Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress-Chapter 688: A Glimpse of the Past

"What do you mean by nothing? I was truly injured," Benjamin reminded.

"Even so. Eloisa’s right. Even for a prank, that was bad," Arabella agreed with Eloisa.

Thankfully, Benjamin did the prank right here where he knew it was off-limits to others and only their trusted personnel were allowed entry.

"Ella, how could you do this to me when you were the one who was the least worried about me? You were worried for just about two seconds. Then, you’re back to hovering over your husband," Benjamin acted like he was hurt and offended.

"It wasn’t like that! I was trying to understand what happened," Arabella quickly defended herself.

"Uh-huh?" Benjamin just said, pointing out her defensive attitude with the way he looked at her.

"I..." Arabella wanted to say more. But then, she realized that she must not have looked worried enough because she was looking back and forth between them earlier.

It made it look like she was choosing who to side with and her actions made it seem like she was siding with Ferdinand. Especially since she did not scold her husband but was chiding her older brother.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand wanted to contradict Benjamin but did not want to do so in front of their younger siblings. He did not want them to think he did not have an ounce of respect for Benjamin who was older than Arabella and the about to be crowned.

[Tsk. Raymond had kept warning me to watch my words so that I would not seem so arrogant. I’ll keep quiet for now.]

’Ferdinand is right. I was clearly worried earlier. How could Elder Brother say I wasn’t.’

Arabella was about to clarify when she noticed that Benjamin had a mischievous glint in his eyes again. She knew that look on his face. He was up to something. Thus, she focused on his thoughts.

[Haha. Ella is still so adorable. It reminds me of when she was young. Look at her ponder about it so seriously. I quite liked her worried face earlier. I’m glad she still worries about us even now that she’s married.]

’See! He knew it!’ Arabella pursed her lips.

Now, she understood. As Ferdinand had thought, Benjamin did and said those on purpose. Her brother was still playing around and testing her. Or rather, he had a goal in mind as well for doing all these and intentionally making it noticeable.

"What are you getting at? What is it that you want?" Arabella finally realized why her older brother was weirdly acting like this, unlike his usual self.

Benjamin smirked, glanced at Ferdinand for a second, and said to Arabella, "I’ll tell you later. Let’s go and eat first or the food will get cold."

Benjamin ushered their younger siblings to head to the dining hall so they had no choice but to begin heading there as they were supposed to do earlier.

"Can’t you just say it while we are walking?" Arabella inquired since Benjamin walked beside her while Ferdinand was on her other side.

"Ask your husband later. He already knows why," Benjamin whispered to her ear, just enough for her husband to hear.

Ferdinand who was silently watching everything and simply thought that the siblings were close finally reacted. He frowned with worry at what Benjamin might be up to when he heard the latter’s whisper to Arabella.

[This bastard! Is he- Oops... Did Arabella hear that?]

Ferdinand nervously glanced at Arabella. When she did not react, he sighed in relief.

[Thank goodness she did not hear it. But what is her brother up to? Wait! Is he going to ruin my chances of getting on the good side of their younger siblings?!Is it because of ’that’.]

Arabella wanted to ask what he meant by "that" but Ferdinand kept thinking so she continued listening.

[And how could he say Arabella was not worried enough when she instantly got out of my embrace and ran to him when she saw him with a bandaged arm. I wish I could get injured too so she would worry about me instead. Would she run to me in worry? What would her face look like? Would she cry if I got severely injured? Hmm, should I have Raymond or Rendell duel with me seriously? Or should I have them and my best knights attack me all at once...]

Ferdinand began thinking of all sorts of ways to "accidentally" get injured to see how Arabella would react.

{Cut it out. I won’t talk to you at all if you intentionally get injured!} Arabella glared at her husband.

{I was just thinking about it. I wasn’t really going to do it.} Ferdinand quickly clarified.

{Don’t even think about it. How can you even consider doing something so bad? Think about how I would feel seeing you drenched in blood and injured. How would you feel if you see me injured? Hmm?} Arabella pointed out and her husband froze and stopped walking.

When Arabella stopped as well to and looked at his face, he had turned too pale.

"!!!"

[What was that?!! Why did it appear in my mind so clearly as if I had already seen Arabella, bloody and injured before?!!! There was a small lightweight dagger. The pattern was... Huh... It became blurry. I can’t picture the image clearly anymore... Why do I suddenly have a throbbing headache?]

"Ferdinand?" Arabella called out. She was alarmed at her husband’s thoughts.

’What was that supposed to mean?’

Arabella gulped nervously at the thought that Ferdinand might be having glimpses of his memories of their past life.

’What if Ferdinand suddenly recalls everything?! How do I explain myself. Am I ready to come clean and tell him everything?’

Arabella had been trying to prepare herself for the time she would tell Ferdinand everything once she was ready. But now was not the time.

Alwin said that gods or the Dragon God of Valeria must have wiped Ferdinand’s memories clean which was why he could not recall the past.

But Arabella and Alwin do because they were given the task to prevent the tragedy that happened in the past.