Chapter 10

“Just stay still for a moment. Yes, yes. Good job.”

Using her experience as a gardener’s assistant, Cecia grabbed pruning shears and neatly trimmed Adam’s branches.

At first, she worried that cutting the branches with scissors might hurt, but Adam seemed to feel good when she pruned him.

It was easy to tell Adam’s mood as a tree.

For example, when he was happy, the color and shine of the leaves on his vines deepened.

When his mood was at its peak, the vines began to bear fruit.

So after s*x in the middle of the night, when Cecia opened her eyes, she could find dozens of fruits scattered around the bed.

When he was feeling down, the vines drooped and didn’t move.

It was much easier to read his emotions than when he was human, so Cecia didn’t find Adam’s tree form burdensome.

There was some inconvenience with not being able to converse freely, but that was something she had to accept.

“You look much better now. You grow so quickly, even in a day your branches and vines spread enough to cover the ceiling.”

In fact, Adam grew so rapidly that after just one day, his branches and vines covered the ceiling.

So Cecia finally took up the scissors and pruned him.

“What should I do with these? They’re still part of you……”

Cecia looked at the pile of branches on the floor and pondered.

After all, these were part of the Marquis’s body.

She couldn’t simply throw them away, and burning them felt uncomfortable.

“But burning them is probably the cleanest way, right?”

At Cecia’s words, the vines swayed back and forth.

Adam agreed to burning the branches.

“Then I’ll call Thompson and Ralph to help carry these out and burn them. We can’t burn them here. The fireplace is small, and there are so many.”

She said this, but in truth, she didn’t want Adam to see his own branches burning.

Of course, if she considered these branches like fingernails or toenails, it wouldn’t matter, but still, it was better to burn them out of sight.

“I’ll burn them myself. I won’t leave it to anyone else. So please wait just a little.”

Since Adam became a tree, Cecia hadn’t left his side for a moment, but now she hugged the tree with its many dangling vines, thinking she’d only leave briefly to burn the branches.

What was amazing was that Adam’s tree still carried his scent.

Sometimes, while sleeping at night, Cecia felt as if she could hear Adam’s breathing.

When she opened her eyes, she could see a vine quietly placed beside her pillow.

Even as a tree, Adam was Adam.

Every time, Cecia felt it even more clearly—no matter what form, he was Adam Sinclair.

***

Together with Thompson and Ralph, Cecia carried the pile of branches to the mansion’s incinerator in the back and tossed in the branches she had pruned herself.

“It’s cold, please go inside, Madam.”

“No, I’ll stay until it’s all burned. You go ahead, Mr. Thompson.”

After sending Thompson and Ralph inside, Cecia stood in front of the blazing incinerator, staring into the flames.

It had already been a week since she came here.

Adam’s days as a tree were almost over.

Tomorrow, Adam would change into another form.

‘I might miss his tree form.’

When would she ever have the chance to live with a tree husband again?

With Adam, she could always experience such strange things.

‘His Lordship may find it uncomfortable, but I don’t mind……’

The Marquis himself surely found changing forms uncomfortable and unpleasant, but Cecia actually thought it wasn’t so bad.

Living with a man who changed forms every time wasn’t a terrible thing.

Rather, it made her heart race and every day felt new.

Even now, she looked forward to what form the Marquis would take tomorrow.

By now, she felt she wouldn’t be surprised no matter what form the Marquis became.

She had already seen a man become a tree—what more could surprise her?

If the Marquis suddenly became a flower, a stone, a child, or a rabbit, she wouldn’t be surprised.

Of course, it would be troublesome if he really became a stone or a rabbit.

‘A stone can’t do anything, but a rabbit is cute……’

Imagining the Marquis as a rabbit, Cecia couldn’t help but smile.

‘I’m happy. But what kind of happiness is enough to break the curse……’

Since coming here, every day had been filled with happiness.

Not a single day, not a single moment, had been unhappy.

But how much happier did she need to be for the curse to break?

[The happiest moment]

Cecia couldn’t figure out what that happiest moment meant.

