My Husband Lives Inside a Painting Chapter 7

To catch a tiger, you had to puff up your own mane first.

I didn’t know if this would actually help, but for now, I brought a shovel from behind the house and conspicuously began digging the ground in front of the man.

It was good exercise, too.

Ten minutes had passed since I started shoveling without a word when the man, who had been lying quietly until then, finally spoke.

“But Orb. I think you don’t really know how strong I am. I could undo these ropes with just a little strength.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I only stayed still because I felt bad after seeing how hard you worked to tie me up.”

Whether he did or not, I continued shoveling.

The more I did it, the more strangely enjoyable it became.

Moving my body also made me feel considerably refreshed.

When I showed no reaction, the man grunted and strained against the ropes.

“But it’s not coming loose. Hmm. I wonder why?”

“Who knows?”

“……Hey, could you loosen this a little? My arms feel like they’re about to fall off.”

What a crybaby.

I tried to ignore him again without responding.

But then I suddenly remembered that I had twisted his arms halfway behind his back when I hurriedly tied him up, so I glanced at him again.

“Ow, ow…….”

Seeing him in pain while wearing Camille’s face tugged at my heart, but I steeled myself and answered coldly.

“I don’t want to.”

“Hm?”

“I said I don’t want to.”

“…….”

His expression immediately hardened.

Wow, he really was acting!

While I stared at him in shock, the man gazed at me as though trying to see straight through me, as if attempting to read my thoughts.

There wasn’t the slightest hint of remorse on his face.

Realizing this wasn’t going anywhere, I tossed the shovel aside and crouched down in front of him.

“I’ll untie the ropes. But before that, there’s something I want to make absolutely clear, okay?”

“Something you want to make clear?”

The man blinked innocently, pretending not to know what I meant.

But I held up the bungeoppang mold with a firm expression.

“If you lie, I’ll hit you with this one more time.”

That was when the expressionless man’s face finally began to change.

“Wait, Orb. Let’s talk this out.”

“You remember how much this hurt, right?”

The man bit his lip and nodded.

“You don’t want to get hit again, do you?”

Nod, nod.

“Then tell me the truth.”

“What……?”

With one cheek pressed against the ground, he swallowed nervously. He looked so harmless that it was hard to believe he had been pushing me around just moments ago.

Anyone who saw us would have naturally assumed that I had kidnapped him and was threatening him.

But there was no one here except us.

I asked,

“You’re not my husband, are you?”

“…….”

The man clamped his mouth shut like a clam.

When I saw his bright blue eyes darting around as though searching for an escape route, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction, but at the same time, my heart grew heavy.

‘I’m the one who asked the question, so why am I the one who wants to run away without hearing the answer?’

As though giving voice to my tangled feelings, the wind swept through the flower field with a soft, rustling sound.

“……Does it matter?”

The man answered.

He was probably trying to avoid the question, but that attitude only gave me certainty.

This man was not my husband.

Never.

“…….”

My hesitation grew longer.

The back of my neck burned with indignation, yet my body remained stiff as stone, unable to move.

My vigorous shoveling, as though I intended to dig a grave, had ultimately been nothing but a bluff.

I didn’t have the courage to hurt this man wearing Camille’s shell.

‘If only I had pretended not to know. Maybe he could have enjoyed eternal rest.’

At the moment when an intense sense of futility washed over me, the man’s body trembled slightly.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Sorry. Did I distract you?”

His disheveled pink hair fell almost over his eyes.

“To be honest, I’m laughing because I’m enjoying this a little.”

“…….”

“I never dreamed I’d be counterattacked like this. I never expected you to tie me up this tightly, either.”

“So?”

“So, I was thinking…….”

A faint blush spread across the man’s cheeks.

“I think I’ve fallen for you.”

At that moment, I instinctively grimaced.

“Are you crazy?”

But my reaction seemed to make him even happier.

The sight of him letting out a trembling laugh while his entire body was bound with ropes was proof that he was definitely not in his right mind.

The man, having regained his composure, continued with the corners of his eyes curved prettily.

“Orb. I admit I was too hasty. I’m sorry for frightening you.”

Then he looked at me as though he couldn’t understand me.

“But you had nothing left to live for anyway, didn’t you? I made the offer after seeing and sensing that myself. I’m the type who checks where I’m going to lie down before stretching out my legs, so to speak.”

“…….”

“Then why did you refuse my offer?”

I suspected that these words might be another attempt to enchant me, but I couldn’t refute what he said.

