My Husband Lives in a Painting - Chapter 6

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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 006
……What?
As my expression began to blur and fade, Camille tightened his grip on my shoulder, as if urging me forward.
“I just need a little more strength. Precisely, the strength of one human being.”
“…….”
“Surely you don’t intend to keep me locked away in this painting forever? Of course, it’s beautiful here. But I want to go outside.”
“……I understand that. But, Camille.”
“Or is it that you don’t love me? Have you taken another man already?”
Even as a careless remark, I couldn’t let that one pass.
A cry sharp as a scream tore from my lips.
“That’s not possible!”
“Then why do you hesitate?”
His tone was relentless, like an interrogation.
“Unless you mean to imprison me here and torment me, you have no reason to refuse.”
“Torment you…….”
Was Camille always like this? My thoughts tangled into confusion.
And then I found myself asking inwardly:
‘Ob, what are you doing right now?’
This was a chance to truly bring Camille back to life!
Perhaps an opportunity that might never come again—a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
‘So of course you should do as he says! Unless you’ve actually taken another man.’
And yet…… I didn’t know.
The sense that something was wrong wouldn’t leave my mind.
The warning bell that had sounded from the moment I first met him was now ringing too loudly to ignore.
“……W-what if. If I gave you my soul.”
Breaking through the silence, I barely managed to part my lips.
The words came out as if squeezed from deep within.
“What happens to me……?”
Our eyes met.
At a distance where our breath intermingled, his eyes held an uncanny opacity—as if they belonged to something other than human.
And in that moment,
“Nothing.”
His voice rang out softly, with tenderness.
“Nothing will change.”
A bewitching smile playing at the corners of his eyes.
‘……Ah.’
It was only then that I understood.
The being before me was not Camille.
“……I-I’m sorry.”
Thump-thump. My heart reeled.
“C-could we talk about this later instead?”
Who on earth was this man? So like Camille, yet if he wasn’t—then who could he possibly be?
But stronger than confusion was an overwhelming instinct: I had to escape this place, no matter what.
The Canvas. Through there.
“I have unfinished business in the real world. I need to step out for a moment.”
“Wait, Ob.”
“So, I’ll come back—”
My arm, reaching toward the Canvas, was seized firmly in mid-air.
Pressure shot through to the bone. At the same instant, a crystalline realization arrived.
He—Camille—would never grip me this roughly. Never with such harshness and brutality.
“What exactly are you doing right now?”
The man looked down at me with eyes wide open and lucid, his face bearing none of the tenderness from moments before.
A thin tremor ran down my spine.
“You’re not really thinking of leaving me and going out alone? Now?”
I stepped backward instinctively. The arm that wouldn’t release me pulled taut.
Camille—no, the man wearing his shell—pierced me with an unwavering gaze.
“Why that expression? Hmm?”
“…….”
“How strange…….”
A murmur that slipped out low and quiet.
His voice remained soft, yet for no reason my breath caught in my throat.
An inexplicable wrongness crept across my skin like frost spreading over glass.
It was as though the person standing before me was no longer the one I’d known.
“I didn’t want it to come to this. I can’t leave it alone.”
“What? Wait, wait—”
In that moment, Camille snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The scenery folded like paper in an instant, and my vision warped violently.
I’d barely blinked when I found myself inside the house.
“Ugh!”
Camille shoved me against the wall without hesitation.
Kitchen utensils hanging on the wall clattered loudly against each other with a heavy thud.
But he pressed me there without flinching, indifferent to whatever sound escaped my lips.
“I never thought you’d betray me like this. What was it that displeased you so?”
“C-Camille.”
A sinister gleam flickered across his eyes.
“I gave you everything you wanted. Or were you just playing games with me?”
“Let me go!”
“No.”
……!
The cozy warmth of the house’s air froze in an instant like winter. It was the palpable killing intent radiating from behind him.
I was terrified. So much that my body wouldn’t obey my will.
‘I’m going to die like this!’
The moment I was certain we could no longer understand each other, I fumbled desperately behind my back. My hand caught hold of something.
“If I don’t want to be coercive with you, then listen to me one more time.”
…….
A heavy, blunt handle. A rectangular shape with a bumpy surface.
“Giving up a Soul—it’s not as hard as you’d think. Doesn’t even hurt. It’ll be over in a blink?”
…….
“If you want, I could even let you spend your whole life dreaming of us together. Actually, I will.”
The cold touch of metal pressed distinctly against my palm.
……This is it.
“You’re my first Contractor, so I’m being especially generous. What do you say—that’s a pretty good deal, isn’t it?”
Camille seemed not to notice that I was fumbling behind him.
I gripped the handle with all my strength and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Ob? Why aren’t you—”
“J-Just shut up!”
And I swung.
The moment the Fish Cake Mold came down hard against his head,
Clang!
“Ugh……!”
He let out a short cry, and his body crumpled lifelessly.
Thud. The dull sound echoed across the floor.
“Gasp… gasp…….”
……Was it over?
I slowly lifted my eyelids.
Pink hair scattered across the floor, and a body lying perfectly still.
“C-Camille.”
God, what have I done.
I dropped to my knees and shook him urgently. Camille gave no response.
Carefully, I brought my trembling hand to his nose.
At that same moment, panic seized me and I fell backward.
‘He’s…… not breathing.’
My thoughts went blank as if a circuit had been severed, my mind flashing white.
* * *
Fortunately, when I checked again, Camille was breathing—faintly, but breathing.
As I exhaled in relief, a sudden thought made me pause.
‘……Right, he’s not Camille.’
Once I corrected the man’s true identity, reason seemed to cool the panic flooding through my mind.
To keep hold of a man who might open his eyes at any moment, I began searching the house.
I seized the Rope I’d found and dragged him to the front of the Yard, then began to bind him.
Both arms tied behind his back, both legs bound together—only then did the tension finally release, and I could breathe.
“Whew.”
Wiping the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve, I crouched down in front of the man lying on his side like a caterpillar.
And with an angel’s face and soft, steady breaths of sleep, I poked his cheek once, deliberately.
‘This isn’t Camille?’
No matter how many times I looked, I couldn’t believe it.
Lashes longer than a woman’s, skin white as snow, even the beauty mark beneath his left eye—everything belonged to my husband.
But he isn’t Camille. Then what in the world is he?
“I have no idea.”
Yet as I bound the man’s body, my mind grew oddly clear.
Just moments before, my thoughts had seemed trapped in a hazy, murky fog.
‘I was completely entranced by this man until just now. There’s no doubt about it.’
“Could he have deliberately approached me pretending to be Camille?”
If that were truly the case, it was infuriating.
Not anyone else, but to dare to imitate him!
‘What do I do with him?’
Just as my insides began to roil, the man’s brow furrowed and he slowly opened his eyes.
“Uhhh…”
“Are you awake?”
“Where…ah, ugh, my head.”
I must have hit him quite hard; even with his eyes open, he remained dazed for some time.
Then he noticed his body bound tight and exhaled in alarm.
“Um, hey. Ob.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Did you tie me up like this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
An awkward laugh slipped through the silence.
As he studied my firmly sealed lips, he seemed to have arrived at only one hypothesis.
“Don’t tell me this is your preference?”
It was a completely wrong conclusion.

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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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