My Husband Lives in a Painting - Chapter 24

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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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My Husband Lives in a Painting — Episode 24
I frowned at the fact that he hadn’t been paying attention to what I was saying, yet Kamiyou wore a faint smile on his lips as though he found even that amusing.
“You look beautiful when you’re concentrating, too.”
“…Kamiyou. Please focus on what I’m saying—”
“But you’ll be fine going alone, won’t you? I won’t be able to help you outside the painting.”
His skill at slipping away before I could even scold him was remarkable.
Yet outside the painting, as he’d said, I would have to face the Pagoda alone, and that detail did weigh on my mind.
“There’s no choice. Not if it’s for revenge.”
At my deliberately flat words, Kamiyou fell silent for a long moment, studying my eyes.
Whenever his gaze settled on me like that, I was reminded anew that he was not the man my husband had been in life.
There was nothing in those eyes—brimming as they were with naked curiosity and interest—that could be called love.
“Ob, you must have loved me very much before you died.”
“…”
“I was so precious to you? From what I hear, aside from his face, he sounds like a tedious man.”
But something felt odd.
It might have been my imagination, but I thought I glimpsed a strange jealousy flicker across his irises.
I lost my words for a moment at the sudden question, and it was only some time later that I slowly opened my lips.
“…I think I did love him. Quite a lot.”
“Then why wouldn’t you love me? I look exactly the same.”
“Because Kamiyou wasn’t as reckless as you are.”
“Who knows? That’s not certain.”
The look in his eyes was as though he were saying all men are the same—wolves.
The playful way he grinned made me scowl before I could help myself.
“Don’t insult my husband.”
“I’m only stating facts.”
“You don’t know anything about him.”
“And you don’t either, Ob.”
Though we ostensibly stood as allies, there seemed to be an invisible wall between us.
Our gazes locked in tense understanding of our mutual incomprehension until Kamiyou was the first to look away.
“This jealousy is unbearable. For now, just focus on me—I’m your husband, after all.”
“You are not my husband—”
“Even if it’s a lie, it’s better to think of it that way, isn’t it?”
“…”
Struck by his words, I clamped my mouth shut like an oyster.
Why had I bothered to argue when defeat came so easily? As I gazed at the fallen petals settling in my teacup with regretful eyes, I heard his voice again—soft, as if to soothe me.
“Anyway, Ob.”
But what came back was something cold and matter-of-fact, an obligation.
“It’s time you paid the price.”
“As I said, the contract’s price is your soul. And each time one of your revenge is complete, I’ll take a portion of your soul.”
…Considering the meaning of those words, perhaps Kamiyou had known from the start that Gail might not be the culprit after all?
The thought crossed my mind that he might simply have chosen a different answer for his own amusement, but there was no way to know the truth.
All I could do was stand beside him atop the hill.
“Now, extend your hand—the one marked with the contract’s seal.”
“…Like this?”
“Yes. And bear with me for a moment.”
I nodded, and Kamiyou, gripping my hand, closed his eyes and began to chant something quietly.
White letters spilling radiance poured from his lips, and soon something like a long thread emerged from the center of my chest.
The luminous white soul, composed entirely of light, coiled into a sphere and soon vanished into Kamiyou’s grasp. The ritual concluded as he swallowed it.
“Ah… excellent.”
Unlike me, unchanged as I was, Kamiyou—now that he’d consumed a portion of my soul—tilted his head back in rapture.
Eyes closed, his eyelids trembled as though he’d just tasted something exquisitely delicious.
“That’s it. A surge of strength coursing through my entire body, power filling every corner.”
“…It tastes that good?”
“Extraordinary.”
The fact that what composed me was a demon’s greatest delicacy was an unsettling thought.
Witnessing it firsthand made me feel rather embarrassed, so I averted my gaze awkwardly.
“It’s a bit strange, from the perspective of someone being robbed.”
“Ah, forgive me. How inconsiderate. But this is actually my first time tasting a soul.”
“Your first time?”
Kamiyou nodded as though it were obvious, but I, by contrast, opened my eyes in bewilderment.
And she gasped.
“Wait. K-Kamiyou.”
“Hmm?”
“Y-your head…… there’s something on it!”
Her gaze fixed on the space above Kamiyou, who blinked his round eyes innocently.
Between the strands of his hair, something dark appeared—something like a black bean. But wasn’t that strange? Black beans, here where only flowers grew?
So that thing was surely—
“You have… horns?”
“……What?”
Two sharp horns had sprouted between his cherry-blossom-soft hair, each no larger than a thumb.
Confronted with this sudden sight, I stared at him blankly, unable to hide my bewilderment.
But what struck me as even stranger was Kamiyou’s reaction.
“…….”
A shadow of tension crossed his face as he touched the horns that had sprouted from his head.
But the moment our eyes met, he adopted a composure as if nothing had happened. And he spoke with an air of ease.
“Must be a swelling.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Gail must have hit me. No wonder it’s been aching.”
At this absurd explanation, my hand, which had been pointing at his horns, faltered and hung uselessly in the air.
Kamiyou pushed his head toward me as if trying to gloss over the situation with childish charm.
“Ow…… Kiss it better for me, yes?”
“…….”
But my gaze had long since shifted past him.
Now I saw a tail—not a thick, fluffy animal’s tail, but a thin, jet-black arrow-shaped one.
“You’re a demon! Now that I look, your ears seem a bit pointed too.”
“No. I’m your husband.”
“Then what’s that hanging behind your waist?”
“This? My fashion sense.”
‘Speak sense, would you.’
Not knowing whom he took for a fool, Kamiyou spouted lie after lie with shameless ease.
But with two horns and a tail sprouted from his body, even a passing child could cry out “Oh, a demon!” with absolute certainty, so he could no longer brazenly persist.
Instead, he changed tactics.
“Ob, listen. Doesn’t everyone nurture a little demon in their heart?”
“…….”
“So what if you thought of it as something similar? You’re raising me. Yes, like a pet.”
‘Now he’s just saying anything.’
I looked at him with exasperation, but the face that met mine was precisely my weakness, and my retort caught in my throat.
This man knew. He knew I was defenseless against that face.
At last, I exhaled a small sigh and spoke.
“……Whether you’re a demon or anything else doesn’t matter. I’ve already resolved to go to hell for a love that’s finished.”
“Yes, that’s good resolve.”
“But Kamiyou, there’s one thing I’m curious about now.”
“Hmm?”
“If you’re truly a demon, why did you possess my painting?”
He spoke.
He said he’d wandered aimlessly, discovered the painting I’d created, and the moment his hand touched the canvas, he lost consciousness—only to wake here.
But if he was a true demon and not some mere ghost, that explanation didn’t hold.
‘A demon that’s said to seduce and kill people—there’s no way he’d lack the ability to do that.’
I grasped at this lingering doubt and asked, and Kamiyou froze as though I’d struck a nerve.
What he finally said, after a very long silence, was utterly hollow.
“……Beats me?”
* * *
From outside came a voice calling for Ob. It was Romaine, the maid.
Though the distance between the canvas and the cottage was considerable, within her painting, Ob was as sovereign as a god.
She recognized the voice calling her with uncanny precision and returned to reality.
Left alone, Kamiyou gazed absently at the peculiar stillness that had settled over the painted landscape.
“…….”
The Flower Hill, bathed in yellow, pink, white, and green, displayed its beauty.
The transparent lake visible in the distance, the cool breeze that tousled his hair—all remained as they had been.
But since Ob had left, the world within the painting had grown strangely lifeless, preserved in stillness like a museum specimen.

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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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