As My Husband Said, I Brought in a Lover Chapter 61

Luize spread her fingers into a V shape with her left hand to check Maxion’s face. He had an expression as steadfast as his voice. Luize quietly sat back down.

 

“My face is a mess…”

 

In front of her suddenly appeared a neatly folded white handkerchief embroidered with a silver hawk soaring in the sky.

 

“Do you need this?”

 

Luize blushed slightly at the polite, pleasant voice coming from nearby and carefully took the handkerchief. “…Thank you.” She wiped the remaining tear stains and stealthily glanced at Edward. Fortunately, he was looking at Maxion, not her.

 

She pressed the handkerchief to her eyes, hoping it would somehow reduce the swelling, though pressing it wouldn’t actually make the swelling go inside. The swelling seemed to get worse, and Luize quietly resigned herself to her own battle. She didn’t want to show Edward, of all people, her eyes swollen like sausages. But she couldn’t just start alternating between cold and warm compresses right there.

 

“Phew.” Edward, pretending to look at Maxion, was actually sneaking glances at her. Unable to hold back, he covered his mouth with his hand as if to scratch his chin and chuckled quietly.

 

“…”

 

Maxion, watching the two of them, was incredulous at the sight. The woman who had been crying unabashedly in front of him was now self-conscious about her appearance because of Edward’s presence, and Edward, pretending not to notice her, was actually paying subtle attention. What was he supposed to do?

 

While he wished both would disappear, having the three of them together wasn’t so bad.

 

“…How long have you been awake without sleep, Lord Edward?”

 

“Well, throughout the time you were deeply asleep.”

 

“Luize. There’s a patient here who’s worse off than me.”

 

At Maxion’s comment, Luize looked at Edward with a shocked face. Then, their eyes naturally met.

 

“Wait. So you haven’t slept at all for three days? No wonder, no matter how early I woke up, Edward was always up before me. That’s dangerous!”

 

“It’s a common occurrence. You don’t have to worry too much.”

 

“Common? That’s even more serious. I didn’t notice because you look so well. It doesn’t seem like the face of someone who’s been awake for three days and nights.”

 

“Did you take a potion that alters your complexion?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“Let me see.”

 

Luize immediately got up to check Edward’s face closely. His expression stiffened with surprise as her face drew near.

 

Luize, with her swollen, reddened eyes wide open, diligently examined his face. She pressed under his eyes to check for swelling and even touched his forehead to see if he had a fever.

 

“You really can’t tell just by looking. I don’t see any immediate side effects either. But if it’s a psychological factor, the lack of sleep could actually make things worse.”

 

After her brief examination, she raised her gaze to meet his. The red eyes that met hers at close range had a captivating glow as if they were magical artifacts designed to bewitch people.

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

They stared at each other in silence. How can a person be so inhumanly beautiful? That was what Luize thought for a moment.

 

“I think I need some time to rest alone. Please, both of you leave.” Maxion spoke up with a serious tone.

 

Only then did she realize they were too close and hastily stepped back. Luize’s face flushed red.

 

Edward looked surprised, then coughed awkwardly, his face tinged with a faint pink. “Then I’ll instruct a servant to call a doctor to check your condition.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“M-my face is a mess, so I better go back to my room. Maxion, see you tomorrow. If you don’t wake up, you’re really in trouble.”

 

“…Alright. See you tomorrow.”

 

They hurried out of the room.

 

Maxion chuckled, feeling somewhat empty. Honestly, Luize and Edward matched well together. Seeing the two of them get along so closely wasn’t bad, but watching their flirtatious scenes firsthand was uncomfortably peculiar. Was it like accidentally witnessing your cherished younger sister’s romantic moments? No, Luize was a far more complex entity to him than that. Closer yet farther, farther yet closer.

 

“Everything has changed since then.”

 

Neither his teacher nor the girl who waited only for him in the cabin exists any longer in this world. He was the one who left her there first, but it was only after meeting her again that he realized he had been the one stuck in that time.

 

After leaving her, Maxion’s memories still lingered in that place. Despite the many people entering Luize’s world, he realized that, no matter how much he thought about it, there was only Luize for him. No one to call family, no childhood friends, and…

 

“It started as a first love, didn’t it?”

 

No one else to call love. Maxion’s lips curved into a slight smile.

