Chapter 142: Marriage of Strangers
Three years ago...
Several weeks had passed since Kael's forced marriage had been concluded and he had finally left the Capital behind, heading toward a distant town known as Velhart. He had not known much about that place at that time so before coming here he had gathered whatever information he could find, and from everything he learned, this town was considered the most miserable place to live in within the entire kingdom. And why wouldn't it earn that reputation?
The whole town sat in the middle of a vast forest and a chain of dark mountains that were said to be filled with countless unimaginable creatures capable of hunting someone without warning. The problem did not end there because there wasn't even a tall wall built around the town to protect its citizens from outside threats. How could anyone sleep peacefully in such a place where danger could appear anytime and people wouldn't even know until it was too late?
Not that he cared much about the others around him, but he did care about himself, and even he could not figure out whether he would ever sleep peacefully in a place like this.
Perhaps he might have managed it if there had been enough knights patrolling at night or at least enough guards who would warn everyone when something unusual happened, but unfortunately the town did not have that luxury. There were only a handful of knights and even they were exhausted handling the constant wave of thugs, bandits, and murderers because the crime rate here was far beyond anything he could have imagined.
Recruiting more knights was nearly impossible since no one wished to work in a place where they could be attacked at any moment without even a wall to rely on. Most preferred guarding the kingdom's borders instead of throwing themselves into this town that sounded like a punishment rather than a duty. And honestly, it was not difficult to understand why.
Crossing his legs and touching his chin slightly while sitting inside the moving carriage, he looked out at the distant line of trees under the moonlight with a complicated expression.
'Still, I need to survive in this place. To do that, I need to buy a house on the west side because if a sudden attack happens I will at least have enough time to leave or hide somewhere.'
Right when he sank deeper into his thoughts, a sudden voice reached his ears. It sounded strangely concerned but wrapped in an unmistakable coldness that pushed him out of his thoughts immediately.
"Why do you look so dense?"
He blinked slowly and turned his gaze toward the beautiful woman sitting beside him with an expression that was calm but cold. She wore a finely crafted gown decorated with intricate patterns that suited her noble appearance.
It was at that moment he remembered something he often almost forgot. He was married. That meant he was now someone's husband. But what exactly did that even mean? What were husbands supposed to do? What was marriage supposed to be?
'I don't really know and I don't care either. Still... this entire situation feels unreal and I am having difficulty adjusting to it. It is simply too strange.'
Letting out a light breath, he answered her in a soft voice, "I was thinking about where we should buy a house, just in case something happens and we need a safer place."
Apparently, his bride was called Seraphina. He had tried to dig up a few things about her, wanting to find out if she would become a problem for him in the future because considering who her father was, the possibility was not small. However, he had found nothing useful.
Seraphina studied him for a moment then spoke in her usual steady voice, "You don't need to concern yourself with that. My father already contacted the duke of this town and bought a mansion for us. It seems he forgot to inform you because of the sudden departure."
'Forgot? Not a chance. That man definitely did it intentionally just to see how I would react.'
Kael's lips parted slightly, "A mansion? Isn't that too much for just the two of us? How much did it cost? I should repay him, right?"
Seraphina tilted her head in a calm manner, "It's not too much. You do not need to repay him. He does not want anything from you."
Kael let out another soft sigh. "I… see."
'I will never understand how wealthy people live, will I?'
Seraphina studied him quietly for a few moments before asking, "By the way… why do you look so different today?"
Kael lowered his gaze toward himself, found absolutely nothing that stood out, and frowned slightly. "Where do I look different?"
Seraphina lifted her hand and touched her chin gently, "Your height. You look slightly taller than before so it confused me for a moment. If I remember correctly, during our wedding you almost looked like a child standing beside me. Yet now you look more like someone short for your age rather than someone who had not grown at all. Even your face seems a little different. Or am I imagining things?"
'Ah, that happened because of my very simple mistake. I assumed that was the average height of a sixteen-year-old boy so I changed myself based on that. But it turned out I was unbelievably wrong and ended up embarrassing myself. Those insults meant nothing to me, though. I could have stayed with that height if those insolent maids had not annoyed me. What happened has already happened, there is nothing to fix now. Let me figure out how to answer her here.'
