I Got Divorced, But I’m In A Rated-19 Reverse Harem Game - Chapter 58

As she drank, her face gradually reddened, and after emptying the third glass, she was in this state. She put down the glass with a clank and rested her chin on the table, just giggling.

It seems she’s completely forgotten who’s in front of her.

Well, if she knew it was him, she wouldn’t have let her guard down like this. After all, she had been on guard whenever she faced him until now.

She was either trying to hide it or consciously trying not to be on guard. She tried, but unfortunately, her efforts were transparent to his eyes.

Anyway, seeing her so relaxed, which was unlike her usual self, was quite amusing. Thinking that even a clown might be less funny than this, Verheigen quietly put down his glass and poked her calf with his toe.

“Hey.”

“……”

“Go to sleep.”

He nudged her without much expectation, but as expected, there was no response. The woman, resting her chin on her hand, swayed her upper body and arms this way and that before collapsing onto the table.

Wondering if she had fallen asleep, he got up and approached her, only to hear her mumbling something.

“Hic… What did I…”

“……”

“What did I do wrong… you crazy bastard…”

For a moment, he doubted his ears. Is she talking about me?

There was no one brave enough to call the Emperor a crazy bastard to his face. Well, even if someone did, he wouldn’t be angry. After all, he didn’t consider himself particularly sane.

Thinking that she must have been thinking he was crazy all this time while bristling at him every day, he quietly listened to her mumbling.

“This is ridiculous… I want to go back…”

“……”

“You crazy… What are you making me do…”

“……?”

“Huuung…”

Verheigen looked down at Lysith with a bewildered gaze as she grinned and then suddenly started complaining, and now was suddenly wailing loudly. He furrowed his brow.

…He had never ‘made’ her do anything.

Asking her to have lunch together wouldn’t normally be considered as ‘making’ someone do something. Even if the other party was the Emperor. If she wanted to complain about that, she would have said it differently.

“Hic, sob…”

As he tried to continue his train of thought, Verheigen sighed at Lysith’s continued crying. It seemed better to put her to sleep for now.

Bending down, he roughly wrapped one arm around Lysith’s waist and lifted her, carrying her towards the bed.

As they crossed the spacious room, Lysith, who had come to her senses, stopped sniffling and raised her head. What entered her blurry vision was golden hair shimmering under the light.

Therefore, the name that naturally followed was…

“Mmm… Ash?”

Not realizing at all that it was someone else’s name, she continued her thoughts with her muddled mind.

But why is he carrying me so carelessly? With the intention of telling him to do it properly, Lysith patted his firm shoulder hard and then suddenly hugged the neck of the man carrying her. Ah, that’s better.

Without properly recognizing who she was hugging, Lysith fell fast asleep.

Verheigen, who had stopped in his tracks the moment the woman in his arms called someone’s name, twitched his eyebrow at his oddly worsened mood.

Whether he stopped or not, Lysith, who had fallen into a deep sleep making purring sounds, was still hugging him with her face buried in his shoulder.

“…Ash?”

Who on earth could that be for her to mistake him for?

It didn’t take him long to think. There was a face that immediately came to mind.

“Ah, the Tower Master. You said you weren’t lovers, but you seem quite familiar. Even calling him by a nickname, I see.”

He sneered at the woman who couldn’t hear him, expressing his sunken mood.

Strictly speaking, their hair colors were different. In Verheigen’s case, it was platinum blonde, while Ash*tes had honey blonde, the color people typically think of when they hear ‘blonde’.

It was a difference that should be hard to confuse, but what could you expect from a drunk person?

Despite thinking this way, Verheigen, whose mood had suddenly soured, roughly dropped Lysith onto the wide bed.

“Urk.”

Although a strange sound was made in the process, the heartless Emperor headed back to his original spot without even looking back.

He grabbed a glass from the table and sat down on the sofa with a thud, drinking wine again. He was in a position where he could see the woman sleeping obliviously.

The Lysith Gronevelt he had observed so far was definitely different from before.

Her previous neat dignity and elegance remained the same. But he hadn’t even considered that from the beginning. That was ingrained in her.

