(10) Sleep Talk
Now she felt she could face her handsome husband without her heart racing and properly express her anger.
Asla barely suppressed her boiling emotions and spoke methodically.
“You were busy. Yes, and that’s why we became a couple who barely saw each other once or twice a year. So busy that you didn’t even know I was being harassed by the Grand Madam at the Ventus mansion.”
“……You should have told me about my sister-in-law.”
His eyes revealed his distress as he spoke in a parched voice.
Asla was overwhelmed by the urge to flee to a world without him.
Because the more he suffered, the more miserable she became.
She felt so shabby that she wanted to turn to dust and be swept away by the wind.
Asla withdrew her hand from his arm and tightly gripped the hem of her skirt.
“I was ashamed that a woman called the Duchess of Ventus couldn’t even control one mansion.”
“Asla.”
“……I was ashamed and struggling. But my situation started to worsen because you rarely came to the mansion. Who would want to serve a woman from the fallen Holy Kingdom who doesn’t even receive attention from her husband?”
“You’re not just from there! You’re the last royal of the Holy Kingdom.”
Asla found it quite amusing that Enoch was firmly defending her lineage in this situation.
How he succeeded in business with such a rigid personality was truly a mystery, the more she learned about him.
Asla weakly turned her head, avoiding Enoch’s gaze.
“You’re the one who…… doesn’t know anything. How much I felt indebted to you. How I’ve lived. How sorry I was to you…… for being forced into an unwanted marriage. That’s why I want to give you a divorce.”
“……I!”
Enoch started to speak but stopped, biting his lip hard.
Was he regretting it now?
No matter how much he regretted it, the past couldn’t be changed.
The exhausted Asla turned her body around and decided to head back to the Luitel Hotel.
“I think I’ll have to leave for the capital tomorrow. God has given me a strange oracle, but it must be a mistake. I want to correct it quickly.”
“Asla, you don’t know anything either.”
His voice from behind her somehow sounded sorrowful, making Asla’s hands clench involuntarily.
Why? Why was he making such painful sounds?
“……It’s all my fault, so it can’t be helped.”
“……”
“You should know this.”
Enoch, who had suddenly walked up beside Asla, grabbed her hand and firmly linked her arm with his.
Enoch stared intensely at Asla and declared resolutely.
“At least for me, it wasn’t an unwanted marriage.”
“Enoch.”
“The one who hated this marriage was probably you.”
After throwing those words at her, Enoch strode forward with Asla without waiting for her response.
Walking as if being pulled by him, Asla was so stunned that she didn’t even notice her lips parting.
Enoch believed that she had hated this marriage. Did he not know that she had been secretly in love with him for five years before they married?
‘Ah.’
At that moment, it felt as if a large bell rang—dang—inside her head.
Enoch himself didn’t know that she had loved him.
‘No one. No one knows……’
Growing up as a princess of the Holy Kingdom, Asla had always been educated until her ears hurt about maintaining neutrality.
Therefore, she first learned how to restrain her emotions and how to hide rather than reveal the things she liked.
So the fact that Asla loved Enoch…… only her deceased nanny who had cared for her knew.
Asla looked at Enoch’s profile and opened her mouth slightly.
But soon she closed it again.
She couldn’t bring herself to say “I loved you” when divorce was imminent.
No, that wasn’t why she couldn’t say it.
Asla had secretly loved Enoch for so long that the very idea of confessing to him seemed absurd.
Love was something to be kept forever in one’s heart.
In the romance novels she had secretly read, lovers confessed and loved each other, but it felt like something distant from her own life.
Asla glanced at Enoch again, recalling the words he had just spoken.
‘……You say our marriage wasn’t so unwanted?’
She felt like she might burst into tears and tried to compose herself.
If it wasn’t so unwanted, you could have treated me kindly on our wedding day. Then I might have found the courage to at least speak to you.
However, at the end of a foolish marriage where they hadn’t even properly conversed since their wedding day, only divorce awaited them.
Asla chastised herself for becoming weak.
‘Anyway, divorcing me will be more helpful for Enoch. In the long run, that’s better.’
Having firmly made up her mind, Asla suddenly felt melancholic as she looked at Enoch bathed in the evening sunset.
Could I really part from this person?
What mattered to me wasn’t the divorce petition, which was merely paperwork.
First, I needed to practice letting go of the feelings I had harbored for this man for so long.
You might not feel anything, but could I manage it?
⁕⁕⁕
After returning to the hotel without further conversation, Asla and Enoch went straight to their respective rooms without even saying goodnight.
Watching Enoch’s back as he naturally took a separate room again today, Asla smiled bitterly.
May, who had been waiting for Asla and organizing her belongings, tilted her head upon seeing her expression.
“Madam. Did something happen?”
“Nothing. I’m just tired, so could you draw a bath for me?”
“Yes, Madam. I’ll prepare it right away, please sit and rest.”
May immediately nodded and rushed to the bathroom.