He looked up to meet her cold gaze directly, "You're not imagining anything. Well you see, I couldn't help but overhear a few maids who were talking about how people's looks sometimes change after their wedding night has passed. Perhaps that's why it happened to me."
Seraphina gave him a frosty look then allowed a slow and indifferent sigh to escape from her lips, "I've heard that as well. However, we haven't done anything yet, so that possibility is not even close to reasonable."
'Why's she bringing that up again? Even after I rejected her several times already. What does she expect to happen between us anyway? We barely know each other and everything is just a forced marriage, and having a child is completely out of the question right now. I'm too young for that. Ah, if only I could simply kill her right here and now and end all of this nonsense in the most convenient way possible, since it is nighttime and we are far from the town so no one would hear a thing besides the carriage rider.'
He leaned back on his seat with a cold expression and let his eyes drift upward slowly, 'Sadly, I cannot do that. If this girl dies somehow apparently I die too, and I have no desire to let that happen yet, not when I have too much going on myself. To avoid any unfortunate consequences, the only choice I have is to live with her in some kind of peace. Come to think of it, she has been acting so strangely calm all of a sudden that I almost forgot how much of a pain she truly is. But why is she acting like that?'
Kael narrowed his eyes a little, "What do you mean?"
Seraphina turned her gaze outside again and treated him as if he were not even present beside her, "It's nothing."
Kael did not answer.
Time moved slowly as the carriage continued along the road with a steady and fluid speed, and the silence between them thickened until it felt almost heavy, and the only sound cutting through it was the rolling wheel beneath them. Neither of them attempted to speak even a single word, since they were both more or less used to this suffocating quiet unless something genuinely required them to speak. After a long and uneventful ride, they finally arrived in front of the mansion.
Kael stepped out of the carriage and slipped his hands into his pockets quickly to avoid the slightly cold air brushing against them, then looked over his shoulder to confirm with the woman, "Is this the mansion?"
That was when he noticed she was still standing at the doorway of the carriage, her figure tilted forward slightly while her hand extended toward him without a single tremble. She tilted her head and stared ahead, "Judging by the way my father had described it... it seems this is the place."
He was about to turn forward when she continued in a more threatening voice that held no hesitation, "How much longer do I need to stand here like this?"
He looked at her with a strange expression, "Huh? Why're you asking me that? How should I know? Why're you even standing there in the first place? If you want to come out then just come out already."
She remained silent for a few moments, then narrowed her eyes in a cold manner before taking in a deep and clearly annoyed breath, "Listen, I'm asking you for the last time. Are you going to hold my hand and help me get down from here or not?"
Kael traced her figure from head to toe with a slow look before meeting her eyes directly with a cold smile, "Why would I? Are you suddenly legless? You seemed perfectly fine to me, so why not use your own legs to get down instead of relying on someone else? Or do you actually not know how to step down?"
'What a weirdo!'
Seraphina did not bother to answer. Instead, she went back inside the carriage, grabbed her heavy luggages with ease, and stepped out before walking past him. The moment she passed him she looked over her shoulder with blue flames burning in the depth of her eyes before she threw the bags aside effortlessly and unlocked the gate with a key.
'What was that look supposed to mean?'
Then an uneasy shock washed over him as he replayed what he had just witnessed.
'What did I just see? Those luggages were so heavy that even the guards struggled to place them inside the carriage, so how did she lift them as if they weighed nothing? Is she actually stronger than she looks? Did she get that strength from her bloodline? But she was supposed to be a weak and innocent girl, was she not? But after these past weeks I have realized she is anything but innocent, so maybe she is not weak either. Have I been forced to believe a lie all this time? That old bastard... he tricked me.'
---
Some time later, he stood beside her in front of a stretch of rooms on the second floor, where several doors lined the hallway.
Seraphina pointed toward the first room, "I have decided that this will be my personal room, since I need a place to change and take care of my belongings."
'Good. It seems I can finally sleep in peace without needing to worry about anything.'
Kael nodded quickly then walked toward the third room of the row, "Alright... then I'm going to sleep now. Do not disturb me for the night."
"Wait!"
Kael halted his steps once more and turned his head slightly over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing a little as he asked, "What is it now?"
