My Former Lover Didn't Die And Came Back - Chapter 30

“……Cedric……!”

Blair tried to kick off the bed to get up, but was immediately blocked by several maids.

Bang.

The ornate door, framed with gold leaf, closed. It’s a different house, but she was still imprisoned. It was just a more luxurious prison than before.

“This is ridiculous……! Don’t lock it……!”

Click, the bedroom door was locked from the outside, and the sound of the lock echoed in the room.

And so, the warlord of Eleanor, who had imprisoned an innocent couple, left the mansion.

* * *

Cedric’s secretary, Eden, was miserable.

He was briefly happy that his boss left his work earlier than usual, but then his routine of eating and sleeping in the office returned.

If his boss left work late, he had to leave late too. That was the job of a secretary. It was sad, but thinking about the salary, which was higher compared to others, made it bearable.

Recently, Cedric had been strange. Even though work piled up like a mountain, he remained calm. He would even assign tasks like sending trendy dresses or jewelry to his townhouse. He would leave work on time, even if there were tasks left.

But that behavior didn’t last long. These days, Cedric spent most of his day in the office. No, it seemed like he was reluctant to return to his townhouse.

Why……?

Eden glanced at his boss, who was frowning.

Cedric held a piece of paper in his hand that Eden had never seen before. He asked,

“General, about that paper……”

“……Adrian Cavendish,”

Eden’s eyes widened.

It was a name he did not expect to hear from his boss. A strange prisoner who had been framed for crimes he didn’t commit but never protested.

“He wants to meet me.”

That strange prisoner was requesting a visit from his boss.

……Why now?

* * *

Alatra was the only prison in the capital. A place where Cedric, having returned hastily after the war ended, had imprisoned Blair’s husband on a temporary basis.

The infamy of Alatra Prison arose precisely because of its geographical advantage, which was located in the prime land of the capital. Due to high land values, each prisoner was allocated less than 1 square meter of space.

Such excessively cramped spaces were known to devastate people. Prisoners in this jail often complained of much greater mental anguish than those elsewhere.

Cedric walked through the infamous prison with long strides.

The narrow cells were lined up tightly, like matchboxes. The expressions of the prisoners seen through the bars were visibly emaciated.

……Finding someone sane here seems harder.

The guard led Cedric to a cell at the corner.

Creeeak.

As the bars moved and made an unpleasant sound, Cedric entered the cell. Adrian’s cell, located in a corner, was a bit wider than the others. Perhaps it was a consideration for his nobility.

When Cedric entered, Adrian, who had been sitting on a chair, lifted his face.

“……”

He was a handsome man with golden hair that shimmered slightly with a brass hue and brown eyes. Despite being imprisoned for a long time, his gaze still had its vitality. Only one of his eyes had double eyelids, and the corners of his eyes drooped slightly, giving him a kind appearance. Although he seemed to have lost weight, making his cheeks slightly hollow, he was still handsome.

Cedric’s mood sank.

“…….”

The eyes of the two men met. Cedric gestured to the guard, who quickly closed the door and left.

Creeeak. The sound of metal scraping echoed once again.

A suffocating silence filled the small room left with only the two men. Cedric was the first to speak.

“……You said you wanted to see me.”

Adrian Cavendish had specifically requested him. He had something to say to General Cedric, who recently led the empire to victory in war.

A mere prisoner seeing the general seemed like an unlikely story. Naturally, it must have been a message he had delivered without much expectation. But it reached Cedric, and he accepted the request.

He wouldn’t know that I was the one who put him here.

There was one reason Cedric did not refuse Adrian’s request.

‘Guilt.’

He was doing to Adrian the same thing that had put him in a difficult position three years ago. That’s what brought him to this prison.

Of course, he was also curious. What Blair’s husband wanted to say to him.

The handsome man with a kind face slowly looked at Cedric and then gently opened his beautiful lips.

“……Is she doing well?”

Color drained from Cedric’s face.

“……What do you mean?”

He asked in a low voice, trying to hide his agitation. Adrian let out a small chuckle and then spoke again to Cedric.

“I’m asking if my wife is doing well.”

Cedric’s eyes flashed. A soldier’s intuition kicked in. This man……

“……Do you know me?”

This man knows me.

The honed senses of a soldier who had been through battlefields sharpened. This man, Blair’s husband, knows me. Not just knows me but.

……This man knows. That Cedric had arrested him, that Cedric and Blair were lovers, and that…… she is now by Cedric’s side.

