The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 1. Perspective of Cárcel Escalante

So, it might have been wrong from the beginning.

When six-year-old Cárcel Escalante promised to spend a lifetime with six-year-old Ines Valeztena, he didn't know what 'a lifetime' meant at first. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] As the opulent dinner celebrating their engagement unfolded at the Valeztena mansion, and as the extravagant feast was nearing its end, Cárcel, with a puzzled expression, finally asked the people around, "How many years is a 'lifetime,' exactly?"

"No, I mean, how many years does it take for a 'lifetime'?" he clarified.

Instead of a direct answer, he would have gone back and forth among the adults, who only smiled strangely. The fourth time he asked such a question, Baron Valeztena, who received the inquiry, blocked the answer his wife, the Baroness, was about to give and gestured towards his daughter. Only then did Cárcel catch a glimpse of Ines's expression.

"...Do you even know what that is?"

Her eyes looked down at him as if looking at something inferior. While their eye levels were the same, the angle of her gaze was infinitely superior. Cárcel, at the age of six, had an unremarkable personality, but he felt like a ghost whenever someone ignored him. In the moment he frowned and his face flushed, Ines spoke up abruptly.

"So, you don't know"

"I know. Who wouldn't know that?"

"Explain it."

"...It's time, it's about time."

"Time, what about it?"

"Because it's time—"

"—Do I really have to talk to Lord Escalante in person?”

Ines turned her head abruptly and asked her parents. The Baron, bending down to his daughter's eye level, spoke affectionately.

"You're much smarter than your peers. Feeling frustrated is natural. So, you need to practice. Practice speaking without dismissing others, even if they are less knowledgeable than you. You should learn how to help a friend who doesn't know something, and make sure your friends don't feel ignored, even if they're not as smart as you..."

Did she just say it's frustrating for me? Did she imply that I'm lacking or not smart? Cárcel doubted his ears as he glanced back and forth between the Baron and Ines.

However, they seemed oblivious to Cárcel's inner turmoil.

‘Me? Stupid?’

Cárcel was remarkably intelligent for a six-year-old. Hadn't the tutors and the elders of the family all gathered to praise him, saying, ‘Lord, Escalante is remarkably smart for a six-year-old’?

He looked at the Baron again with a perfectly adorable frown. Unlike Ines's stiff attitude, the Baron's arrogant face was filled with pride and affection for his daughter. It was a stark contrast when looking at someone else's child.

"Friends aren't necessary. Lord Escalante is my fiancé, after all."

The tone implied that nothing else mattered. It carried an attitude like, ‘I don't need friends, so why bother with a fiancé,’ dismissing any importance of such relationships.

Cárcel was young, and there was still much he didn't know, but he understood that being a "fiancé" was, in some way, more significant than being a "friend." You could have endless friends, but a fiancé was only one, right?

‘If you're so smart, how come you don't know that yet?’

Of course, if there was a trap, they had already failed as friends multiple times.

"Yes, Cárcel is your fiancé. Therefore, be even more kind, gentle, and act like a lady...."

"Even if my personality is bad, I am already a lady. Father.”

Cárcel, staring at her with narrow eyes, was surprised when she finished admonishing her father and abruptly turned her head away.

A well-dressed girl with black hair and a black dress seemed more fitting for a stranger's funeral than for celebrating her engagement at a dinner. Her stern aura, completely unlike that of a child, was as unsettling as confronting an adult who treated a child roughly…

Ines Valeztena didn't seem like a child. Perhaps that instinctively triggered a sense of rejection. Cárcel always found her uncomfortable. So, it was still hard to believe.

"Escalante. Listen well."

A sternness that wouldn't even call the name even if one were to die. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Dealing with a subject that wasn't even prettier than oneself, that arrogance...

Marriage, with such a person, marriage.

"Only dead people can answer how many years a lifetime is."

"...Do dead people answer too?"

"They can't. So, living people don't know."

"How can dead people know?"

"Because they've been dead."

"......"

The boy, who had been delving into the subject of 'death' for about four months, found the conversation perplexing as the idea of death kept popping up. Wearing a dress that looked eerily like mourning attire, how unsettling it must be, yet he continued without fear... He looked around for an adult who could mediate the conversation, but Baron Valeztena and his entourage had abandoned them.

Cárcel decided to steer the conversation himself.

"So, you don't know either?"

"That's right. Only dead people know."

The conversation came full circle without any progress. Cárcel quickly gave up.

"Why do you have to die to know?"

"Your lifetime is until you die, and when you die, your lifetime ends."

"......"

"So, well... you can calculate the total in the end, right? How many years your lifetime is."

"...It ends?"

"It ends. You thought you'd never die?"

