The Blue Velvet Trap - Chapter 36

“The evil deeds he committed before ordering my sister to bomb the school were already enormous. Thinking about it, Crotsfield got off too easily. I don’t mean we should have tortured him more severely. What I mean is, both times we killed him in secret. People only get to know about his evil deeds and criticize him after Crotsfield’s death.”

The people Crotsfield should have personally apologized to could easily fill two cities. Most of them probably don’t even know that their own deaths, as well as those of their family members or acquaintances, were because of Crotsfield. Do they live believing it was just an unfortunate accident? Or are they living unable to accept it but also unable to blame anyone?

Just like Cedine herself in her previous life.

“I think like this. People like Crotsfield should be put on trial while they’re alive. They should be pelted with rotten tomatoes on their way to court, confess their crimes with their own mouths, and have their confessed evil deeds broadcast to the world in real-time so that everyone can curse them, saying ‘So that’s the human trash he is.’ After that, the villain should rot in prison wearing a prisoner’s uniform.”

Cedine looked down at the newspaper on Ivlik’s desk.

“Karen kept apologizing for dragging me into this world. She said if she hadn’t taken my young hand and visited Duke Crotsfield’s mansion then, I wouldn’t have spent my teenage years preparing to become an agent.”

Thinking about that, Karen probably won’t return to the Intelligence Bureau.

“But I… maybe because I haven’t been semi-forcibly consumed like my sister yet. I want to somehow prevent situations where villains seize power. If I see them in the newspapers, I hope it’s in the social section announcing their imprisonment.”

The words she blurted out turned out to be more passionate than she expected. Cedine tried to calm her excitement by picking up her teacup again.

“You know how to make it sound quite righteous when you say you want to take power yourself before it falls into the hands of bad guys.”

Ivlik spoke with a seemingly impressed expression.

“Every word feels incredibly sincere. Cedine, you could enter politics later.”

“Of course. Because they’re words filled with sincerity.”

“Even if it’s filled with sincerity, it might not resonate with the listener. The former and the latter are separate things. Since you don’t seem to understand well, let me give you an example. I confessed that I fell in love with you at first sight, so I deliberately kept my distance. You reacted as if you had never heard such a novel nonsense in your life. This, is a perfect example.”

Cedine silently glared at her husband.

“Any objections?”

“If you talked like you did just now, people naturally won’t like it. It’s annoying.”

“So that’s why I’m still a lieutenant colonel despite trying so hard…”

Ivlik put on a pretend serious expression of contemplation. After that, they exchanged trivial chatter. Cedine took out her sister’s letter from her pocket and showed it. When she mentioned the hot spring story, Ivlik suggested a hot spring for their next vacation spot.

At some point, Cedine realized. There was something she wanted to tell Ivlik. She gazed at her husband with her chin resting on her hand.

“Ivlik, did I ever tell you? About the time when I suspected you might be my sister’s killer. You seemed suspicious and like you were hiding something from me, so I couldn’t believe your words about falling for me from the moment we first met.”

A faint tension seemed to seep under Ivlik’s calm face. She instinctively realized it. That what Cedine was saying now was quite important.

“On the other hand, I hoped you hadn’t killed Karen.”

Even while suspecting him, her heart raced at his kisses. Cedine Liere, even while blaming herself for being out of her mind, didn’t want to refuse the nights with Ivlik.

If it was simply because she had fallen for the pleasure he gave, it doesn’t explain why she trusted Ivlik more than Duke Crotsfield deep down. Even when she didn’t know the Duke was behind her death, Cedine trusted Ivlik more.

Looking at Ivlik smiling at her, she would ask herself several times a day. You didn’t really kill her, did you? If he had killed her sister, she would pay him back in kind. The initial resolve for revenge gradually faded away.

