Transmigrated Into A Tragic Romance Fantasy-Chapter 85: A Healing Evening (1)

“Whether you saw or not, please pretend you didn’t see anything!”

...I got the former Rachel, but I’ve no idea what you meant by that last part.

Isn’t it not seeing it the same as pretending to not have seen it...?

In a rare moment of wisdom, I decided to simply bow my head and not say anything, picking up her towel that had floated in the water.

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Rachel quickly snatched the towel and covered herself.

However, she didn’t seem to realize I could still see her body in the water mirror.

You see, common sense dictates that I should tightly shut off my eyes, but my male instincts won the battle as I found myself utterly petrified, forced to keep staring at the water’s reflection.

......She’s truly a goddess incarnate...

The gently rippling water only accentuated her body’s voluptuous curves.

Was that how Actaeon felt when he peeked at Artemis?

Hell, if the village chief saw this, I have no doubts he would have gone around the town boasting that his ‘family heirloom’ was truly the bath of the gods.

Thus, I was forced(?) to keep staring at the naked body on the water’s surface....

Just like that, my first mixed bathing experience came to an end...

Rachel, after wrapping herself with the towel, fled with a hasty goodbye.

“I...I’ll be going first...!”

“Sure...”

Only then did I raise my head, but I quickly realized this was another mistake(?).

“......My Teacher is unexpectedly clumsy.”

I muttered while watching Rachel’s backside, her...bottom half exposed jiggling with each step taken, since she somehow failed to properly cover that...Large and bubbling area.

Since I considered myself a rather decent person, I wanted to warn her about jiggling hills being exposed, but fearing a misunderstanding that could end up with me being harmed, I remained silent.

Sometimes in life, pretending to be clueless is more useful than being vigilant.

“I guess I should get out too.”

After confirming that Rachel had completely truly left, I rose from the hot spring.

Anything in excess can be harmful, after all.

My muscles would literally turn to mush should I stay any longer, and this seemed enough for a first-time experience in a hot spring.

The sky was already turning dark.

With evening approaching, the time to eat an excellent meal prepared by Lumia was drawing near.

So, I left the hot spring and headed to the second floor of the lodging.

And then,

“Your Grace?”

I encountered Lumia, lingering in front of a door.

[Room 4]

The door leading to my room.

And in Lumia’s hand, was a single sheet of paper.

**

While everyone was taking time to unwind from their journey, Lumia sat at a desk, writing something.

It was her thoughts on what she had seen and heard today, and...

《I’m truly sorry.》

An apology for the past.

For the days when she denied that a ‘Villain’ could have changed.

For the days when she persistently harassed and oppressed, the ‘Villain’ who had withdrawn.

For when she clawed and drew blood from a man resolved to wander the country and settle his past evil deeds.

The paper was filled with apologies for the past.

Lumia also wrote down her apologies for not believing the rumors of him saving a mother and her child from a violent man on the day of the Grand Ducal Bethothal, because of her misguided belief that one’s nature couldn’t change.

Now, in her mind, she could imagine and picture various scenes of Elden.

Among them, a memory burned brighter than most, it was when Elden defeated a band of bandits, going out of his way to root out their hideout, rescuing the people held captive there, and bringing them back to their families...

She remembered his warm smile seeing the people he saved reuniting with their families.

That smile.

A smile so gentle and pure that just seeing it, cleansed her heart.

Elden seemed to have set aside his noble dignity as he warmly comforted those thanking him, even allowing commoners to embrace him with tear-filled eyes or runny noses.

Lumia was certain that the old Elden would have massacred any commoner who ‘dared’ to approach him in such a manner.

I didn’t know a person could change this much...

Now she believed in his transformation.

She admitted that her beliefs had been wrong.

And because of that, she felt ashamed.

Unlike her, who made a series of mistakes by clinging to the past, Elden was walking towards the future, fulfilling his promise to settle his past misdeeds by riding the winds of change.

Unlike her, who had become wretched and shabby, Elden was becoming a grand and legendary figure.

But when she saw his smile and felt the warmth of his embrace in her time of need... she understood something.

She realized why she had been so interested and fixated on his behavior since he declared his withdrawal from the final round of the Grand Ducal Betrothal.

