Chapter 13

“How’s your head?”

“It’s fine now. The doctor said I’m fully recovered.”

“Does it hurt or… does your memory…”

Trying to return. Marie watched Kalik’s reaction.

This was why she could remain calm even after knowing this man’s love.

If his memories returned, things would go back to the way they were. Anytime.

“Marie.”

Kalik pulled Marie’s head to rest on his shoulder. His hands hovered as if contemplating whether to embrace her.

“I don’t know what’s making you so uneasy, my wife.”

He stroked her resisting head, shifting his gaze to the sky. As long as she followed his lead, he didn’t think his feelings were one-sided. He wished he could convey these thoughts and feelings directly.

“Trust me. That I love you.”

“I… trust you.”

Marie spoke softly after a long silence. Unable to voice that her unease didn’t stem from doubt.

To do so would require revealing her lie and that before he lost his memory, they were practically strangers.

“What brought the Earl here?”

“Father… Father said he wanted to see my face after a long time. He was worried about you too.”

Another small lie was added. After telling one big lie, these trivial ones felt like consideration for the other person. With bigger lies told, these seemed like no problem.

“Just that?”

Kalik’s voice lowered a bit. His hesitant hand firmly wrapped around her arm. He embraced Marie tightly, pulling her into his arms.

Marie assumed he was using her as a heater because he was cold and leaned on him without a word.

“Yes. He just asked about our well-being.”

Drinking tea was out of the question. What could she do in this position? She planned to stargaze for a while and then use the excuse of it getting late to leave. But to do so, she needed to distract him with conversation to prevent him from taking action.

So Marie asked a question she didn’t mean to prolong the time.

“Did there need to be another reason?”

“I don’t know if it’s just my feeling, but it seems the Earl finds me uncomfortable.”

Kalik didn’t pinpoint any specific situation but spoke broadly. It was understandable. Albrecht’s behavior during dinner was peculiar.

Typically, couples would sit together, but Albrecht sat Kalik alone and sat next to his daughter.

During the meal, he didn’t ask or speak to Kalik even once, continuously drinking instead. When questions were directed at him, he vaguely ignored them. Moreover, when Marie tried to lighten the mood with a topic everyone could join, he shifted the conversation to one Kalik couldn’t participate in.

Eventually, he kept his head fixed towards Marie.

At this point, Kalik was actually being gentlemanly by describing it as just uncomfortable. It was more than that.

Marie pondered how to respond to Kalik’s direct approach.

She felt her father’s actions were wrong, which was why she perceived it as a criticism.

Even if she said it wasn’t so, he felt that way, and apologizing on her father’s behalf seemed strange. Telling the truth was out of the question. If he found out she had been urged to divorce, what would he do…?

The accident and memory loss didn’t matter. What mattered was whether the current him would accept it, more than her desire to tell him.

“He’s naturally shy. Inside, he’s kind and gentle, unlike his exterior.”

Albrecht Odillia’s nickname was the Capybara of Oreon. To her father, armed with eloquence and tremendous affinity, people were divided into two types.

Those he was already close with and those he would soon be close with.

But Kalik, being a knight by birth and still a knight, knew Albrecht had excellent business acumen but didn’t know he was a walking social butterfly.

Moreover, given their originally strained relationship suddenly forming an in-law connection, it wasn’t entirely unconvincing.

“Marie.”

Kalik reached out his hand, and Marie took it. At this moment, they looked like a loving couple to anyone. Except for the fact that it was a façade created by lies.

“I’m afraid you’ll leave my side.”

“…….”

“Stay by my side.”

He repeated the same words as if turning back time. The words he said when he woke from his coma.

Marie couldn’t bring herself to say she wouldn’t leave, so she quietly buried her head. From the gap in his shirt came a warm scent of skin. The familiar scent of soap mixed with metal she always smelled from a distance. Feeling it this intensely was, in the end, the power of lies.

Increasingly, the days before she started lying felt like lies.

Gradually, she couldn’t tell what had been a lie.

* * *

If he had been any later, she would have barged in. Of course, literally doing so would be difficult due to dignity and decorum, but if she brought her husband without notice, that would be a disturbance.

Fortunately, her son came before that. Nearly two months after the accident, three weeks after waking.

Viola repeatedly checked Kalik’s complexion.

“Are you alright?”

They said the accident itself wasn’t severe. Nevertheless, the prolonged coma was due to the injury’s location and complex reasons that couldn’t be pinned down.

So the Escael couple believed their son was catching up on lost sleep due to the injury. They thought it was a way to relieve the stress accumulated from the arranged marriage.

“You heartless boy. If you were alright, you should have come to show us sooner.”

She scolded him out of her feelings of disappointment. Seeing him healthy was enough, but she couldn’t help but feel upset that he hadn’t come immediately after waking up.

Kalik awkwardly fiddled with Viola’s hand. He had already apologized once when they first saw each other.

“I’ve been thinking a lot since your accident.”

Many conversations had taken place between the couple while their son was in a coma. Mostly, Peter Escael talked, and Viola listened.

A month ago. About a week before Kalik woke, Peter had a long discussion with the doctor and concluded that their son’s condition wasn’t due to the injury. No matter how bad the location, there was no reason for it to hurt this much. There had to be something that was mentally and physically draining him.

“As a family, I think we’ve neglected you too much.”

Kalik’s expression subtly changed. He quietly watched his mother draw her conclusions.

“Parents should wish for and support their child’s happiness, even if they’re not the only one.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You don’t need to sacrifice your life anymore.”

Sacrifice. Of all the words, Viola chose this one. In conversations with her husband, even harsher words had been used. Wasted, shield, used, etc. Peter chose ‘used,’ and the other children chose ‘shield,’ but ultimately, she chose sacrifice.

“You can get a divorce. It’s enough now. Three years is plenty.”

In fact, if it were a normal situation and a smooth relationship, there was no better family than Odillia.

Albrecht was a great businessman and strategist, and his wife Elise’s family was a prestigious one that had been involved in diplomacy for generations.

Their other children were excelling in various fields, and although the youngest daughter Marie didn’t seem to have any outstanding abilities, she was kind and trustworthy.

For the blunt and straightforward Kalik, a bright, lively, and patient girl like her was perfect.

However, the marriage was doomed from the start. They should have forced reconciliation or done something. It was wrong to pass the parents’ issues onto their children.

So they were trying to save the children, who were sacrificed by the adults’ stubbornness and cowardice, even Marie, who was someone else’s child.

Kalik asked with an expressionless face.

“A divorce?”

At some point, the hand he had been holding was gone.

“Who and who are supposed to divorce?”

“You and Marie, who else?”

“Why should we?”

Even if she had deeply reflected, laying it all out in front of her child was another matter. Viola tried to shift the direction of the blame onto the parties involved, leaving out the most crucial part.

“Didn’t you say it was uncomfortable living together?”

“Did I?”

On the day the marriage was decided, Kalik accepted it calmly without saying whether he liked it or not. He was a son who didn’t easily show his feelings and had strong patience, so they thought he wasn’t particularly against it.

The bad premonition became reality after the marriage.