The Substitute Bride Is Adored by the Clumsy Margrave

Chapter 31, part 2

‘Besides, Jean didn’t care so much whether he had wealth or not…well, I guess now it’s a bit different since he wants to be able to use it for Clarisse.’

Mary nodded her head

To put it simply she was different from the other noble women in his life, He had no idea why he was so attracted to her. 

When he first approached her in the mansion, he thought she was a beautiful woman indeed, but once she opened her mouth, the beauty of her face went away, and she made him feel so unique and joyous that he couldn’t help but be charmed by her personality. 

She is nothing like the kind of woman who has been around him in the past, who is usually quick to start flirting. Not to mention her unwavering loyalty to Clarisse, which is pleasant to watch.

‘But I didn’t know she could read… How does she know how to read?’

“Sid-sama, are you the eldest son of Viscount Hansen?”

Out of the blue, Mary asked him a personal question; he never thought she might be interested in him before, so that made him feel happy for some reason. He was so surprised that he didn’t even realize that Mary had called him by his name, which he had longed for to happen.

“Hmm, no, I’m the third son of Viscount Hansen.”

“You have older brothers, I see.”

“Yes. My eldest brother will succeed my father, so I can live comfortably.”

Mary didn’t make any particular comment, but she nodded her head and smiled as if she had guessed from Sid’s usual behavior that it was something like that.

“You know, Marius is my cousin, right? He’s the second child, but he only has one other sister, so he’s the heir to their family.”

“Ah. Marius-sama?”

‘Ah. She calls him by his name without hesitation…’

A spark of jealousy began to burn within him. His cousin has always been exceptionally popular with women because of his serious nature and kindness. However, he is just as uptight as Jean, so he rarely plays with women.

He thought, ‘Perhaps being stoic and uptight isn’t such a bad thing after what Jean told me the other day.’ 

He became depressed all of a sudden. After all, Mary might prefer a man like Marius. Perhaps it’s natural for Mary to think so since she sees the happy face of Clarisse being loved by Jean.

Sid had never wanted to redo the past as much as he does now. He wanted to strangle the man who had been playing with women without thinking and beat the crap out of him to bring him back to his senses. Of course, Sid respected them, and he had never toyed with them; he was just having fun without thinking much about it. But if you ask him if he can remember the faces of these women—he can’t, not a single one of them. It had been that way until the moment he saw Mary.

There was something Jean told Sid after he fell in love with Clarisse at first sight—he knew it when he saw it. He said, “Love is not something you just fall into slowly, but rather, when you realize it, you have already fallen.” 

Back then, he thought that Jean was a romanticist despite his face, but now he could actually understand what he meant about how, when you realize it, you’ve already fallen.

Mary looked curiously at Sid’s sudden silence. Still, she did not make any comment, just remained silent and shifted her gaze to the scenery passing by outside the carriage.

“Mary, do you ever wish you could redo the past?”

Sid asked suddenly, and after pondering about it for a moment, she said.

“Going back to the past is not at all realistic, but if I could do it all over again, I think I would.”

“Hmmm…like, how old would you be?”

 Mary was silent for a moment, but quickly answered.

“If I could, I’d like to go back and do it all over again before I turned 12 or so.”

When they arrived at the Margrave’s mansion, Sid pulled a wrapper out of his pocket as he helped Mary out of the carriage.

“Here, please accept this.”

“—what is it?”

 Sid smiled.

“It’s a sweet candy that’s currently very popular in the town. You can’t buy them by yourself, can you?”

As Mary stammered, he pressed the wrapper into her hand.

“Thank you for going out with me today. I’ll come again tomorrow to see you.”