That the actions she thought were a facade were actually the ideal she had hoped for.

She now clearly understood her obsessive denial of his kind demeanor.

His actions of directly helping injured maids instead of flaunting noble authority, abandoning debauchery, striving for a sound future, and treating people as individuals rather than by their social status had seemed too good to be true.

It was because she couldn’t believe that Elden was becoming the very embodiment of her ideal.

The words spoken by Marien when she worked on her hair prior to the private meeting also came to mind...

《...My Lady, there are many things I’m not sure about, but... Perhaps you’re acknowledging something subconsciously?》

Marien tried to answer her self-deprecating questions about why she clung to a ‘Villain’ like Elden.

At the time, she had dismissed it as nonsense, but perhaps Marien had seen through the hidden feelings in her heart.

That the changed behavior Elden Raphelion showed right after his withdrawal declaration was the type of man wished for.

《E-Even if that’s the case...It doesn’t justify my obsession. That couldn’t be the sole reason I’ve been clinging to him. If I had acknowledged something like this, then that should have been the end of it》

《My Lady, haven’t you mentioned this yourself?》

《...What?》

《That you would marry the participant who either sincerely repents for his sins...Or the one who remains unrepentant till the end.》

《T-That...》

《Perhaps you’ve unknowingly selected Elden as your partner because he has shown signs of repentance?》

《M-Me? Marry someone like Elden? N-No! That...That’s completely absurd... It can’t be.》

A lump formed in her throat.

Lumia’s pen paused for a bit as she recalled her conversation with Marien.

Remembering the warm touch that had stroked her hair that day, she absently ran her fingers through her hair.

Her eyes trembled as tears began to form, and her breathing became more erratic, but regardless of her inner turmoil, Lumia began writing again.

Apologies and reflections.

Though she wished to convey their sincerity with her voice, she couldn’t wait, fearing her current emotions might dull and fade.

As such, that single sheet of paper became filled to the brim with the words she wished to convey.

Carefully holding that single sheet of paper, Lumia arrived at Elden’s door.

Knock, knock-.

No response to her knock.

It seemed his bath wasn’t over yet.

For some inexplicable reason, she felt anxious, biting her lip and pacing back and forth in front of the door for a while.

“Your Grace?”

Startled, Lumia turned towards the voice that called her.

“......!!”

“Ah, my apologies, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Faced with his long-awaited presence, Lumia instinctively hid what she had written behind her back.

Ashamed of only now acknowledging the sincerity of his withdrawal, and embarrassed to be apologizing so late, she concealed the paper.

“...? Did you have something to tell me?”

Those unaccustomed to deceit often appear unnatural when trying to hide something.

Noticing her strange actions, Elden questioned Lumia, as she bit her lips and revealed what she had hidden.

A single sheet of paper fluttered into view.

Elden’s face only grew more perplexed as he received the paper.

“What...would this be?”

Lumia hurriedly flashed her notebook and wrote something.

[ I wanted to apologize. In truth, I wished to tell you this in my own words...But I can’t...And I don’t even know when or if, my voice will return...so, I wrote you this.]

“......”

Truthfully, for Elden, any resentment from those days was already buried under the six months of his Culinary Journey.

They were both equally wronged victims that day, after all.

He thought there was nothing for one victim to apologize to another for, but understanding what Lumia wanted to convey, he silently began to read what he had received.

And then,

“......”

Lumia, standing before him, flinched at every single micro-expression that passed through his face.

Every breath, every gesture, every movement of his brows....

Her fingers twitched through all of this, and such a moment seemed to stretch forever.

Would he forgive her?

Or not?

Caught in such a crossroads, Lumia suffered under the tense silence that ensued.

“......”

Then,

Plink-

Plop-.

When two droplets fell onto the sheet of paper containing Lumia’s most sincere feelings, her pupils dilated beyond their limits.

“E-El...den...?”

For the first time since losing her voice, she uttered a word.

Through her long silent throat rasped at being used again, and her voice wavered,

Those words were spoken.

For she could clearly see tears rolling down Elden’s cheeks.

Plop.

The words written as a form of apology began to blur moistly.

“W-wh... wh-y...?”