“……You know me.”

Cedric uttered coldly.

“How is Blair? Is she healthier now than when she was with me?”

“…….”

Sweat trickled down from his temples.

“Why aren’t you responding?”

……He knows. How Cedric has treated her all this time. The current state she is in.

“If you made a mistake, it was that you shut down Cavendish Merchants.”

“……”

Cedric’s fist clenched. Sweat began to seep through his palm as well.

“Give her something to do at least. People easily become depressed without work. She’s been sick before, so it’ll be worse for her.”

“Blair was… sick?”

“She had a severe fever once.”

Was it during their first year of marriage? She mentioned in passing that she had been bedridden with a fever once. Cedric hadn’t paid much attention because she spoke of it as if it were nothing significant.

“She doesn’t like being confined.”

“……!”

Sweat ran down his back.

Damn, he felt an unpleasant… intuition. This man is not a kind-hearted gentleman. This person……

“That’s why I let her, a noblewoman, work. Do you think I’m bad at making money? I let her work because she likes it.”

A madness that couldn’t be hidden flowed from Adrian’s tawny eyes.

……Damn. Why did I think this man was just a kind-hearted husband?

“……What do you want to say?”

There was one reason. Everything Cedric knew about Adrian came from her mouth. That’s why Cedric thought Adrian was a good person because she saw her husband that way.

……My husband is a good person.

Cedric steadied his breathing, which was threatening to become ragged. It was too early to get excited. Unlike him, not a hint of agitation could be felt from the man who was sitting across from him.

He was standing, and that man was sitting. He looked down on him, yet why did it feel like Adrian was the one above him?

He climbed up to his current position with all his might, but despite that, the inherent limits of his birthright remained unchanged.

Those born with blue blood. Just like Adrian, there was a natural arrogance one could only feel in those born as nobles.

“…….”

Adrian’s red lips slowly parted. From the mouth of a supposedly kind husband came sentences far from benign.

“I don’t recommend locking her up. It didn’t end well.”

Cedric had to restrain himself from throwing a punch at the man in front of him. He couldn’t breathe.

……This man, he locked her up?

He wanted to twist and break a neck, unsure if Adrian’s or his own.

The prisoner was examining his face. Even Adrian’s gaze, which swept over Cedric, was elegant. Unlike Adrian, whose every movement was effortless, he had to concentrate all his nerves not to show any agitation.

“……Speak properly.”

He ordered through gritted teeth. Adrian answered with a slight smile.

“……I felt all the emotions you’ve felt towards her.”

Cedric’s fist trembled at the prisoner’s answer. His fingernails dug into his palm, leaving marks.

“……Looking at her makes me think of various things. I wish she would only smile at me and wait all day just for me. I want to confine her so she can’t leave the bedroom.”

Cedric’s lips tightened. The man who had just confined a woman in the bedroom could not respond.

“To want to torment someone you cherish. Isn’t the human heart truly strange?”

“…….”

Cedric had to focus all his nerves not to reach for the knife at his side. There were still many things he needed to hear from this man.

“……Have you ever locked up Blair?”

Cedric asked as calmly as he could.

“In our first year of marriage.”

The blond handsome man answered.

“Blair doesn’t remember. At the end of that year, she fell ill with a fever…… The fever was incredibly high. When she woke up, she had no memory of it.”

Adrian spoke with a somewhat calm expression.

“……Why did she get a fever? You didn’t dress her properly?”

“Seeing that you asked that, it seems you did.”

Tightly, Cedric clenched his teeth.

“She believes she caught the fever that was going around at that time. But no. I made sure everything she ate and wore was of the highest quality. To ensure she wouldn’t catch something like a cold.”

“I’ll ask again. Why was she sick?”

Intuition told him. He had to dig into this matter.

“……Should I speak of matters between husband and wife?”

As Adrian answered with a twinkle in his brown eyes, the mouth of the soldier standing like a totem pole closed.

Thump!

Cedric threw a punch at Adrian’s face.

“……Ugh……!”

His body tilted and the chair fell over. Dust rose in the prison cell painted with lime. The blond man coughed briefly and then touched the corner of his mouth.

“……Say it again. Tell me everything.”

An icy voice flowed.

“……Adrian Cavendish.”

“……”

Adrian wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb. Blood smeared.

“You already know me, don’t you?”

“……”

The man with blood on his lips did not answer. But that itself was an answer.