I Was Happy to Be Dumped by My Fiancé, But Something Seems Off - Episode 49

Bertina let out a sigh, stretched her arms as far as she could, and caught sight of the clock at the edge of her vision.

“It’s gotten quite late, hasn’t it?”

“You’ve been working with intense concentration. Time just flew by.”

“Argent.”

A cold was spreading through the royal capital. Highly contagious, even Bertina and her father, who had recovered from that incident six months prior, had caught it and were bedridden for about four days. Fortunately, neither suffered any aftereffects. Bertina, tackling the backlog of official duties immediately after breakfast, decided to take a break and stopped working.

“And Father?”

“The Duke was resting until a little while ago and has now resumed his work. Bertina, you should take a break too.”

Even though it was only four days, the pile of documents was enormous. While they were incapacitated, the butler and Argent had divided the work and handled it, but as they weren’t the heads of the household, they couldn’t make the difficult decisions.

When Argent moved behind her and massaged her shoulders, he made a rude comment, “They’re stiff, like rocks,” so she lightly pinched his palm.

“I’ll get angry, you know.”

“Not the line to say before laying a hand on me. I’ll bring tea and cake once the massage is done.”

“Thank you.”

Her overworked shoulders were probably as stiff as Argent said; being massaged enveloped her in an indescribable happiness. She almost felt like falling asleep right then and there. Bertina let out a small yawn and suddenly started laughing.

“Laughing all of a sudden—what’s up?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing.”

Her brother Bianco, along with their cousin Clarissa, had been sent to their grandparents’ territory, so it was officially decided that she would be the next head of the Annaloro family. Back when she was Crown Prince Riet’s fiancée, she wasn’t allowed to so much as yawn except when she was alone with Argent. Even now, though it was just the two of them, she occasionally let one slip. She must have let her guard down, but fatigue had accumulated without her realizing it.

Before catching the cold, Bertina had visited her mother’s family home with her father. The aftereffects of Aunt Agnes’s enchantment still tormented and drove her mother mad. Her mother’s family suspected why only her father had regained his sense of self, even though he had been deeply affected by the enchantment too, but they deliberately kept silent.

“The other day, we went to see Mother, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Mother, she was living in a dream. Since the culprit, Agnes, had loved her father the most, and Bertina resembled him closely, showing their faces would risk disturbing her mother’s hard-earned peaceful life again. So, they were only permitted to view the annex where her mother was recuperating from the outside. Coincidentally, her mother was in the garden, taking a walk with her maid.

“Mother in the garden was holding a doll.”

She was carefully holding a baby doll dressed in pure white swaddling clothes, occasionally talking to it—her profile was that of a mother. When they approached just close enough to hear her voice, her mother was smiling at the maid.

‘Bertina seems to be in a good mood today. Hehe, I want her to grow up quickly so I can do lots of things with her.’

‘My very, very precious Bertina. Mother will always be by your side.’

As far as Bertina could remember, every word directed at her by her mother had been an attack on her. Why don’t you dote on Clarissa? Why don’t you adore Bianco? You’re not cute enough, the examples were endless.

The words and gaze her mother directed at the doll she believed was Bertina. Bertina didn’t know them.

Even though she understood logically that it was because of Agnes’s enchantment, her heart let out a faint scream. Even though she had told her father during the carriage ride that nothing could shake her now. Not wanting him to see her teary eyes, she rubbed them hard with her sleeve, and a warm hand rested on her head.

It was her father’s hand, beside her.

‘Bertina. You don’t have to hold back your tears. That was a real scene.’

‘…Huh?’

‘I remember it well. Out of fear of losing you, Catarina didn’t leave your care entirely to the wet nurse; she did what she could herself. Just like that, she would often hold you, go out into the garden, and talk to you.’

‘…’

At her father’s words, watching her mother with a gaze tinged with guilt yet also nostalgia and affection, Bertina this time couldn’t stop her tears.

“If Aunt Agnes hadn’t used her enchantment, there would have been a different future. But…”

Mother, father, brother, and herself—a future where the four of them lived happily together certainly existed. But all that was destroyed by Agnes. What was broken either returned to its original state over time or never returned at all.

She took Argent’s hand resting on her shoulder and looked up at him.

“I don’t wish to return to the past. If I went back to the past, it would be me, but I’d become a different me. More than anything, I wouldn’t have picked up Argent.”

“I feel the same.”

Stopping the shoulder massage, Argent hugged Bertina from behind as she sat in her office chair and touched his lips to her cheek.

“I’m glad I met Bertina. It keeps me from being bored, after all.”

“Oh? Would you leave if you got bored?”

“Of course not. I have no intention of returning to the demon world now, and I don’t want to stop being Bertina’s attendant to work elsewhere.”

“There’s always the option of becoming Clarissa’s lover, you know?”

“Stop that.”

Even after being sent to the territory, letters regularly arrived from Bianco and Clarissa.

Bianco’s letters insisted that no one but him could assist Bertina and asked her to persuade their father to let him return to the royal capital.

Clarissa’s letters demanded that Argent be sent to the territory.

“Clarissa still hasn’t given up on making Argent her lover, has she?”

“She married your brother, right? Even I, a demon, am totally put off by the idea of taking a lover right after getting married.”

“I had the impression that demons were more likely to have multiple lovers besides their legal wife?”

“That’s prejudice. Well, it’s not unheard of. But I’m a devoted demon.”

He didn’t deny the prejudice about demons, seemingly wanting to avoid changing her image of him, and emphasized his point. Bertina laughed cheerfully.

“I know. If Argent were the type to fool around, he’d have gone to Clarissa long ago.”

“That’s a harsh way to put it. I’ve been with Bertina longer than with my own family, you know.”

“Sorry.”

Bertina apologized to Argent, who had adopted a slightly sulky tone, but she was still amused and couldn’t stop laughing. Argent gave a wry smile behind her, resting his cheek against her golden hair.

“Here, let’s have some tea and cake. I bought them from that shop you like.”

“Thank you.”

As Argent moved away, Bertina stood up from her seat.

She glanced back, took Argent’s hand, and they left the office together.