My Husband Lives Inside a Painting Chapter 22

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Clang! Clang! Clang!

Clear, ringing sounds echoed through the sunflower field.

Gail, his face so mangled by tears, snot, and blood that it was no longer recognizable, begged desperately.

“Please, please stop!”

He cried out in utter despair, but the merciless shovel came crashing down on his head once more.

Clang—!

Camille, holding the enormous shovel, lightly closed the distance between them.

“E-eek……!!”

He was terrified. Absolutely terrified.

Gail desperately crawled away from him. As he barely managed to drag his trembling legs forward, a lighthearted voice, as though making a joke, followed him.

“You killed me, too. Twice, even. So why can’t I kill you?”

“I-I never killed you! I failed! I’ve told you that so many times!”

“Oh, is that so?”

Camille replied in a tone that made it clear he didn’t believe a word, then parted his lips once more.

“Then what about selling off Anne-Marie?”

“That was because Pagoda asked me to help just once! I had no choice! How many times do I have to—!!”

“Oh, so Marquess Buthier was your last customer.”

“Ghk.”

Gail had answered as smoothly as water flowing downstream. He belatedly tried to cover his mouth, but the words had already left him.

Camille burst into childlike laughter.

“Gail is suu~ch an idiot.”

Camille chased Gail around as though a cat were playing with a mouse.

Until Gail, with no strength left to run or even scream, collapsed to the ground and passed out.

How much time had passed?

Camille sat on a wooden chair that had appeared from who knew where, looking down at the brown-haired head covered in blood and dirt.

“Sniff, sob…….”

Gail lay sprawled on the ground, weeping pathetically. He seemed to have completely lost the will to resist.

“Hmm.”

‘I’ve more or less figured out what happened…… So what should I do now?’

Should he kill this man or not?

‘Orb told me not to kill anyone if possible.’

His cheek, resting against the shovel’s handle, puffed up slightly in displeasure before relaxing again.

Her kindness could sometimes feel frustrating, but for now, his desire to respect her wishes took precedence.

‘All right. It’s the first time, so I’ll leave it at this.’

Perhaps things could have ended on a relatively good note.

But Gail was far too impatient.

“Are you…… going to kill me?”

Camille simply smiled sweetly in response, and Gail’s shoulders trembled.

But soon, a vicious glint crept into his eyes. It was a bad sign.

“……Y-you can’t kill me.”

“Why not?”

“Because if your wife finds out you’ve fallen this far, she won’t love you anymore!”

“…….”

“What woman would want to be the wife of a murderer? If the woman you love so much comes to despise you, then keeping me alive would be better for you, too. Right? Don’t you think so?”

Camille’s eyes turned cold.

……Just what kind of relationship had Orb and the real Camille shared?

He was displeased to hear her name coming out of Gail’s mouth, yet he was also curious why Gail thought he could threaten him with something like this.

‘Did my previous incarnation really love Orb that much? Enough to be treated like an idiot?’

“W-what?”

“I’m just wondering how you treated her, that you thought something like that would work as a threat.”

Gail’s expression twisted grotesquely.

The man who had practically died for the mere mention of his wife was now leaning his upper body against the shovel, looking bored as he tilted his head.

As though he were listening to someone else’s story. Someone completely unrelated to him.

‘Orb would leave me?’

Since she was already nearly certain he wasn’t her husband, perhaps she might have if there were no contract between them.

But Orb was already bound to him by their contract. It was only a matter of time before every last fragment of her soul belonged to him.

Still……

‘That bothers me a little.’

“Maybe I should put a leash on her instead. Yes. That would be better.”

“What?”

“Ah, would she hate that, too? She has to like it…….”

“…….”

He seemed to have become so absorbed in his own world that he couldn’t hear anything anymore.

But then, the very next moment—

“Anyway, yeah. That was a fun conversation.”

Camille rose from the wooden chair, lightly brushed the dirt off his clothes, and approached Gail.

“Looks like it’s time for us to say goodbye.”

“……What? W-wait!”

“Do you have anything else to say?”

With the shovel slung over his shoulder, Camille closed in on him with a swaggering gait. Gail held out his palms in surrender.

“W-weren’t you going to let me live……?”

Camille gazed at him for a moment before smiling sweetly.

“I was considering it, but I don’t think I can. Even if you got out of here, I doubt you’d be of any particular use to Orb.”

“P-please, have mercy……! I’ll really do anything!”

The contemptuous bravado from moments ago had vanished, replaced by a servile plea. But Camille paid it no mind.

Gail, his face drained of color, squeezed out one last desperate hope and shouted.

“Y-you’re the angel of Ortega, aren’t you?!”

“An angel?”

At the sound of Camille’s clear laughter, Gail dared to hope that perhaps his words had touched something within him.

But that hope was cruelly shattered.

“Oh dear, you’re mistaken. You’re begging the wrong person for mercy.”

Gleam—

The bloodstained tip of the shovel caught the scorching sunlight.

“I’m afraid I’m not some boring angel…….”

“A-ah, ah…… No—!”

Thud—

“But a vulgar demon.”

After the dull, heavy sound, Gail’s voice could no longer be heard.

On the canvas depicting the empty safe, nothing remained but sunflowers with their necks broken.

4. Ribbons Are Meant to Be Tied Around the Neck

If falling in love is frightening, how can one take the first step toward that feeling?

I once believed that finding the courage to do so required some grand twist of fate.

But looking back, the way Camille approached me never demanded that I muster up any courage.

He simply took root where he stood, like a green tree, and offered me a place to rest in his shade.

“……Sometimes, you seem like someone who’s detached from everything.”

Once, I had suddenly asked him that while crouching in the greenhouse garden, without even a chair to sit on.

Camille, sitting beside me and fiddling with a magnolia blossom that had fallen to the ground, asked me in return.

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone in this household looks only to you. I find it amazing that you can bear all that pressure without seeming bothered by it.”

“…….”

“There was a time when my father had expectations of me, too, but I couldn’t handle it the way you do.”

After being reincarnated into this world, when Louis was still a newborn, I was mistaken for a genius because of the memories from my previous life.

“My father was delighted at the thought of teaching arithmetic to his three-year-old daughter. But the moment he realized I had no potential, he couldn’t hide his disappointment.”

“It seems the Viscount had intended to pass the merchant business on to you, my lady.”

“Yes. Unfortunately, Louis had no talent for that sort of thing.”

It was rare for a daughter to take part in the family business, but it wasn’t entirely unheard of.

However, once my father discovered that I had a flaw, he abandoned his expectations without hesitation.

That was when I began to be labeled the family’s burden, a defective product.

“So sometimes, I find you fascinating. From my perspective, you don’t seem to have any particular hobbies, and there are even times when I wonder if you have any desires at all.”

“Hmm……”

“What did you usually do for fun when you were young? I heard you have a younger brother.”

“Ah, my younger brother.”

Even though my question might have been a little impolite, he seriously considered how to answer.

There were no portraits of Claude hanging in the Ortega mansion, just as there were none of Camille.

If one of the maids who had worked in this household for a long time hadn’t told me, I might never even have learned that he had a younger brother.

“To be honest, I have no memories of my childhood.”

“Pardon?”

He had no memories?

When I widened my eyes, Camille chuckled softly and continued.

“It’s a secret.”