Obituary [15th Revised Edition] C13

Episode 13

“Why are you trying to separate them? Why is it that you still don’t understand…?”

“Understand what?”

RAY did not particularly enjoy speaking so bluntly, but he decided it would be acceptable with her.

First, because she was from BOLTON.
Second, because she seemed incapable of understanding unless things were stated clearly.

“There’s no need to distinguish between people. Everyone in ORTURAN is your enemy. Who in this country do you think would possibly feel any affection toward you?”

For a brief moment, RAY thought he saw moisture gather in ROSE’s eyes.

But when he looked again, he realized it had merely been an illusion caused by the pale color of her eyes. They were as dry as ever.

As always, she was unexpectedly bad at crying.

“…Then what? I’m supposed to just endure it? No matter what they say to me? No matter what they do?”

“I handle the people who treat you carelessly myself. It becomes troublesome if you can’t even trust your husband.”

ROSE let out a hollow laugh.

“How am I supposed to trust you? You just said it yourself—everyone is my enemy.”

Only then did RAY finally allow himself a satisfied smile.

“You’re clever. Since you seem to understand now, I expect you to behave differently from here on.”

ROSE stared at him silently for a long moment with her lips tightly pressed together before turning back toward the carriage window.

At last, silence settled over the carriage, allowing RAY to comfortably look outside as well.

As he stared out the window, he recalled ARCHIBALD AVERY’s utterly ridiculous expression from earlier. By now, the habitual irritation he felt toward the woman had already faded away.

Since the matter was already over and he had finished disciplining her, he figured he might as well simply enjoy it for what it had been.

Honestly, it was one of the funniest sights he had seen in quite some time.

But only for a little while.

By the time the carriage reached the mansion, RAY’s mood had returned to its usual state—flat and empty, devoid of either irritation or amusement.

That lasted until his wife refused his escort.

Ignoring the arm he offered her as though she hadn’t seen it at all, the woman clumsily gathered her skirts and stepped down from the carriage. As she passed him, she muttered something in ANTAKAN.

She spoke quickly, like a native speaker of the language, but RAY still understood her words perfectly.

And in that instant, his expression hardened.

“You annoy me, so don’t touch me.”

That was what his wife had said.

It was better to be angry than to cry.

Crying had never helped anyone survive.

ROSE repeated the most important lesson her homeland, BOLTON, had taught her as she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Who in this country do you think would possibly feel any affection toward you?”

The moment that icy voice echoed through her mind again, her grip on the brush tightened painfully.

No.
This cannot hurt me.

ROSE dragged the brush through her hair while repeating the thought like a madwoman.

I don’t love this country either.
I don’t love its people either.
So this cannot hurt me.

“A BOLTON woman? CRAWFORD must finally have gone insane.”

“How did your mother end up living in a place like BOLTON?”

“You mustn’t end up crossing the River TESS again.”

No. Please. Forget it.

ROSE muttered obsessively.

She was gripping the brush so tightly it felt ready to snap, yet she still could not stop.

Better for the brush to break than for her to cry. She would rather die than cry.

These people know nothing about BOLTON anyway.

Closing her eyes tightly, ROSE took a deep breath.

She kept them shut until all those voices finally disappeared from her mind. Only after a long while did she open them again and resume brushing her hair.

She only needed to lie down as though nothing had happened. Sleep, wake up, and forget.

She had barely managed to calm herself when footsteps echoed from the hallway, followed by the appearance of the one man she least wanted to see right now.

He entered wearing a robe.

Their eyes met through the mirror.

The moment she saw those terrifyingly cold eyes, ROSE felt the emotions she had barely soothed begin violently shaking apart again.

RAY CRAWFORD’s blue eyes were ORTURAN itself.

She should not look at him.

ROSE deliberately turned her gaze away, pretending not to notice him, yet he appeared unconcerned as he sat down on the sofa behind her vanity.

“Go back to your bedroom. I have nothing more to say today.”

Obviously, he had come to lecture her again.

She truly could not understand it.

He had already told her that everyone—including himself—hated her. Was that still not enough?

Did he still have more cruel things left to say?

