Revised Edition – 23
“Don’t worry. I didn’t bring this up to scold you or anything.”
She smiled softly.
“Heh, honestly, Ren-san’s far too handsome to be just a monk—and you, well, you’ve got such a graceful, beautiful aura about you.
The two of you really do make a lovely pair.”
“Truth be told,” she went on with a playful tone,
“I’ve secretly thought for a while now that it would be wonderful if the two of you became a couple.
So when I started to suspect it might actually have happened, I just had to ask and make sure.”
“A romance between a handsome man and a beautiful woman—well, that never goes out of style, does it?”
The priest’s wife made a confession that didn’t quite fit her image as a temple’s matron.
It was honestly a bit embarrassing.
Seeing me blush, she straightened her posture,
her tone turning suddenly serious.
“I might be meddling, but… there’s something I should tell you about Ren-san.”
“…”
“Ren-san… has a criminal record.”
Her words hit me like a bolt of lightning.
Ren-san? A criminal record? No way—that had to be some mistake.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “That was a shocking way to start, wasn’t it?
My husband’s always scolding me for that—says I’m a genius at startling people. Heh.”
Heh? I thought, This is no time to be laughing!
My heart was in turmoil, but I kept silent, waiting for her next words.
“I heard you used to talk to him about your husband,” she continued gently.
“But, you know… Ren-san also had a lot of trouble with his own wife.”
BOOM!!
The sound of that impact rang inside my head as if from a comic strip.
“Wh–what!? Ren-san… had a wife!?”
I’d never even considered that possibility—
and now I cursed myself for being so blind.
