The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 52

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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 Revenge Through Contract Marriage — Episode 52
When did it start? When did he begin showing me that smile, as blue-green as moonlight in the depths of winter……?
Dark eyes that gleamed with living light even beneath the dark night sky, and soft crimson lips curved in a gentle line, his voice low and calm.
There’s no way this could be false.
Since he had asked me a question, I struggled to bring my tangled thoughts to an end. Struggled to try. I had to.
What benefit would deceiving me bring him? I was the one who first emphasized my abilities to him, and gave him a spy.
“……Your Highness, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
“I’m listening, my dear.”
“Do you…… truly…… care for me, Your Highness?”
How stupid of me to speak such foolish words aloud.
“Ha. I never knew you’d use such a word.”
Henrik laughed as crisp and cool as an autumn breeze. I didn’t think he was mocking me. He simply seemed delighted.
Like a man genuinely satisfied with me and this moment we shared.
So I, too, found myself dwelling on this pitiful doubt and making excuses that it couldn’t be helped.
He continued to offer me softness and gentleness, like someone who had finally let loose something he’d held back for so long.
Outwardly composed and calm as always, but…….
Now that he had expressed jealousy so directly, it was impossible for me not to understand.
Before, I used to think he was always testing me. Passing through that cold scales was my only effort toward my goal.
But now.
I wondered if it wasn’t I who was testing him instead.
“Like me, you mean…….”
If he truly meant it.
Even as I secretly hoped he would give up so that our agreement wouldn’t fall apart, even as I lashed myself for harboring such futile doubts, I found myself doing the same thing.
In the end, I would pour out all these complicated, confused feelings to the very person themselves.
“Exactly. Otherwise, why would I be jealous of your former husband?”
Henrik’s voice was filled with certainty.
I simply closed my eyes.
“……Your Highness. If I remember correctly, you said nothing much after that day. When you asked about my plans before, it seemed your Highness wasn’t satisfied with my answer…….”
“I was wondering how best to approach you. You seemed……quite shaken by it.”
So he had been enduring and considerate all along. That was the truth of it.
Which meant that even as I pushed Henrik away so forcefully, he had been carefully arranging and packaging his own heart to convey it well.
While I remained submerged in wavering tides, doing nothing at all.
My throat began to parch of its own accord, and my lips grew dry.
In the end, I had even stooped to pointing out that he must be mistaken.
“……A discerning highness such as yourself would never……”
“If the absence of questions made me seem so foolish as to lack even that degree of judgment, I would be disappointed.”
Henrik saw through my intention at once and cut me off. Yet still I could not stop.
“Ah, it’s just that someone like me is experiencing this for the first time, so I thought perhaps that might be the reason…….”
“It is your first time.”
He admitted it matter-of-factly.
“Your boldness was impressive as well……. You, you see. At times you judge with an endless coldness, yet oddly, in certain moments you burn like a passionate flame.”
My words caught in my throat. He had never described me, my character, my purpose in such a way before.
No one ever had.
It felt as though I was glimpsing the sincerity Henrik offered without hesitation from up close. Yet somehow it seemed that my own shameful thoughts had been laid bare instead.
“That you esteem me so highly is of course…… something I’m grateful for. Thanks to your Highness’s magnanimity, I came to this country as well……. But Your Highness, emotion is temporary——”
“What in this world isn’t temporary? If something were eternal, people would have no reason to harbor desperate wishes or desires. You know that too.”
I could not picture the expression Henrik was wearing.
“Atilenta, merely imagining you with that man makes my blood boil.”
He was taking this so seriously that I felt it would be terribly rude to keep my eyes closed any longer. I managed to raise my heavy eyelids.
Through the slowly brightening sliver of vision, I saw those dark locks and those jewel-like eyes.
“That merely a moment’s feeling would provoke such a reaction—how surprising.”
Naturally, he had dropped his usual calm smile. Yet I wasn’t afraid of him. All I felt was that I should stay in my place and say what I must say.
“That’s…… perhaps because I’m a tool you own, Your Highness. Since I dared to act against your Highness’s will…….”
Henrik’s expression hardened rigidly all at once. I had clearly displeased him again, yet I had neither the position to flee nor the heart to offer an insincere apology.
“Atilenta, you don’t believe my words at all. Or rather, you won’t even listen to them.”
My lips and tongue, which had been busy offering ceaseless rebuttals, stopped instantly.
“It would be easier to accept if you simply rejected me, saying I’m unsatisfactory as a man. More than this——refusing to listen to my words at all.”
Henrik, who had been staring at me intently, maintained a heavy silence before he spoke again.
“……You were so certain of my preferences at first. Now you won’t even try to have a proper conversation with me.”
“I…… I do, Your Highness. How could I possibly harbor such impious thoughts…….”
I waved my hand in denial, but my voice naturally trailed off.
Atilenta, what could be more heretical than turning away from someone who bares his heart like this?
So was I just supposed to accept him outright? That made even less sense. I pressed my fingers to my aching forehead. Hiding my face like this felt, if anything, a little less painful than facing it directly.
“No, your words aren’t without merit. How could you speak freely under my authority?”
Henrik’s voice sank low, carrying a loneliness with it.
“I have no desire whatsoever to take anything by force, Atilenta.”
He rose slowly from his seat.
“Your discomfort will cloud even this view. I’ll return home now.”

* * *
Life did not change.
Perhaps that was a mercy.
Henrik continued to treat me with composure and steadiness.
I spent my days in leisure as always, but he remained occupied. Because of this, I saw him only at mealtimes and at night in the bedchamber.
I did not lie in bed with Henrik every night. That too was as it had always been.
Yet recently, he had grown more inclined to leave early in the morning and return late.
Unlike Henrik, who could seek me out freely, I found it difficult to follow him about and demand to know what he was doing these days.
If I am honest, I have my suspicions. Likely he is training—doing Training Exercises, rather. To avoid me.
Nights alone together must feel somewhat…well, complicated for a man of his temperament.
A man of such passionate blood.
Once that thought took hold, memory of our First Night inevitably surfaced.
…Good heavens, I was losing my mind.
The wisest course was to sweep away such useless thoughts.
Fortunately, Poznan made a deliberate effort to ensure I was neither left alone nor bored.
“Your Highness, your birthday approaches soon. Would it not be fitting to host a tea party and invite the young ladies of the noble houses?”
One day, Poznan made a suggestion. It was not an unpleasant one. In fact, it was rather appealing.
It would certainly help strengthen my standing.
Henrik seemed to desire that I indulge in grand extravagance as well. Though, of course, that had nothing to do with my own wishes.
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s a good idea, Poznan. Whom would you suggest inviting?”
“First, inform Princess Barsha directly. You must invite the young lady of the Viaoubia house without fail. I would also recommend extending invitations to those who share close relations with that lady. It will help broadcast the magnanimity and generosity you display, Your Highness.”
The gathering would hardly be a joyful affair, but Poznan’s reasoning was sound. When I broached the subject at dinner, Henrik nodded readily.
“You may arrange it as you wish. Barsha’s Greenhouse would be a suitable venue. I too shall fulfill my duties as your husband.”

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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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