Chapter 3 – Part 12
In the lounge where the men were staying, there were also preparations for food and simple games.
Among them, there were people smoking pipes and others playing poker.
The host, Eli, paced nervously.
“What on earth are you worrying about?” asked Kane, who was playing chess with Sorvan.
“Everything is too smooth.”
“What?”
“The party is going well.”
“What are you saying?”
Kane raised his head as if he were looking at a third, incomprehensible life form.
“If it’s going well, that’s a good thing. Ever been to a chaotic party? Do you know how hard it is to handle that atmosphere?”
“The whole atmosphere feels different.”
Eli, seemingly reluctant to explain, sighed in reverse.
“Then say something. Anyway, you need to fix that attitude, you know?”
Kane and Sorvan looked at Eli, but he wasn’t paying attention.
For the second time in a row, Kane went back to playing chess. Sorvan looked at the two with a strange expression.
Eli remained in that state until the end of the break.
***
After Eli returned, the first thing he did was to prevent Marie from bothering Ruby.
He simply needed to prevent Marie from doing what she had been doing to Ruby. Whenever his mother tried to bother Ruby, he responded even more strongly.
It was a silent pressure that he wouldn’t stay still. Eli had clearly conveyed his intentions to Marie. Yet his own mother did not stop. No, it seemed like she didn’t even consider stopping in the first place.
Eli thought he should pay more attention to ensure that Ruby was not harmed. With that in mind, he observed Marie’s every move and made sure to confirm everything.
He dug into his past, trying to remember as much as he could about where Ruby had struggled.
However, he didn’t realize that these events had been happening since a time he could not remember.
When the physician mentioned that he had something to tell Eli, Eli felt a strange sense of unease.
And when he finally figured it all out, he felt tingling in his fingertips, and a chill ran down his spine.
“Then…… how much does it take to make someone unwell?”
As he uttered those words, Eli had to hold his breath to keep his voice from trembling.
“The longer you take it, the worse it gets.”
“Three years.”
There was no hesitation.
Even after three years of marriage and the first year of his return, Marie had not changed. It all began with the marriage of Ruby and himself.
“What happens to your body after three years of drinking?”
He hoped what he had in mind was wrong but he asked with a desperate heart.
“Your ut*rus will become so weak that you won’t be able to get pregnant, and you’ll have frequent stomach pains.”
The faint hope turned into despair.
“Okay,” he said, “……now go to the Countess of Chain.”
Eli gathered his composure as much as possible and sent a worried physician out.
As soon as the physician left the room, Eli leaned against the wall with his hands.
The feeling of despair enveloped him as he realized there was nothing he could do here.
***
As Eli waited for the short time it would take Ruby to come out of her conversation with Countess Chain, he hoped it would never come.
All the while, he knew in the back of his mind that this was what was going to happen.
“You said that to me before, right? That you can’t have a child. Is it because of Mother?”
Eli didn’t take his eyes off Ruby. He asked, grasping onto a thin thread of hope, but Ruby just widened her eyes without answering.
“The tea with pineapple that was served today. In reality, it was a tea that Mother intended for you to drink, wasn’t it?”
For a moment, her eyes wavered as if in thought. Eli clenched his fist so that Ruby couldn’t see it.
“You knew what kind of tea it was. Right?”
The last question was not for himself but for Ruby.
“Yes. I knew.”
She admitted it with a determined expression, as if she had realized it. Eli tightened his grip on Ruby’s shoulders.
“Why, why did you do that? If you knew, you shouldn’t have drunk it when mother repeatedly served you with that damn tea back in Shuban. Why did you go to such lengths!”
He shook her, confronting her, but her expression remained indifferent, almost as if she were gauging his emotions. He buried his forehead in her shoulder, unable to look further.
“…It was because I thought that was the only way I could stay by your side.”
Her voice was as calm as usual.
“That’s how much I love you.”
The words he had wanted to hear since his return were not a source of joy when he finally heard them.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
The Ruby in front of him, unfazed and almost calculating, made him even sadder.
“In that situation, in my eyes, you were so precious that I didn’t know anything else. Still, I did my best because I loved you.”
“We would have been together anyway.”
He meant it. He had accepted Ruby’s marriage proposal, but only because she wanted it. He hadn’t even hinted at wanting to divorce her until the very end.
“That’s right. Why did I love you so much back then?”
At this point, even the sneer in her voice was directed at him
“I know that you wouldn’t have divorced me if I hadn’t asked for it first.”
“But why…”
“To stay by your side, I had to become someone who didn’t cause you any trouble. You hate things that are bothersome and annoying. So, I did my best. That’s all.”
“…….”
“All you had to do was take me up on my offer.”
“…….”
“It’s the same with this marriage, just sharing the same last name as you, and being able to look you in the eye even if nothing special happens was more than enough for me,”
Ruby’s heartbeats, which had been lively, gradually slowed and eventually stopped
Even under such circumstances, Ruby smiled until the very end. As if she had done all she could, even though she could no longer be with him.
“Now… what do you think of me…?”
Eli asked, barely able to contain the pain in his heart.
“I still like you. But now I’m leaving because I care about myself more than you.”
Eli’s eyes burned as he saw the smile on her face.
“I made a mistake…”
“Eli, I want to do things differently this time.”
Ruby didn’t even apologize.
He recognized the sting in her final words, her inability to let go of her regret.
“But thank you for apologizing,” she added.
As if to soothe him, Ruby hugged Eli. Eli hugged her tighter, not wanting to let go.
But no matter how hard he tried to hold on, he had to let her go. It was for her own good.
He knew it, and she knew it.
“Everyone’s probably worried.”
It was the voice that told him his time was up.
“I’ll go.”
As much as he wanted to throw away the party and everything else. If Eli turned away, the end of the conversation was inevitably a farewell.
“I’ll be back.”
Eli’s hand reached out to touch Ruby’s cheek, but it never reached her.
He turned away heavily.
With a thud.
Left alone in the room, Ruby staggered and sat on the sofa.
A long sigh escaped her involuntarily.
It was really over.
It was no different from the end of a marriage. It was an ending that made their relationship worse than others, too easy and unsatisfying.
The relationship with him, which had been dragging on with lingering feelings, had truly come to an end.
Ruby laughed softly as she leaned back on the sofa.
Then, as she tried to erase Eli’s expression from her mind, she closed her eyes. When she covered her eyes with both hands, she felt a warm heat in her palms.
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kadycat88
I hope this is angst. It’s better for them to part ways tbh. A no backbone FL and a unconcerned ML till he regrets it. I hope both does not has a happy ending but I doubt it.
But thank you for translating ♡ (my opinions are just two cents with regards to the characters only and in no way reflect the translation team)