remembered how he’d asked for a pack of cigarettes at the grocery store. He’d been smoking on the clock tower, too.
“Come to think of it, didn't you say you were done with quitting? Something about smoking yourself into an early grave.”
Of course, he hadn’t put it quite like that. At my words, Knox, with the lollipop still in his mouth, gave a beautiful smile.