Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 440: Did I Do Something Bad?

Chapter 440: Did I Do Something Bad?

[Is she jealous.? What did she dream about? I’m dying to know.] Ferdinand was far off.

’Poor Ara. Ferdinand did not realize even now that she had feelings for him. And she waited for him for so long," Arabella shook her head.

Was it because she looked so much like Ara, or she could have been Ara in her past life that she felt so bad right now?

’What’s with this feeling of frustration and anger welling up in my chest?’

She didn’t understand why she felt so angry all of a sudden. Her chest even hurt so much as if she was the one who was treated that way by Ferdinand.

Arabella did not want to blow up at her husband since he was so clueless about it so she tried to hold it in and tried to take several deep breaths.

"A-Arabella? Why are you crying?! Did I say something bad? I swear that nymph and I were never lovers," Ferdinand cupped her cheek and dried her tears with his thumbs.

Arabella blinked repeatedly as she realized that her tears were already flowing indeed.

’Why am I crying? Why do I feel that bad for someone who could have been my husband’s lover? Shouldn’t I be relieved that they didn’t get together and became lovers?’

She rubbed her chest which suddenly felt tight and heavy. She realized she had to say it. It felt like her chest would explode if she didn’t talk.

"Ferdinand, that river nymph was in love with you. And she’s loyal and dedicated to you. She waited for you every single day for hundreds and thousands of years. She kept staring into the distance, trying to check the mountain peaks of your island to see if there were any signs of your awakening. She spent all her life waiting for you and died lonely and bitterly thinking that you fooled and abandoned her. She thought you lied to her. She was so hurt that she caused floods. And when she was done crying too much, she became bitter about everything around her until her river began drying up and ended up becoming toxic. And then, one day, she simply died. All alone because the one she had been waiting for never came to see her," Arabella blurted out in one go.

[What does she mean? Something like that happened? I didn’t know.]

’Why am I saying all these to him? He didn’t know about Ara’s feelings. He isn’t to blame either. Ara should have moved on when she realized that Ferdinand didn’t have feelings for her.’

But why did she end up saying all those to her husband? Why does her chest hurt so much as if she was the one who experienced it all?

Was Ara truly her in the previous life? And now that she got a glimpse of the past, it was like an old wound getting opened?

[She’s crying so much. What should I do?]

"Arabella, please calm down," Ferdinand said, but she didn’t know why she was tearing up so much either. She could not even stop her tears. Her chest simply felt so heavy like they might burst if her tears don’t fall out.

"Do you not feel bad for her?" she asked in a low voice that made Ferdinand flinch.

[Does she think I was too heartless?]

"I do. Of course, I do. I wanted to fulfill my promise and see her too. But I didn’t know that by the time I woke up; the river nymph would already be dead. Back then, I didn’t know that the lifespan of other long-lived races had once again shortened. I thought she would still be there looking the same when I woke up. I wanted to visit her too since I promised. She was my first comrade for a while. But I did not get to see even a trace of her when I went," Ferdinand explained and there was finally some sort of emotion in his eyes as he talked about Ara.

But was he truly clueless to everything Ara tried to do to show her feelings?

"Did you not notice her feelings at all?" Arabella asked her husband.

"No. I thought what we had was just comradery and friendship. I have always thought of her as just my teacher and first friend when I was finally able to use human form. I swear I didn’t know she had feelings for me."

’I see. So, to him, it was simply friendship. She was important too but just as a friend and as a teacher to him.’

[How did she end up with feelings for me? Since when?] Ferdinand still did not understand.

"From what I saw, I think she was simply interested in you at first. But the longer you stayed at her place, the more her feelings grew. She had tried to show you her feelings quite a lot of times. And she thought it was reaching you because of how you acted toward her," Arabella explained.

[I see. So that was what she saw in her dream.]

’Why am I going as far as explaining all this?’

Arabella did not understand what she was doing either but she felt like she simply had to let Ferdinand know what happened back then. Especially since he was completely clueless about it.

"T-that’s quite a while. I was only learning as much as I can about humans from her since she was very knowledgeable about humanity due to staying so close to them," Ferdinand was quite surprised about it.

[How would I have known she was into me? She didn’t say anything about liking me.]

That was also true. Ara never said something like "I like you" or "I love you" since she thought Ferdinand was picking up her hints and already felt the same.

’Is this what happened to me and Ferdinand in my previous life? We both assumed things about each other and those who knew otherwise never tried to correct it?’

If so, then all the more reason for her to let Ferdinand know what truly happened with the river nymph Ara.

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A/N:

Thank you very much everyone for supporting this book once again this month of July.

August comes with a new privilege setup since I am adding ten more.

This is the last time I increase the number of privilege Chapters since 50 is the maximum.

I have increased the prices a bit as recommended to be fair with other authors (I was told it was unfair for other authors to keep the prices low). In exchange, I added discounts the higher the tier you unlock.

(PS. Please wait a bit for the Privilege Chapters since the power outage keeps going on in my locality right now so I couldn’t work on them earlier. I am still editing them and will upload them as soon as I can.)

Thanks much once again, everyone! I hope you also support this book in August and the following more months to come.

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Update about our stats:

* Word Count: 506k

(I thought this would only be 500k words. But it turns out it would be so much more. Haha. This is the longest work I have written so far. And I’m planning to write more.)

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* Win-Win Rankings for July: Rank 12

(We had 1729 Privilege Chapter Unlocks! Yay! Thanks much to everyone who were willing to spend more coins for this story!)

* Golden Rankings: Rank 35 for Classic Books

(Thank you very much to everyone who sent their Golden Tickets! Yay! Looking forward to more this August!)