Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 70

He recited it in a tone that suggested bewilderment.
“By day, affectionate, kind, gentle, and well-mannered.”
…….
“By night, equally affectionate, but wild and beast-like. Or am I wrong? I’m right, aren’t I.”
I questioned my own ears.
How in the world did those words come out of this man’s mouth?
“Th-that’s, what—”
My face flushed crimson.
It wasn’t inaccurate, but how Kailas could possibly know this was beyond me.
“Good at cooking, and someone who’d make time for at least small dates once a week.”
“Sh-sh-sh-shut up. Right now!”
“And above all, I think your appearance matches your ideal type perfectly. What could possibly be lacking?”
“Cr-cr-cr-crazy.”
A curse escaped my lips before I could stop it.
I sprang up and covered his mouth with my hand.
Then I froze in alarm and pulled away, noticing the heat creeping up my neck, so I turned my gaze aside and eventually covered my entire face with both hands.
What is this, anyway?
Before the wedding, I’d listed an ideal type in a song, but did I write it down anywhere?
I can’t even remember.
At most, I must have just scribbled something carelessly!
Either way, I felt like I was dying of embarrassment.
That, that sort of thing to say so well.
God, I’m mortified. Mortified to death.
Never again would I scribble my private thoughts anywhere.
I wanted to burrow into a mouse hole and disappear.
Huff, huff, huff, huff!
I barely came back to myself.
Though I was too embarrassed to meet his eyes, I still had to speak.
I took several deep breaths to steady myself.
Then I glared daggers at Kailas.
As my anger settled, something else welled up instead.
I hadn’t loved Noah because he matched some ideal type.
The fact that he didn’t even fit that list annoyed me.
“What I really wanted wasn’t any of that.”
“…Then what was it.”
“I liked him because he was someone I wanted to share a nice dinner with in the evening.”
…….
“Between the clink of the fork and knife, you always asked me what I’d done, thought about my day with me, and got angrier than I did whenever my feelings were hurt.”
I wasn’t looking at Kailas.
No, there was no reason to.
It was Noah I wanted to see, not Kailas.
Without waiting for him to speak, I poured out my words without pause, my heart full of grievance.
“Because you were someone I wanted to open my eyes with in the morning. Even if my eyes were all bleary when I woke, I felt you’d smile at me. Because you showed me that there could exist someone more dazzling than sunlight.”
…….
“Because you were someone who touched my hair every day. I thought that even if I grew old and got gray hair, I wouldn’t feel ashamed in front of you.”
I widened my eyes to keep the tears back.
Ideal type be damned.
Day versus night be damned.
Even if I got wrinkles, even if I got age spots, you seemed like someone who would still tell me I was beautiful.
Every time I struggled, you held my hand and lifted me up. Whenever I reached out, you opened your arms to me.
I trusted without doubt that you wouldn’t turn me away. You were the one who taught me that the warmest embrace is that of the person you love.
Even though I’d adapted well to this place, the deepest loneliness hadn’t disappeared without a trace.
It hid like something that didn’t exist, then surfaced like a ghost whenever I struggled.
And you made it bearable, made it possible to forget.
Noah.
“But that’s not the case anymore!”
…….
“It’s all fake.”
“I… I love you.”
My lips twisted at those words — a sneer I couldn’t suppress.
Even now, in this very moment, he was playing with me.
Yes, he’d been deceiving me all along, so it must come so easily to him.
Every time I spoke the word love, my chest trembled, my throat tightened, and I had to choke it down with all my strength — yet he wielded it so effortlessly.
My chest turned to ice.
“You’ve whispered ‘I love you’ to me countless times. It was all lies.”
“A lie… it wasn’t a lie. Maybe it was at first. But now—”
“I don’t believe you.”
I fixed Kailas with a glare.
Confusion flickered in his eyes, but I had no intention of offering him mercy.
To him, I was nothing but a toy, not love.
I couldn’t fathom why he insisted on speaking of love when I was, to him, merely an object of curiosity — nothing more, nothing less.
If he truly loved me, he should have confessed first.
He shouldn’t have hidden it like this.
Kailas said nothing.
Nor did I expect a response from him.
With each word we exchanged, we drifted further apart, and I turned away.
For hours we sat in silence, eyes averted, each trapped within the walls of our own thoughts.

