Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 86

#86. Truth (2)

May 25, 2024

“……”

Escalion, still sitting with his face hidden, didn’t reply.

I knew my words sounded absurd, so I could easily imagine how strange they must seem to him.

Belladonna hesitated for a moment before speaking again, now much calmer.

“I have something to tell you. And it might be a very long story.”

“I don’t mind. The night is long.”

He finally took his hands away from his face as he answered.

It was hard to tell what emotions were in the golden eyes revealed beneath his palms.

Belladonna swallowed hard. It was a somewhat impulsive choice, but she felt that if she didn’t tell him now, she might never be able to reveal her secret.

‘And to him… I want to tell everything truthfully.’

She didn’t want to trouble him anymore, and she wanted to reassure his anxious heart.

And this was the only way to do it.

“Could you come over here for a moment?”

As she slowly moved to the side of the bed, Escalion’s expression immediately hardened.

He sighed, almost like a groan, and asked,

“Are you asking me to lie in the same bed as you? All night?”

“Oh, I just thought you might be uncomfortable sitting on that hard chair…”

“I think it would be much more uncomfortable lying next to you in that thin nightgown.”

“Th-then just listen from there…”

Escalion stared down at her for a moment before getting up from the chair.

She thought he was coming straight to her side, but he turned in the opposite direction, opened the door, and peeked out.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

The priest, who was sitting in the hallway far from the door, was startled and asked back.

Escalion gestured to him and said,

“You’re making me nervous sitting out in the hallway like that. I’ll be guarding tonight, so go inside and get some sleep.”

“B-but…”

“Your Saintess is even more uncomfortable with the sound of priests wandering around all night.”

“Yes? The Saintess is uncomfortable? Is that really true…?”

“That’s what she said.”

Belladonna couldn’t help but giggle.

He must be doing his best to keep my voice from being heard…

“Come back when it’s light out.”

“A-alright.”

Through the half-open door, she could faintly hear the sound of the priest gathering his things.

Belladonna watched Escalion return after finishing his task.

She thought he might come to the bed, but he plopped back down in the chair.

Belladonna felt a slight disappointment and looked up at him.

“Are you going to talk now?”

“Are you really not coming to the bed?”

“Must I say it again?”

Escalion retorted gruffly.

But when Belladonna’s lips drooped with disappointment, he looked embarrassed and averted his gaze.

He raised a hand to sweep back the hair that had fallen over his forehead and opened his mouth.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

“Hurt me?”

“You’re injured. And I hurt you earlier.”

At his words, Belladonna recalled the afternoon’s events.

She remembered when Escalion had squeezed her thigh tightly while they were kissing in this room, and she had flinched in surprise at the pain from her scarred thigh.

“If it’s just that, I’m okay with it…”

“Talk from there. It’s much more comfortable that way.”

“It’s hard to talk while facing you. Can’t you just come closer and listen? It’s going to be a pretty long story…”

Escalion, looking at Belladonna as she spoke softly, groaned and lowered his head.

“You’ve gotten better at tormenting me while I wasn’t looking.”

After looking down for a moment, he sighed and moved his large body.

Thank goodness…! Belladonna quickly moved to the side, cleared the blanket next to her, and sat up.

She felt the bed sink down as Escalion got on.

At the same time, the rush of warmth and his unique scent tickled her skin.

Feeling those sensations after so long, Belladonna shuddered slightly with emotion.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

Escalion saw her and stopped moving.

Belladonna quickly shook her head.

“No, I’m not.”

“Then start. What does it mean that you’re not the Belladonna Saintess I think you are?”

Belladonna blinked a few times with a determined look, then opened her mouth as calmly as possible.

“You might have thought it was a metaphorical expression, but it’s literal. I’m not the Belladonna Saintess. I’m someone who died half a year before marrying you.”

Escalion inhaled silently after hearing Belladonna’s words.

He could feel his solid chest slowly rising.

I’m glad I didn’t say it while facing him.

I couldn’t know what kind of expression he was making right now, and I didn’t have the confidence to meet his eyes.

“I must sound crazy, right?”

“……”

“The truth is, I don’t know either. I was the daughter of a poor farmer, and after a lifetime of hardship, I died young and woke up as the Belladonna Saintess. I had no idea where the original me had gone.”