Because, in truth, I didn’t know either.

It wasn’t as though I had any great attachment to life, and if I disappeared like this, there wasn’t a single person who would come looking for me.

Then why?

A strange glimmer appeared in his blue eyes as he met my wavering gaze.

“…….”

He quietly stared at me as though solving a complicated riddle, then suddenly widened his eyes as if he had realized something.

“I see.”

The next moment, the corners of his eyes curved softly.

“You want revenge on the person who killed me, don’t you?”

“……What did you say?”

The sensation of every hair on my body standing on end swept through my mind.

“Yeah. I thought it was strangely easy…… Humans are bound to have at least one desire like that.”

The man continued as though speaking to himself, a languid smile on his lips.

“Especially you, Orb. You wanted to leave a trace of me behind badly enough to paint my portrait yourself. So I can understand your desire for revenge.”

“……!”

The man had seen through my feelings with astonishing accuracy.

After hearing the news of his death and finishing his funeral, all the way until today, I……

‘I never once accepted his death.’

Camille had taken his own life on the night he promised me, ‘I’ll show you the studio tomorrow.’

No matter how I thought about it, it was strange.

Because I clearly remembered the anticipation on his face when he told me he would show it to me.

Camille never made promises he couldn’t keep.

So there was no way his death had been by his own choice.

It had been the result of someone else’s hand.

“Then how about this?”

The man tensed his abdomen and used the momentum to pull his upper body upright.

Because both his legs were bound, he ended up kneeling before me, but the eyes visible through his disheveled hair held a cold vitality utterly at odds with his position.

“I’ll help you with that revenge.”

“What……?”

“And when the day comes that all your revenge is complete, I’ll take your soul.”

His words flowed smoothly without hesitation, as though he regarded this situation as nothing more than a lighthearted game.

“Once you’ve accomplished your goal of revenge, you won’t have anything left tying you to this life, right?”

I couldn’t easily refute him, nor could I readily agree.

His low voice quietly slipped into that opening.

“Orb. You don’t want to part with me like this either, do you?”

“…….”

“You should clear my name. Hmm?”

In his words, the most vivid fragment of a forgotten memory suddenly resurfaced.

“What’s this? A red ribbon?”

“It’s instead of holding hands with my wife. You don’t like being touched by me, after all.”

Once, that awkward man had brought me a red ribbon out of consideration for me, knowing how pathologically I disliked physical contact with him.

He tied one end around his wrist and placed the other end in my hand, then even made a light joke as though trying to ease my embarrassment.

“Ah, do we look like we’re taking a dog for a walk? You have such an elegant air about you, so perhaps that’s how it appears.”

“……What? What does that—”

“If that’s how it looks anyway, how about putting it around my neck instead?”

As he held the bright red ribbon against his snow-white neck, he smiled playfully again.

At that moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

Adam’s apple stands out on his slender neck.

The moment the red ribbon touched it, I unconsciously swallowed it.

“Uh…… Should I really put it around your neck?”

“Ah.”

The moment I belatedly came to my senses, heat rushed to my face.

To hide my guilty feelings, I deliberately turned the blame on Camille and scolded him sharply.

“Camille, you’re taking the joke too far.”

“But your eyes definitely lit up strangely.”

“Me? You must have seen it wrong.”

I spoke curtly and turned my head away with a huff.

A moment later, I heard him suppressing a laugh in his throat.

“If you say so, my lady, then I suppose it must be so.”

‘What kind of expression was I making back then?’

I had definitely been standing with my arms crossed and my back turned, looking angry.

But in the end, I think I burst out laughing despite myself.

My wariness always melted away so helplessly after just a few words from Camille.

“Orb.”

An unexpected cloud drifted over and blocked the warm sunlight.

A dark shadow settled over the earth, and a chilly atmosphere began to spread low across the ground.

“You’ll make a contract with me…… won’t you?”

“…….”

This was undoubtedly the whisper of a demon.

There was no doubt about it.

Another voice deep inside my heart desperately warned me.

I knew better than anyone that this choice was wrong.

But the face of Camille that came to mind at that moment, the hand of his that I had failed to hold onto until the very end—

It blinded me.

‘I have to atone.’

For myself, who had realized my love far too late.

As my final apology to the husband who had already left me.

“……I will.”

At that moment, the wind blew.

The man before me wore the most beautiful smile I had ever seen on him.

At the same time, it was a smile so perfect that it was chilling.

“An excellent choice, Orb.”