Chapter 10. Ending

In the end, Juliana gave up on finding a match and decided to stay by Areha’s side. The decision had been so emotional that once she came back to her senses, she fretted over it alone.

‘When he said stay by his side, he didn’t just mean literally stay nearby, right? We’ve already slept together, so it has to mean something more than that. ……But if that’s what it means, what do I do? More than anything, if we only build physical closeness without his heart, isn’t that the same situation I was trying to leave Areha over?’

Juliana’s worrying was resolved quickly. After she bathed and changed into clean clothes, Areha came in carrying medicine and bandages to treat the cuts on her feet, knelt down, and proposed magnificently.

“Be my wife, Juliana.”

Areha Tugo was not a man who moved without firm resolve. Knowing that his request for her to stay by his side was as serious as she had hoped, Juliana pressed a hand to her chest in relief.

And she gladly took his hand.

“Of course.”

Things between Areha and Juliana resolved themselves smoothly, but the world around them was not going to be so simple. Juliana worried herself to pieces over what she would do if her parents tried to beat Areha to death.

‘It was a kidnapping. A kidnapping. Of all things, a kidnapping. If I defend Areha, won’t that only make them angrier?’

That too turned out to be needless worry. When she returned home, her parents weren’t even surprised. Her mother clicked her tongue and launched into a lecture, treating her exactly like a daughter who had gone on a premarital trip with her boyfriend.

“I knew it would come to this. From the moment you set off to get married on your own, I knew it would fall apart. How were you ever going to slip past Areha and make it all the way north?”

“Mother!”

Far from kidnapping, her mother clearly believed she had naturally been with Areha and come home together. She should have been glad that all her worrying had been for nothing, but the sheer indifference of the response made her feel strangely aggrieved. Juliana flushed red and snapped back at her mother.

“Your one and only daughter went missing and just came home, and that’s all you have to say!?”

“Missing, honestly. The two of you went on a wonderful trip together and now you’re back, aren’t you?”

“A w, wonderful…… No, Mother! What on earth are you thinking!”

It wasn’t entirely wrong. Just as Baroness Karsian imagined, Juliana had spent a thoroughly intoxicating stretch of days before coming home.

Seeing Juliana’s face flush scarlet as though to confirm every suspicion, Baroness Karsian’s eyebrow rose smoothly. She turned to Areha with a bright smile.

“Oh my, has our son-in-law arrived?”

“Mother!”

Unlike her daughter, who was beside herself with embarrassment, Areha calmly bowed his head and greeted Baroness Karsian.

“So it seems. Thank you for the warm welcome, Baroness.”

“My, we’re practically family now. Call me Mother, no need to be formal.”

“Of course.”

Son-in-law, just like that. Juliana stood there opening and closing her mouth in disbelief, then narrowed her eyes and protested.

“When did you become so adaptable? Son-in-law just rolls right off your tongue, doesn’t it?”

Baroness Karsian tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with an unbothered expression and answered.

“You two getting married was practically a foregone conclusion for both families, wasn’t it?”

“What? When did it become a foregone conclusion without my knowledge? Can something even be a foregone conclusion if I don’t know about it?”

Juliana kept fussing, so Baroness Karsian smiled elegantly and gave Areha a gentle push on the back.

“Our daughter seems to have quite a lot she wants to say to her mother. Go have some tea with your father.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Father-in-law, just as naturally. Juliana was still gaping when Baroness Karsian turned to her with an expression the complete opposite of the warm, gentle one she had given Areha.

“Goodness, you’re so loud. Even when everything works out, you make a fuss. Are you going to keep embarrassing your mother in front of your future husband?”

“What embarrassment. How many times have you smacked me on the back in front of him?”

“Only because you’re so hopeless. Same as today. You went on a little premarital trip with the man you’re about to marry, and you’re making a scene because I didn’t worry enough? I’m not that narrow-minded.”

She clearly believed without a shadow of doubt that there had been no kidnapping, no disappearance, just Juliana happily traveling with Areha and coming home.

‘We gave absolutely no sign of that, so why does Mother think so?’

It was a relief that there was nothing to explain away since her mother hadn’t even imagined anything like a kidnapping. But it was still baffling. The whole family had been utterly certain they would end up together, all without her knowing!

“Since when did you think Areha and I would end up like this?”

“Since a very long time ago. Which is why I’m asking, have you finally confessed to him? You’ve been suffering over it without saying a word for ages.”

“I, I don’t know!”

She hadn’t confessed. And on top of that, she had been teased by Areha for having the nerve to carry an aphrodisiac when she couldn’t even manage a confession. Unable to explain any of that, Juliana pressed her lips firmly shut.

Baroness Karsian looked at her daughter with an expression of pure fond exasperation.

“Well, thank goodness our daughter isn’t a stubborn little mute who’d go to her grave without ever saying a word. I was genuinely worried it might come to that, you know.”

“……”

‘Your daughter is exactly that stubborn little mute, Mother.’

She didn’t say that either.

‘I must have been walking around with my feelings for Areha written all over my face.’

Come to think of it, Areha had known too. The memory of being pointedly asked whether she touched herself thinking of him surfaced, and Juliana’s eyes went wide.

‘Don’t tell me Mother knew too? And she told Areha!’

These terrifying people!

It was a misunderstanding on Juliana’s part, but since she could never bring up the subject of self-pleasure with her parents, it was a misunderstanding that would never be cleared up.

Either way, Juliana became convinced that her mother had already decided Areha was son-in-law material and had been sharing Juliana’s small secrets with him all along. Thinking about it that way, she couldn’t make sense of her family’s reaction when she had announced she was going north to get married.

“Th, then why didn’t you stop me when I said I was getting married?”

“I just thought you two must have had a little lovers’ quarrel.”

“What? Why would you think that? Areha doesn’t love me.”

“Oh, honestly. Even now, after all this, you’re still saying that?”

Baroness Karsian laughed with a shake of her head.

“He couldn’t take his eyes off you. If that isn’t love, what is? Do you need someone to spell it out in words before you’ll believe it?”

“What?”

Juliana’s mouth fell open in bewilderment.

❀❀❀

In any case, her parents were wholeheartedly in favor. Only one person, her brother Kyle, said Areha didn’t seem like a particularly good match, but he was thoroughly ignored.

After being worn down by her parents over wedding dresses and ceremony details, Juliana stood with slumped shoulders and a drawn face.