The Knight Who Broke Off Our Engagement and Told Me to Never Show My Face Again Still Clings to Me Today, Even Though I Was Possessed and Turned Into a Villainess for Ten Years - 58 – Unknown Past 2

It was true—just like Gerald said, before my body was taken over, I had done charity work with my mother.

My mother had always valued the idea of noblesse oblige—the duty of nobles to help others.

Still, I couldn’t seem to remember ever meeting Gerald when we were children.

“I’m sorry. I don’t remember you…”

“Don’t apologize. It’s only natural. We only met twice. And back then, I had flame-skin disease. I looked terrible—completely different from how I look now.”

The moment I heard that, I gasped.

I had heard of that illness before. It’s a rare disease that happens when magic doesn’t match your body. It’s painful and very hard to cure.

There are few healing mages to begin with, and only one with matching magic can heal it completely.

So the chances of recovery are very low.

I never imagined Gerald had suffered from such a thing.

“My whole body looked burned. My skin was rotting. I smelled so bad, and I was covered in bandages. No one came near me. I was just an orphan, and they barely treated me. They probably thought I would die before a matching healer ever showed up.”

He said he lived in an orphanage connected to a hospital. He was abandoned right in front of the building because of the disease.

He spent every day bedridden, with barely any treatment.

“I kept thinking, why was I even born? It always hurt. I was lonely. I was miserable. Nothing good ever happened to me.”

“…!”

I couldn’t even imagine that kind of pain. It must have been worse than the time I spent as a slave.

“But then, one day… I met you.”

He spoke like he was talking about someone else’s story.

“Because I was always ignored and left behind, you found me in a horrible state. And right away, you complained about how I was being treated.”

“…Ah.”

Slowly, my memories started to come back.

I remembered now. A child lying in bed, wrapped in dirty bandages, struggling to breathe. I had told someone nearby to help him.

But my mother had stepped away at the time. Because I was just a child, they didn’t take me seriously. They just said, “We’re busy. There’s nothing we can do.”

So I insisted, “Then let me do it.” I begged them to let me help change the bandages. I believed I could do at least that much.

“You spoke kindly and changed my bandages with such care. Even though I looked disgusting, you didn’t flinch. You didn’t mind getting dirty.”

“…”

“I was so happy, I wanted to cry. It was the first time anyone treated me like a human being.”

Back then, all I could do was speak kindly and change the bandages with clumsy hands.

Knowing that even something so small meant that much to him… I could feel tears filling my eyes.

“You even came to see me again, didn’t you? Kind Sadie visited me one more time. I was so happy that you remembered me. Even if it was pity or sympathy—it still meant everything.”

Yes. I remembered now. I had worried about him and visited again one month later.

Because I was the daughter of the Arclight family and had made large donations, the higher-ups found out. The staff were scolded badly.

After that, they started treating him much better. I remember feeling relieved.

“To me, you were beautiful and kind, like an angel. I’ve always wanted to thank you.”

“Gerald…”

“Thank you so much, Sadie.”

Back then, I hadn’t even known if the child in bandages was a boy or girl. He couldn’t move or speak at all.

Now, knowing that child was Gerald—my heart overflowed with emotion I couldn’t put into words.

“I… I didn’t do anything…”

Tears ran down my face. I bit my lip and shook my head, trying not to cry.

Seeing that, Gerald’s eyes softened.

“Later, a healing mage with matching magic appeared, like a miracle. I was finally cured. And once my face changed, people started being nice to me—almost annoyingly so.”

He gave a bitter smile, but I saw sadness in his eyes.

“Then, I was adopted by the Marquis of Findlay, because I looked just like their dead son. They treated me like him. Not as me. All they wanted was this face.”

“That’s awful…”

“No one ever looked at me.”

He had finally escaped the pain of illness—only to live as someone else’s replacement.

Even when he returned to his original body and told the truth, the Marquis and Marchioness didn’t even seem sad.

All they wanted was someone who looked like their son. Who he really was didn’t matter.

His sad story left me completely speechless.

“—But you were different.”

Gerald said that and gently held my hand.

“Even when I looked like that, Sadie was kind. You cared about me. To me, you were the light.”

He looked at me like I was glowing. I could feel his feelings through his eyes.

“I never cared about family. I didn’t want love from people who weren’t even related to me.”

“…”

“The only thing I wanted… was to become someone who could meet Sadie again.”

At his words, I gasped.

He was right. A commoner—no, an orphan—could never speak to someone like me, a noble daughter.

“That’s why I worked so hard to become Gerald. I studied everything a noble needs. I worked until my hands bled, just so I could go to the noble party where you’d be.”

It happened when I was seven and he was nine—just one month before my body was taken.

“Seeing Sadie again… you were so beautiful, so bright. I almost cried. …But standing next to you was your fiancé, Rufus Langridge.”

Gerald said it like he was spitting the words, one side of his mouth twisting upward.

“At first, I thought just seeing you again would be enough. I just wanted to say thank you. But at that moment… the feeling that filled me was jealousy.”