Chapter 80 – A Device for You

Ashton emptied a crystal bottle and stepped out of his house.

Sabina hadn’t contacted him for days. Worried, he visited her home, only to be turned away by Julia’s troubled expression. Julia explained that Sabina’s health wasn’t good.

It sounded strange. Sabina always called for Ashton when she needed comfort or had a lot on her mind.

Julia added that Sabina seemed somewhat depressed after commemorating her grandfather’s memorial day. Yet even Julia appeared unconvinced by her own explanation.

Ashton smiled kindly and said he’d visit again later, telling Julia not to worry. Julia, still apologetic, promised to notify Ashton once Sabina’s condition improved.

“Then, I’ll come back another time.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Understanding? Not really.

He hailed a carriage. He had an appointment with the Director of the Royal Research Institute. Staring blankly out the window, he watched the streets of Reedblon pass by.

He pulled out his thick winter clothes earlier than usual this year—not just because Reedblon was colder than Berna. Ashton’s body had grown more vulnerable to the cold. Without gloves, his fingertips were painfully numb. Winter was dreadful.

His health seemed fine at times, but then, without warning, it would plummet. Just yesterday, he experienced pain—the worst he’d ever felt. His body screamed at him: return to the original timeline, even now.

He ignored the cries of his flesh.

The day after signing the solvent supply contract with the Royal Research Institute, he called a notary. Naturally, he wrote a will. Not a single sentimental word, no reflection on his life—just a dry designation of heirs.

Thirty gold bars to Albert Ballon. And all Berna property and the solvent wasteland land to Helio, Sabina’s ward.

That inheritance would, five years after Helio reached adulthood and became independent from Sabina, allow him to stand as her equal.

Ashton imagined Helio moving to Berna. He pictured Helio’s pale skin roughened and tanned, his hair faded to a sandy color. Sabina would see Ashton’s face in the boy.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

No, that shouldn’t happen. Helio should grow up as a refined young man in Reedblon, pen in hand.

Ashton Bryant should gradually fade from Sabina’s life, until he was forgotten.

Ashton met the Director of the Royal Research Institute with a calm, healthy-looking face. The Director, eager for more investment, showed him around the institute. Ashton politely declined the Director’s repeated offers to guide him, saying he could look around on his own. The Director eventually gave up.

He wandered the institute with a bored expression. Then someone greeted him.

“Oh, Mr. Ashton Bryant.”

He turned his head absentmindedly and saw a woman with a unique style grinning at him.

‘Who is she?’

He’d never seen her before.

She strode over and extended her hand.

“Hello. I’m Miss Hannah, Sabina’s friend.”

He’d heard the name.

「Where have you been? To Helio?」

「No, to a friend.」

「A friend?」

「……An Academy classmate. Miss Hannah. A mage at the Royal Research Institute.」

「Ah. What for?」

「Just.」

He recalled the suspicious conversation.

Ashton smiled brightly and shook Hannah’s hand. Fortunately, she was barehanded.

“Ah, nice to meet you. I’ve heard about you from Miss D’Vialis.”

Hannah flinched. Ashton’s grip felt unpleasantly prickly.

During the brief moment her palm muscles contracted and relaxed, Ashton thoroughly searched Hannah’s mind. Why had Sabina met Hannah that day?

「It’s Blueisia Tentacle poison. Isn’t it interesting?」

「What’s it for?」

「Like you said, it seems like a painkiller.」

Ashton’s face twisted slightly after reading Hannah’s memories.

He hadn’t realized Sabina had secretly taken his medicine during their trip, or that she’d asked a Disassembly Mage at the Royal Research Institute to analyze its ingredients.

To make matters worse, Hannah brought up the topic of unregistered mages, causing Sabina to wonder why she’d become strangely tolerant of illegal acts.

‘D*mn.’

He’d become careless, distracted by romance.

He should have suppressed his feelings and prioritized his goal. Becoming lenient with himself because he’d soon die had led to repeated lapses—and now, consequences.

Ashton erased all of Hannah’s memories regarding the medicine. He also ordered her to dispose of all the medicines she’d made. Hannah’s eyes immediately glazed over.

“Well, I have work to do.”

She spoke in a dazed voice.

