Thought It Was 'The End', Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 188

Adeline’s destination upon her return wasn’t the Blanchard estate, nor the Bertrand estate, but the single-story house where she had been confined until recently.

With no servants around, it was far more comfortable, but she couldn’t understand why they’d chosen this place specifically.

“It’s convenient, but still…”

“Just bear with it for a little while.”

“Shane. What about my parents?”

Shane paused as he stepped into the room. What’s with him? Adeline spoke up.

“You can come in.”

“They’ve gone back. They thought your rest came first.”

“…Surely, they didn’t whisk away the culprit, did they…?”

“Who knows.”

“Don’t let them become criminals, please.”

Who knows, maybe that would become a flag for something too…

‘Oh, right. That doesn’t happen anymore.’

Maybe it never did in the first place.

If she didn’t have nightmares tonight, it would be proof that all the possibilities prepared for Adeline’s future had vanished.

But even if the nightmares hadn’t ended, that would be okay.

Whatever awaited her, there was no use hiding or avoiding it. It had taken her far too long to realize that.

Shane continued his explanation.

“You’ll have to stay here for a while.”

“I don’t mind, but why?”

“We decided to keep the fact that you and Genevieve were kidnapped a secret. The Imperial Guard being compromised by a spy would damage the prestige of the imperial family, so Her Majesty the Empress herself ordered silence on the matter. Thanks to that, Genevieve gets to kill her husband with her own hands.”

Just thinking of Genevieve left a bitter taste in her mouth. Adeline couldn’t shake the guilt that her own circumstances had ruined Genevieve’s life.

If Genevieve knew she was thinking this way, she’d probably be angry again.

“Thank you for doing this for me, Shane.”

“For you, I’d do anything.”

“…Why are you so happy…?”

“Hm, why would that be?”

Shane placed a kiss on the ends of Adeline’s damp hair.

‘Surely there are still unresolved matters.’

There were quite a few secrets he was hiding.

Even without prying, Adeline had resolved to lay everything bare once it was all over.

She couldn’t even begin to guess where or how to start explaining, but if she pretended forever not to know, she felt she wouldn’t be able to move forward or back.

And watching Shane act as if one ‘I like you’ made everything else irrelevant filled her with renewed guilt.

It was as if the fierce battles, even enduring captivity, were all lies. What happened to the person who insisted that no secrets could stay buried if they were to move forward?

She thought she’d shown her feelings quite obviously, despite not saying them aloud, yet it seemed none of it had reached Shane.

He’d been telling her he liked her hundreds, thousands of times since they were kids.

Though that hadn’t been the case recently.

“You said you were sick of it and that it was annoying…”

Adeline let Shane take a towel and begin drying her hair.

“Did that bother you?”

“Well, you said I was yours, alive or dead. You claimed you’d never lied.”

“I did say I wouldn’t let you go even in death.”

If he meant that literally, it was frightening in its own way.

Someday, after she died, if Shane preserved her body through some special method, she wouldn’t even be surprised.

‘No, don’t imagine that. The genre will change to horror…’

She chose not to dwell on the sincerity that was all too evident in his blue eyes. The important thing was that Shane seemed happy. He looked like he was about to hum.

Actually, he was humming.

“You really had no idea that I liked you?”

They say love, a sneeze, and poverty can’t be hidden, but Adeline seemed to have hidden it too well.

Turning, she embraced Shane.

“It seemed more like you pitied me.”

“Come on, not even I would cuddle up with someone just because I pitied them…”

“I don’t know. Since we were young, you’ve taken people in out of pity, and you’ve even kissed them.”

“…Wait, you’re not still talking about the kiss I gave Genevieve, are you?”

He still remembered her kissing Genevieve on the forehead and calling her pretty while washing her. It had been years ago.

When Adeline looked at Shane in astonishment, he raised an eyebrow as if it would be strange to forget.

“How could I forget seeing you kiss someone right in front of me?”

“…Let’s just drop it…”

Her sweet fiancé had evolved from a tenacious kidnapper to an annoying husband.

Whether it was an evolution or devolution was uncertain.

*

There were no nightmares.

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