My Husband Lives Inside a Painting – Chapter 42

Author: isuzuuy

***

As evening approached, we settled onto a bench in front of the fountain.

Camille was leaning lazily against the backrest, basking in the leisurely atmosphere, when he suddenly spoke as though something had just occurred to him.

“By the way, I have no idea why every single one of my so-called friends turned out to be such a mess.”

“Pardon?”

“They’re practically a criminal organization. One tried to commit murder, another’s a pervert, and the last one……”

He swallowed the rest of his words, but I could guess what he’d been about to say without hearing it.

He wasn’t wrong. Objectively speaking, every person in Camille’s circle was completely unhinged.

“Was I really that bad at judging people?”

“Well…… I don’t think you ever truly considered them your friends.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t imagine you sincerely opening your heart to people like them.”

“……”

I’d reached that conclusion after giving it a great deal of thought over a long period, but it seemed to have surprised Camille.

His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but eventually, he spoke almost to himself.

“……Orb. You really do have a lot of faith in your husband.”

“Does it seem that way?”

“Yeah. How could you fall so deeply in love in just one year?”

His words left me momentarily speechless.

It was the exact same question I’d asked myself. How could I have fallen in love in a mere year?

I didn’t know what to call this feeling that had driven someone who never believed in love to vow revenge for her deceased husband.

It seemed to have gone beyond some kind of threshold for me to call it love. Perhaps it was an illness instead.

“I’m a little jealous. Even now, it feels like you’re thinking about another man instead of me.”

“……Have you finally stopped pretending to be my husband?”

Instead of answering, Camille gave me a faint smile.

He gazed up at the sky, tinted by the setting sun, as though gathering his thoughts. Then, abruptly, he picked up where our interrupted conversation had left off.

“But I have absolutely no intention of changing this face. I rather like how I look now.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“……Actually, there are times when I hate it, too.”

“Why?”

“That’s a secret.”

“……?”

I studied his profile with a puzzled expression, but he remained silent.

We stayed on the bench for a while longer.

Time usually flowed rather indistinctly inside the paintings I created, but this world, modeled after the festival that was taking place that day, was an exception. Here, time continued to pass.

When the sun sank beyond the mountains and lanterns began lighting up one by one throughout the square, I stood.

“Camille, you said you’d been practicing flying the other day, right?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think you could fly while carrying someone?”

“Well…… I could probably manage one person.”

Camille nodded absentmindedly.

As though I’d been waiting for that answer, I immediately made my next request.

“Then carry me up to that hill over there.”

“Up that hill? But, Orb, I’d have to touch you to do that.”

“It’ll only take a moment, so hurry.”

“A-all right.”

Unable to resist my urging, Camille finally moved.

First, he turned the people around us back into dust. As he withdrew the power he’d spread throughout the square to animate them, his concealed horns and tail reappeared.

Then his strong arms swept me up in one swift motion.

“Excuse me, my lady.”

Nestled securely in his arms, I found his sculpted face so close that it filled my entire field of vision.

“I’m taking off. If you’re scared, keep your eyes tightly shut.”

“……All right.”

With a gentle smile, he pushed off the ground and soared into the air.

I’d kept my eyes squeezed shut from nervousness, but the cool breeze brushing against my cheeks made me instinctively lift my eyelids.

The watercolor world spread out beneath us was so beautiful that it seemed like a dream.

“The view really is more magnificent from up here.”

“……”

We glided through the air until we reached a small hill. Camille carefully lowered me to the ground.

He seemed to assume I’d chosen this spot to admire the festival from above.

“Come over here and sit down, Orb.”

“You…… carry a handkerchief around with you?”

“Of course. A gentleman should always have one on hand.”

After settling down on the grass, he lightly patted the spot beside him.

I sat next to him, leaving about a handspan between us, and gazed down at the square below.

Now then, it should be starting soon.

My decision to bring him up the hill hadn’t been a spontaneous whim just so we could admire the scenery.

Ah, that’s right. He said this world follows my imagination.

Remembering Camille’s words, I began counting silently in my head.

……Three, two, one.

