My Husband Lives Inside a Painting Chapter 29

“Pardon?”

“Like at the exhibition.”

“…Ah.”

I had thought Claude would have long forgotten about it, but apparently he remembered how frightened I had been when Pagoda grabbed me at the last exhibition.

At his unexpected words, I unconsciously pressed my lips tightly together.

“Come to think of it, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. Everyone has a particular weakness, after all.”

“……”

His blunt manner of speaking, his calm gaze.

“I only said it in passing. If bringing up a memory you had forgotten and putting you in a bad mood was unpleasant, I apologize.”

And yet, he was kind. Awkwardly so, but it was unmistakably a gesture of comfort.

My two fists resting on my lap clenched on their own.

“…No.”

I finally managed to part my lips. After a brief silence, I gave him a faint smile.

“But… even if I scream, how will you know it’s me and come running?”

“Then call my name. Loud enough for me to hear you clearly.”

“Don’t blame me if I get embarrassed later.”

“You know I don’t care what other people think.”

With a light smile lingering on his face, he strode toward the terrace without hesitation.

I quietly watched his retreating back and secretly caught my breath.

…Thanks to him, I found a little courage.

The courage to face something I didn’t want to face.

Not long after Claude left, as though he had been waiting for precisely that moment, Marquess Buthier approached me.

“Mrs. Ortega, I’m surprised to find you all alone here.”

Purple hair and long, narrow, colorless eyes.

Some people said that his smile was particularly charming, but to me, it looked merely unnatural, as though he were acting out an expression.

“Marquess Buthier.”

But today, I had to smile prettily at him like an actress myself.

“I told you to let me know whenever you needed a shoulder to lean on, didn’t I?”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve become curious about your tastes.”

It was a line I had spent quite a long time thinking about.

“……”

Pagoda’s eyes widened.

But a moment later, the lips that were always spouting vulgar jokes behind my back stretched into a long smile.

“If that is what you wish, my lady, I would be delighted.”

 

***

 

Barely had the Beginning-of-Spring Banquet ended when an invitation from Marquess Buthier arrived.

“…I didn’t expect the invitation to come this quickly.”

As I quietly gazed down at the marquess’s crest, a golden bee engraved vividly upon it, I reminisced about the past for a moment.

Come to think of it, this man hadn’t started making his advances so blatantly because I had become a widow.

But it wasn’t as though he had shown any interest in me before my marriage either, so perhaps the fact that I was a woman who had married Camille was what had piqued his interest.

A fiancée, a distant relative, and a friend’s wife.

Those were the kinds of forbidden relationships this man enjoyed, after all.

“…Ah, yes.”

There was one scene I remembered with perfect clarity.

“Baron Clodel? So there was such a family. …Well, that’s not important, Mrs. Ortega.”

“Pardon?”

“Do you perhaps have a romantic interest in inappropriate relationships?”

It still disgusts me just thinking about it.

My face twisted just from recalling that fragment of a memory.

How little must he have thought of me, and what must he have thought of Camille, to say something like that on the very day of our wedding?

But he must have been confident.

Arrogantly confident that approaching me that way would never cause him any trouble.

Pagoda Buthier had caused scandals with countless married women, yet he had never once stood trial.

His high status as a marquess at such a young age may have been part of the reason, but there was another reason everyone bowed their heads to him.

It was probably because of that rumor.

The famous rumor that Pagoda Buthier was an illegitimate child descended from the Emperor’s bloodline.

Whether it’s true or not will probably never be revealed. The Emperor is confined to his sickbed, there is no Empress, and the Crown Prince who remains alone is weak.

But judging from the fact that Belladonna had kept him as one of Camille’s closest associates, it was highly likely to be true.

There was always a foul stench lingering at the very peak of power.

“Haa… Why is the world always like this?”

When I let out a deep sigh without realizing it, Romaine came scampering over while cleaning the room.

“My lady, did something happen?”

I crouched down on the floor and stroked Romaine’s head, which was peeking over the table.

“…Romaine.”

Before I finish the contract, I should leave as much as possible behind for Romaine.

Money, jewelry, or whatever else I could give her.

“At least I’ll get you out of being homeless.”

“Pardon? Homeless?”

“It’s nothing.”

I closed the invitation, which instructed me to come to the mansion on a certain date and time, and got up from my chair.

As soon as I stood, Romaine followed behind me as though she had been waiting for me to do so.

“My lady, are you going to the studio?”

“Yeah. Let’s go right away.”

Right.

I had complained to my heart’s content, so it was time to continue my revenge.

 

***

 

The moment I entered the painting, I saw something very strange.

There was a bird flying through the clear blue sky.

No, now that I looked closer, it wasn’t a bird…

“Camille, what are you doing up there?”

It was a demon.

“Oh, you’re here?”

“……”

“Wait a second. I’ll come down!”

Camille, who had been floating around in the sky, descended when he heard me call him.

He lightly placed his feet on the ground and casually dusted off his clothes, as though he were accustomed to doing so.

Apparently, some of the power he had regained with my soul included the ability to float through the air.

“Phew, I was so bored. I was testing out my ability to fly.”

“So, was it fun?”

“Yeah. In its own way?”

Camille headed toward the cottage with a bright smile, but the tips of his feet were slightly hovering above the ground.

Seeing him move so freely, as though he had completely mastered the sensation of flying, I spoke without thinking.

“I suppose I should have come back later. I feel like I interrupted your precious time.”

But the response I received was unexpected.

“…No, don’t do that.”

At the same time, our eyes met.

“I waited for you. For a really long time.”

“……”

“To the point where I started to miss you a little.”

His quiet voice slipped from the corners of his lips.

It was a tone I had never once heard from him, who was always so playful.

I blankly nodded in affirmation, and fortunately, the darkness in his expression instantly disappeared, returning to its usual brightness.

“Good. Then let’s go to our little nest.”

When we sat down at the small table inside the cottage, Camille brought over a bowl of snacks and some black tea.

The snack that appeared on the plate was always whatever I happened to be craving most at the time.

Today, it was bungeoppang.

As I took a bite of the bungeoppang’s tail, Camille rested his chin on the table and looked at me.

“Anyway, you said there was something you wanted to ask me about.”

“Ah, yes.”

“What’s troubling you, darling?”

Darling?

At the unexpected term of address, the corners of my mouth stiffened.

Camille leisurely savored my dumbfounded expression, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

His long, pointed tail swayed lazily in rhythm with it, making him look particularly irritating.

“…Haa.”

Don’t let yourself get provoked by such a trivial thing.

I pressed firmly between my brows, which were beginning to ache, and returned to the matter at hand.

“I received an invitation from the marquess today. I’ll have to visit his mansion soon, and this is my first time doing something like this.”

“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.”

“So… is there anything I should be careful about?”

The question was vague because I didn’t know exactly what I should be wary of.

After all, there was an obvious purpose behind a woman visiting the mansion of an unmarried man alone.

But I had no intention of getting caught up in that obvious purpose, so I wanted to establish some kind of defensive line.

“Hmm, but before that, there’s something I want to ask you.”

Camille stopped teasing me and, after thinking for a long while, quietly opened his mouth.

“Orb, you said you didn’t have any physical contact with me even when we were married, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Could it be that you’re afraid of men?”