The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 80

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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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Contracted Marriage for Atilenta’s Revenge — Episode 80
The nausea didn’t ease quickly; I found myself going in and out of the bathroom several times.
After retching up all my resentment and regret into that ruined state, I lay helpless on the bed.
The moment Henrik returned to the room and saw my limp form, he went rigid.
“Atilenta, I’m calling the royal physician at once. What’s happened?”
“No, please don’t call anyone…….”
I shook my head and grasped his collar.
I hadn’t applied much force, yet he stopped immediately and sat beside me.
Watching his brow furrow deeply, his expression hardening into something rigid, a certain scene came to mind.
The day I had the accident, the day I wept over Barsha and Lord Krakow—his expression had been similar then.
“……The medicine I saw at the apothecary was the same as what I took in Francia. According to the shopkeeper…… it can be harmful to women. If taken excessively.”
In the end, I found myself rambling with startling impulsiveness.
“Selena took it too—the same medicine. I thought it was all my fault, you see. Everyone said so.”
“You…… have endured far too much hardship.”
Henrik wiped the cold sweat from my clammy forehead with a soft cloth, then pressed his hand to his own brow.
His shadowed face grew even darker.
“Had I known, I would not have let those who set foot in Bwendofska off so lightly.”
Henrik’s eyes gleamed with the danger of a savage beast.
“I should have brought you here long ago.”
As he laid bare his concern for me while simultaneously suppressing his rage toward them, I stared at him and slowly parted my lips.
“Your Majesty…… I still have no plans for what comes after. Just as I told you before.”
Henrik maintained a heavy silence, yet his hand continued its gentle stroke across my sweat-dampened skin.
“……I know you’re thinking of divorce already.”
He had read my thoughts correctly before as well.
This time too, I could not deny it, not even with empty words.
I should have. I had to.
But this was the state I was in now.
Somehow, I had grown quite accustomed to that man’s tender warmth.
Yet even though I visited my mother’s homeland with him, even though I called him by that intimate form of address, even though I found myself uneasy around some trivial rival—
I cannot, will not, assure him that when all of this is over, I will remain at his side. I simply cannot.
As I said nothing, Henrik revealed his true feelings in a darkened voice, barely above a whisper.
“Don’t leave me, Atilenta. We can worry about later when the time comes, but not that…… not that.”
In Teresia Forest, he had said he was happy because it seemed I was gradually opening my heart…….
A surge of emotion welled up.
Was what Antonio and Selena had done to me merely some trifling scheme?
There was no way.
“Even if I were to stay at your side until the very end, the matter of an heir—”
“Atilenta.”
I grasped his firm wrist and barely managed to pull myself up, swallowing hard.
“Your Majesty. I am not wholly sound, neither in body nor in spirit. To one who will be the king of these northern lands, or more than that—such a wish is—”
“We can think about that later, as I’ve said.”
He spoke each word carefully, his voice breaking and stuttering. I drew a long, steadying breath.
“Why do you speak of an heir so…….”
And I confessed.
“From the beginning, you knew I was barren.”
That was only my weakness, so I hid it, had hidden it. Even knowing he understood everything, I had pretended not to know.
From the very day I first came to him.
But now…….
“Ha…….”
His breath carried a sigh tinged with lamentation, yet held no reproach or blame toward me.
Just as I had become such a presence for Henrik.
Now Henrik’s wellbeing had also come to matter deeply to me.
In a way that was incomparable to before.
And so I could not, could not remain silent on the matter of an heir.
“To achieve your ambitions, you need a healthy queen.”
“After I ascend the throne, there will be time enough for an heir. If it comes to that, there are ways—I can bring one from my own family.”
Goodness. I drew in a shaky breath.
“The most important thing to me right now is you. Everything I said on your birthday celebration—it was all sincere.”
I swallowed the rush of impulse and fixed my eyes on him. Those amethyst eyes held only me.
Neither of us is quite sound, and yet he says that doesn’t matter…….
“For now, rest well. I hope you recover your strength.”
He held my hand firmly as he spoke, his voice steady and unhurried.
“And do what you wish. Your resolve has been clear from the start, hasn’t it?”
His eyes, his voice, the pressure of his hand—all of it was unwavering, and yet I could sense it.
That he had been hurt again. Because of me.
My tangled feelings, this ambiguous heart of mine—he must know them well.
And though he had spoken plainly, with such steadfast resolve, that he would wait for me always,
and I know, yes, I know that this is a man who will keep his promise to me, will wait and wait without end. I want to believe that, to trust only that.
Yet I cannot even speak the hollow words to tell him that I feel the same sincerity for him that he gives to me, that my heart matches his. I dare not.
I swallowed down the turmoil rising in my chest, pushing it deeper and deeper.
If only his heart truly never changed……

