I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 48

Even when she was under suspicion, Edith remained calm and cool as she analyzed the case.

The fact that Lizé’s room was empty was something that Killian and Cliff were also feeling sensitive about.

He had told Edith that it had only been empty for a short time, but it had actually been empty for a long time.

But the fact that Edith, who wouldn’t have known that, was so quick to suspect the artisan merchant, made Killian realize that she couldn’t be the culprit.

If Edith was a stupid poisoner, as the Ludwigs thought she was, she would have floundered and made up a bunch of excuses when she was accused.

But Edith behaved calmly, as if it had nothing to do with her, and her subsequent reasoning was plausible.

It all fit together when she suspected that Count Sinclair was behind this.

They hate both Lizé and the Riegelhoffs.

If Edith had caused Lizé’s death or injury, the Sinclairs might have used Lizé’s safety as an excuse to get something out of the Ludwigs.

‘If that’s true…… Edith has been suspected and insulted while being innocent of anything.’

Edith has always maintained that she was not the culprit, but she is often named as the sole suspect.

What if it was a ruse by the Sinclairs……?

The thought alone made Killian’s breath catch in his throat.

Maybe that’s why he’d been so blind to the easy assumptions.

But it was too soon to offer an apology; nothing had been revealed yet.

Instead, I just kept arguing with her.

It’s a strange thing, but the more I talked to Edith, the more I found myself wanting to scratch at her insides, to provoke her, to shamelessly confront her.

“Don’t think I don’t know that much, you hurt my pride.”

“I offered to risk my life, and you didn’t believe me; can you imagine how I felt?”

“I believe in you and the Duke, too, though to be more honest, I don’t think you’d find me worth the effort.”

The way Edith responded to the rude provocation without losing her temper was, to put it bluntly, charming.

‘Was she like this?’

I’d only known her through rumors.

And that was enough for me.

I admit it. I was arrogant.

The Edith he’d only met face-to-face as they prepared to marry was nothing like the rumored one he had known.

Except for her sensual, seductive looks of course.

“I am Edith Ludwig. Do you think I’ll be jealous of another woman just because I want a man’s love? Don’t get me wrong.”

When Edith lifted her chin in a sneering way, Killian couldn’t help but kiss her, which was even more thrilling than the “rumors” he’d heard.

If he’d held back any longer, he might have knocked Edith to the floor and clung to her like a beast.

The crisis was swept under the rug with the ridiculous excuse, “I just wanted to,” but his pathetic lust hadn’t gone away, it was just waiting for the right time.

When he heard that Edith’s probation had been lifted as of today, he waited outside Renon’s office just in time to see her at work.

He wanted to check on her under the guise of coincidence.

‘I’m just going in and asking to see the tax receipts for the Ryzen estate for the last year. That would be natural enough.’

Even as he thought of this excuse, he didn’t realize that something was wrong with him.

After taking several deep breaths, he slowly and silently opened the door to the office, and what he saw through the opening made him stand tall.

“I’m sorry, just give me a little time, it’ll stop, it’ll stop soon.”

Edith was crying.

Her tears were falling so fast that she looked embarrassed and tried to run away.

Renon approached her.

“You don’t have to suppress your emotions like you’re being hunted. If you don’t let them out, they’re bound to burst at some point.”

“Renon……”

“You have been working so fast that there is plenty of time, so you can do it as slowly as you like.”

And with that, Renon handed her a handkerchief and went back to his work casually like a mature adult.

Edith buried her face in Renon’s handkerchief behind the pillar and paused for a moment, taking several deep breaths to steady herself.

And before she left the pillar, Edith practiced pulling the corners of her mouth up into a smile, just as she had done around the corner at the Ermenia mansion……

“I’m fine now, thank you for your understanding, Renon. What do I do next?”

Her smile came much more naturally than she had practiced, and she took the task from Renon.

Killian couldn’t quite get into it, and he pulled back.

‘That was…… practicing your smile.’

At the bazaar, after Shane left, he saw her smiling strangely in front of the mirror and wondered what the hell she was doing.

Her eyes weren’t smiling at all, but she was trying her best to pull up the corners of her mouth.

‘She was…… practicing her smile.’

I remembered Edith coming around the corner and smiling nonchalantly.

My stomach knotted.

My head, which had been fine for days, was starting to hurt again.

Killian pressed hard against his throbbing temple and tried to think of something else.

The first thing that came to mind was Renon handing Edith a handkerchief.

‘Could it be that Renon seduced Edith? No, no way…… he was just being a gentleman. He only took out the handkerchief because Edith was crying. Edith seduced Renon.’

As was his habit, the thought of reprimanding Edith made his headache better.

He hadn’t realized it, but his pain-avoidance instinct had started to blame Edith as a way to keep himself from hurting while thinking about her.

‘I knew it. Men are weak to women’s tears, and Renon wouldn’t be immune to that, so yeah, Edith is the bad one.’

Killian kept repeating, “Edith is the bad one,” as if trying to convince himself.

It made his headache go away for a while, but it wasn’t the ultimate reason he felt bad.

So he fought the throbbing headache and thought about why he felt bad.

At the end of his thoughts, he was forced to face his true feelings, which were a bit embarrassing.

‘How could you leave me and seduce Renon?’

The night we spent together, you clung to me with such fervor, but after that, you hadn’t come to me, and I had to kiss you to get you open up to me.

‘You threw me away…… after you ate me……?’

It was a phrase only used by lecherous men, but it was all I could think of.

I tried not to look ridiculous to Edith, but she seemed to see through it.

‘I made a mistake. I took her too lightly.’

Once he got rid of the idea that Edith was stupid, everything he had done in front of her seemed like a mistake.

Killian dwelt on these thoughts until night fell, and when the servants began to turn off the lights in the hallway, he couldn’t stand it anymore.

He jumped to his feet and stormed into Edith’s room, shooing the startled maids out of the way, and repeatedly insulting Edith.

The look in her startled and clueless eyes was abominable, and he found it strangely endearing.

So he kissed her neck and averted his gaze.

Just when he thought the scent of her roses would make his head spin with excitement, he froze at a sight he couldn’t understand.

‘What is that?’

Edith’s shoulders are still round and smooth.

But her shoulders, which should have glowed white in the dark, appeared to be streaked with dark bruises the farther back they went.

These weren’t the kind of bruises you get from accidentally bumping into something.

The green and purple bruises looked like they had been there for days.

“Killian, t- this, so, I mean……”

Edith tried to make some sort of excuse, but one look at her back made Killian not believe her.

She, too, had given up and said no more.

She didn’t even answer the question of who did it, but that was enough for Killian.

If it was because of the Ludwigs’ minions, there was no reason why Edith could not answer.

And until now, that pompous Riegelhoff maid had not made a single report.

Anger was rising within him, and suddenly, in a voice as weak as the grip on the hem of his shirt, Edith begged,

“Killian…… I know it’s…… inappropriate in this situation, but can’t you just…… hug me?”

“Is that to distract me?”

“No, it’s not like that, it’s just…… just…… just, because I want to……?”

He had the impression that Edith’s eyes were wet, even though she wasn’t crying.

He could not understand why Edith would want to cover the maid by seducing him with her bruised body.

She may have had her reasons, but Killian could never forgive her.

“I’m not a beast enough to hug a woman covered in bruises, just sleep well tonight.”

With that, he went straight to his room and found an ointment for the bruises, and he had to cool down for a while before returning to Edith’s room.