When Belladonna stopped speaking, the room quickly filled with silence.

Is he asleep? It’s too quiet…

Belladonna, sitting alone, glanced over and looked up at his face.

He wasn’t asleep; he was just staring into space with a slight frown.

“Why… aren’t you saying anything?”

When Belladonna asked, Escalion simply turned his golden eyes to look down at her.

“Because I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t believe me, do you? You probably think I’ve gone crazy, right?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Escalion raised a hand to cover his eyes and said.

Clearly, he was very taken aback by the sudden confession.

Moreover, the content of the confession was so unbelievable that he didn’t know how to react.

“Of course you would. I would have reacted the same way if Escalion told me he had someone else’s soul.”

“So…”

Escalion groaned.

“You’re not the Belladonna Saintess? Then where is the Belladonna Saintess?”

“I don’t know either.”

“It wasn’t just a dream?”

“No.”

Belladonna answered every question immediately.

Escalion was speechless at her unwavering answers.

“Then… who knows that you’re not the Belladonna Saintess?”

“There are three people now.”

Belladonna spread her palm and folded three fingers in turn.

“Me, a magician from the Vatican who’s helping me, and you.”

Escalion sighed as he looked at her, who seemed unfazed.

He couldn’t tell if she was joking after seeing him for the first time in a while, or if she was being serious.

But for now, he had no choice but to play along.

“How did you live after becoming the Belladonna Saintess?”

“When I first woke up… my voice came out too clearly. I couldn’t use any divine power at all. I think the original Saintess must have gained divine power in exchange for losing her voice, so I didn’t have any divine power because I could speak.”

“You couldn’t use divine power…”

“So I couldn’t tell anyone. If they found out I could speak, they would soon doubt my divine power.”

Escalion frowned.

Certainly, his adopted daughter, the Belladonna Saintess, who had played a major role in the current Pope’s stable succession, was an indispensable figure in the Vatican.

If she lost her divine power overnight, it would be no different from the Pope losing his power.

“I thought that if I was a Saintess without divine power… if I was a fake Saintess, my life might be in danger. So I desperately hid the fact that I could speak.”

“No, how…”

Escalion let out a low breath.

“Then you met me?”

“That’s right.”

Belladonna nodded.

She recalled when she was getting used to the life of a Saintess in the Vatican, and she suddenly ran into Escalion.

If I hadn’t met him then… would I still be living as a bird trapped in the Vatican’s cage?

“So that’s why you were singing like that in a place where no one was around.”

“I was so surprised! That area is off-limits to everyone except the Pope and the Saintess, so why were you in a place like that?”

Escalion shrugged, already far too late to answer.

“I thought it would be quiet and I could sleep without being disturbed. I was a little tired that day.”

Ha… how shameless!

Escalion, who had been recalling the past with a frown, suddenly asked,

“Then the work song you sang… was it a song you knew from your previous life?”

“That’s right. Mostly when I was doing hard work…”

“Where did you live?”

Escalion interrupted her and asked.

His attitude seemed somehow urgent, and Belladonna’s eyes widened.

“……Yes?”

“Before you woke up as the Belladonna Saintess, where did you live?”

Why, why is he like this…?

Belladonna stared at him for a moment as he spoke urgently, then opened her mouth.

“Ah, Astanya… There was a rural village not far from the Vatican.”

“Astanya…”

Escalion’s face changed strangely as he repeated the name.

He soon raised his golden eyes and stared intently at Belladonna.

“Why… why are you doing that?”

“Do you know that you have a small habit when you sing?”

“A habit?”

Did I have something like that?

As her eyes rolled around aimlessly, Escalion said with a serious face,

“You always end the last note of a verse by gently raising it.”

“R-really?”

“And I think… I’ve heard it before.”

What does that mean? Belladonna blinked.

Escalion continued to stare at her, then shook his head as if he was confused by his own words and waved his hand.

“No, never mind. What nonsense… Just continue with your story.”

That couldn’t be.

Amidst Belladonna’s absurd story, which he couldn’t even tell if it was her dream or imagination, he felt like he was foolishly getting caught up in it.

That couldn’t be. To think he might have met the woman who might have been her previous life.

Escalion shook his head again.