“I think I wanted to believe unconsciously that your love was real. That it would be nice if there was just one more person in this world besides my sister whom I could trust and give my heart to completely… I’ve thought that since I was young. That’s also why I was overjoyed when I received a proposal from my fiancé in my past life.”

To Cedine, who had lost even Karen, the proposal meant having a new family. Although she had lived with Ivlik for several years at that time, he felt more like an extremely generous boarding house owner rather than family. Not even a roommate. A boarding house owner, or a patron.

Now she knows why Ivlik drew such a line back then. And she knows that no matter what choice he made, Duke Crotsfield would have ended up killing her anyway. As long as the Duke was alive, her death was just a matter of time.

“When I went to pray at St. Agnes Cathedral, I looked up at the blue stained glass window for a long time. Even though it was bright daylight outside with scorching sunlight, the inside of the cathedral was bathed in a cool blue light. Sitting there quietly, I thought of you, Ivlik. I even chuckled to myself, thinking how immoral it was to be thinking of my brother-in-law when I came to honor my sister.”

Cedine wasn’t smiling as she talked about the memory of laughing.

“I don’t know if you remember, but.”

“I remember.”

“…I haven’t even said what yet?”

He answered.

“I remember everything when it comes to you, Cedine.”

The thought suddenly crossed Cedine’s mind that it must have been Ivlik’s job to take care of her body too.

“The atmosphere between us was particularly strange during that year’s vacation, wasn’t it? It was even more so because everywhere we went, people mistook us for a couple. I felt like I heard the ‘Mrs. Wintermore’ that I would hear for the rest of my life all at once then. Why did everyone make such a mistake even though you weren’t even wrapping your arm around my waist? We only danced together for one song because we didn’t want to ruin the happy atmosphere of other couples dancing.”

“The second night, at the beachside restaurant.”

Ivlik said briefly. He really does remember everything. Cedine nodded slightly and continued.

“But strangely, I didn’t completely dislike it. In the past, I would have been startled. Instead, I was so conscious of you that from the third day, I even put perfume behind my ears.”

Ivlik also smelled the faint scent of grass, citrus peel, and sweet apricot flesh that wafted with every breeze. Something between them was changing, though it couldn’t be pinpointed exactly. Both Cedine and Ivlik felt it.

“I was alone in the cathedral. So I could ask out loud, even if quietly. ‘Sister, is it okay for me to like that person?'”

“……”

“If I were to hold someone’s hand, I wish it would be that person waiting for me outside right now.”

“……”

“But I’m a bit scared that it might be just my own delusion, or that something might go wrong again and ruin our relationship. I remember talking about such things before leaving the cathedral.”

Ivlik stared at Cedine, holding his breath. All the blue light from the cathedral that day and the warm yellow light of the candles were contained within Ivlik. Cedine spoke to her husband. It was what Ivlik had wanted to hear for a very long time. But he hadn’t even said he was hoping to hear it from her someday, fearing it might burden Cedine.

“I… I think I like you, Ivlik.”

Cedine waited for her husband’s reaction. She had expected Ivlik to smile as if he had been waiting for this moment or for his eyes to redden with overwhelming emotion, but for some reason, there was no reaction. He lowered his gaze from Cedine to the desk. He remained like that for a while, saying nothing.

“Say something…”

Before she could finish asking him to say something, Ivlik quietly stood up, came around the desk to Cedine’s side. He knelt on the floor and embraced her. Ivlik’s whisper was so low that Cedine almost missed what he muttered.

God, thank you.

Ivlik whispered in a language that had long since become extinct. It wasn’t meant for Cedine to hear, but a deep relief that flowed out of him unconsciously. Cedine embraced him with both arms. This moment of finally hearing the answer to her prayer was incredibly precious and joyful.

Someday, she might be able to tell him that she loves him too. She would be able to confess with a smile that her life shines brighter because of him, that she loves him very much. Not yet, but Cedine could feel that day wasn’t far off.

If this emotion had to be defined, it would probably be closest to happiness.