* * *
Deep winter was drawing near.
Like the previous winter, the Royal Palace brimmed with activity and vitality as preparations for Bwendia’s Festival Celebration got underway. The landscape, softly blanketed in white snow, was magnificent.
From early morning, Henrik and I were making our way toward the Temple.
“I believe last time we went to the Temple after the Festival Celebration ended, but we’re going rather early this time, aren’t we?”
Through the carriage window, the Temple came into view—its exterior as modest as ever.
“I made a special request to the Temple. Under an official pretext.”
“Will that be alright?”
“My brother did the same. It’s not a private affair, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Henrik spoke in a carefully lowered voice as we stepped down from the carriage, as if conscious of the surroundings.
Yet the true purpose was unmistakable. The ostensible reason was for this nation’s most important celebration and the many guests who would be invited then, but in reality it was for the war that lay ahead.
Not that battle would be joined tomorrow, but it was for the war that Henrik and I were already preparing for.
Behind our carriage, several others followed in a line, laden with goods for Henrik’s “pure” donation to the Temple.
Such an offering would surely delight the Temple and spread its fame widely—just as Henrik had said, just as Resischa had made a show of doing.
Upon entering the Temple, the priests expressed their gratitude with restrained and proper courtesy.
“Thanks to Your Highness’s generous donations of late, we have been greatly aided in providing relief to the struggling common people. This gift too will be of tremendous help. We are truly grateful.”
As we made our way out after offering quiet prayers in the prayer chamber, the priests produced a necklace, said to be a Sacred Object of Bwendia, and showed it to us.
“As Your Highness requested before, we now show you the Sacred Object. We pray that Bwendia herself will bless you.”
“May the grace of Bwendia shine upon us.”
I examined the Sacred Object with careful reverence. Though the time given was not abundant, it was enough to sense the dragon’s dark and weighty presence.
On our way back, the figures we encountered at the Temple entrance were unexpected.
“Your Highness. I trust you are well. It has been some time, Kirchia.”
“Please, lower your tone, Your Highness Henrik.”
Resischa had appeared with Kirchia at his side. She stood before us with movements as graceful as those of a butterfly.
“May Bwendia’s blessing be upon you. Welcome, Your Highness Resischa.”
As the priests offered their greetings, Resischa cast a quick glance at Henrik.
“Henrik, your heart is the same as mine.”
“Of course, Your Highness. It is a day blessed by Bwendia, after all.”
The Temple was so quiet and humble, and the priests no less so, that none of them dared to whisper as they looked upon the princes.
Yet I sensed a taut tension flowing between the two of them. Ever since that commotion at Henrik’s celebration, I could not easily shake away such a sensation.
Though nothing particular happened at the Temple even with Resischa present and his fiancée, who seldom showed her face in public, having made an appearance, we had no chance to rest easy even after returning safely to the palace.
It was because of the letter Poznan had delivered.
“Something like this has come for Your Highness.”
……The handwriting was familiar. My brow furrowed without my thinking.
“……It’s Selena.”
Before any other reaction could surface, a curse rose up from deep within me.

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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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