What he had considered were small likes and dislikes, reactions, personality traits, and such.

This was why he insisted on sharing meal times with her.

To be honest, he also had the intention of annoying the Grand Duke. That bastard was already divorced, yet he’s acting like he couldn’t give her up now? It wasn’t even funny.

Since she was different on the inside, he must have been attracted.

After thoroughly criticizing in his mind the man he had disliked since childhood, Verheigen made a small sound in his throat.

With her drunken words added, he could be somewhat certain.

Since he believed in the existence of God, he was sure that this woman had been completely replaced by a different being from the original lady at some point. Even if he didn’t know exactly when that point was.

After drinking the last sip of remaining wine, he tapped the sofa lightly with his fingertips.

His gaze naturally turned to the woman sleeping peacefully.

This room was one of the bedrooms he regularly changed to avoid assassination threats, and thus was a fairly familiar space.

However, the concept of sharing a room with someone just like this was nonexistent to him. Perhaps someone had been by his side when he was born. But in the past he remembered, he had never let anyone into a place like this.

Who would have thought the first person would be the former Grand Duchess?

“No, come to think of it, she might not be the former Grand Duchess…”

It felt strange to see someone sleeping on his familiar bed.

He wasn’t drunk, but his stomach felt oddly queasy. Not liking this sensation, he rubbed his face while resting his chin on his hand, then suddenly stood up and headed towards the bed.

Standing close and looking down intently, he saw that she had pulled the blanket over herself while tossing and turning, and was now sleeping covered.

He impulsively reached out and touched the woman’s hair. The distinctive white hair of the Gronevelt ducal family shimmered faintly under the dim light. As he lifted his hand, it flowed softly through his fingers before falling onto the pillow.

…The reason he started having lunch with her was also for another purpose.

As all the palace servants knew, he extremely hates sharing meals with others. This was partly due to the previous emperor’s poisoning, and partly due to his personality. In fact, compared to the real reason, observing the other person was merely a simple excuse.

The truth was… somewhere in his inner self, he thought that perhaps she might really be a ‘trustworthy person’ now.

“Hah… It’s not even funny.”

Verheigen sighed and muttered, swallowing something again.

He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his left hand that had held her and touched her hair, then fidgeted with it. The feeling of her fitting snugly in one hand, and the feeling when she hugged him, vividly came back to life.

It was a moment when he had stopped in his tracks at the sound of someone calling, and then flinched again as soon as he felt the warmth of her embracing him.

Not to mention, she had been bristling at him all this time. A woman who seemed like she would never voluntarily embrace him, had done so on her own…

“My head must be going crazy.”

Shaking his head vigorously to clear his thoughts, he flopped down next to Lysith. Naturally, the bed was wide enough to roll around on, so he didn’t touch her.

* * *

Her eyes snapped open with the unique sensation of the day after drinking.

Her mouth felt very dry and her throat was scratchy. Judging by how familiar this dryness felt, it seemed the previous her had often drunk alcohol.

‘What does it matter, when now I’m knocked out after just three glasses of wine…’

She was about to get up but changed her mind and just blinked her eyes in that state. As she turned her gaze, the sunlight coming through the gold-decorated window felt noisy.

Usually, her body, weak in the morning, would have requested to fall back asleep, but perhaps because it was the day after drinking, her eyes were wide awake.

With a fairly clear mind, she recollected her memories of the previous night once again.

She drank wine at the Emperor’s command. She tried to stop after one glass but failed, and after the second glass, she really thought she should stop, but failed again.

She really intended to refuse the third glass, but by then she was starting to feel good and naturally accepted it…

After that, she had no memory.

‘So this is what they call a blackout.’

Still, considering she had been drinking at the table but woke up in bed, it seemed the Emperor had moved her. She thought she might have said something weird or whatever, but it was unexpected.

She didn’t think she had done anything strange. In the past, she would just laugh by herself and fall asleep, so she thought it would have been the same this time.

As Lysith was thinking this, she suddenly felt like something was beside her and turned her head to the opposite side, then screamed.