The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The major was a completely different person from the one Cárcel had seen at the military academy. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] He used to spend a fortnight cursing his wife after returning from a fortnight’s stay with his wife, but now he would recommend places as small as the palm of his hand, talking about how much he and his wife enjoyed spending time there in the official residence... He looked ferocious, but he seemed happy.

And the garden lights were even more amazing than he had expected.

Cárcel briefly imagined himself doing something like that for Inés. It wasn’t much different from imagining himself falling ill and becoming ugly, or tumbling disgracefully from his horse during the jousting tournament at the feast of Saint Inés, with all the nobles in attendance, but actually imagining it didn’t seem so terrible after all.

Cárcel let his thoughts drift, idly wondering whether the ferocity of the image of Major Elba was due to his somewhat savage appearance and his usually rather fierce character.

He allowed his mind to drift away from all those tedious stories of how Major Elba had sketched those brass lamps with his small, almost girlish hands, and how he had given instructions to the workmen…

This was now their little home.

“...How is it possible that your vacation only lasts until tomorrow?”

“Are you disappointed?”

It seemed like the sudden realization that the day of his return was the very next day had shocked her. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Inés laughed, looking very pleased at Cárcel’s response.

In front of Arondra and the servants, the face that had always smiled so kindly that he wondered why it was suddenly vanished like a lie, leaving nothing behind when it's two of them.

But even taking that into account, her expression was remarkably gentle. The line of her closed lips drooped slightly at the corners, and her dark green eyes, devoid of any fiery glow, gazed calmly out to the dark sea, where the sound of the waves could be heard.

She muttered as she lazily rolled a wine glass filled with water across her palm.

“Your lack of a plan is astonishing and absurd”

“I had plenty of plans.”

“...Those plans you made when you still had barely a fortnight left of your leave, even if you extended it to the maximum?”

“In the end, I got married within a fortnight—”

“All you did was show up at the chapel, then go and spend the night at the Valeztenas’ house.”

“......”

"Our marriage was of my making."

"...And that's how the date happened to fit so perfectly. In any case, you are already here... I don't see any particular issues."

Cárcel replied, quite unabashedly. Ines laughed and sipped her water.

"I was glad it went smoothly. I don't like things that are long and drawn out."

"My mother said you would make me resent you for the rest of my life. How could you make me get married like this when it's the only time in a woman's life?"

"If we had had enough time, I would have had to starve for 60 days in the name of Duchess Valeztena."

"...A person will die if they starve for 60 days."

He frowned as if he had heard something inaudible. Ines burst into bright laughter as if she had heard a joke.

"I actually think I could have lasted 100 days."

"......You?"

"I endured something similar a long time ago.”

Cárcel gazed at her comically, as if she had taken a handful of sand from a vast beach.

"You couldn't have lasted a fortnight, Ines."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just look at your body. How could that quivering body possibly...”

He clicked his tongue. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Ines frowned slightly. Although that also seemed ridiculous.

“You poor dear…I am in perfectly good health at the moment. It’s true that I haven’t eaten properly for about ten days so that I could get Mother’s dress in shape quickly enough for it to be tailored to fit me after all….”

“……You haven’t eaten for ten days?”

Cárcel asked, aghast, without waiting to hear the rest of Inés’s sentence.

“When an Ortega woman fasts, it doesn’t mean she goes without taking a sip of water.”

“Does that mean…”

“Every now and then she eats just enough to keep herself from dying.”

“That sounds even more dreadful.”

“You know, most of those nice slim figures you’ve seen on the women you’ve met must have been achieved by this dreadful method.”

“…Why has the conversation suddenly veered off in that direction?”

“You’ve seen more women’s bodies than I have, you know. That’s all I meant.”

Ignoring his disapproval, she shrugged carelessly.

"They encourage women to be thin, yet they don't let them do the only activity that will keep them that way. It's like telling them not to put food in their mouths."

"That's ridiculous."

He cut her off so abruptly that Inés had to laugh a little.

"That's not how I live at all."

"However you do it, it's your own business, but for what it's worth, I think you're perfect just the way you are.”