The instant I finished the countdown, a small firework shot into the sky, piercing the silence.

It rose through the darkness, fell quiet for a moment as though catching its breath, then exploded with a loud bang, spreading a circle of light across the night sky.

Whoosh—BOOM!

Whoosh—KA-BOOM!

“……!”

Red and blue lights, sometimes tinged with gold, overlapped to form brilliant flowers that bloomed across the night sky.

Whenever the fragments scattered like rain finally faded, another flower blossomed before we could even feel the slightest disappointment at the last one’s passing.

“That’s……”

Camille couldn’t take his eyes off the sky, as though he were under a spell. I slowly parted my lips to speak to him.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? They say the fireworks are the grand finale of the Spring Flower Festival.”

“Fireworks……?”

“Yes. But the real thing might be even more beautiful than this. It’s a little different.”

I’d never experienced the fireworks in this world myself. The scene I’d recreated was based entirely on memories from my previous life.

“When I was very little, my father beat me and kicked me out in the middle of the night. I happened to see a fireworks show that night. I’d heard about them, of course, but it was my first time seeing them in person.”

“……”

“But they were so beautiful. I remember staring at them, completely entranced, and forgetting all about the pain.”

It was one of the few happy memories from my previous life, vivid enough that I could still recall it clearly.

“That’s why I wanted to see them with you, at least once. They mean so much to me.”

Camille had been silent for a long time before turning to look at me.

His relaxed smile had vanished completely, and his wavering eyes held a complicated emotion I couldn’t quite put into words.

“Orb. What am I supposed to say at a time like this?”

“Hm?”

“I don’t know what your husband would have said in a situation like this.”

His gaze was far too clear and sincere for me to dismiss his words as a joke.

I hesitated for a moment before allowing a bitter smile to settle on my lips.

“……Who knows? I don’t know, either. I’ve never been somewhere like this with him.”

“Then why on earth……”

Camille murmured, looking even more confused than before.

I gazed at him for a moment before continuing in an even voice.

“I told you, didn’t I? This was a personal request, unrelated to our contract.”

“……”

“I simply wanted to show you the fireworks. Not because you’re wearing my husband’s face.”

Even amid the commotion of the festival that had gone on for days, my thoughts had always returned to Camille.

Not my deceased husband, but Camille, the demon who lived inside my painting.

“Even though we’re bound together by a contract, we’re still the only precious person each other has, aren’t we? So…… I thought this might be our last chance, and I wanted to have a moment like this to remember.”

“……”

“Well, as it turns out, it won’t be our last. I’m not sure whether I should be relieved about that.”

He was a demon who craved my soul, yet he was also the savior who had kept my fading life from slipping away.

That was why this was my own private way of repaying him, something I’d prepared for him alone.

“It’s pointless. I never asked for any of this.”

“I know. But isn’t it beautiful?”

“……”

I answered Camille’s sullen retort calmly, then looked up at the sky with a lighthearted expression.

BOOM—BOOM!

The night sky in our quiet world, where only the two of us existed, brightened as though it were day before sinking back into darkness.

In that endless cycle, new flowers continued to bloom and fade across the heavens.

“……”

Suddenly curious about Camille’s unusually quiet expression, I turned my head toward him.

But just before my gaze could meet his, he quickly turned away, as though he’d been watching me the whole time instead of the fireworks.

“Camille?”

I’d gone to all this trouble to prepare everything. Was he not going to watch anymore?

I tapped the shoulder of Camille, who was sitting with his back turned to me. Perhaps because he’d held me in his arms earlier, the distance between us no longer felt as great, and I reached out without hesitation.

That was when it happened.

“……Don’t look.”

“Hm?”

What was I not supposed to look at? Unable to understand his words, I instinctively leaned toward him.

……And then I saw it.

His face was even redder than the fireworks painting the night sky.

“Your face is…… Ah!”

The moment the words slipped out, I realized what he was feeling. Startled, I immediately pulled my hand away.

“I told you not to look!”

“N-no, that’s not what I—”

……Why all of a sudden?

It was as though the heat lingering on his face had spread to mine, and my cheeks began to burn, too.