IMBSM 5

Chapter: 5

Could it be that he threw away the tobacco he was smoking because of me?

He really didn’t need to care about such a trivial thing.

Evania asked with a flustered expression,
“Don’t you say it doesn’t matter since you’re immortal? Why did you put it out?”

“You’re not immortal.”

The man answered lightly, as if it were no big deal. He rubbed his hands together and then clasped them.

Resting his chin on his hands, he said,
“Anyway, to keep it simple, I’m not planning to marry you. I have no intention of eating you, either.”

“…Why?”

Even though Evania had already sensed that he would say that, she asked anyway.

Ironically, the monster duke was objectively not a bad match for marriage.

The rumors that he ate people were false, and in reality, he even cared for the weak.

Anyone would have been a good match, but if he could only marry, that only added extra points.

It seemed he had completely abandoned the idea of this marriage after hearing the death of the sister who was supposed to be the bride.

Evania suddenly wondered,
Why did it have to be the sister?

“Do I look unappealing?”

No sooner had Evania finished speaking than he suddenly burst into a coughing fit.

There seemed to be no magic to stop it. He struggled to catch his breath until the tip of his nose turned bright red.

Covering his mouth with one hand, he gestured with the other toward Evania and said,
“Stand up for a moment.”

“Huh?”

“Stand beside the chair.”

He repeated the command with a hoarse voice. Since he had first stood up as an example, Evania soon followed his instructions obediently.

Once she was standing properly, he snapped his fingers lightly.

In the next moment, Evania realized they had moved to another place.

Having experienced this once before, she wasn’t too surprised this time.

Looking around, Evania saw Agram quickly explain the location:
“It’s the storage room right below the top floor of the spire. I thought it would be faster to show and explain.”

With that, he stepped toward the wall in front of him.

Evania expected a window behind the curtain, like the other walls, but surprisingly, there was a large painting hidden there.

A woman?

The portrait, seemingly freshly painted and not faded at all, showed a beautiful woman sitting at an angle, smiling.

Her golden hair shone, her eyes were as blue as a lake, and her rosy cheeks made her extremely lovely.

As Evania stared blankly at the woman in the painting, Agram proudly showed his left hand with a wedding ring and said,
“To be direct, I’m married.”

“Huh?”

“I’m already married. To the woman in this painting, about 400 years ago.”

Only after a moment did Evania finally understand what he meant.

Not that she had fully recovered from her shock.

She just stared at him blankly as he continued calmly.

“My wife was an ordinary person and died before me. I’ve been waiting for her to be reborn.”

“….”

“I have an old acquaintance with some foresight. He said it would be your sister. So around this time, I made a deal with your ancestors to have a daughter from your family sent as a bride. That’s the whole story of this marriage proposal.”

Could there be a more touching story in the world?

A man who loved his wife so much had waited hundreds of years alone just to meet her again.

Only for the woman he loved, constantly recalling the brief moments compared to the long life he had lived.

It was a beautiful story that could not be heard without tears.

The dizzy feeling she had was probably because she had suddenly been brought to such a high place.

“Do you understand now why I said I couldn’t marry you?”

“…So my parents were wasting their efforts from the start. I wasn’t the person Lord Ram wanted.”

The Count and Countess of Hessen had truly done unnecessary work.

They didn’t need to take in an orphan who resembled their daughter, and Emilia didn’t need to hide from others.

They had come up with this plan because they couldn’t let their precious daughter marry a monster.

But the man before her had no reason to desperately avoid marriage.

No matter what kind of groom Emilia sought, he would be unmatched.

Even traveling the entire country, it seemed impossible to find such a handsome man, and his wealth rivaled that of the royal family.

He even tried to solve problems with conversation rather than force, showing common sense.

Patience that a monster couldn’t display.

Most importantly, unlike ordinary political marriages, this marriage would include love.

A man who had waited hundreds of years for his reborn wife.

It was certain that his wife would be loved immensely.

Evania looked out the window and murmured,
“I envy my sister.”

Even at the grave she had visited with the intention of dying, she had been told she was not needed.

So she had even lost her usefulness as a corpse. She felt deflated.

“You came here against your will?”

Evania blinked slowly and replied,
“Yes.”

“You don’t get along with your family?”

“Yes.”

“Then you probably don’t want to go home.”

It wasn’t just a matter of pride—she really couldn’t.

The reason the Count of Hessen had taken in an orphan no one knew about had now disappeared.

Then where should she go?

She had left her hometown, and even lost the one place she had to die.

Is there anywhere to go?

Evania looked down at the houses spread below the castle, her eyes damp.

Because the building was on high ground, the height was dizzying. If she fell, she wouldn’t even be recognizable.

The man took his gaze from the painting of his wife and looked at Evania.

He asked persistently,
“Is there anywhere you want to go?”

“No.”

“If you want to settle somewhere else, I can help.”

“Thanks, but I’ll manage on my own.”

“Don’t waste pride. Accept help when it’s offered.”

“There’s no need.”

He had already been kind enough.

There was no need for him to take responsibility for fools who wasted their lives in silly illusions.

The emotions Evania felt now, the crushing despair that had broken her—those were entirely her own.

The man she had blamed for all her misfortune had, laughably, never been bad to her once.

This man had never deceived anyone from the start…

“Don’t talk nonsense, kid. Do you think life’s that easy?”

Agram suddenly raised his voice.

It was as if he were personally responsible, getting angry on her behalf.

“A noble girl like you, inexperienced in the world, wandering alone without guards—what kind of terrible things do you think will happen? Decide where you want to settle and bring a ten-year future plan for what you’ll do there. Then I’ll let you go.”

He rummaged in his pocket, as if craving a cigarette.

He was about to put tobacco in his mouth when he suddenly frowned and stopped. Then he spat it out and broke it in half.

At the sound of something hard snapping, Evania looked to the side and saw that the cigarette had turned into a stick-shaped candy.

He handed the side he hadn’t bitten to Evania and said,
“Here, it’s strawberry flavored.”

“I don’t like strawberry.”

“Then orange.”

As soon as he flicked his finger, the red stripe on the candy turned orange.

She couldn’t understand why someone so naturally kind had been rumored to be a monster.

It was probably because, being extremely lazy, he spread false rumors to avoid visitors.

For some reason, Evania felt like crying.