Chapter 313
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As soon as they arrived at the lodging, Ash kept the promise he had made with Nina.
Not only did he send a letter to the administrator, he also ordered the guard knights, in the familyâs name, to arrange lodging for the homeless.
She had been worried she might have troubled dreams, so this was truly a relief.
âThey say outside the blanket is dangerousâŚâ
It wasnât as though she didnât know that leaving a warm home would make things hard on her mentally.
For someone like her, who remembered freezing to death in her previous life, going out in winter was no different from poison.
Wasnât that exactly why, whenever winter came, she had shut herself indoors all day except on unavoidable occasions?
Because the memory of that day, something she couldnât possibly forget even after reincarnating, slowly gnawed away at her mind.
So, it wasnât something she hadnât expected, butâŚ
In the modern world, she had at least been able to separate her previous life from her present one.
Winter, faced in the very world that had been the backdrop of her death, was simply hell.
ââŚUgh, I want to go home.â
The ducal residence of House Bayern was a kind of fortress.
The keywords that triggered her trauma were âcoldâ and âwinterâ.
To free herself from them, she had filled it to the brim with warmth, so if that wasnât a fortress, what was?
But because she had left home at the very time when the cold was at its fiercest, the anxiety that had lain sunken deep in her consciousness rose again.
âŚThe anxiety that the cold, which had taken everything from her, might once again plunder what was hers.
This was probably trauma stemming from her desperate life on the streets and the memory of dying so miserably.
âGet a grip. Thereâs no need to deliberately dig up a painful past.â
Her family was in the capital, and Rebecca was there too.
If she got buried in the past, all it would do was worry the people around her or hand a weakness to her enemy.
âMadam, are you alright?â
âHm?â
ââŚYou havenât looked well for a while now.â
See, how long had it even been since they left home, and Marsha had already noticed?
âI think itâs because I woke up too early this morning.â
âYouâll feel much better if you warm yourself up with something hot. Just wait a moment.â
After unpacking the luggage in the guest room, Marsha promptly brought her some night tea.
âThis is ginger tea Jessie packed for you. In the morning, Iâll bring you the lemon honey tea Head Maid prepared.â
âThank you.â
Nina sipped the warm ginger tea.
As warmth spread from her throat down into her stomach, her sunken mood improved quite a bit.
âWhen I look at things like this, a lot really has changed from my previous life.â
It wasnât only her relationship with her husband.
A maid whose existence she hadnât even known in her previous life had given her homemade tea, thinking of her health.
And that included Melanie.
âMore than that, the most amazing thing isâŚâ
That Marsha was alive like this.
âMarsha, at least your retirement, Iâll take responsibility for it.â
Firmly making that vow without Marsha knowing, Nina finished getting ready for bed.
It was a luxury hotel, but perhaps because it had been reserved under House Bayernâs name, the heating in the room was as thorough as in a noble estate.
Nina slipped herself under the covers.
While Ash had gone to bathe.
And even Marsha, who had volunteered to keep her company, left her side, she felt lonely.
Other people said they were affected by spring, or affected by autumn.
âSo how is it that Iâm affected by winter?â
At times like this, she found herself wishing she had a more easygoing personality.
So much time had passed already.
And yet, she felt pathetic for still being unable to escape the past every winter, as though it were an annual event.
How long had she been sitting there hugging her knees under the covers?
Her husband, having finished showering, lay down on the bed.
Perhaps he didnât intend for them to indulge in themselves tonight, because after slipping into bed, he simply closed his eyes while pulling her into his arms from behind.
Normally, maybe.
But they had even gotten a hotel for once after so long, and he was going to spend the night like this?
Nina pointed her toes and gently stroked up his firm calf.
As she secretly traced upward along the line of muscle as solid as a stallionâs, Ash pulled in his lower abdomen and said,
ââŚWife, we still have a long way to go.â
Ash warned her in a voice so low it made the fine hairs rise on her skin, but Nina found his consideration displeasing.
Usually, even when she said she was tired, he still clung to her, so why be considerate on a gloomy day like today?
On a day like thisâŚ
Rather, she wanted to awaken to reality through something that never could have happened in her previous life.
The reality that so much had changed, and that the end of this life she had newly gained would never be the same as before.
