The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"…....You're weird."

"Me?"

"—People say you like me."

Cárcel said it and awkwardly added “They said so” as if he didn't understand himself while saying it. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] When there was no immediate response from Ines after his abrupt statement, he became a bit uneasy and, in a somewhat random manner, spoke again.

"But if you like someone... you wouldn't treat them like this, right?"

"What?"

"Treat them so coldly, well, not smiling, not being glad to see them, finding them annoying..."

As Cárcel kicked the floor with the tip of his shoe, he mumbled something. In response, she immediately spoke.

"Don't mumble. Speak clearly."

“…Look, it's like this…….”

"Once you start talking, finish it."

"…....Look at this."

He wore a completely disheartened expression. Who criticizes someone they supposedly like like that?

"It's strange. This is strange."

"Is it strange that I like you?"

"No, you're strange."

Cárcel answered firmly. Then, his face turned noticeably red, and hesitantly, he asked.

"Then… do you like me?”

Ines shrugged her shoulders with a nonchalant expression. Cárcel's expression twisted. What is that...

"Are you saying you like me or what?”

"If I disliked you, I wouldn't have said I'd marry you."

Her response was ambiguous, but in context, it seemed positive enough. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Thanks to that, he became somewhat satisfied, but then he questioned why he was satisfied in the first place. It was a fluctuating state of mind.

"People say, because you're still too young, you don't realize how amazing it is to be the prince's wife."

"Yes."

"So, they say you just chose me because my face is pretty."

Cárcel referred to himself without any hesitation. Ines, after silently resting her chin and staring at him, coolly admitted.

"Right. I chose you just for your face."

"..….."

"Are there people who dislike pretty things?"

"So, you really like my face?"

"Yeah. It's useful."

"…...?"

Useful? What kind of use? Am I some kind of object? Cárcel looked at her without being able to immediately spit out the question that came to mind.

Despite her significant answer, she seemed indifferent to him again. He looked at Ines, who was rummaging through the book with a frowning expression, and thought.

When you're young, a pretty face tends to grow into a handsome one.

Gender aside, his face formed a perfectly symmetrical beauty. Although the features were entirely beautiful, there were traces of both his grandfather's and father's masculine looks, making it a face that was so handsome that it might become exhausting in the future.

Well... If that's the case, the potential for that future would undoubtedly be a utility his fiancée could assess.

Even so, being a utility for a person.

"...Having a utility, is that a good thing?"

"Yeah, of course."

"So, you like me?"

"Let's say that's the case."

"And you like me, yet you act so arrogant? You don't even try to make a good impression?"

"What am I lacking that I have to look good to you?”

Is there nothing lacking...? Cárcel answered with a blank expression, blinking his eyes.

"No, I mean, because you like me. So if you want me to like you too, of course..."

"No, that's not it, Cárcel."

Ines shook her head and said,

"You don't need to like me."

"......"

"I don't need that, Cárcel."

".….?"

"Because love is like that. It doesn't seek a price."

The expression was far from love. But Cárcel was already listening seriously.

"So, your words mean, that you like me, but I don't need to like you back?"

"That's right."

"...And you… love me?"

Ines shrugged her shoulders again. It seemed like she wanted him to think for himself. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It was too embarrassing to say it directly... Even looking like that, she was a shy girl.

In the mirror in the distance, half of Cárcel and Ines's faces were reflected. Cárcel looked at only half of his own face and thought. Indeed, it was a face that anyone could love.

"….Still, I don't get it. You say you like me, but there's no sign of it."

"If you're a dignified noble of Grandeza de Ortega, you wouldn't openly express such trivial emotions. Keep that in mind."

"So, did you intentionally hide the fact that you like me?"

"That's right."

"So it wasn’t that you chose me even though you don't like me?"

"That's right… Why would I do that?"

She momentarily looked embarrassed, even though she eagerly agreed. While giving the response, her expression suggested that, although she answered like that, she didn't seem to realize how she had completely ignored Cárcel and didn't consider such an easy thing at all.