Seraphina tilted her head with that composed and slightly sharp manner of hers, her gaze steady, "I haven't finished talking yet. And what do you mean by going to sleep this early? We haven't even eaten dinner yet. In fact, several hours have already passed since we barely ate anything at all, so I fail to understand how you can simply walk off as if nothing matters."
Kael continued to stare at her in that same distant way before he finally replied, "So what? Is it truly necessary to eat dinner before sleeping? Even if you think it is necessary, I am not feeling hungry. Just leave me alone."
Seraphina didn't move right away and instead stood there without so much as a twitch, almost as if she had turned into some sort of statue while she observed him carefully, "Are you certain about that? After such a long journey, how can a person claim to not feel even a bit hungry? Also, do you actually intend to sleep beside me like that without taking a bath? Do you not have even a shred of dignity left in you? I can't imagine how awful your smell must be at the moment. It seems my sleep tonight will end up being ruined."
Kael froze completely. Nothing she had said earlier managed to strike him deeply, but this one thing pulled his attention at once, and his expression slowly darkened. "Sleep with you? Why would I ever want to do that again? Besides, we are no longer in your father's mansion, so there is no need to pretend we are some flawless couple in this desolated town. You can live however you want from now on, and I will do the same."
Her expression did not shift at all, not even slightly, as she answered with an even colder voice, "That much is true. However, I cannot simply ignore that we are married now. It is not something one should treat lightly. Marriage is sacred, after all. Whether we wanted it or not, our lives became intertwined the moment we placed those rings on each other's fingers beneath the statue of the goddess."
She paused as if making sure he was listening, then continued in a tone clearer and more deliberate, "Before this marriage, we lived as two entirely separate individuals with different paths and choices. We were free. That is no longer the case. This unexpected marriage placed us in a position where our decisions can affect one another in ways we never intended. Those decisions might even ruin the other person's life if we act carelessly. And I couldn't care less about such consequences."
Kael shrugged as if none of her words had managed to reach him, "Even so, I do not care. I have nothing left to lose."
Seraphina held his gaze with a long, icy stare before continuing once more, "You understand that divorce is not an option for us right now, correct? So we will be living under the same roof for a long time. Because of that, we should think more rationally and set aside our pride, so we can at least make living together less unbearable."
Kael released a slow breath and stepped closer, his voice lowering just a little, "And what exactly does any of that have to do with you wanting to sleep beside me? I cannot find anything in your words that answers that. If anything, I remember seeing tears on your face during our wedding day, as if you never wished for any of this. So why did you cry that day? What was the real reason? Did you have an affair before? With that face of yours it wouldn't be surprising. So if you still do, I do not mind if you visit him from time to time, since I honestly have no use for you."
He stopped just in front of her and that was when he noticed her hand rising, ready to slap him without hesitation. However, before her hand could touch him, he caught her wrist and stopped it effortlessly in midair, his gaze lifting slightly to meet hers.
Seraphina's cold blue eyes darkened even further and her voice carried no hesitation at all, "Watch your filthy mouth. I am—"
He didn't let her finish.
Instead, he stepped forward with sudden determination, forcing her to take several steps back until her back met the nearby wall, trapping her in place as he slammed his hand against the wall beside her. If not for his shorter height, the scene would have looked entirely different.
Without letting any emotion reach his expression, he met her gaze directly, "Why are you so determined to sleep with me anyway? Do you think of yourself as someone afraid of sleeping alone or what?"
Seraphina remained perfectly still, her breathing calm despite the closeness, and only after a lingering moment did she answer, "I have my reasons."
Kael exhaled heavily, "Acceptable."
Why had he accepted it without pressing further?
Why had he not refused again?
In truth, he saw no point in arguing with her anymore. He knew well how stubborn the woman before him was, and he would rather die than let himself get dragged into another endless exchange with her. One way or another, she would always pull out some twisted logic that made no sense to him. So he decided to accept anything she threw his way as long as it caused him no harm.
Strangely enough, that decision taught him something he never would have learned if he hadn't been forced into this ridiculous situation.
'Marriage is such a pain.'
He let her go and slipped his hands into his pockets and asked in a cold and tired voice, "Then we can use this middle room together. As for dinner, I do not feel like eating anything right now, so you will have to eat alone."
Seraphina hesitated for a moment, which surprised him slightly, before she answered in a strangely uncertain voice, "But... I don't know how to cook dinner."
---
(Chapter Ended)