Chapter 75 : Who you were and who you are now.

“Totally. Has Leo got some kind of disease that makes him lose track of the family he was born in? You come here too often.”

“I’ve grown quite fond of your brother.”

Beatrice can’t help but laugh at his complaining.

Leopold adores her brother so much now that now she thought she could see his tial, which should not be there, wagging.

This is far cry from her past life, when they kept a certain distance from each other.

..

“..I wonder what will happen with Leopold-sama and Melanie-sama.”

“The other lady doesn’t seem to have any intention of refusing, so if Leo doesn’t make a bad move, there will be a reasonable result.”

Leopoldo’s consultation was closed for now with Beatrice and Rembrandt giving their opinions.

“But he was right to bring a bouquet of flowers. I didn’t think he’d turn out to be such a witty guy.”

“It’s your brother’s education, isn’t it?”

“It was supposed to be parents or the teachers. But I have no choice. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to ingratiate myself with the Marquis of Reinalpha.”

After saying so, Rembrandt looks at his sister with an unreadable expression of emotion.

“..don’t you remember?”

“Eh?”

“Don’t you..feel bad, after all you remember your previous life? He married you under a contract while thinking about another woman, right?”

“..oh, brother.”

Sometimes I wonder if my brother can read people’s minds. That is how sensitive he is to the subtleties of others.

“Is that so? I am reminded of that a little bit. But not in a bad way.”

“..is that right?”

“Yes.”

She smiled at him, thinking that she made her brother worried again.

It’s her way of saying, “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”

“I think our positions were a bit similar, but today’s Leopoldo is very different from the Leopoldo-sama of that time..oh, I mean in a good way, of course.”

Rembrandt silently prompts her to continue.

“In fact, even at that time, Leopold-sama temporarily cut off his relationship with Natalia. Even though, its a white marriage, he said that it won’t be unfaithful to his wife.”

“But he was supposed to take her as his second wife after you died.”

“That’s right. But that was the deal from the start, and I was the one who initiated it in the first place. So don’t look so scared, brother.”

Beatrice giggled, and Rembrandt rubbed the wrinkles between his brows with his fingers.

“My health was really terrible back then. I missed almost a third of my class after I started third year, and I spent more than half of the six-month engagement period after graduation in bed.”

“..”

“So even if there had been no promise of a white wedding, I couldn’t have fulfilled my role as a wife anyway, brother.”

“Trice..”

Her brother was about to say something. But she didn’t dare listen to him and continued speaking.

“I could never have been anyone’s wife in the first place. But Leopold-sama left Natalia to take me as his wife. I really thought it was just like Leopold-sama.”

“Well, that sounds like something Leopold would do, clumsy as he is, but he doesn’t know how to bend to things.”

“You know? He’s really not very flexible, that one.”

Then they looked at each other.

“So, when I heard the story, I thought the situation was a little similar.

But with his decisiveness, it was really different this time. Leopold-sama really, really, really meant it, and he said goodbye to natala. Not temporarily or with any desire to get back together, but completely and permanently.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“That’s why I hope Leopold-sama and Melanie-sama will be able to work things out. Of course, it depends on their compatibility, but I hope they can overcome any strange misunderstandings or rumors.”

“That’s why you said those things to Leo.”

“Maybe so.”

Remembering her conversation with Leopoldo earlier, Beatrice smiles.

“Brother. It’s me.”

She cut off her words, and let her gaze wander a bit.

“..at that time, even if Leopold-sama had seriously broken up with Natalia like he did to Melanie-sama, I would have had nothing to give back.

I had no such power left. I couldn’t be anything other than a decorative wife from the beginning. And yet when I heard her story, I felt a little envious.”

“..I see.”

“Its not that I still have feeling left for Leopold-sama. I don’t know,? I don’t know how to say this, but I..”

“Okay, you don’t have to force yourself to put it into words. I can kind of understand.”

When he casually interrupted his younger sister’s faltering words, Beatrice was relieved and consoled.

“Oh, but please don’t tell Edgar-sama, okay?”

“I know that, too.”

Rembrandt chuckled softly at his sister, who shyly put her index finger to her lips.

I know.

She never felt envious because she still thought of Leopold.

It must have been because his sister, who could not hope for anything and wished for nothing, just wished that she could leave her legacy of life somewhere in the world, only to realize that she was instead rewarded by retribution.

It’s just a pity for his sister, who has finally been able to see her own happiness in her mind recently, and for her previous self, who is already gone.

It’s never a feeling of guilt.

So Rembrandt tells his sister.

“It’s okay, Trice. The old you and the new you are the same you. If you are happy now, the old you will be saved as well.

So, trust Edgar and wait for him. I am sure that in less than a year, the medicine will be ready.”

“..yes.”

Rembrandt muses to his bashful sister.

You didn’t know that before.

You didn’t know that there was a man in a neighboring country who was single-mindedly devoted to you, to you alone, and dedicated himself to the research of a new medicine.

Perhaps Edgar broke down in tears when he heard the news of your passing, that he could not make it.

And perhaps it was me, as well my father, and my mother, also.

So, now that the time has been rewound by this mysterious fate.

When will you realize that your happiness is not just your own?

You, the man who loves you, your family, and even the girl who killed you, Natalia, probably realize that you are not the only one who has to be happy.

I wonder if you will someday realize that your happiness will surely make me feel saved.

Rembrandt squints at Beatrice’s smiling face as she drinks tea in front of him.

She was a sister who was just waiting to die and indifferent to her own happiness.

Rembrandt was so satisfied with this current situation that he even felt like thanking the evil man for turning back time.