My Husband Lives Inside a Painting Chapter 20

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“Ugh…… Damn it.”

A suppressed groan escaped Gail’s lips as he opened his eyes to a vicious headache.

“Where am I……?”

Gail staggered to his feet and cast his gaze into the distance.

A sunflower field stretched as far as the horizon. Sunflowers reaching up to his waist stood with their heads held proudly toward the sky.

Yet there was something strangely eerie about the sight.

The sheer assault of bright yellow was enough to make his eyes ache. He almost wondered if he had damaged his optic nerves from drinking too much.

‘There weren’t any sunflower seeds or oil among the new products we’d started importing…… What is this?’

No. More importantly, why am I here?

He tried to activate his thoughts and make sense of the situation, but it was no use.

Then, he heard the sound of someone pushing through the field behind him.

“Gail?”

A slender body that was hardly manly, annoyingly large eyes, and pink hair in an unnecessarily vivid shade.

There was no mistaking it—

“……Camille?”

Gail’s bewildered voice spread through the air.

“You’re alive……?”

Sweat trickling down his forehead gathered at the tip of his chin before falling onto the dirt.

The sun blazed overhead.

Beneath it, Gail stared up at Camille standing before him, unable to even hide his bewilderment.

Meanwhile, Camille stood there with a fresh, sweat-free face and smiled brightly.

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

“…….”

“Anyone would think I’d died or something.”

That calm voice, that gentle smile Gail had seen so many times he was sick of it.

“Gail, are you all right?”

It was the perfect reincarnation of Camille Ortega.

‘That’s impossible.’

When the reality he knew perfectly well in his head was denied right before his eyes, Gail’s thoughts came to a complete stop for a moment.

“Ugh!”

The moment he staggered from a wave of dizziness, Camille hurriedly reached out to him.

“Oh dear, let me support you. Here, take my hand.”

Gail’s pupils trembled as he watched Camille casually catch his alcohol-reeking body without hesitation.

Some time later.

The footprints of the two men began to mark the damp dirt path.

“I never expected to meet you here. How did you end up coming to this place?”

In place of Gail, who still remained silent, Camille naturally opened the conversation.

“I was actually racking my brain trying to find a way out of here. Meeting you really is a stroke of luck.”

“…….”

“Looks like God sent you to me. But…… Gail? Why aren’t you answering?”

“……Ah, ah.”

His troubled gaze hurriedly disappeared the moment it met Camille’s eyes.

Gail found it difficult to look into those transparent blue eyes. He kept remembering what had happened that day.

‘Does this bastard really not remember anything?’

When he quietly studied Camille’s profile, there wasn’t the slightest hint of wariness.

‘No. Maybe he’s acting.’

Gail shook his head and narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Camille.

Just then, Gail’s footsteps abruptly stopped.

“……Wait.”

What had this bastard just said?

He felt like he had heard something very important…….

“Wait, wait!!”

Gail hurriedly stopped Camille.

As his voice burst out, laced with urgency, his hand was already clutching Camille by the collar.

“What do you mean by that? You said you were looking for a way out!”

“Hm?”

“What you just said!”

Despite the rude hand gripping his collar, Camille didn’t even blink. Instead, his soft voice continued as though he were soothing a child.

“Oh, you mean this sunflower field? No matter how much I walk, I can’t seem to get out. But don’t worry. It seems there is a way out after all.”

Then, he pointed toward somewhere in the distance at Gail, who was staring blankly ahead as though his soul had left his body.

“If it’s you, wouldn’t you know how to open that safe?”

“……A safe?”

Gail’s eyes followed the direction of the finger and went rigid.

A single incongruous cube amid the sea of bright yellow paint. That pitch-black, dark-blue object was something he knew all too well.

‘……Huh?’

Only then did he realize the source of all the strangeness.

“H-Here…… Could this be? No. It can’t be. Something like this, like a dream…… There’s no way.”

Then, he heard a clear laugh.

Camille was laughing aloud at the bewildered expression on his face.

“You’re laughing at me—”

“Judging by your reaction, you must know something after all?”

“What?”

His cherry-blossom-colored hair fluttered, immediately drawing the eye.

Camille calmly placed his hand over the one gripping his collar and removed it, the corners of his eyes curving playfully.

“Gail. I’m really glad I had you as a friend.”

His smooth, sweet voice was so beautiful that it might have suited the recitation of poetry.

“You think so too, don’t you?”

“…….”

—Gail learned all of Camille’s secrets one week before he killed himself.

 

***

 

Gail’s feelings toward Camille had been closer to admiration than jealousy.

“I’m looking for a new supplier to provide goods to Agnus Orphanage this time. But large merchant guilds like Cashew have such rigid financial operations……. Is there anywhere that can consistently supply quality necessities?”

In other words, his offer to supply goods for charity had been made with a certain degree of sincerity.

“Camille, would it be all right if I took care of it?”

“You? But I was under the impression Pistachio doesn’t handle necessities.”

“Ah! We were actually expanding our range of products anyway. I’ve already built a new warehouse, too. I’ll import whatever you need. Even cheap manufactured goods!”

“If you’re willing to take care of it, I’d be more than happy.”

The charity supplies did not generate immediate profits.

But in the end, doing business with Ortega became a powerful guarantee for the merchant guild.

“I’ve decided to import salt from Pistachio Merchant Guild. The quality was beyond my expectations.”

“What? They supply foodstuffs, too? I had no idea.”

“I heard Ortega is backing them. I’m thinking of getting on their good side myself soon.”

A guarantee powerful enough to make the contracts Gail had desperately wanted fall into place with ease.

‘Things are going so well!’

His heart pounded as though it might burst.

‘At this rate, becoming the number one merchant guild is right around the corner!’

As the things he had long desired began to appear within reach, Gail’s ambition swelled even further inside him.

But greed only gives birth to greater greed.

It was not long before he turned his eyes toward a new line of business.

“Young Count, take a look at this.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“It was mixed in by accident among the receipts the orphanage director gave us……”

“……An adoption list?”

Illegal adoption.

It was a business catering to those who wanted children in an empire where the adoption process was notoriously strict.

A secret route for people who did not want to go through identity verification or wealth checks—or, above all, did not want a record of having adopted a child—to acquire children.

Gail had no desire to get involved in such a thing, so he tried to pretend he hadn’t seen the document. But—

‘……What? This person was already in on it, too?’

The fact that someone he knew had already set foot in the business easily broke down his wariness.

Besides, didn’t he already have a perfect way to gain access to children?

……Through charitable supplies.

‘Yeah. Come to think of it, it’s not like I can’t do it, right?’

And so, Gail began to dip his toes into the adoption business.

But was it a trick of fate?

“Gail. What on earth is this?”

“Ca, Camille. That, well, you see—!”

About a year after he started the business alongside his charitable supply operation, Camille happened to visit the count’s estate and caught him red-handed.

“……I’m deeply disappointed in you.”

Gail had no room even to make an excuse. In Camille’s hand was a list of adopters he had found deep inside the safe.