She was already happy—could she be happier than this?

‘The previous Marquises and Marchionesses must have loved each other passionately, right? That’s why they were happy enough to break the curse.’

Then, suddenly, she wondered,

‘But why me……’

Until now, she thought she was chosen as a marriage partner because she urgently needed money.

But thinking about it, there must have been others who needed money more desperately, and people who could better understand the Marquis’s peculiar curse.

There was no reason to go to such lengths—almost like a scam—to bring her to the North.

Moreover, from the first time they met, the Marquis’s eyes had dripped with sweet honey as he looked at her.

Even when they met again here, whenever the Marquis looked at her, she always felt love in his eyes.

‘Could it be that His Lordship saw me before?’

Of course, even if she had met the Marquis before, it was natural not to remember.

The Marquis changed forms every five days, so even if they had met, his appearance at that time and now would be completely different.

‘He might have seen me before and fallen for me……’

All kinds of imaginations sprouted.

It was entirely possible.

Perhaps she and the Marquis had met before, and after seeing her, the Marquis fell for her, and when she needed money, he seized the opportunity and proposed.

Otherwise, those honey-filled eyes couldn’t be explained.

She herself was drawn to his handsome appearance at first, then to his gentle manners, and finally completely captivated by their passionate nights, but the Marquis’s attitude of looking at her with affection from the beginning could only be explained if they had met before.

‘I’ll ask him later. When he changes into a form that can speak.’

Yes. When he changes tomorrow, if he becomes a form that can talk, she’ll ask then.

‘But really, it snows so much……’

Aeon was said to be a place where it snows all winter, and since she arrived, it truly hadn’t stopped snowing even once.

The servants spent all day clearing the snow from the mansion grounds, so walking was possible, but with this much snow, the rumor that people enter their houses at the start of winter and don’t come out until spring must be true.

Before coming to the North, Cecia had been scared because of all the bad rumors about the North circulating in the South, but now she realized how foolish that was.

‘I should write a letter home soon. That I’m doing well……’

Now she needed to send a letter to her family in the South.

Of course, her father would be fine even without a letter about how well she was doing, but sending a letter was proper.

She should ask about her siblings as well.

The Marquis had become their guardian, paying for their school fees, and later, when they were old enough, he promised to send them to the prestigious boarding schools attended by wealthy families, so there was no need to worry about their studies.

To prevent her soft-hearted father from falling for another scam, the Marquis even assigned a financial manager to him.

Looking at all this, Cecia felt sure the Marquis was a very meticulous person.

‘But he must have been so lonely……’

Watching the Marquis, Cecia felt he must have been very lonely so far.

It was inevitable.

Changing forms every five days, he couldn’t hope for outside activities.

All the staff in the mansion had worked here for a long time, and most of the young servants and maids were second-generation workers.

They had inherited the mansion’s long secret and served the Marquis family.

The Marquis must have lived only in this mansion.

Even if he went outside, the next time he met someone, his appearance would be different, so how could he interact with others?

The wedding must have been the only time the Marquis showed himself outside.

Perhaps he deliberately waited for that form to hold the wedding.

He might have wanted to imprint on everyone that her husband, the Marquis, was a handsome man.

Cecia knew that was the Marquis’s only official outing.

He could go out in other forms, but as Adam Sinclair, Marquis, that was the first and last outing.

To Adam, who had lived alone all this time without friends, what did Cecia’s existence mean?

Now, as the one who would spend his whole life with him, was she his entire world?

‘From now on, I must always stay by his side.’

Since the Marquis had been so lonely, all Cecia had to do was hold his hand and never let go.

Happiness wasn’t anything special.

If the two of them walked together, looking at each other, that was happiness.

Just then—

Footsteps sounded behind her, and Cecia thought Ralph or Thompson had returned.

“I was just about to head back since everything was burned……”

The moment she turned around, Cecia’s eyes widened.

“Kyaa……!”

Before she could scream, her mouth was covered with a handkerchief.

A strong smell of alcohol hit her, and Cecia lost consciousness almost instantly.