“Really?”
Edith tried to conceal her joy, tightening her lips. If she did not, she was certain to let out a strange exclamation.
She felt as if she could escape from the mansion as early as tomorrow if this suspicious stableman would help her.
“I’ll make sure you don’t regret your decision, Walter.”
Her face, soaked in joy, drew slightly closer to him. Her necklace and earrings, tinged with a light violet hue like her voluminous dress, quivered slightly. Her clear, watercolored eyes sparkled, filled with a welcoming expression.
Walter, for a moment, felt as though time was moving slowly, then returned to reality.
“First, get on the horse.”
Edith, who had not obeyed Hans when he had urged her to get on the horse, did not feel any resistance when Walter was the one asking. He was an ally.
As she was about to mount the horse as she had learned in her youth, Edith hesitated momentarily. She hadn’t worn a dress with such a voluminous hem before and didn’t know how to position her foot.
“Just a moment.”
“……!”
Walter, after confirming once again that no one was around, lifted Edith onto the horse’s saddle.
Feeling his strong arms, chest, and warm body temperature as he lightly lifted her, Edith’s breath stopped for a moment.
From Walter, a scent like a damp deep forest wafted. It was definitely a fragrance she had smelled before.
‘It smelled just like this when Isaac hugged me.’
Whether it was a line of illusion of resemblance or because she was walking through a garden drenched in rain, the same scent came from Walter.
“Today we have a place to visit, so we’ll talk while we move.”
Walter grabbed the reins and began to walk toward the western garden of the mansion. Edith, seated sideways in the saddle, feeling the horse’s leisurely movement, asked,
“Walter. Is there something I need to know to help you?”
“What you need to know.”
It was a distant question. Walter paused for a moment to consider how much he should tell her and how much he should hide before answering.
“My weaknesses held by the Duke are two. One is memory, one is the cursed binding magic.”
“Memory and binding magic?”
Walter explained that the Duke had brought him to the mansion as a stableman when he was in his midteens, and when he woke up in the Duke’s shack, all his previous memories were gone.
“There was nothing I could remember, and the clothes were already changed by the Duke, so there was no chance of having any belongings.”
“Amnesia?”
“Externally, yes. But the Duke always said he could restore my memory.”
Edith concentrated on his words. To restore memory. That sounded more like magic.
“Nicholas, that boy, said he needed something to do that, and to wait until he found it but…….”
“Then he finally said he found it and came back in a coma.”
Walter affirmed with a face as if chewing something.
“Binding magic is just a magic that confines the subject to a specific area. I don’t know what magic was used when I was first brought here, but I can’t leave the mansion.”
“……All the way from childhood?”
“About 7 years now.”
“My goodness.”
Edith unwittingly expressed her sympathy.
She felt like she was going crazy less than a week after being kidnapped, but 7 years?
“Well, in the meantime, I’ve pleased the master and mistresses as a diligent servant, so I guess it’s been rewarding even though I’ve been a tiedup colt.”
“…….”
You pleased them? Knowing that Walter had been devoted to sword training and had attacked the Duke, Edith was flabbergasted. She soullessly agreed.
“Yeah. There must have been some satisfaction.”
At that, Walter let out a small laugh.
“You’re sympathizing with me to that extent?”
“Hmm…….”
“The choice to protect my memory was mine, so it doesn’t matter. You may think it’s a pitiful decision.”
Walter answered in a tone that suggested he didn’t care. He had been asked the same question so many times by the Duke’s servants, including Cassius, that it was beyond counting.
“Walter. Focusing only on breaking the barrier will give you far more to do than dwelling on memories. Isn’t it better to escape from here and forget everything to start a new life?”
It was a reasonable suggestion, and Walter himself often found it ludicrous to cling to memories while preserving his own work that had made a huge flaw in his life.
But Edith’s reaction was a little different from what he had expected.
“I don’t think it’s a poor decision. Memories, especially the memories of childhood, can be a force to keep a person going.”
Even when she had lost her parents, and even when she had to open a book late at night after working at the clinic, Edith drew strength by recalling her childhood.
It was the same even after she was unknowingly sold to Jak and caught in Sophia’s filthy pregnancy scheme.
Her father who was always sick but gentle, and her strong mother. Isaac and Lady Leah, who came like a shower one day and then left…
“……”
After she finished speaking, she felt Walter’s gaze staring straight at her face. Edith added, thinking she might have offended him,
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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