But young Cárcel still didn't know. He was busy hiding his blushing face.

Why is this so embarrassing?

In the span of six years, whether short or long, Cárcel had been tormented by confessions from over a hundred young admirers, excessive attention, and overt displays of affection since his earliest memory that he could recall.

There was nothing special anymore about a girl confessing that she liked him. It was too much, far too many. Now, even feeling embarrassed had become tiresome. However, why on earth was Inés Valeztena, who was neither particularly pretty nor affectionate, and didn't engage in cute antics, the one liking him?

Why on earth would a girl like her have feelings for him?

"Cárcel Escalante. Remember."

"...What?"

"That I really like you a lot."

She repeated to him as if trying to brainwash him, "I like you a lot. Okay? Remember." He nodded with a familiar expression, looking at Inés as if enchanted.

If he was going to be brainwashed, wouldn't it be better to be brainwashed into liking her? Such a thought crossed his mind, but according to Cárcel's judgment, Inés wasn't that clever. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Despite acting mature or sometimes behaving like a mischievous adult, she was still a child, after all.

Cárcel felt there was no need to teach her such tricks. Let her genuinely like him for a while. How difficult must it have been for her to keep up the act all this time? To like him so much yet require extraordinary patience to deal with him – that much was clear.

If treating Cárcel with disdain was a way of expressing a certain embarrassment, there was no need to go to the extent of crushing his spirit. With just a single phrase of liking him, Inés lost the special meaning she once held among the countless girls who had passed by him, becoming ordinary.

In a gentle world where all girls were kind to Cárcel, Inés, who hadn't even considered the topic of choosing him first, became peculiar. But now, that's all in the past. Of course, he would get married, but he would no longer be swayed by that voice. Never again.…..

"Cárcel? Can you bring a cushion from that table over there?"

Cárcel reflexively started to get up but hesitated.

"What about the maid?"

"She just left."

"When the maid comes..."

"The maid is not here right now."

So, it was a natural tone, implying that he should do it instead.

"You're my fiancé"

He didn't know how to handle his face, which would unexpectedly become flushed. If he had paid attention, he would have understood. Inés was now treating the maid and the fiancé on the same level.

However, Cárcel quickly got up again, busy hiding his blushing face, and did what she asked. When he brought the cushion, she asked for something else, and when he finished that, she frighteningly gave him another task. Somehow, sitting still and not making a fuss while he was doing various things for her made her seem cute, as if she relied on him in some way.….

***

‘...Cute? Who?’

It was once again the 23-year-old Cárcel Escalante. He sat awkwardly in the fiancee's bedroom, glancing suspiciously around the ownerless room.

Relying on someone? As if anyone could rely on anyone.

The vividness of the distant memories was thanks to the scene in Inés's bedroom. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] When was the last time he had been in this room……? Ah, yes. It was when he graduated from the academy at the age of twenty, about to be commissioned in the naval fleet of Castellera.

And on that day, just like today, he had the same thought: Could time be standing still only in this room?

Inés's room truly seemed frozen in time. Six years old, ten, fourteen, seventeen, twenty, and twenty-three…... Over a very long period, the landscape of Inés remained as unchanged as her expressions.

Isn't it strange? The six-year-old daughter of a duke and the mature twenty-three-year-old duchess about to get married. Finding a common denominator in their tastes would be challenging, yet there was perfect consistency in the small furnishings and the color of the curtains. It wasn't that the twenty-three-year-old Inés had childish preferences.

‘Already matured at the age of six... No, that can't be.’

Still, she was the woman he would marry. Let's call it an adult's preference.

‘...It's been strange since then.’

It was strange from the first meeting, strange when she deliberately chose him, and even strange when she expressed her liking for him.

Looking back now, there wasn't a single unblemished corner in their relationship from start to finish. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Cárcel continued to survey the room with a suspicious gaze. No matter how much he examined every nook and cranny, nothing seemed to have changed at all.

If the room, like its owner, was so uninteresting, it wouldn't be surprising. However, he was currently searching for something.

Perhaps a clue to a change of heart.