No, It was My Fault for Loving You

Chapter 39 :  Is it fate or coincidence?

Edgar brought his improved medicine with him every time he returned home and visited Beatrice.

They are not yet effective in curing Beatrice’s disease as a whole, but it was only intended to improve and stabilize some of her functions or to restore her failing strength.

Beatrice’s condition has certainly stabilized, and the period of time she has been bedridden decreases more than ever before.

Edgar, who usually stayed at the Marquise of Strydom for a full day before heading back to the neighboring country, unusually stayed for three days this time.

Half of the reason was concern for Edgar’s health, and the other half was that Beatrice was on summer vacation, so they decided to get to know each other better. Of course, it was from the Strydom family.

“…un. Your anemia has improved a lot. Your pulse is also normal so far.”

Of course, it is Beatrice herself who is most pleased with the gradual but definite improvement in her symptoms, but her family and Edgar cannot hide their happiness either.

I am not yet completely cured, nor have they developed a cure. Therefore, it is still too early to be reassured, she warned herself.

As for those people who had watched her fall more and more often as the years went by, the fact that she was falling less and less often was enough to make them want to leap for joy.

“Thank you very much. I owe this to Edgar-sama.”

Smiling, Beatrice’s cheeks appeared brighter than ever.

Was this due to her improved physical condition, or was it due to the emotions that were welling up inside her?

“Take your time as well, Edgar-sama. You always come back in a hurry, don’t you? The dark circles under your eyes are getting darker and darker, I’m very worried about you.”

Even if she told him to take it easy, surely this gentle man would not stop.

Instead, he will just push himself to the limit in places where they couldn’t see, trying not to be noticed by Beatrice.

Knowing this, she could not say anything easy. Beatrice knows that his unreasonableness was also for her own good.

Edgar, however, was embarrassed, scratching his cheek with his finger and mumbling something.

Beatrice tilted her head and waited patiently for him to continue, wondering if he was having trouble with the word “Take your time,” or if she shouldn’t have said “I’m worried about you”.

“Well, that’s the thing.”

“Yes.”

“For me, it’s a great opportunity for me to do something with you.”

“With me?”

“Yes.”

Beatrice turned her eyes, and Edgar’s cheeks continued to blush.

“Since Artie’s feeling a little better, and, you know, maybe we could go to town together.”

“The town…”

“Yeah. Artie. I know you haven’t been there much, right?”

Indeed, Beatrice has hardly ever been to the town.

As much as possible, she only stayed inside the mansion, unless something special happened.

After entering the academy, she used up all of her energy just to attend school, and the opportunity to go out was even further away. She probably hasn’t been to the town for more than three years now.

Ah, but before her rebirth, Beatrice recalled.

I once secretly went to the town after school without telling my family ーーー with Natalia and Alejandro.

That time, too, she immediately felt sick and had to rest in the shade of a tree, which worried them both.

Natalia fans Beatrice’s face with concern. Alejandro runs to buy fruit juice with ice.

In the end, she was sent home immediately after that little tour of the town. She was taken in a carriage that Alejandro had arranged.

— “Take care of yourself, Trice.”

— “Don’t overdo it. Get some rest.”

Even though her last memory stopped the moment she was stabbed to death, even though her brother informed her what he was doing behind her back, still.

It was unmistakably those two who were kind to Beatrice at that time.

Beatrice’s eyebrows droop as a nostalgic, yet sad, memory comes back to her.

Perhaps taking this as a rejection, Edgar hurriedly apologized for his mistake.

“Eh?”

“I just said it suddenly. Let’s just stay at the mansion after all.”

Realizing that she had caused a misunderstanding, Beatrice hurriedly grabbed Edgar’s hand.

“I want to go out with you. I would love to go out with you, Edgar-sama.”

“Eh? Ah? Artie?”

“I want to go to town with Edgar-sama. Hey, is that okay?”

Beatrice squeezed both of Edgar’s hands in hers.

Although Edgar’s face is still covered with a question mark, he has no time or room to think too much when Beatrice, the woman he is in love with, is staring directly at him.

Edgar simply nodded.

…

And so the next day, they took a carriage to the town square.

They disembarked from the carriage at the square and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the town.

Edgar, the worrywart, remembered to take a break here and there to make sure Beatrice didn’t get tired.

“Delicious. I didn’t know skewers could taste this good.”

The skewers, bought from a roadside stall, had a subtle aroma of charcoal in the mouth. Beatrice enjoyed the hot skewers.

“Fufu. Is this the first time Artie tried grilled skewers?”

“Yeah.  I’ve never eaten street food before. I was surprised at how good it tasted.”

“That will make you thirsty. Here, I got you some fruit juice, too.”

“Wow, thank you.”

With that, Edgar handed her a lemon-flavored fruit juice

The one she remembered was definitely grapes.

Beatrice laughed bitterly at the fact that she was troubled by the chain of events that reminded her of Alejandro, even though she was not consciously aware of it.

She thought to herself, I’m not going to give up.

As a realist, no wonder her brother is very angry at her.

She still wondered if his kindness and smile at that moment might not have been all a lie.

“…”

“Artie?”

Edgar called her name, as if concerned about Beatrice’s sudden silence.

Nothing, Beatrice smiled.

It must have been around this time that she enjoyed walking around the Royal Capital for a few hours, when gray clouds began to form in the sky, which had been fine up to that point.

It looked as if it would rain at any moment, so they returned to the carriage stand and headed home.

As expected, a while after the carriage started moving, the rain began to drizzle and the sound of the rain gradually became louder.

“This isn’t going to stop for a while.”

“Yeah. It was a good decision to go back. If we had stayed there, we would have gotten caught in the rain…”

Suddenly, Beatrice’s words are cut off.

The reason was that she spotted a certain someone sheltering from the rain behind a carriage window, under eaves of the house’s roof.

She must have rushed in in a panic because of the sudden rain. However, the eaves did not seem to be long enough. Although the rain was somewhat blocked, she seemed to be very wet.

“Excuse me, please stop…!”

“Artie? What’s wrong?”

Edgar looked at Beatrice in surprise as the carriage slowed down at the sound of her voice.

But Beatrice’s gaze remained fixed out the window.

The person who was looking at her was the one person Beatrice had avoided getting close to for the rest of her life.

And who was closer to Beatrice than anyone else at the time before.

The person who enjoyed laughing, talking, and the one who always spent time together with her.

Beatrice’s mouth was full of the person’s name.

Natalia.