The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 57

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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: A Contract Marriage – Episode 57
“So you’ve been out here enjoying the view.”
Before I knew it, he leaned against the railing and gazed down. Because of him standing beside me, I stiffened my shoulders and tried to square them with feigned composure.
“After Your Highness stepped away, Princess Barsha suggested I come up for air. The banquet does seem to be running long, though.”
“As I said before, you needn’t concern yourself with such things.”
Barsha had hosted the banquet, but I was the guest of honor—so I shouldn’t worry about anything? I found myself running my hair behind my ear without thinking.
I wondered if what Henrik had said was truly correct. Unexpectedly, I felt the urge to ask him again.
“…Your Highness Henrik.”
“Yes? What is it?”
For some reason, he wore no smile that looked ready to scatter away at any moment, yet his expression didn’t seem cold to me now.
“Why did you… seek me out? You mentioned having other matters to attend to, and surely there are many below who would wish to speak with you.”
“They aren’t particularly important to me. Not at present.”
Henrik’s expression was far too composed. I tried to avert my gaze, if only to escape the crystalline transparency of his eyes.
“…I understand that Your Highness shows me consideration, but I noticed important nobles are present as well. Since the banquet was held in the royal name, it would be best if you returned soon. I’ll follow you down.”
Even as I pushed him away, I tried to uphold propriety.
“I know. But I’m your husband.”
Henrik let a troubled expression flicker across his face before resting his chin in his hand.
In that moment, something caught my eye sharply.
He held a small Box in his hand—elegantly and meticulously wrapped, just as the one that had once held the Ring from Bwendia.
“Has it become unbearable for you to be near me like this? Up until now… even if you were tense, you didn’t seem to truly dislike it.”
I wanted to bite my tongue. He’d noticed my tension every time we made contact, and there was plenty more he could discern.
Infuriatingly, my heart had always raced the moment he drew close. Each time there had been a different reason, but now there was only one.
That I was far too aware of him. So acutely aware that I feared the bright sunlight would expose me entirely.
My face burned with embarrassment and shame, but I couldn’t make it fade quickly.
“It’s not that, Your Highness. It’s just… we began this relationship as a falsehood, and you agreed to that arrangement—”
“At first. Atilenta.”
Henrik’s denial was absolute. I fanned myself urgently, trying by any means to cool the unbearable heat rising in me.
“Your Highness, you spoke as though you didn’t even know I was grown…”
I tried to protest with random words, though I knew in my heart they would make little difference.
“You are well aware of my dishonor—”
“I had no interest in you at first. I meant to take any suitable girl. Not until you came to me and asked. So you’re right.”
Henrik certainly kept a certain distance from me. Yet I felt the heat rising between us. I couldn’t help but feel it.
“That’s true—I felt nothing then. Now is different, Atilenta.”
Because he was looking only at me.
“Why, Your Highness…?”
“Didn’t I tell you to bite your tongue?”
My heart began to pound fiercely. I gripped my chest tightly, terrified he might hear the sounds I couldn’t control.
“I’ve never asked any Prisoner I’ve held to do such a thing. Rather, I’ve told them to die quickly.”
The low, steady breath that carried his voice brushed against my ear like the gentlest caress, and it was tickling me like down feathers.
“I wondered if you might need something more, or if you’d propose something interesting. Whether you were satisfied with the price I offered—I was curious about that too.”
My hands, gripping the balcony railing like a lifeline, trembled slightly.
“When we lie together, you pay me no mind whatsoever, but I… ha…”
When Henrik’s deep sigh reached my cheek, my face flushed even more intensely.
“I want to avoid that place, and yet… I simply cannot.”
So that was why he’d been avoiding me all this time.
Feeling the raw confession mixed with his desire, my body went rigid.
It was as though I’d been properly snared in a trap he’d set.
“Is there another way? If you would tell me, I would listen well, Atilenta.”
That it wasn’t my past shame troubling him, but simply me—my person—that occupied his mind.
That I had won his heart.
“Your Highness, I…”
If his confession had been nothing but sincere truth, then surely he too had been hurt. So why…?
The waves sweeping across the beach below seemed to have engulfed me as well. I couldn’t calm the turbulent feeling churning within.
Yet this one thing escaped my lips unbidden.
“Your Highness, there are many other fine women here besides me… and someone as praised by all as you and I…”
My inferiority complex wasn’t the kind to fade in an instant. No matter how far I’d come from my gaunt appearance, I couldn’t believe Henrik and I made as fine a picture as any.
So I had always thought this: you could choose any other woman and be perfectly happy.
Once this arrangement was over…
“You are already mine, Atilenta. You came to me at first, but know that I chose you as well.”
My breath caught sharply. I closed my trembling eyes, then opened them.
Henrik was still looking only at me. His eyes burned with longing and yearning.
Now, at last, I understood why he kept drawing closer.
Even if he had been wounded by my refusal.
Because it was not something so shallow.
“I… I don’t… I have no intention of… of love. I have no… confidence in myself either.”
The moment I forced that word out, I squeezed my eyes shut.
I wished he had firmly commanded me never to dare speak the word “love” again.
“So there was something you lacked confidence in.”
At the same time, knowing all too well now that he would do no such thing, trembling spread through my entire body down to my fingertips.
“Your Majesty, I… I’m afraid.”
I wrapped my arms around myself and slowly bowed my head.
If I let you into my future, I will only end up broken again.
“I don’t even know why I’m saying this to you, and from before… I never imagined you could harbor such feelings for me, and even now, what you mean and what I mean are… completely… different…”
What drenched me was surely more than bewilderment alone. There was something that had taken firm root inside me. Something I could not uproot.
“If this should fall apart, then what we promised at the beginning…”
Yes, this was my true heart. Even if I were to surrender to him completely, a hunger I could never cut out by the root.
In my lowered gaze, I could see only the clean floor, the edge of white curtain, and his shoes.
And within that narrow view, he extended a steady hand.
“I understand what you mean. Since that day, you’ve been saying things of the same tenor.”
It was a touch as if to grasp me crouched there and lift me up.
I neither pushed away the hand I had so long held in front of others as an intimate wife, nor did I take it eagerly, and instead lifted my head very slowly.
“Atilenta… I, too, have wrestled with this for a long time. Whether this is genuine, or not. If it is genuine, what exactly do I wish to do?”
Henrik stood quietly, as if waiting for me to meet his gaze.
I could not even properly compose the subtle trembling around my eyes and mouth. I could not tell if I wanted to cry or not.
“I want things to be different from now, when we are merely a loving couple in front of others. If you are willing, I truly wish to draw closer to you.”
Henrik spoke steadily. Of course, I knew. He was masking his words beneath that composure he must have honed over long years.
“Even if it should take a long time.”
Because it would be natural for him, not me, to want to burst with violent emotion right now.

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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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