 

* * *

The social scene in the North was different from the South. Northerners, unlike the South, where romantic entanglements were the center of social life, did not tolerate affairs with other nobles or commoners. Generally, the atmosphere was quiet, and the estates were more isolated, not gathering as frequently as in the South. However, the demand for courtesans was active. Most were commoners, but occasionally, a slave with exceptional beauty and skills was selected as a noble’s courtesan.

 

For the nobility, royalty, and the wealthy, courtesans were a presence that existed yet didn’t, more like a hidden accessory than a person. Maxion was the child of a courtesan who had been involved with the next head of the prestigious Northern family, Kalliod.

 

His mother disappeared without a trace as soon as she realized she was pregnant. It was because the news of her pregnancy would endanger both her and the unborn child, especially since the future head of Kalliod was about to marry another noblewoman.

 

Maxion grew up under his mother’s care in a small estate of a baron located between the Kalliod and Lindeman estates. Her escape was a wise decision.

 

“I heard there’s an epidemic spreading near the Northern seas. After suffering for 2-3 years, people either die or barely survive with severe aftereffects.”

 

“Tsk. I heard piles of corpses of those who died from the disease were mounting.”

 

When Maxion was five, an epidemic spread in the North, killing many in Kalliod, including his uncle, his father’s concubine, and the previous Count of Kalliod. His father, who became the Count of Kalliod, also couldn’t escape the epidemic. He survived after two years but became infertile, having had no children with his concubine yet.

 

The young Count of Kalliod, newly ascended to his title, was in a panic. Maxion’s mother, who had been working in a tavern that mainly served mercenaries, left him at the tavern and went alone to Kalliod, worried about his biological father.

 

“Why did you come back? Curious to see if I’ve really become impotent?”

 

When she arrived at Kalliod’s estate, the count’s self-esteem was at its lowest due to his loss of sexual function. Moved by pity at his weakened state, she confessed why she had left – she had secretly given birth to his son and was raising him.

 

Enraged at the thought of his child being taken away, the count locked Maxion’s mother in the dungeon and threatened her to reveal Maxion’s location. Terrified of the count’s madness, she kept silent until she eventually died in the dungeon from the epidemic.

 

“…She hasn’t come back today either.”

 

Unaware of how his mother died, Maxion believed he was abandoned when she didn’t return as promised. He knew the inn’s ecosystem well from growing up there and was quick-witted from a young age.

 

Before the deposit his mother left ran out, he began helping with the inn’s work at a young age. The innkeeper, though inconvenienced by the burden of another child, did not evict Maxion even after the deposit was depleted. However, there was little the child could do, and as the innkeeper’s own children grew, Maxion became a headache.

 

“It’s not uncommon for parents struggling to survive to abandon their child and run away. With a sharp mind and decent physique from a young age, he’ll make a fine warrior when he’s older.”

 

Half a year after his mother left him to become a burden to the tavern, at the age of eight, a mercenary group familiar with the tavern took Maxion in. He began doing odd jobs for the mercenary group, which avoided the epidemic-stricken North in search of work in the South.

 

A year later, the group arrived in Perils on a mission to find the body of a wealthy man’s son who had gone missing on an adventure. The mission was to retrieve the son’s corpse, based on a tip that a man resembling him had been found collapsed at the edge of the forest. They were unlucky.

 

“Aaaaah!”

 

“Sa-save me.”

 

“Run away!”

 

Despite entering the safest part of the forest at the safest time, they encountered a dangerous animal. The forest was dark as night, even at the entrance during the day. The creature that attacked them in the darkness, like many animals in Perils, had a bizarre form. Larger than a typical bear but more agile, and magic had no effect on it.

 

 For the first time, Maxion felt death approaching. Though he thought he could face death calmly with youthful bravado, when it came down to it, his body trembled uncontrollably with fear.

 

Please save me. Please.

 

Maxion hid under the body of a fallen comrade, silently praying. Except for a few who managed to escape quickly, most of the remaining members fell into a critical state.

 

The beast sniffed around for the scent of living beings, slowly approaching Maxion. As its sharp, massive claws reached out towards him, Maxion closed his eyes and covered his ears, desperately praying to any fairy or god in the forest to save his life. All he could do was pray. Hot tears streamed from his closed eyes. The black claws were raised high to pierce him.