Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 223

‘What was that?’

Irene tilted her head, listening in the direction the sound was coming from. It was seeping out from the bathroom.

Beyond the slightly open door, she could hear the gentle sloshing of water, accompanied by a repeated lapping sound.

‘Could it be a dog?’

But in such a high-end inn, it was unlikely they would allow guests’ dogs to roam freely in the rooms.

Then… was there someone else in there?

Tensing up, Irene cautiously raised her voice.

“Is someone there?”

“……”

At that moment, the sound that had been echoing suddenly stopped.

Irene, too, held her breath, straining to detect any presence beyond the door. But no matter how long she waited, the lapping noise did not resume.

Eventually, exhausted by her growing headache and fatigue, Irene lay back down on the bed.

‘Was it a sound from another room?’

It had been too clear for that, but there were no signs of movement inside the bathroom either.

Now that her mind had cleared somewhat, she scanned the room again.

Something felt off—it was too quiet.

And that was when she noticed that Michael was nowhere to be seen.

‘Where did he go?’

In this life, he hardly ever left her alone unless it was for a dungeon subjugation.

The space without him felt particularly silent, so Irene deliberately rustled the blanket, creating a sound to fill the stillness.

In her past life, such silence had been the norm. But when had it become natural for someone to always be by her side?

It wasn’t just Michael.

There were Reyna and Cynthia, Riosa and the other Purifiers, the knights who visited frequently, and even the fortress staff.

Even the priests from the temple would occasionally come by.

Because of that, this life had always been bustling, filled with noise and the presence of others.

At first, it had felt strange. But now… the silence was what felt unnatural.

She lay there, inspecting herself.

The damp, sweat-soaked clothes she had worn all day yesterday were gone.

Instead, she was now dressed in crisp, freshly laundered cotton pajamas.

And the sticky discomfort of sweat had all but disappeared from her body.

‘Michael must have changed me.’

Irene desperately tried to piece together her fragmented memories from last night.

Her past life and reality blurred together so chaotically that she could hardly tell which life she was living.

She only remembered feeling cold, exhausted, and terrified.

She vaguely recalled Michael’s voice—telling her to wake up, asking if she was okay—and she thought she had cried and screamed at him to go away.

She had pushed him away with all her strength.

‘Michael must have been really startled.’

For a moment last night, she had panicked, convinced that he too possessed memories of the past, just like her.

But now, bathed in the morning sunlight, she realized how absurd that thought had been.

‘If he really remembered, there’s no way he’d be treating me so kindly.’

The Michael of her past and the Michael of her present were completely different people.

They only shared the same face.

That was all.

Even his apology for the past must have been a misunderstanding—perhaps he had only said it to comfort her in her distressed state.

So, it wouldn’t be right to blame the current Michael for the sorrows of her past.

Irene wiped her face with both hands and got out of bed.

She was parched from crying too much.

Thinking she should drink some water, she approached the table—where a simple breakfast had been laid out.

Next to it was a note.

[ I stepped out for a moment. I’ve left a light meal for you, so if you wake up, please eat.

-Michael- ]

‘A light meal, he says…’

Seeing the table overflowing with food, Irene let out a small laugh.

If this was considered light, then a proper meal would require renting out an entire restaurant.

The bread was her favorite soft white bread, and the eggs were cooked exactly the way she liked them.

There was perfectly crisp bacon and jams she always enjoyed with her bread.

Even the fruit, tucked neatly in the corner, was prepared to her exact preferences.

In her past life, she never would have been able to receive a meal like this.

Irene sat down and picked up the glass of water.

As she swallowed the cool liquid, a refreshing chill spread through her body, clearing her mind.

Perhaps because of that, she realized something—

Before she had lost consciousness, her body had been so frozen that even moving her fingers had been painful.

But now, as she flexed her fingers…

There was no pain.

It was as if the agony from last night had never existed.

Irene stretched and organized her thoughts.

‘First, I should apologize to Michael for startling him when he gets back.’

To him, she must have seemed irrational—crying and pushing him away for no reason.

And knowing him, even now, he was probably worrying about her while he was away.

‘…I like the Michael of now.’

A Michael who cared for her and worried about her.

So, she wouldn’t burden him with the resentments of her past.

‘Come to think of it… I completely forgot about taking that metal fragment to the Hand of Appraisal.’

Perhaps it was because she had been reminiscing about her past for the first time in a while.

The metal fragment she had left behind at the fortress suddenly came to mind.

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