He said without thinking and with sincerity. But as soon as he did, he felt a flush of heat as if he'd revealed some deep-seated terror that she might somehow fall apart. If it was admiration he was expressing, it could only have been for her body as it had been the night before. His choice of words had been all wrong, he thought, wishing he could rewind time a little, when she laughed.

"That's good, because I have no intention of trying.”

He no longer needed to rewind time.

He felt a wave of relief, and at the same time, contempt. This was exactly the sort of thing he'd always despised. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] The sort of thing Major Elba had flaunted in front of him... Yet here was Inés, sitting before him with her tiny waist. Inés, who starved herself and lived as if tortured, all for the sake of her figure…

Inés was different, and that was why she was Inés. Whether she was ill-tempered, somewhat crazy, or egocentrically manipulative... An egocentric person was, by nature, someone who could not be manipulated. A woman who didn't care what other people thought, who lived as she pleased, who didn't do things she didn't want to do, and who turned a deaf ear to things she didn't want to hear.

"Of course, I would like you to gain back the weight you lost for 10 days. I think you'll look better if you gain a little."

"I'll see to that. Cárcel."

Yes, it was nice to say that your opinion doesn't matter at all. Good here doesn't mean it's good, but...… Cárcel tried to rationalize himself in a lame way.

It was fortunate that Inés had turned her gaze back toward the sea beyond the garden. His expression must have been quite revealing.

Inés' eyes, which had been fixed on the distant red glow that was now rapidly sinking beneath the misty sea, suddenly turned back toward him.

"It's fortunate that this place is different from what I thought."

"What did you think?"

"I thought it would be more like a port. Noisy and bustling, or filled with tiny fishing boats....”

He gazed at Inés, gauging her expression in the dim firelight.

"Well, this is a military zone where fishing is prohibited... A little further down the coast from here, there's a well-known port that people go to. The people of Mentosa mostly call it Calstera Port, but the locals actually call it El Tavío Port."

"El Tavío?”

"That's basically the main port. Foreign merchant ships come and go, and the large fishing boats head straight to El Tavío because of the wholesale market to the south of it. That way, the fish can be sold directly to the inland cities. And further down the coast, as you mentioned, there are several smaller ports where the local fishing boats go... This place is a bit further away. Most of them are small but beautiful, and they're probably just as noisy and smelly as El Tavío, if not more so. If you'd like to visit one of them next time... Oh, but maybe you meant that you don't like places like that?"

"No, I don't dislike them. It's just... I prefer the peace and quiet of this place.”

Inés shrugged and stood up, holding her glass. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Cárcel got up nimbly to help her, but she laughed a little mockingly and brushed his hands aside.

"This isn't alcohol."

"I know.”

He stubbornly held Inés under her arms. She muttered softly,

"If we'd slept just one more night, you'd be carrying me."

"If you'd like me to—"

"—No, you can't."

"I know.”

Cárcel replied without enthusiasm, as if he had expected her to say that.

Inés, still receiving his unnecessary escort, made her way to the corridor that connected the first-floor dining room to the cigar room.

Instead of asking her about her sudden change of destination, Cárcel waited silently as she stopped in front of a painting and stared at it for a while without saying anything.

"Cárcel. Is this El Tavío?"

"Here?"

Cárcel, who had been waiting for her and hadn't even bothered to look at the painting that was already half-swallowed by the darkness, finally turned his gaze to it.

It was a painting of a familiar-looking port.

"El Tavío is the main port of Calstera. This is one of the smaller ports I mentioned earlier..."

Cárcel searched his memory. He had visited it once or twice on missions. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] There must have been about thirty small fishing boats moored there, like ferries.

"...Seville?"

When he brought up the name from a vague memory, Inés silently memorized the name. Seville... Her voice was so soft that it somehow drew his gaze back to her from the painting.

"...So they call this place Seville.”

Inés' expression was still dry. But somehow, there was something elusive in it.

For example, completely opposite things such as excitement or disgust.

"Do you like this painting? Shall I hang it in your bookshelf?"

"Has the bookshelf become completely mine?"

"Yes, because I'm just an ignorant soldier.”

Inés laughed softly. Then she slowly shook her head.

"No. I hate this painting."

"….."

"Get rid of it where I can't see it. That's what I wanted to tell you.”