* * *

The next day, Kailas brought me food again.
“Eat before you drive me mad.”
“I won’t. I told you I won’t! Is eating really important right now?”
“It is to me. Hazel, you’ve been staging a hunger strike since yesterday.”
“Then just let me go. You’re not going to kill me anyway, you said so yourself!”
I couldn’t contain myself — my voice spilled out sharp and heated.
“And I told you: I can never let you go. Don’t even think of running.”
But Kailas’s voice was like a deep, still sea.
That made me angrier.
“A marriage without love is hollow. We’ll never be happy living like this, will we? What’s the point of any of it? It was all fake from the beginning! We don’t trust each other — all that’s left is suspicion.”
I was gasping, overwhelmed by my own fury.
He stood watching me with an expression dark and fathomless, like the depths of the ocean.
I steadied my breath, closed my eyes, and spoke.
“Fine. I understand you’re interested in me.”
“…….”
“So I’ll believe you when you say you won’t kill me.”
Yes, there were films about captors who fell in love with their prisoners.
Let’s say that’s what this is.
“But I confessed my love to you — not mere curiosity.”
My eyes flew open.
“How can I believe that when it didn’t start as love? You chant ‘I love you’ night and day without meaning a word — maybe you’ve just deceived yourself so well you’ve started to believe your own lies.”
“Hazel, don’t keep saying things that wound me.”
Kailas’s face contorted as though he were genuinely hurt.
Lies.
My words couldn’t possibly hurt a liar.
“Divorce me.”
We were back where we started.
“No.”
“Then release me.”
“I said no. Ask for something else.”
“Those are the only two things I want. Otherwise… kill me.”
“You said you loved me.”
“I loved Noah, not you.”
“That’s me.”
We were both frustrated.
This endless conversation went on and on, each word a fresh wound between them.
“No, Noah has disappeared. He’s gone to a place where I’ll never see him again.”
“What?”
“He was just a mirage. Now he’s like someone I can never see—someone who no longer exists. Not for me. Noah is gone.”
“Ha…….”
“So you’ll keep me as a prisoner? If you’re not going to hurt me anyway, what’s the point of continuing this marriage?”
“That’s…….”
Kailas fell silent. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he wrestled with his thoughts.
“…….”
“So you hate me now?”
“Yes. I hate you. Do you want me to spell it out? I don’t love you anymore.”
She glared at him as she finished speaking.
Something twisted in Kailas’s expression.
It was neither weeping nor laughter—the face of a child who had lost his way.
Why did he wear such a look?
That expression should have been mine.
Could he possibly understand what I felt when I learned that my companion for life was actually the person sent to kill me?
I had always been a mouse resting in the palm of his hand.
A small mouse that would die the moment he pressed down.
And yet he didn’t understand why we needed a divorce?
A frustrated sigh leaked from between her teeth.
Anger flared inside her as well.
Kailas, about to speak, suddenly turned his head away and averted his gaze.
“I hate being found fault with. I won’t have a blemish on my reputation from something like divorce. So no matter what reason you give, divorce is off the table. Don’t even mention it again. If you don’t eat, I can’t be responsible for what happens to the hostage.”
“Kailas!”
Kailas slammed the door and left.

* * *

Kailas left Hazel in the room and stepped out into the hall.
He was furious at her words—that he wasn’t Noah, that she didn’t love him.
It irritated him that she wouldn’t call him by his real name, Kailas, even though that was who he truly was.
He resented how she’d whispered sweet words of love to him and then backed away.
She didn’t love him?

“I hate being found fault with. I won’t have a blemish on my reputation from something like divorce. So no matter what reason you give, divorce is off the table.”

Hazel’s face twisted at his words.
He knew it was contradictory.
…So what was he supposed to do?
He didn’t want a divorce. He didn’t want to let her go.
The thought of her living well with someone else someday made his insides writhe—made him feel like a thousand fires were burning through him.
When had they sworn to spend their whole lives together? Why was he changing his mind like this?
Who was in the wrong?
Who was more wrong?
Why did she speak such hateful words from behind that beautiful face?
What had happened during this past month…….
The memory of that one month searching for Hazel made his throat tighten.
He would give her anything except a divorce.
Then it struck him—what if Hazel was shocked and crying right now?
She might be startled and weeping again.
She had a tender heart, and seeing him angry for the first time might have terrified her into tears.
On top of everything, she hadn’t been eating, so she’d have no strength at all.
He turned to go back to the room, then stopped again, aware he was being a fool.
“Damn it…….”
Kailas ran his hand roughly through his hair.
What was he supposed to do?
Where was he even supposed to start?
He’d thought that bringing her back, finding her again, would resolve everything. But it wasn’t that simple.
Hazel’s words—spat out like something bitter—left his mind in turmoil.
He was Kailas, Noah Edith, and yet she insisted he was someone else entirely. It made no sense.
They were the same person.
What could possibly be so complicated about that?
Kailas turned away once more.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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