IRMDH 16

Chapter 16

Hearing him say he was sorry, and that he was the problem, brought with it an indescribable sorrow.

What on earth was Blake thinking?

Why was he apologizing to me, so unlike himself?

My protagonist, who had always been confident and proud, seemed broken now, and that pained me.

After a moment’s hesitation, I patted his back while still in his arms.

Just… as a way of telling him to cheer up.

That was all I meant, but he flinched.

Blake slowly loosened the strength of his embrace and then stared down at me blankly.

He didn’t look like he had anything to say.

So, gathering my courage despite my embarrassment, I spoke first.

“D-Don’t apologize. We’re still married, aren’t we?”

We’re husband and wife, so a little lip-touching isn’t a big deal.

Of course, someday he’ll end up with Seira, but for now, he’s my husband.

And Blake—apologizing after just one kiss?

That didn’t match him at all.

The Blake I knew would have smirked and teased me with some playful “Master” line instead.

No doubt my face would’ve been burning red, and he’d laugh sharply at me, mocking how silly I looked.

But at my words, Blake’s beautiful blue eyes only trembled violently, as if in shock.

And the words he finally managed to squeeze out were…

“I really don’t understand what you’re thinking, Master.”

“…You kissed me first, and now you’re saying you don’t know what I’m thinking?”

I must have looked sulky by then.

But Blake, dazed, only muttered in a faint, strained voice,

“Why aren’t you angry…?”

Fine, let’s just leave it at that.

I really don’t know what you’re thinking anymore either.

You’re the one who kissed me so intensely, and now it looks like I’m the one who harassed you.

Shaking my head in disbelief, I turned away from the dumbstruck Blake and headed for the door.

“Enough. Let’s go. Doesn’t seem like there’s any more information anyway…”

“…”

“Oh, wait. Can I at least take this pendant?”

“…Yeah.”

Blake answered with that vacant look still on his face.

I wondered if he even registered what I said.

Really, was kissing me instead of Seira that shocking?

He was the one who did it!

And apologizing too—what an awkward way to make things more uncomfortable.

Suppressing the mixed emotions stirring inside me, I left for the garden.

Not long after, I found the High Priest, who had been searching for us.

“Oh, there you are, Your Highness. Did you have a good look around the temple?”

“…Yes.”

By then the sun was already setting, the glow of dusk shimmering behind Blake.

With that sorrowful backdrop, he looked like someone burdened with secret, heavy thoughts.

As his deep eye hollows and long lashes flickered, the High Priest’s face grew grave.

“Your Highness, did something troubling occur? You don’t look well…”

“…No. Anyway, the temple priests have all seen with their own eyes that I’m alive and well. That should be proof enough.

We’ll be returning now.”

Right, what else could he say?

That he kissed his wife and, for some reason, was the only one shocked about it?

I tried sneaking glances at him while pretending to look elsewhere, but Blake didn’t so much as glance back at me.

Stubbornness flaring, I tugged lightly at his sleeve. Only then did he reach out his hand, face perfectly emotionless.

Wordlessly, he escorted me to the carriage, and once we were inside, he folded his arms, closed his eyes, and sealed his lips shut.

Was he asleep? His breathing was so even.

“…Hah.”

I stared blankly at him, utterly baffled.

He kept saying he couldn’t understand what I was thinking—but honestly, that was my line.

He kissed me out of nowhere.

Then apologized.

Then looked shocked when I said it was fine.

Was he expecting me to be furious, or scared?

…Well, maybe that would’ve made sense.

But why did he even care about my feelings to begin with?

To him, I was just his wife in name only—someone more distant than a stranger.

He avoided even the obligatory marital bed, so didn’t that mean he despised me?

In the original story, Blake’s feelings toward Ariel were described at best as “an attachment”—a nuisance that clung to him, something he’d feel relieved to cast off.

But unlike the novel’s description, the Blake before me looked so earnest, so desperate…

His gestures trembled as though I were too precious to touch.

Of course, that couldn’t possibly be real.

But the one person who could answer my doubts sat there, lips sealed, pretending to sleep.

“…Sigh.”

I turned my gaze away from him and out the window.

The fading sunset dyed the sky in brilliant orange, as if heralding a change to come.

* * *

“Why don’t you stop fretting?”

At the woman’s calm remark, the man lifted his head.

Habitually, he curved his eyes at her in a gentle arc, speaking with a sweet voice.

“Shut up.”

The harsh reply didn’t match his kind tone, but the woman didn’t care in the slightest.

She was already used to him.

Idly, she pushed back her shimmering golden hair as though it were a nuisance, then sifted through documents in search of her next target.

Her doll-like, flawless white face shone with cold golden eyes that gleamed sharply.

And whenever they did, the man twisted his lips into a displeased grin.

“The very first plan’s already gone awry. Revived? After how hard I killed him…”

“But the truth is, Dominic was in the Crown Prince’s palace. The moment he revived, he went straight back to clearing his piled-up work.”

“…Damn it, Seira. I’m Dominic too.”

The man beamed. His face was unmistakably that of Dominic Hal Escani, the Crown Prince of the Empire.

But unlike the well-known prince, his eyes shone an unsettling, blood-red.

Seira cast a sidelong glance at the man who claimed to be Dominic, then spoke.

Her only reaction was a faint frown, as if even feeling emotion was a bother.

“Even if you say that, neither you nor the Dominic in the palace will tell me your true name.

Not even when I turned back time once already.”

That’s why I ended up like this.

Because the doll failed to fulfill her role.

Her gaze sharpened as she glared at him.

But the man looked away nonchalantly, pretending distraction as he let his eyes fall on a newspaper.

“That’s only because it’s something I reveal to my mate… That’s why I told you to just call me B.

Right, Seira?”

B smiled warmly.

His sly red eyes softened instantly, giving him a deceptively gentle aura.

B was impossible to pin down.

So unlike the Dominic in the palace—polar opposites.

Seira thought so, following his gaze to the newspaper.

Then she understood why his face had softened.

That woman again.

Ariel Lecaysha.

Even the tiny portrait couldn’t hide the sheer loveliness that radiated from her.

The woman who dared to steal the role meant for the doll.

The cherry blossom-like woman whose sky-blue eyes could topple him without fail.

B tenderly stroked the printed portrait and murmured,

“I want to see you again, Ariel…”

This madness of his was nothing new.

Seira was already used to it, but when she heard that he had actually snuck into the palace a few days ago, she nearly fainted.

Nothing in their plan had been achieved yet, and he’d gone off on his own whim.

And the excuse he gave? That he just couldn’t help but want to see Ariel?

Luckily, the girl had dismissed him as some kind of ghost or apparition, so the rumor didn’t spread.

Still, Seira, whose emotions were fueled mostly by rage, couldn’t comprehend the Dominics.

These fools who risked everything for one woman.

Who abandoned the roles they were given, even if it meant the world would collapse.

It was disgusting.

Of course, B couldn’t really understand her way of thinking either.

If things truly went his way, he would’ve already killed the Dominic in the palace and taken his place.

“…Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Once the Golden Festival passes, the Great Tree serial murders will begin. That’s when we’ll start over properly.”

B’s voice was silky, affectionate.

His handsome face seemed lost in a dream.

In his imagination, that would be the moment he confessed his true name to Ariel, and she would smile brightly, accepting his love.

By then…

That idiot Dominic—Blake—would already be dead and gone.

Of course, the greatest obstacle would need to be eliminated first.

B’s red eyes burned with searing heat.