Her heart began pounding again with emotions she could no longer distinguish as sadness or anger, and once more she gripped the innocent brush too tightly.

“I have something to say, and that is what matters. And you do not have the right to tell me to leave.”

Rights.

The instant she heard that word, the anger she had desperately suppressed burst into flames like dry wood catching fire.

Even this bedroom could not truly belong to her.

Everything here belonged to this man.
Everything existed according to his will.

“In ORTURAN, your feelings are not—”

His calm, composed voice only fueled her fury further. It felt as though the dam holding back her emotions had shattered.

By the time she realized what she was doing, ROSE had already shot to her feet from the vanity chair.

As she rose, she threw the brush to the floor so violently that the dull sound echoed through the quiet room.

“So then what rights do I actually have? If I’m not even allowed to say this much?”

Only then did a crack finally appear in the man’s expressionless face as the brush rolled across the floor.

“I wish you wouldn’t behave so emotionally.”

Though he frowned slightly, his tone remained as dry and detached as ever.

Emotionally?

If ROSE had truly behaved emotionally, she would have punched AVERY in the face.

“Do you even know what that bastard said to me?”

RAY visibly stiffened at the curse that slipped out unconsciously, but ROSE had already lost control of herself.

This was exactly why she had tried to avoid speaking to him.

“He offered me a cigarette. Told me to smoke one! Asked whether I wasn’t a smoker!”

She wanted to explain more clearly how humiliating and unfair everything had been, but ORTURAN felt unbearably suffocating on her tongue. She could barely breathe.

In the end, she struck her chest several times before finally switching into ANTAKAN.

“And then he even said that only vulgar women smoke.”

The moment she switched languages, she immediately felt more at ease.

“And after hearing that kind of filthy nonsense, I’m still supposed to stay quiet?”

RAY stared at her with a frown, though she could not tell whether it was because he disliked her behavior or because he was busy interpreting her ANTAKAN.

Perhaps it was both.

“I did my best too. Instead of telling that bastard to shut up and get lost, I spoke the way you people do!”

As he listened to her, the man gradually returned to his usual expressionless state. Then he raised one hand as though trying to calm some crazed animal.

As though telling her to stop rampaging.

“Lower your voice. And stop speaking ANTAKAN as well. It won’t do you any good to make a habit of it.”

His attitude was unbelievably calm. Completely emotionless.

The ease with which he naturally ordered her around—don’t do this, don’t do that—made her blazing anger suddenly come to an abrupt halt.

After saying only that, he merely sat there watching her quietly.

The look in his eyes resembled that of a doctor observing a dog after administering a rabies shot.

Under that cold scrutiny, ROSE suddenly became painfully aware of herself.

Her cheeks burned hot. They were surely red.

Her chest rose and fell sharply from her ragged breathing.

The fact that she alone was angry somehow made the entire situation feel even more pathetic.

ROSE still genuinely did not understand what she had done that was supposedly so wrong.

The people of ORTURAN said whatever they pleased to her simply because she was from BOLTON.

Yet when she finally endured enough and launched only that tiny little counterattack, even that was unacceptable?

Even that was somehow her fault?

And she had not even said anything especially cruel.

“…What exactly did I do so wrong?”

The moment her anger subsided, the question slipped out before she could stop it.

It was the question she had wanted to ask ever since arriving here.

She already knew that refined people like RAY would always find her lacking.

She had even accepted being forced to follow values and customs she fundamentally disagreed with. After all, she had ultimately agreed to this marriage herself.

She bore responsibility too.

But agreeing to this marriage did not mean agreeing with the idea that all BOLTON people are trash.

She wanted to ask why they hated her this much.

“Did my father beg in my place or something? Did he cling to your trousers, begging you to marry me? Or maybe… did he threaten you?”

She had come to ORTURAN without truly understanding it.

But one thing was painfully obvious:

These people had always hated BOLTON.
And they still hated it now.

If that was the case, then surely there had been some reason for marrying a woman from a country they despised so much.

“If not, then you must have had your own reason for agreeing to this marriage too. So why am I the only one treated like a criminal?”

According to her father, it had actually been this side that proposed the marriage first.

She did not trust his words completely.

Still, the two families must have reached an agreement somehow.