Refusing Your Ex-Husband’s Obsession: A Guide - Chapter 140

Chapter 140

Translator: Yonnee

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It’s impossible to know what she was thinking about now, as her expression was quite controlled. However, when Ciel met her gaze, he could see the look in her once-guarded green eyes soften.

“Yes, I agree. I’ll bring Aiden with me, just as you suggested.”

Unlike the past, Ciel now decided to follow his wife’s words obediently. He didn’t want to argue over trivial matters anymore.

However, she seemed to be thinking differently. Irene, without letting go of her sharp demeanor, asked.

“But what are you trying to do by understanding what’s going on in Seo-yoon’s mind? Isn’t it something that could be resolved by just taking away her smartphone in the first place?”

Ciel felt as if his entire being was being scrutinized by the matter-of-fact tone of her words.

“…Um, I believe so?”

“Then, why are you trying to complicate things that could be solved easily? How frustrating.”

“Yes. I’m sorry…”

“If she’s hiding her phone, it might be in the inner shirt pocket or the inside pocket of her skirt.”

“I can’t possibly lift her skirt.”

“True.”

After receiving a series of blows, the dizzy Ciel asked absentmindedly.

“Can’t you do it?”

He, who had never been so cautious with his words in the past, was different this time. Ciel wanted to rely on her as much as he wanted to protect her. But it wasn’t a question asked with great expectations. He intended to add, ‘I’m joking,’ with a gentle raise of the corner of his mouth.

“Can things be resolved by just taking away her phone?”

“…Huh?”

“Would everything be solved if we just took it away? You noticed too, didn’t you? About the connection between Seo-yoon and the monster waves.”

“Well, it does seem suspicious.”

“I have my suspicions, too.”

“What about?”

“I remember clearly, even before meeting you. There was a time when monster waves occurred as if Korea alone had been bombed. Many of my colleagues died a lot at that time.”

“……”

“We had to make tombs every single day because so many perished. And later, because we didn’t have time to create graves anymore, we had no choice but to just cremate them. Even then, the incidents didn’t stop.”

Ciel was hearing Irene’s, no, Seohyun’s story from before he met her for the first time in his two lives. Well, he hadn’t even thought about stopping to listen in the past, so this was only natural.

“If, by any chance, that time coincides with when Seo-yoon started traveling between dimensions…”

Irene continued, coldly facing Ciel.

“Currently, Korea might be going through something similar to us. There might be another version of me there, I’m not sure. But if she’s there, she’ll be losing colleagues again.”

“…Irene.”

Ciel felt immense sympathy for his wife. This was the same, exceedingly indifferent expression that she always wore in the past—showing just how much she had already lost. Right now, all he wanted to do was embrace his wife with all his might.

Wanting to provide the comfort he couldn’t give in the past, his fingertips trembled, but it wasn’t something easily put into action. Unlike the past, he was nothing to her right now.

Irene lowered her head for a moment, and her coral hair cascaded forward like a waterfall. The more he looked at her like this, the more intensely Ciel’s fingertips trembled.

He wanted to sweep away her saddened, delicate hair, leave a kiss on her forehead. He wanted to kiss her several times, taking away the unpleasant memories lingering in her mind.

Staring silently at her, who seemed tormented by the past, he soon made up his mind and tried to stand up from his seat. At that moment, Irene lifted her head.

He could only meet her cold, luminous emerald eyes in an awkward standing position. She stared up at him with eyes as cold as midwinter, almost freezing.

More precisely, it wasn’t him she was looking at, but it seemed like she was envisioning some target.

“Should I just kill her?”

The words that flowed out were not what he had imagined, nor was it the atmosphere he had anticipated. So, only foolish words could spill out.

“Huuh?”

“Is it because you’re an Esper? Are you saying that I can’t touch Seo-yoon, a Guide?”

Flustered, Ciel didn’t know how to react to Irene’s question. Irene must know very well that Espers instinctively had no thoughts of harming Guides, but it was also a task he couldn’t affirm with a positive answer.

“I, I can’t ask you to do such a thing!”

“Why.”

“Why, you ask… but…”

“More people will suffer because of that woman. It doesn’t matter who kills her.”

“……”

“Since you can’t do it anyway, I’ll handle it myself.”

Irene stood up as she spoke determinedly. Quickly rising to his feet to follow her, Ciel clung close to her and spoke rapidly.

“If not me, you can ask someone else.”

“Hah, even if you bring all the imperial troops, no one can casually kill Saintess Seo-yoon.”

“Then I’ll hire someone from another country!”

“What if word leaks out? Even if you’re a duke, you can’t escape the crime of hiring a hitman to assassinate the empire’s saintess.”

“……”

It was a perfect defeat for him.

He followed Irene with feeble steps like a defeated soldier. However, he couldn’t give up.

Here and now, when she was finally living a normal and happy life, he couldn’t burden her with such a task.

t/n: short note~! from here on out, i’ll be basing my translations on kakaopage’s r19 version of the novel since it’s easier for me to follow the chapter numbering there rather than juggling between naver’s serialized and volumized versions. they should be the same, more or less, tho i’m assuming that the kkp version is cleaner and edited better since it was published at a later date than the naver version.

because of this, there won’t be chapter titles anymore, but rather arc titles. i’ll edit the past chapters accordingly down the line~