As Asla plopped down on the sofa and leaned against the backrest, she heard the sound of hot water pouring.
The gushing sound of water was so pleasant that Asla slowly closed her eyes.
She felt healed, as if the water were washing away her various complicated situations and feelings.
‘That’s enough for today.’
Asla was extremely tired.
Since morning, she had left the Ventus mansion with Margo’s terrifying gaze behind her, then had that strange dream from God.
And on top of that, the incomprehensible conversation with Enoch.
She thought that today had been more complicated and difficult than the slow-moving days after her marriage.
Listening to the sound of water, Asla blinked and fell asleep leaning on the sofa.
Asla, who had fallen asleep like she had fainted, unable to overcome her languid body and mind, felt as if someone was lifting her up.
‘Who……’
But she was too tired and her eyelids were too heavy to open her eyes.
Hearing May’s voice faintly, Asla relaxed and leaned her body.
‘Is May moving me? Strong May. She’s really like a nanny.’
Feeling the soft bed beneath her made Asla smile contentedly.
Through her slightly open eyes, she saw Enoch and couldn’t help but laugh foolishly.
‘Oh, another dream. Well, I’ve seen Enoch in my dreams many times before.’
The basics of the lovesickness she had suffered since girlhood. It was about meeting the man she loved countless times in her dreams and yearning for him.
Asla looked hazily at Enoch’s black eyes gazing down at her and mumbled.
“What do you mean it wasn’t an unwanted marriage.”
“……”
“If it wasn’t an unwanted marriage, why did you never kiss me? We’re not a proper couple, you fool, Enoch Ventus.”
She thought she could freely complain to him in this dream.
Looking at his perfectly sculpted jawline, firm shoulders, and the thick veins visible on his neck, Asla added one more thing.
“How long I’ve waited for a kiss from you. Enoch, I really hate you.”
She wanted to pour out more words kept in her heart, but Asla soon fell into a deep sleep.
Just before the world turned completely dark again, the Enoch in her dream wore a very strange expression.
But Asla dismissed it thinking, ‘Whatever, it’s just a dream,’ and fell deeply asleep.
⁕⁕⁕
The next morning.
“May. Does the Luitel Hotel have a walking path?”
When Asla asked May, who was braiding her hair, she answered with a bright smile.
“Of course, Madam! I’ll guide you. It’s quite a wonderful place that you’ll surely love.”
May was such a bright, diligent woman who made one feel good just by looking at her.
Seeing how she had grown up without any hardship, she must have been raised with much love from her parents.
‘I wish I had been like that too.’
After waking up, Asla ate a late breakfast and felt restless sitting in her room with nothing to do, so she wanted to take a walk.
It had been the same when she was confined in the Ventus mansion, and when she was confined in the royal palace of the Sherita Holy Kingdom.
The only way to give her breathing space was to walk among plants that exuded life intensely.
Fortunately, May had worked at the Luitel Hotel until yesterday, so she knew this place very well.
When May guided Asla to the garden and small walking path connected to the back door of the hotel building, Asla took a deep breath of fresh air.
“This is nice.”
Feeling the warm sunlight and smelling the fresh scent of grass made her damp mood feel a bit more refreshed.
As Asla was about to slowly take a step, she heard May’s hesitant voice from behind.
“Madam, shall I give you some space? Or should I accompany you?”
“Do as you please. If you want to rest, you can sit on that bench over there.”
When she was at the Ventus mansion, a dedicated maid always followed her around.
The maid was Margo’s minion, with the purpose of monitoring her.
But unlike that maid, May asked for her opinion, which made Asla grateful, and she smiled gently.
May’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the beautiful madam glittering under the sunlight.
“Then, may I come with you? I’d like to talk with you, Madam.”
“……I’m not a very interesting person.”
“I don’t get along well with interesting people. I prefer elegant and beautiful people. Instead, I’ll make things interesting for you, Madam.”
May winked one eye and scurried to Asla’s side, showing her good-natured personality.
Feeling more comfortable than yesterday, Asla smiled and moved slightly to the side to make room for May.
The walking path was narrow, but it was enough for two women to walk side by side.
“The bright yellow color really suits you, Madam.”
“Thank you, May.”
Asla shyly nodded and glanced down at the hem of the yellow dress that May had chosen for her today.
By her standards, it was a very intense color that felt awkward, but she was gradually getting used to it as she wore it.
The Holy Kingdom was gone, so there was no need to maintain its culture and traditions.
It wasn’t a kingdom that had been invaded, but one that had simply self-destructed, so there was no possibility of it being rebuilt.
As Asla was shaking off thoughts of the Holy Kingdom, Margo suddenly came to mind.
‘By the way, I wonder how Margo handled the clothes that Enoch supposedly sent to me.’
Margo was much taller than Asla. Their builds were also slightly different, so she wouldn’t have worn the clothes that Enoch had sent for Asla.
‘Did she throw them away?’
