MBSGBC 01

Chapter 01

Suddenly, my husband had gotten younger.

“Oh my?”

I rubbed my eyes.

It felt as though color had been instantly painted over my blurry memories.

My husband’s face, which I’d been facing during our argument, didn’t have a single wrinkle. His brown hair was full, with not a single faded strand.

Right, that’s what he used to look like back then.

I forgot the words I was about to hurl and stared at his face. The realization that my surroundings had changed came a beat too late.

Where I was standing now was not the office of the merchant guild that I’d grown accustomed to over more than a decade.

Faded silk wallpaper. A tacky painting barely dusted off. Old furniture arranged just for show. It was the reception room of my former family home.

‘Was it really like this?’

There was no nostalgia. Only bewilderment. I dazedly turned my head this way and that.

That is, until the man standing across from me pointed a finger at my face and raised his voice.

“Irina, don’t be so sensitive. A broken engagement? Do you really think you’re in a position to say that?”

“…Pardon?”

A broken engagement, all of a sudden?

We’d been married for ten years already. If anything, it would be a divorce, not a broken engagement.

He continued to lash out, as if completely unaware of my flustered state.

“Or should I go find Baron Otreha right now? Once he finds out he’ll have to repay the debts alone, I’m sure your brother will clap his hands in joy. Don’t you think?”

Wait.

Something about this feels familiar. Like I’m reliving something I’ve already experienced once before.

After marrying Pascal, I’d recalled this very scene countless times.

If only I’d broken off the engagement back then…

“Irina Otreha. If it weren’t for the investment I received from your late father, the Baron, this engagement would have been a difficult arrangement for me to accept as well.”

Pascal sighed and continued, as if determined to wound me.

“You are a fine woman, but you are not beautiful enough to easily obtain such generous terms.”

That was hardly something to say to a woman who was about to become his wife.

Generous terms, my foot.

Pascal had never lost anything by marrying me. The marital alliance with a baronial family was a stepping stone for his social advancement, and I was a mage who could help his guild.

He was just trying to rattle me, a naive woman who didn’t know how the world worked.

‘But I didn’t know that back then.’

So I bowed my head to him. Not knowing that I would later recall this conversation countless times and beat my chest in regret.

The cause of the argument we’d been having just moments ago was also rooted in this very moment, right here.

“Pascal. I don’t think this is the time to be holding me up.”

“If you know that, then why are you throwing a hysterical fit about breaking off the engagement and whatnot, when I’m a busy man?”

“Do you know that the young lady of the Vestine family is carrying your child?”

The blood instantly drained from my wretched husband’s face.

“That’s absurd!”

He erupted in anger, as if deeply insulted.

“I’ve told you countless times—Leah and I are as clean as siblings! Don’t make such unfounded accusations!”

No, it’s not.

Looking at his shameless face, it was time to set the record straight on the cause of our marital quarrel.

—

*Lady Oker.*

—

A boy with honey-blond hair and pale skin.

My husband introduced the small boy, who looked far more refined than any nobleman’s son, as his own child—to me, his wife.

There was no need to ask who the mother was. Except for his uniquely pitch-black eyes, the child bore a frightening resemblance to Leah Vestine’s beautiful face.

—

*What’s your name?*

*It’s Emil.*

—

I asked the child, but it wasn’t the child who answered. Leah Vestine, standing elegantly beside the boy, smiled like an angel as if I didn’t exist and added,

—

*Emil Oker. It’s a name Lady Oker herself gave this child when he was still in my womb.*

—

Placing her hand on the child’s shoulder, the woman added, infuriatingly,

—

*She was gracious enough to assign her personal physician to care for me directly.*

—

As if I wouldn’t recognize that as a boast.

Ten years into my marriage, I had miscarried twice.

Each time, my mother-in-law treated my pregnancies and miscarriages as if they were someone else’s business. And now that same mother-in-law had personally named that woman’s child. A sense of betrayal I should have been used to by now surged up and choked my chest.

Moreover, unlike me, who was already beginning to develop wrinkles under my eyes, Leah looked far younger than her age. So much so that she could never pass for the mother of a child that grown.

Refusing to be intimidated by the feeling of being diminished, I glared at Leah. My husband stepped forward, shielding her. His resolute voice drove a nail into my heart.

—

*I will adopt Emil under your name. Emil is a very clever and good boy. You’ll come to like him.*

*You cannot humiliate me like this!*

—

I’d raised my voice in the heat of the moment, but remembering the child was present, I lowered it.

—

*If my family finds out, they won’t allow it.*

*Baron Otreha has already given his consent.*

*Pardon?*

*I’m saying your brother has already approved it.*

—

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The reason Pascal could confidently bring Leah Vestine and the child along.

My family had completely abandoned me.

What did they get in return? Money? Land? A mansion? Probably nothing too costly. My family, which had nothing but the title of Baron before my marriage, had only declined further since I married, and was in dire need of every penny.

I turned to Leah, who stood tall, protected by both my child and my husband, and asked,

—

*…That child. How old is he exactly?*

—

This time, Emil answered himself.

—

*I’m ten.*

—

I couldn’t breathe. It had only been a short while since Pascal and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. This child was clearly conceived before Pascal and I were even married.

Every time he neglected our family and threw himself into business, I endured the sorrow that washed over me because he was the generous man who lovingly held me after I lost two pregnancies and could no longer carry a child.

But the truth was different.

He didn’t care that I couldn’t have children.

Because his real family was outside.

Then what about me?

—

*…I cannot accept this!*

*Irina. Lower your voice.*

*Why didn’t you marry that woman back then? Why did you propose to me? All this time, you’ve been deceiving me. Without a shred of shame!*

—

And then, what did my husband say?

—

*If that’s how you feel, let’s divorce. I don’t know what gives you the nerve to carry on like this when you couldn’t even give me a single child.*

—

One month since then.

Time passed agonizingly slowly in hell.

In pain that felt like my fingers were being severed one by one, I could only watch as every right I had was stripped away.

Should I give up?

Just as that thought crossed my mind.

In the guild office, standing before the adoption papers that only needed a signature, facing my husband’s cold eyes, I heard a sound like a window shattering in the air.

Along with the sensation of falling, countless scenes flashed through my fractured memories.

At the end of the splitting headache, the last thing I saw were blue, blue, blue eyes.

And the moment a long ringing sound filled my ears—

That bastard husband of mine had gotten younger.

I placed my hand on my chest and took a deep breath. I still couldn’t fully grasp the situation, but one thing was certain.

Throughout my entire marriage, especially over the past month,

I had recalled this very moment countless times and regretted it bitterly.

I had to correct that regret.

Struggling to appear as resolute as possible, I finally opened my mouth.

“How could you mistake a pregnancy? A belly doesn’t lie.”

“Are you trying to ruin that girl Leah’s reputation now?”

Perhaps Pascal truly didn’t know about the child.

Still, he must remember doing the things that lead to a child—it was infuriating.

“Well, why don’t you find out what your mother’s personal physician has to say? Right about now, he’d be tending to the child in Leah Vestine’s belly.”

“Such lies—”

“What’s the point of telling a lie that will be exposed so quickly?”

Pascal’s face turned pale. He was probably beginning to realize something was wrong.

I smiled at him.

I tried to mimic Leah Vestine’s innocent smile, but honestly, it was impossible.