Chapter 15 – Happily Ever Afters

“Lucius? Can you hear me? Lucius?” She calls out to him. He looked as if he was cut from stone. She reaches out to touch him and he flinches back as he comes back to reality. His eyes lose the glassy sheen and he stares at Tiana. 

“Lucius?” She calls out, concerned. He looks at her and blinks slowly. “My name…”

Although he had regained his composure, he was clearly holding back a smile, as if he wasn’t still fully back to his senses. This was the real image of the man she knew. A timid and shy person, not an expressionless and cruel man like in the novel.

What is the deal with me calling his name? Tiana wonders curiously.

From his reactions, Tiana could see the type of woman she had been before. She watches on in slight horror as he covers his mouth as if he wasn’t supposed to speak.

Thank you very much, ‘Tiana’. I’m glad I don’t know where you have disappeared to. I can’t believe you were treating such a lovely man like this. I’ll remember your misdeeds forever, Tiana. Remember, I’ll be very nice to Lucius, who will be my husband from now on. Please never come back.

For now, all she has to do is play Tiana, who lost her memory, and make Lucius let his guard down. She has to show him that she is different from the Tiana he knows.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It was too rude of me to call your name, right? I lost my memory, so I didn’t know how to act properly. It was a bit unbecoming and assuming of me. Please forgive me.”

His silence surrounds them in a soft cocoon. Lucius seemed to always be quiet. “I should address you as Grand Duke, right?” she asks.

“Oh, no! It’s just…” he was surprised. He relaxes and lowers his hand with a sigh. He was only a few steps away so she could clearly see him. He was obviously still alarmed and he looked almost dizzy. 

He must have been thinking about how to treat me… she thinks quietly. 

“…Just call me Lucius, please.” He spoke in a low voice once he had stringed his thoughts. His voice was weak but his eyes which had been wandering around all along, settled on her face and looked straight into her eyes.

She felt lightheaded when she met his beautiful, golden eyes. She straightens her posture to make it seem as if everything is normal while happiness floods her body.

“Yes, I will. Lucius.”

He hesitates as he smiles at her timidly and says, “Tiana.”

His smile is so beautiful that it could kill. It’s amazing. This is really… real. This is actually happening and her mind can’t seem to process it. She just can’t seem to comprehend that she is in the world, where the character she loves more than anything lives.

She can still remember how sad she had been when he had chosen to die on his own. No one had been able to heal his pain because only the writer knew about the lies and heartache he had been an unwilling victim to. After giving everything to his wife, Tiana, the woman she is now, he chose to die with her even though she had continued to reject him.

It was hard for her to even imagine how much pain he would have felt in the process leading to those choices. The original story was of course important, but the most important thing to her right now was the Lucius she was seeing now. She wanted to treat her husband well and ensure that he didn’t become a villain. She would save her husband with everything she had. 

The main characters in the original book hadn’t had many difficulties so she should be able to fix everything while possessing the shell of Tiana. She would be able to support Lucius and warrant that he turned out fine. She would fix everything. She would make them get along.

If she could just lay the foundations for a good marriage with Lucius, and between Laurel and Angelica also, the main characters of the original story would be able to conclude the story without any major conflicts.

She couldn’t exactly control if the relationship between Tiana and Lucius would affect and improve theirs along with Angelica, Reir, and their other friends, but she was prepared to do anything to try. She was stuck in this world and she was prepared to overcome any and all variables to make ‘happily ever afters’ a thing in this world.

It would not be an easy task to persuade the main villain of the story to become an ally of the protagonist’s side, but Lucius had not entered the original work’s plot and had not done anything yet.

Lucius was kind and gentle; he did not deserve to be a villain. If he did nothing wrong from his moment on then saving him would be easy. He would never be the villain.

First, she needed to eliminate the shadow crowding this world. She needed to erase the terrifying atmosphere and the feeling of intimidation that people felt around him. She needed to fix it.

Everyone knew him as a cold and heartless tyrant, and she had to destroy that prejudice if she was intending to give him a happy ending.

Because of his personality, he doesn’t express his feelings well and he is easy to manipulate, easy to mold. She must guarantee that he isn’t broken down and mend their relationship. She needed to save him. There is a lot she ought to do.