“I wish you success in your endeavors.”

Ashton replied stiffly.

He went straight home and demanded strong liquor from the maids. He should have erased Sabina’s memories the day after his illness. He should have made sure. He’d made a foolish mistake, not wanting to use magic on her during their honeymoon trip…

He sipped amber liquor with a deep frown.

If Sabina had figured out the magic on him and the medicine he took, she might have already realized his true identity.

Sabina may be naive, but she’s a smart model student. She’s clumsy at politics or social maneuvering, but she’d solve any logical problem easily, given enough clues.

He could guess why she avoided meeting him.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Ashton took a deep breath, striving to suppress his emotions.

It was still too early to break up. Maybe when Helio returned home for vacation. If Ashton Bryant disappeared from her side now, it would be like serving her up to Reyes.

Should he erase all her memories now? But even if the timing and manner of Sabina’s contempt changed, his plan was still progressing.

He refilled and emptied his glass. Ashton pressed his forehead, enduring the headache.

“Alright.”

He muttered to himself.

“I’m prepared.”

He spent a few uneasy days, making medicine or provoking Helio into confrontational ‘lessons’ that bordered on *buse.

One day, after finishing Helio’s lesson, a maid handed him a letter.

It was sealed with the D’Vialis crest.

His heart raced.

The inevitable had come.

He tore off the wax seal with his hand. Inside, a single sentence in Sabina’s fine handwriting:

『Come to me the moment you see this.』

Ashton boarded a carriage, nervously licking his dry lips. The terror of facing her after his identity was exposed, and the joy of finally seeing her today, tangled and overwhelmed him. He almost wished to remain forever on the road, yet also hoped the coachman would rush him to the D’Vialis mansion.

When he arrived, Sabina sat neatly in a white dress.

“Welcome.”

She was dressed perfectly—hair, makeup, clothes, all flawless. Ashton could tell she’d steeled herself while preparing to receive him.

“Sit. I have a lot to ask.”

Ashton, too, braced himself and sat across from Sabina.

He took a deep breath.

Sabina scrutinized his tense face. The impression of his childhood was completely gone; he seemed like a different person from the boy she’d sent to the academy. He felt strangely unfamiliar.

Sabina’s silver eyes lingered on his face, then moved to his hands. She’d thought he simply disliked gloves, but now she saw intent in his bare hands.

“Helio.”

Sabina called Ashton by that name.

He didn’t answer—not to deny he’d been ‘Helio’ in the past, but because he wanted Sabina to see him as someone else.

“I’d prefer if you called me Ashton.”

Sabina ignored the request, speaking quickly, as if she’d prepared her words in advance.

“Why didn’t you say you were Helio? You not only committed the crime but let that boy take the blame… If you’d told me early, things wouldn’t have gotten so tangled—I could have helped.”

She was trying to stay calm, as she did with her ward.

Ashton, watching quietly, asked in return:

“How did you feel when you realized I was Helio?”

She felt self-reproach, guilt. Sabina fell silent. Ashton could read everything from her expression, even without touching her. He smiled.

“If I’d confessed I was Helio, you’d have treated me like a fourteen-year-old kid. But now I’m eight years older than you. I don’t want to be seen as a ward.”

Indeed, Ashton was another Helio. He recalled Helio’s complaints that Sabina didn’t share deep stories with him, and inwardly sneered.

“The moment I become someone under your protection, the range of what I can do will narrow.”

“…….”

“Right now, I look like an adult to you, don’t I? Even if you try to think, ‘That boy in front of me is Helio who was under my protection; he grew up and became an adult,’ it isn’t easy, right? Because of what I’ve done as ‘Ashton.’ Why would I refuse the chance to be seen as an adult by you?”

It wasn’t a problem that could be dismissed so simply. There was a bigger issue—his illness. In fact, Sabina had called him today to take responsibility for that.

“You should’ve told me sooner… about what’s happening to your body…”

She tried to speak calmly, but her words kept breaking. It felt like a fist-sized lump was rising from her stomach to her throat.

Ashton asked in a cracked voice:

“If you’d known, what would you have done?”

Finally, Sabina lost her composure.

“I would’ve sent you away!”

She screamed—just as Ashton had expected.