This Marriage Must End in Tragedy - Chapter 60

I don’t want charitable promotional sponsorship.

I want a fair world where everyone can be self-reliant.

A fair world. Ansi stared blankly at the procession.

She, who had lived as both a noble and a commoner, empathized. The current empire was revolving around wealthy nobles. Everyone in the empire knew that this was the new emperor’s policy. So the revolutionary army’s procession had to continue endlessly.

Ansi slowly walked, watching the procession from a spot slightly away from the crowded people. While doing so, she bumped into someone who was looking at the revolutionary army’s procession.

“I’m sorry.”

Ansi bowed her head.

“Oh, isn’t it the lady?”

But the voice coming from the opposite side was familiar. When Ansi turned her gaze forward, a familiar-faced man was beaming as if pleased to see her.

“It’s me, Henet de Maron! The person whose name was written on the fountain pen. We even had a meal next to the club before, do you remem…”

“I know, Sir Henet. You’re Damion’s friend, aren’t you?”

“I’m relieved, I thought you might not remember.”

Henet, who had been shrinking more and more timidly, exhaled in relief and smiled.

“How could I not remember?”

As he seemed to be Damion’s closest friend, Ansi remembered him too. However, Henet’s expression darkened at Ansi’s words.

“That’s right, it would be strange not to remember, given how rude I was?”

Ansi, who had been bewildered, soon realized what Henet was talking about. He was referring to what had happened at Lady Roma’s shop.

“I’m saying this now, but I’m sorry about that time. When I came to find you with the fountain pen, I said some rude things.”

“It’s alright. I ended up marrying Damion anyway. Even if you had told me not to marry, the situation wouldn’t have changed, Sir Henet.”

“Haha, you’re right.”

Henet laughed awkwardly. To say that your importance to Damion isn’t great like this. The somewhat nasty way of speaking sarcastically resembled his friend in some way.

In fact, from Ansi’s perspective, since Damion had married her for Lubella’s abilities rather than his feelings for her, she thought that hearing gossip about Ansi herself wouldn’t have affected her. But to Henet, who had no way of knowing that situation, it sounded that way.

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re doing well. It seems Damion likes you a lot.”

“Is that so?”

“If you knew how differently he treats you compared to how he usually treats people, you’d be surprised. Sometimes he really seems like a different person. Well, it’s natural since you two are in love.”

Henet was truly convinced of this.

Before the marriage, he thought it was clear that Ansi liked Damion more, and after the marriage, he judged that the opposite was true – Damion clearly liked Ansi more.

The recent behavior of his friend, who had said he wouldn’t even start if it wasn’t a marriage that took the plus side in a zero-sum game, was quite unfamiliar. However, Henet was viewing this change positively.

Damion still doesn’t seem to have reached the thought that marriage is a win-win situation though.

“By the way… were you watching the revolutionary army?”

Ansi hesitated at Henet’s question.

“…Just by chance as I was passing by.”

The information that she was supporting the revolutionary army should not be brought to the surface right now. It had to be revealed in August, timed with the misfire at the emperor during the hunt.

“Was Sir Henet doing the same?”

From his position, it seemed he had been looking that way from a spot where the procession was clearly visible. Henet nodded and stared at the trailing end of the passed procession.

“The revolutionary army is everywhere. It’s impossible not to notice them.”

It was a somewhat meaningful gaze. But before Ansi’s thoughts could linger, he turned back to her with a bright smile.

“Come to think of it, there will be a hunt in Sobelbio soon! Do you like hunting, my lady?”

“Yes. I’ll be attending this hunt too.”

“Damion must be thrilled. He’s from a military background after all.”

Henet smiled contentedly as if boasting about his friend. He probably didn’t know how Damion reacts to gunshots now.

“I suppose so.”

She had no right to disclose information Damion hadn’t shared.

“Well then, I’ll see you next time.”

Henet left first. Swallowing the thought of whether there would really be a next time, Ansi turned around.

At least her steps were light. The next schedule was free from obligations for her path.

A car stopped in front of the house with the blue roof. Ansi’s face brightened with joy. Hiding such feelings, she said to Damion.

“I told you I could go alone.”

Visiting Sofia together with Damion was unnecessarily awkward. It felt different from being among the people of Orphe with the duke and duchess. Dealing with Damion here somehow felt really like being a married couple… it was a strange feeling.

