The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 37

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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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Atilenta’s Contract Marriage for Revenge Episode 037
“Even if I made my Marriage Vow before my brother, there was no legal problem. And Mother… she despised Rascha so much anyway.”
My mouth had gone dry as sand.
The order in which the two sons consummated their marriages was tangled, and the bonds within the Royal Family had become equally twisted—which meant the Current King had stood by and done nothing all along.
“So there were circumstances behind it, Your Majesty.”
I listened with outward calm, but inside, complex tension churned and swirled.
In a Royal Family where the king’s concubine and her young child had all perished in tragedy and lay sleeping peacefully, nothing that happened next would have seemed strange.
My confusion only deepened. Why had both Rascha and the Current King probed me as though they knew nothing of who I truly was? It couldn’t possibly be the case.
I asked very carefully.
“Your Majesty, there’s one more thing I wish to ask. You mentioned earlier that the food he ate was wrong… Was it poison?”
Henrik opened his mouth without hesitation, but what came out was neither affirmation nor denial—something ambiguous instead.
“It’s difficult to say for certain. It happened at an ordinary feast.”
He crossed one leg and continued his recollection with a blank expression, utterly unmoved.
“Everyone ate the same food, but only that boy happened to fall ill. He wasn’t someone who was particularly frail by nature.”
I spoke as though probing him, even as I anticipated what his answer would be.
“There must have been considerable upheaval.”
That king would have tried to dispose of the matter as though his son’s death were nothing—a mere oversight. And Henrik and Rascha were the sort to speak of a brotherhood that never existed.
“As I said, the Royal Family intervened.”
Seeing how the matter was handled, the concubine could never have regained her sanity.
Liviu would certainly have risen in protest, but could he have mounted any real resistance against that king? Especially when his own daughter born to this house and that young grandchild had already been destroyed.
Could it be that the king had seized the opportunity to kill off all his in-laws?
Rascha could not have simply endured all these tragedies and remained a submissive prince. Not like Henrik.
That night, as expected, sleep did not come easily. I lay there sorting through the tangled web of information I’d gathered and the thoughts that clung to it, when I quietly gazed out the window.
Deep darkness had settled over the dawn. Henrik, who lay beside me, appeared to be asleep. Watching him breathe peacefully, I rose onto the tips of my toes and slipped away to the bathroom.
Somehow the bathroom had become familiar enough that it now felt more comfortable than the chamber prepared for me here in the palace. I seized the Mirror like salvation.
“Mirror, can you show me what plan the king has devised with Rascha?”
Soon green light bloomed across the surface. I saw Rascha beside the king, who lay recovering in bed. They seemed to converse like an intimate father and son. I strained hard, pouring my will into the Mirror, desperate to hear what they spoke of.
But the Mirror would not show me any more than that.
“Sigh…”
I exhaled in sharp frustration, and a sudden chill ran through me.
This felt like that time when Antonio had arrived as an envoy cloaked in ulterior motives, and I had tried to read his true intentions beforehand.
The Mirror was showing me neither Antonio nor Henrik’s father clearly. How could this keep happening in succession?
Acute anxiety seized me, and I bit my lip hard.
“Why now of all times…”
I retraced the past quickly. When I had gone to the Southern Battlefield for Antonio.
“Were there times when mother’s Magic did not work?”
My powerful will and desire, which formed the foundation of my Magic—they should never fail.
“Could such a situation exist?”
The book Henrik had recommended, the one dealing with Dragon Mythology and Magic in this land, contained no such information. But then, dragons were extraordinary beings fundamentally different from humans, so perhaps it was possible.
Unconsciously gnawing at my fingernails, I resolved that next time I went to the Library, I would search for suitable books on this matter.
But that was not something I could do right now.
“Let me try again. After all, I made Henrik a promise.”
I needed to give Henrik whatever information I could before he left for the hunt.
“Come now, Mirror. The people of this Royal Family will soon gather for a hunt. In the future I desire, Henrik’s safety must not be shaken. It must not—absolutely must not—be threatened.”
I barely held back my heart, which pounded with tension and anxiety, and caressed the Mirror with desperate hands. Clean green light spread across its surface, just as always.
That way, I managed to read the danger that would befall Henrik.
“Cough, cough!”
A violent cough welled up as if my body would shake apart, and I clutched the bathtub in front of me, doubling over.
I was grateful to have uncovered one piece of information for Henrik, but now waves of helplessness washed over me—I wanted to do nothing but lean against the tub, close my eyes, and rest.
“Breathe… breathe…”
My heartbeat, already loud inside my chest, grew heavier, and my quickening, suffocating breath seemed to constrict me further, leaving me unable to move at all.
Then it came.
“Atilenta. Are you in there?”
Henrik’s voice called from beyond the door. His tone was cold as an autumn wind.
Goosebumps shot down my spine, and sweat trickled down my forehead.
I hurried to check my face in the Mirror. Why did I look so pale? I certainly hadn’t looked like this recently.
Now there was no trace of healthy color, and sweat beaded on my skin as though I had committed some crime.
This was bad. I forced my heavy body to rise and hastily splashed water from the tub over myself.
As I wiped away the sweat, I wetted my hair and legs a bit more.
“That’s unusual. Bathing at this late hour.”
Henrik stepped into the bathroom with long, purposeful strides.
I’d splashed cold water across my face in panic, and with my cheeks flushed red, I jerked my head back.
Henrik looked down at me with bright, amethyst eyes, his gaze steady and direct.
Like a naked figure beneath the moonlight, I swallowed hard.
“Your Highness…”
The cold water had washed away my composure, and even my breath came out as a thin mist alongside my words. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut against the dizzying sensation.
But I couldn’t simply avoid Henrik’s gaze while he watched me so intently.
Without hesitation, he extended his hand toward me, and I surrendered my wrist like a defeated creature. He grasped it without hesitation and drew me toward the bed.
“Sit here.”
I followed him obediently, though I kept a careful distance. I had no time to dry the water soaking my body—droplets continued to fall from the ends of my red hair.
In truth, sitting on his bed in such a drenched state and soaking the bedding was itself a breach of propriety.
Barely suppressing the fluster rising inside me, unsure what to do, I suddenly felt his hand reach out.
“Did you really bathe alone at this hour?”
The moment his large hand touched my face, I closed my eyes without thinking.
Whether from guilt at harboring a secret I mustn’t reveal, or from the certain, searing warmth his touch carried, my heart began to pound fiercely.
“Without even calling a maid.”
He pressed the back of his hand firmly against my cheek, then drew it slowly across. Next, his fingers gently seized the strands of my hair, water still dripping from them—as though savoring a delicacy.
Whether from the strain of having overextended my Magic moments earlier, my breathing came shallow. Even as I fought to steady it, the words tumbled from my lips.
“Yes, because it was dawn.”
Immediately, I wanted to bite my tongue. My voice had emerged thin and tremulous, betraying the urgency of my breath, frantic as a caged thing. I should have confessed instead, Atilenta.
“So it seems. In such a late hour before daybreak…”
Henrik’s voice descended slowly and deeply, like his gaze tracing over me. Before, I’d thought his voice carried the cold impression of an autumn night, but now it was something entirely different.
“In such a state, Atilenta.”
His voice was like the touch now reaching me—hot, unfamiliar, strange.
Then as now, his touch burned so fiercely that it left me reeling. My heart gave no sign of settling, hammering violently against such sensation.
It seemed as though he meant to unearth the secret I’d hidden beneath this gentle, unhurried guise.

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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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