I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 58

‘This must be the lowest he carries.’

I took it, stepped forward, and put the bill in the clown’s hat.

Then the clown started juggling in circles around me, and the guy behind me on the violin played even more enthusiastically, which really made me feel embarrassed.

It was probably the most money they’d ever gotten for their talents.

I stiffened my shoulders and looked back at Killian, who was smiling weakly at me.

He must have thought it was funny to see me so stiff and rigid, clutching a bouquet of flowers in one hand and candy in the other for fear of ruining the clown’s juggling act.

“Now let go of my wife.”

Killian said with a chuckle, and the clown backed away with a series of thank-yous, and I managed to get back to Killian’s side.

People around us continued to stare in our direction, seemingly surprised by his appearance.

I was strangely tickled by his referring to me as “my wife,” so I couldn’t help but smile.

Why do good times go by so quickly?

Our evening melted away as quickly as fifty sennas street candy, leaving behind a sweet aftertaste and the smell of fresh wildflowers.

“You don’t believe me, so you’re not going to believe this, but I had a great time today, thank you.”

At the door to my room, I looked back at Killian and waved goodbye.

“It wasn’t a great outing, was it?”

“Everything was a first for me. It was great.”

“Is that so……?”

I nodded.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this happy. Maybe, maybe I never had one.

But I couldn’t think of anything more to say than that.

It would be rude to hold on to him too long.

“Then…… good night.”

Killian gave me a small nod, and I gave him one last smile before closing the door behind me.

A sigh escaped me as the door closed between him and me.

‘You know, this is only going to make me greedy……’

One of my first resolutions after getting married got shaken.

I still have that piece of paper in my desk drawer where I circled “Be grateful for what you have” over and over again…….

***

Edith closed the door without looking back at Killian, so she didn’t see him raise his hand afterward, but Killian didn’t knock on it again to call her.

‘What am I doing?’

Clenching and unclenching his hand, which he raised and lowered again, Killian slowly walked toward his room.

Everything he’d done with Edith today had been a first for her, and a new experience for him.

Starting with the opera, Odelette, which he’d picked in the hopes that it would be an uneventful date.

It’s a famous opera, and Killian has seen it many times.

The only difference was that the lead soprano in today’s opera was a particularly famous singer, so it was going to be the same old experience for Killian. If only Edith hadn’t been there with him.

At first, he couldn’t believe that Edith didn’t even know this famous opera.

I wondered if she was lying to me, pretending to be naive.

But as I searched my memory, I realized that while I had seen the Riegelhoffs in the opera house a few times, I had never bumped into her.

‘So, she really had never been to an opera house before?’

I thought she didn’t like opera, but Edith’s reaction when the opera started was astonishing.

“Oh, no!”

She covered her mouth, sucked in a breath, sighed with the anguished Odelette, and shed a tear at the sound of the despairing soprano.

When I wiped her glistening tears away, Edith smiled a little in surprise, as if she hadn’t realized she was crying.

It was not the reaction of someone who didn’t like opera.

‘What happened? What’s the reason you never watched opera before?’

With that question in mind, Edith’s opinion of the opera was even more surprising.

Of the two men, she chose Hubert, saying László is an asshole. She also said she wouldn’t kill herself like Odelette.

“He tests Odelette’s love, even though he knows what she’s going through, and he doesn’t reveal his identity, asshole.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’d always thought of it as a story of a foolish woman who missed out on true love because she was blinded by material things.

But as I listened to Edith’s story, it made sense.

Testing love is an act of arrogance, of putting yourself above the other person.

And László is arrogant.

If he really loved Odelette, he should have reassured her before she suffered in anguish.

And then Edith made another unexpected comment.

“Killian. You’ve never been without money, have you? There are too many things that money can solve…… for it to be just money.”

She smiled bitterly, as if she had been miserable without money.

And when she said he should be able to understand Odelette, who married for the family name, Killian flinched.

Edith knew he had been forced to marry her for the good of the family, even though he was in love with Lizé.

It should have hurt her pride, but she had never shown it.

Instead, she’d reassured him that he didn’t have to be good to her, that he didn’t have to feel so obligated.

‘How could that be?’

As he thought about it, Edith smiled.

“But women, you know, they’re a lot stronger than you think.”

That’s true.

Edith was much stronger than Killian thought.

She had not crumbled in the face of the accusations hurled at her, but had steadfastly maintained her innocence, and had defended her family’s honor in the face of assault by a maid who seemed to have the family’s permission.

Whether it was an honor worth defending was questionable.

As she turned away, Edith’s smile was dazzlingly beautiful, heartbreakingly sad, and as solid as if it would never break.

But the woman who seemed so strong became a girl when she stepped out into the street.

Even the cheap candy brought a happy smile to her face.

“Yes. It’s very sweet, but it also has a sour flavor.”

A fifty sennas candy would have tasted like melted sugar.

But Edith looked as happy as if she were eating a dessert that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world.

If only I hadn’t been distracted by those lips glistening with sugar water.

“Seeing me eat it makes you want to eat it, doesn’t it?”

There was something innocent and flirtatious about the way she asked if I wanted to eat.

Edith didn’t seem to notice until the end what I really wanted to eat.

‘So it’s not her who’s lustful, it’s me.’

And this time she asked me to borrow money to buy some wilted flowers from the flower girl.

Edith is probably the only lady in the empire who would buy flowers herself, even with her husband by her side.

I bought some unremarkable flowers and tied them up with a handkerchief to cover the broken branches, and Edith accepted them with excitement.

“I’ve never gotten anything like this…… before.”

Her soft voice, almost whispering to herself, was filled with the excitement of a woman receiving flowers for the first time.

Edith’s quick turn of phrase when asked if there had been a man who had sent the flowers made Killian suspect that Edith’s position within the Riegelhoff family was very strange indeed.

‘If there was a sender, but the recipient did not receive them, where did the flowers go?’

They couldn’t have been thrown away.

The men who courted Edith were all scions of well-to-do families, and Count Riegelhoff would not have turned them into his enemies.

If so, he must have taken the flowers somewhere……

‘You’d steal flowers from your daughter? Why on earth would you do that?’

It was a ridiculous theory, but when I thought about the house that took the maid who assaulted their daughter to the carriage, I realized that even that ridiculous theory was probably true.

That made me uncomfortable.

I wondered what kind of past this woman was hiding, unable to yell at a juggling clown to get out of the way, her shoulders stiffened.

“Now let go of my wife.”

I was surprised to hear myself say it.

My wife.

The resonance of the word somehow touched me. Like Edith approaching me with a smile…….

The commoners around me stared mesmerized at Edith as she walked toward me.

And I suddenly realized that my wife, Edith Ludwig, is a beautiful woman who would stand out anywhere.

“Killian. Let’s go.”

The whispered voice beside me was irresistibly loving.

I was having so much fun.

It had been a long time since I’d felt such excitement and peace.

It was the same feeling I’d had with Lizé one day, but when I thought of her, Cliff always came to mind, and a sense of impatience and inferiority always rose in the back of my mind.

But with Edith, I don’t have to think about that.

Edith is my woman, the one for me.

Just when I was starting to feel bad about the simple outing, she said she had a great time.

“It wasn’t a great outing, was it?”

“Everything was a first for me. It was great.”

First. Everything was a first.

I felt sad and happy at the same time.

The fact that her firsts were all being filled by him fulfilled Killian’s desire to monopolize her.

But that night, as he sat alone in his room, replaying his date with Edith over and over, Killian found himself sinking deeper into the questions he’d been asking himself.