Moreover, it was different now from when she thought Damion was marrying her because he liked her.

“I said we’d do everything together from now on.”

Damion, who got out of the car first, opened the car door for Ansi. She got out of the car with his escort. Damion lowered his head and lightly kissed her cheek.

Ansi opened her eyes wide in surprise. But Damion just nodded towards the house with a seemingly pleased face.

“Shall we go?”

Since that day at the church, Damion had started to seek out Ansi more unreservedly. He would pop into her room unexpectedly, often just stare at her, and do things like this at unexpected times.

Really, this time really… as if he actually liked her.

‘Actually, isn’t this for his own benefit too?’

Just as she had been deceived by such feigned emotions, this time too, trying to keep her like this.

Ansi doubted Damion at every moment. Once sprouted, doubt was not easily erased. No, in fact, there was no need or thought to erase it.

Just as it was clear that Ansi was using Damion, it seemed all too reasonable that Damion was using her too.

“Ansi, Sir Damion!”

Sofia, who had opened the door by now, smiled happily. Ansi erased her thoughts and smiled.

They entered Sofia’s house. Ansi took in the small but neat house with her eyes.

The place where Sofia would live in the future had been arranged separately in the south through Lady Roma. Unlike the shared housing they had lived in before, it was a good and decent place to live.

She intended to send Sofia there before the hunting event.

There were also people with whom Sofia had formed relationships under her fake identity, like Mrs. Marchen, and now there was no worry about Geris coming to find her, so it was suitable for living.

“What are you thinking about?”

“It’s nothing.”

Ansi shook her head at Damion’s question and moved towards the dining room. The food set on the table was abundant and diverse.

“Why did you prepare so much? I told you not to.”

“Oh, this. I prepared this for Sir Damion, not for you. Come on, let’s eat.”

“The queen and princess should eat first. I’ll eat last.”

“Queen? Oh my, Sir Damion, really.”

Sofia burst into laughter at Damion’s glib joke.

Ansi, who had been serious, shook her head as if she couldn’t understand after hearing Sofia laugh. Sofia laughed again happily at that sight.

“What part is funny?”

“The funny part is that you can’t find that point.”

Ansi sighed in resignation. She looked at Sofia’s bowl and said.

“You eat first.”

“Oh my, the queen first indeed?”

“…”

Throughout the meal, such jokes popped up. Ansi couldn’t possibly participate in this word play, but in the end, she did smile a bit. It was closer to smiling because she saw Sofia enjoying it, rather than finding the conversation funny.

She wondered when she had been this excited in the past few weeks.

A calm sense of happiness enveloped her.

But on the other hand, she also felt unbearably sad.

Probably because she knew that this happiness would likely be the last.

She would meet Sofia again before the hunting event, but she didn’t think she’d be able to see her this comfortably.

The early dinner continued long and leisurely. Since they had decided to stay overnight at Sofia’s house today, they could enjoy the occasion without time constraints.

And so the night deepened.

Ansi leaned her body against the armrest of the living room sofa, blinking her eyes. Was it because she had been in such a comfortable place for a long time? Her whole body felt languid. Maybe the alcohol content of the wine accompanying the meal was higher than she thought.

“If you’re sleepy, go to sleep, Ansi.”

“I’m not sleepy.”

“Such stubbornness, how about this?”

Sofia gently patted Ansi’s shoulder. It was the same rhythm Sofia used to pat when Ansi said she couldn’t sleep as a child.

Ansi’s eyes slowly closed.

Sofia smiled softly. After losing her precious husband and son, Ansi was like a treasure to her. The only thing Sofia wished for now was Ansi’s happiness.

“Can you help me a bit?”

Sofia, who had been looking at Ansi with eyes that seemed like they would never tire of watching her for a lifetime, quietly spoke to Damion.

Damion, who had been sitting on the opposite sofa without interrupting the peaceful time between mother and daughter, got up. He carefully laid Ansi down on the bed in the room upstairs.

The deeply sleeping woman looked truly angelic.

Although she had been looking tired lately from following Marianne around, he just left it as it seemed to be what Ansi wanted.

She seemed to want to properly establish her place within the new family. It seemed like a compensatory psychology for the numerous denials of the Lubella name, and the past year when she had to abandon the name Ansi.

If so, Damion’s own wounds or memories were not important in the face of that desire.