The end of a lifetime was an illusion. They say they have to be together 'for the rest of their lives'. For his marriage to Ines to come to an end, it must also end for a lifetime.

However, dying was a bit problematic.

"...Why is a lifetime until you die? Why?"

"That's what a lifetime is. From the day you're born until the day you die. So, you'll only know how many years your lifetime is when you die."

"......"

"Please, don't ask when you'll die."

"When will I die, though?"

Ha... Ines touched her forehead and shook her head. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It was a behavior she enjoyed when Lord Escalante's wife, Cárcel's mother, was troubled by her son.

Feeling both unpleasant and increasingly fiery, Cárcel asked urgently again.

"When will I die? Why do I have to die?"

"Knowing my fate like a fortune teller... Well, no one knows that."

"My grandfather's leg rotted after being shot in Nuyera. So, if my leg...?"

"If you really want to follow in his footsteps, you could get shot, but there's no need for that. Everyone dies for different reasons. Some die from illness, starvation, excessive drinking, from being beaten, shot, stabbed with a knife..."

Cárcel's handsome face paled. Ines sighed again as if tired.

"Are there so many ways to die?"

"Just be cautious. Try your best."

"If I'm careful, I won't die?"

“That’s not it.”

"Even if I'm careful, I'll die?"

“You can die tomorrow too.”

His perfectly angelic face depicted in the portrait slowly distorted. As if tearfully filling the trembling blue eyes, tears welled up and eventually began to trickle down.

A pitiful expression crossed Ines's gaze again.

"Will I also, have my leg cut off?"

"...Your grandfather lived for more than ten years even after losing his leg."

"Do I have to live with you until my leg is cut off?"

"You're different from your grandfather. I've said many times that there's no need to cut your leg... Oh, of course, if you get a disease that causes your foot to rot or get shot and neglected, then you might have to—"

"—I have to cut it! If I don't cut it, I have to marry you!"

The attention of the people belatedly gathered towards the protagonists of the banquet. Specifically, towards the boy shedding tears with a face as pitiful and beautiful as an angel. Then, one by one, as if seeking the cause, they looked at the girl with a face devoid of both blood and tears, gazing at the boy.

And then they looked at Cárcel, who was dressed in radiant golden hair, a flawless ivory complexion, impeccable features, and adorned with a white dress shirt, a red cravat, a beige vest, and a brown frock coat.

The perfect contrast of warm colors against the direct confrontation of Ines's stern expression and black...

The opposition was inevitable, like the confrontation between good and evil. Ines whispered tightly through closed lips.

"Do you think this is just about marriage? You have to have a child with me."

"I don't want to!"

"Therefore, if you don't want that, it's better to stop now. If you cry, it will lead to having a child with me."

"...."

"You dislike me, right? Isn't that true?"

Cárcel, with frozen eyes, slowly nodded at Ines. Ines, seeming reluctant, reached out to wipe Cárcel's wet cheek. Though from a distance, the gesture appeared quite affectionate, the adults quickly averted their gazes, seemingly relieved.

As Ines confirmed the disappearance of the suspicion clouding Cárcel, she withdrew from him as if she had escaped from something frightening. Despite the seemingly harsh situation, to Cárcel, her distancing felt like the dispersal of the looming specter of death.

"Escalante."

"Yes?"

"...Actually, it might not be 'a lifetime.'"

"What?"

"Our marriage."

Ines, as if sharing an important secret, smiled discreetly and then returned to her expressionless face.

Cárcel, not understanding, just tilted his head and muttered a bit annoyingly, 'What do you even know?' but that was it. Fortunately, it was at that moment that Empress Cayetana, the sister of Duke Escalante and Cárcel's aunt, raised her glass to give a toast.

"Cárcel Escalante de Espoza will marry Inés Valeztena de Pérez in the year of coming of age, and through this beautiful couple who will spend their lives together, the alliance between the two families will become even stronger."

"Yes!"

"They will love and cherish each other for a lifetime, supporting each other through difficult moments, becoming beacons for one another. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Inés Valeztena will, in the future, govern the vast estates of the Escalante family as the hostess, while Cárcel Escalante will dedicate his life to the alliance with the Valeztena, becoming a son-in-law devoted to both families. This, undoubtedly, will bring joy to our royal family..."

For a lifetime—to be together until death, for a lifetime—to love and cherish each other until death, for a lifetime—to dedicate themselves to each other's families until death.... Now, the word 'for a lifetime' seemed to automatically replace with 'until death.' It was a curse-like toast.

Regardless of what the unkind, tactless, and not particularly pretty six-year-old fiancée might say, that day their lifetime was cast like a die.

Türkiye And from that day on, Cárcel Escalante's perfect life was undoubtedly distorted.