My Husband Lives in a Painting - Chapter 51

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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 Within the Painting — Episode 51
‘So she knew all along. I wondered if she would.’
But I kept my composure and answered her.
“I do enjoy looking at paintings. Though I’ve only just started drawing myself.”
Yet once curiosity had taken hold, it would not easily fade.
“Oh, could I see your work sometime?”
“I’m afraid my skill isn’t quite ready to be shown yet.”
“What do you mean? Landscapes or portraits—which do you prefer to paint?”
As the conversation grew louder, the gazes of ladies seated at other tables naturally began to drift toward our table.
I felt something rising from deep within my chest and quietly pressed my lips together.
It was at that moment.
“Ladies, please don’t push her. Ortega hosts a patronage exhibition every year anyway.”
“…”
“You could look forward to that, couldn’t you?”
With everyone watching, Freita was clearly intent on giving me a public slight.
I studied her for a moment, then spoke quietly.
“Freita, do you truly wish to see my paintings that much?”
“Pardon?”
When I called her out directly, Freita’s eyes widened involuntarily.
She was the one who started this, yet she seemed surprised.
“Then I shall have one sent to you. To this estate.”
“…What do you—”
A chill swept through in an instant, and Freita’s shoulders flinched slightly.
I smiled, unperturbed, tilting the corner of my eye.
“As a gift.”
I did not yet realize it.
What peculiar light my crimson eyes held in that moment.
* * *

After returning from Freita’s tea party, I collapsed onto my bed utterly exhausted.
“Sigh…”
Though I tried to sleep with one arm across my face, my mind was too unsettled. Sleep would not come.
Cool moonlight filled the window as if spying on me. Feeling the chill creep into my bones, I turned my back to it and lay down again.
Yet my stomach continued to churn, so at last I rose.
Wrapping a thin shawl around myself, I impulsively left my room.
‘If Belladonna found out I was wandering like this, even in the annex, she’d have my head.’
Fortunately, I encountered no servants on the corridor leading to the art studio.
I quietly shut the studio door behind me and hesitated for a moment before reaching toward the canvas.
I surrendered to the familiar luminescence, and when my eyes opened, a riot of blossoms filled my vision.
Yet Camille was nowhere to be found.
“…Camille?”
Ordinarily, he would have rushed to me the moment I stepped into the painting.
‘Where could he have gone?’
I stood alone in the midst of the flower field, waiting briefly before reluctantly moving forward.
The landscape, which I had not seen in some time, gleamed with its familiar clarity and vivid hues.
‘Reality is a cold dawn, but here it is always a bright spring.’
I drew my shawl close with one hand while the other brushed through the towering petals as I made my way toward the cottage.
And I knocked gently on the door.
Knock, knock—
But there was no sign of movement. At last, I slowly opened the door.
And I saw it.
Camille, lying upon a simple white bed, lost in deep sleep.
Relief washed over me, and I approached him carefully.
“Camille, are you sleeping…?”
Whatever he had been doing, the sharp horns and tail had vanished without trace.
Yet perhaps for that reason, the way he slept with both eyes gently closed, breathing softly and regularly, was utterly, unmistakably human.
‘I thought demons didn’t sleep. Has he always slumbered this way?’
I crouched beside the bed and gazed quietly at his face.
‘He’s beautiful.’
Camille was the most beautiful person I had ever encountered.
When I first saw my late husband, I’d even mistaken him for a woman.
‘Beauty truly heals the heart just by being beheld.’
I’d been nurturing that innocent admiration, but now I decided to put an end to his mischievous games.
“Camille, come now. That’s enough.”
“Mmm…….”
“I’ve known all along you’ve been pretending to sleep since earlier.”
Though his ears perked up at my voice, Camille still feigned ignorance, tossing about as though drowsy.
When I touched his cheek lightly with my fingertips and gave a soft laugh, the lips that had been pressed firmly shut finally stirred.
“That’s when you’re supposed to pretend not to know and just enjoy it, Orb.”
He rolled onto his back toward me, his eyes crinkling with a sly smile.
Seeing that flawless face after so long stirred something in my chest, but I kept my composure and continued the exchange.
“Enjoy what?”
“Playing dumb. The way you stare at me so cunningly.”
“When did I ever——Ah!”
The retort forming on my lips died uselessly.
Camille had suddenly extended his arms and swept me into an embrace, dragging me onto the bed with him.
“What—what are you doing?!”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
With me nestled in his arms, Camille smiled beautifully.
“Holding you so you can’t run away.”
The cheerful Camille suddenly puffed out his cheeks petulantly.
“Why didn’t you come for so many days?”
“……I was busy with something.”
“Something more important than me?”
I couldn’t find an adequate answer and fell silent.
But if I stayed quiet like this, his hurt would only deepen, so I asked carefully, my voice small and hesitant.
“……Did you wait long?”
The truth is, I know.
Trapped in that narrow world within the painting, he must endure infinite waiting when I’m not there.
“I’m sorry. I should have at least stopped by the night my schedule ended.”
As I meekly admitted my fault, Camille’s eyes grew strangely shadowed.
His lips moved silently for a moment, then instead of answering, he suddenly pulled me forcefully into his embrace.
“Ah—what?”
“It’s fine. I’m okay now.”
“……What?”
He met my gaze again and offered me a grin.
“It just melted away. Yeah, I’m not upset anymore.”
“Can it really be resolved that easily?”
“That’s the thing—they say the one who loves more is always at a disadvantage, and I guess that’s really true.”
Camille’s glib reply was accompanied by an exaggerated sigh as he sneaked a glance at my face.
“The things you say…….”
As my face flushed and I floundered, he smiled with satisfaction, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
Naturally, my face grew even hotter.
But that didn’t last, as Camille soon lowered his voice and asked.
“But setting that aside—what happened outside? Your complexion isn’t good at all.”
“……Ah.”
Those clear blue eyes focused entirely on me. Held by that gaze, I reluctantly opened my lips.
“Nothing really. I just met a lot of people all at once after a long while.”
“Who? Claude?”
“Father was there, my brother, and various others besides.”
“Did they mistreat you again?”
Mistreat me.
That word was far too transparent, too light to hold all the barbed exchanges that had passed between us. It made it sound like nothing more than children’s mischief.
I let out a hollow laugh and slowly shook my head.
“Half true, half false.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the truth is, I gave as good as I got. I was just as cruel to them.”
…….
Beyond the window, draped with white curtains just above the bed, a cool breeze swept in and dampened my skin.
I left the warmth of Camille’s arms wrapped around my shoulders and carefully pushed his arm away before rising from the bed.
And turning away from him, she murmured softly to herself, as if asking a question she alone could answer.
“Camille. I’ve crossed a river I can never ford again, haven’t I?”
“…….”
“I don’t know how these words sound to you, but lately I feel like I’m not myself anymore.”
I lowered my head and gazed quietly at my two hands.
On my pallid palms there was nothing, yet with each blink of my eyes, a phantom sensation rippled through my fingertips as if they were staining black.
“I think I’ve become a bad person.”
As the hoarse words continued, Camille offered no reply.
‘What good is pouring this out to a demon?’
Just as self-reproach for speaking needlessly began to surge, a gentle warmth settled across my hunched shoulders.
“Orb. Humans are gray by nature.”
“……Pardon?”
“Not something that can be divided into white and black, into tidy binaries.”

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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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