My Husband Lives Inside a Painting Chapter 8

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The flower field, now that the dark clouds had passed, swayed once more, filled with fragrant colors as though trying to erase the commotion that had just taken place.

The two of us stood facing each other beneath the tree.

The man, rubbing his wrists where they had been bound, held out his hand to me.

“The parties to the contract are you and me. I’ll do my best to help you achieve whatever it is you desire.”

“…….”

“And I promise. Until the day you achieve your goal, I will never harm you.”

I quietly placed my hand on top of his outstretched one and nodded.

“As I said, the price of the contract is your soul. And each time you complete one part of your revenge, I’ll take a portion of your soul. Is that all right?”

“……Yes.”

“Anything else you want to add?”

“No.”

“Good. Then the contract is sealed.”

The moment he finished speaking, a small pattern appeared on the back of my hand.

A seal resembling a white magnolia.

It glowed for a brief moment before quietly disappearing.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. If it was going to be this easy, I should’ve done it sooner, don’t you think?”

“…….”

‘He really has no shame.’

Regardless of his shamelessness, however, the contract with the man sounded fairly reasonable.

The condition that he would never harm me until I achieved my goal, as well as his promise to help me accomplish what I wanted.

‘Just what is this man……?’

I quietly watched him hum a tune, his expression still impossible to read.

Then I let out a small sigh and sank onto the bench.

‘I’m tired.’

Once the storm-like situation finally came to an end, an overwhelming fatigue came crashing down on me.

But my brief rest came to an end when the man casually sat on the ground across from me, adopting a carefree posture as he spoke.

“Now, tell me. Who do you think the culprit is?”

“Hmm…….”

The culprit.

Without even having the luxury of being tired to my heart’s content, I opened my mouth again.

“If I had to suspect someone…… I think it might be your friends.”

“My friends?”

“The people who were always around you.”

“I see. What were their names again?”

When I glanced at him suspiciously, the man merely shrugged with an unconcerned expression.

“Sorry. My memories became hazy after I entered the painting.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

He really was shameless. It seemed he had left his conscience outside the painting as well.

But I didn’t want to waste my energy on unnecessary emotions, so I obediently recited their names.

“Gail Pistachio, Pagoda Buthier, and Densum Kalanchoe. Those are the three.”

“I’ll have to write those down. And why do you suspect those three?”

“First of all…….”

I searched through my memories.

I had heard that the three of them had grown up together with my husband from childhood and had even attended the academy together.

‘But if you ask whether their relationship was actually a good one…….’

Not at all.

To be honest, the three of them weren’t exactly the finest people to call my husband’s friends.

First was Gail Pistachio.

“Talent is ultimately something you’re born with. What would a lucky bastard who was born with it know?”

He had never been able to hide his blatant inferiority complex toward Camille.

Even to someone like me, who didn’t know him very well, there had been more than a few times when his behavior crossed the line. He was the sort of man who could eventually hurt my husband.

The second was Pagoda Buthier.

“It must be difficult having such a boring husband. If you ever feel lonely, you’re always welcome to come find me.”

He was a man excessively fond of women.

And sometimes, when our eyes happened to meet in passing, there was something about his gaze…… that made me uncomfortably uneasy.

And finally, Densum.

“…I find Lady Belladonna’s true intentions rather puzzling. Why did she choose you as Camille’s partner, that is.”

Of the three, he was the most normal, at least.

Though he hadn’t exactly been fond of me, either.

There was another decisive reason why I suspected those three, aside from their twisted personalities.

“The three of them showed up at every Ortega event without fail. But for some reason, they didn’t even appear at Camille’s funeral.”

“That is strange. Around here, even if people don’t bother with celebrations, they usually make sure to attend funerals.”

“That’s what I thought, too.”

The man listened to my explanation in silence before giving a small nod.

“Those three definitely seem like the most likely suspects.”

“But that’s all I know. Whether one of the three is actually the culprit…….”

“You don’t know, right? My body has already been buried in the ground.”

I nodded silently.

“We don’t have enough clues…… Would it be impossible to dig up the grave and examine the body again?”

“…….”

“I’m joking. Don’t make that face.”

When I shot him a displeased look, the man smiled slyly and smoothly brushed past the subject.

A brief silence followed, and after thinking deeply for a moment, I cautiously opened my mouth.

“You…….”

“Not ‘you.’ Camille.”

Ah.

I had deliberately avoided calling him by that name.

Even now, I couldn’t understand why the man insisted on pretending to be my husband.

But what could I do?

Now that I had even made a contract with him, I had no choice but to play along.

“……Camille, you,”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t remember anything from the moment you died, do you?”

There was another meaning hidden behind those words.

If you’re really a demon, shouldn’t you be able to figure out the culprit easily?

But as though laughing at my shallow expectations, Camille promptly answered.

“No. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything.”

“……I see.”

“But that’s okay. There’s another way.”

Then he continued in an utterly casual tone.

“Let’s kill—no, interrogate them one by one. That’ll do, won’t it?”

“One by one?”

“Yeah.”

“Interrogate them…….”

But reality wasn’t nearly so easy.

‘Camille can’t leave this place. Then does that mean I’ll have to do it myself in the end?’

At that moment, my vision was swallowed by a shadow, and I instinctively looked up.

Camille had risen from his seat, and sunlight broke apart behind his back, making him look almost as though he had a halo around him.

“Orb. You don’t happen to think I’m nothing more than a ghost trapped inside a painting, do you?”

“……What?”

“Leave all the troublesome, difficult things to me. You’re my wife, and you’re my contractor, after all.”

A flower petal carried by the wind brushed against his hair.

‘He says to leave everything to him.’

I couldn’t immediately understand what those words meant.

But Camille already had a mischievous smile spreading across his lips.

“Ah…….”

A large, pale hand reached toward me and gently gathered my hair.

I instinctively tried to take a step back, but I froze completely when a light kiss landed on my hair.

“So. Among those three…….”

The corners of his lips slowly curved upward, and a smile so clear it sent a chill down my spine gradually spread across his face.

“Who is the person you want to kill first?”