#10. The Last Kindness
2023.12.10.
It wasn’t just that. Ophelia continued speaking.
“There’s no need to marry anyone.”
The reason was simple.
“If I can’t get a bride price by selling myself in the first place, Reden will fall.”
For the first time in her life, after gaining someone she could control as she pleased, the very first thing she did was to investigate her brother.
That was when Ophelia learned that Reden’s economy had already been precarious at this point.
If they didn’t receive significant help from somewhere, they wouldn’t even last a year.
In the past, Mahanas and Dares had solved this crisis by receiving a dowry from the northern duke to whom they had taken her as a bride.
But in this life, was there really any need to repeat that?
Of course, strangling her brother’s neck once again would be a pleasure. Ophelia already knew what despair as an enemy tasted like.
But knowing that taste, she was tired.
She no longer had the will to fuel herself for any goal.
This life, Ophelia decided, she would choose a completely different path. She would choose an ending where she neither married anyone nor could marry anyone.
To the man who blankly stared at her, Ophelia stated the one and only help she needed.
“If you really want to help me, go and say you want to annul this marriage and get the bride price back.”
Idren seemed to understand her words well. He did not start quibbling as he had a moment before.
Though he looked down on her with dazed eyes.
Ophelia waited briefly for him to accept the situation. She also knew that Idren wanted to marry her. It was obvious since the marriage was clearly disadvantageous for him.
She didn’t know his motivation.
But was that the only motivation in the world that she could not understand? Ophelia wasn’t good at understanding people’s hearts.
What she did know was one thing—the true nature of what dwells in the human heart.
Everyone lived with desire in their hearts. Though the subjects of those desires differed, they lived by coveting something.
Ophelia did not think that was bad. She had also lived following her desires faithfully. Striving to achieve personal wishes was almost an instinct for humans.
So surely, the man sitting before her must have desires as well.
He married her to achieve those, and wanted to marry her again for the same reason.
But Ophelia could not cooperate with Idren to fulfill what he wished for. It wasn’t that she held ill will toward him, but she simply had no will left to help anyone.
Idren, still blinking like a shocked person, finally spoke.
“May I ask just one question?”
Today, having decided to be kind, Ophelia nodded.
“Go ahead.”
The man looked intently at her. In his yellow flower-like eyes, she was reflected.
He asked,
“Why did you kill yourself?”
Ophelia did not answer that.
Her reason for taking her own life wasn’t complicated. She had completed all her tasks, was deeply exhausted, and simply wanted to rest forever.
But explaining that would require speaking about her tasks, and that would mean mentioning the oath of the Golden Moksa—something she would never be able to obtain. So, Ophelia kept silent. Some things get damaged just by being spoken aloud.
And kindness is only given as much as the giver can bear.
Idren stared silently at her but didn’t ask again. It was a wise choice because no matter how many times he asked, she wouldn’t answer.
After blinking slowly for a moment, he stood up.
“I’ll come again tomorrow. The marriage issue… is better discussed then.”
“There’s no need.”
This was a matter with an already decided answer. No matter what he wanted or chose, the result would be the same.
But the man seemed not to know what was good for himself. He muttered with a blank face.
“Still, I want to talk one more time.”
Ophelia watched the man who spoke words that surely damaged his pride as if lost somewhere. Now he held the doorknob. His broad back, half turned, looked forlorn unlike when he entered.
It was then that Idren turned his body.
When their starlike eyes met, Ophelia felt a strange guilt.
Maybe it was because the sunlight was too strong on the balcony where the wooden planks were torn.
Ophelia knew who had let the sunlight into her room again. Though it was not important enough to mention, it did not make the other’s action disappear.
Finally, she asked impulsively,
“Why do you go so far for me?”
Instead of answering, Idren shifted his gaze slightly. Ophelia realized he was looking at the yellow flower on the dressing table.
Swallowing something, Idren said,
“I’ll tell you that tomorrow as well.”
Always talking about a tomorrow that won’t come.
Ophelia thought so in her heart but kept silent until he left the room.
It was the last kindness.
Today, Fenrel was not waiting at the door. The knight was likely doing the tasks Idren had ordered by now.
Thinking it was fortunate to be able to go back alone, Idren quickly left the corridor. The attendants managing the palace corridors glanced nervously at him.
Only when he reached a place with no one did he stop and wipe his flushed face. But no matter how many times he washed his dry face, the heat did not fade.
After covering his face with his hand for a moment, Idren recalled what Ophelia had said.
“But to ruin Reden, you don’t have to marry me.”
She said it with a very gentle expression. An expression she had never shown during the whole marriage.
It was a face he had wished to see so much that he sometimes dreamed of it at night, but Idren could not be thrilled.
Because what Ophelia wanted from him was so clear.
“If you really want to help me, go and say you want to annul this marriage and get the bride price back.”
There was no malice in that statement. Ophelia genuinely wanted his cooperation, so it was natural.
Idren thought it might be better if she had said that with a spiteful heart to hurt him. Then he could just pretend not to know and once again offer himself to her.
But no.
Ophelia really didn’t need him.
The shame of boldly saying he needed this marriage in front of such a woman, and the sorrow of being meaningless to her, welled up inside him.
Idren wiped his heated face again.
Just moments ago, when he realized he wasn’t an attractive offer to Ophelia, it felt like the ground was slipping from beneath his feet.
He had to try not to show that despair before her. If she found out what he was feeling, it would be utterly humiliating.
Ophelia seemed not to understand him.
“Why do you go so far for me?”
It was not to make him miserable.
She was genuinely curious. Idren understood her question. From her position, it was natural to wonder why he clung to such a fruitless cause.
Idren slowly removed his hands from his face. Taking a deep breath, he moved forward again.
He did act foolishly in front of her, but that didn’t mean he was incapable of reason.
So he had a valid reason.
Though Ophelia did not seem to know it.
Idren bit his trembling lips. He put strength in his eyes and lifted his head stiffly.
Ophelia didn’t seem to even remember, but they had met long ago.
At that time, Idren was not the duke.
He wasn’t even a prince. As a child, he was an illegitimate son born outside the walls to the Duke of Aglante. His maternal lineage was unknown, even the duke who slept with her barely remembered her face.
He was taken into the castle purely because of his eyes. His yellow eyes were clearly the bloodline of Yggdrasil.
But aside from that, there was nothing about him that resembled his biological father.
Unlike his black hair, the duke had the typical bright blonde of Yggdrasil. Brinwell Isde, the duchess, also had reddish blonde hair.
Their children perfectly resembled their parents.
The previous duke and duchess were an ideal couple. They began as a political union and became a harmonious partnership, passing through the most peaceful phase. They had three plausible sons.
Perhaps their family might have lived perfectly until death.
If only some child hadn’t been abandoned in front of Yggdrasil Castle one day.
His earliest memory, hardly different from his first, was faint no matter how many times he recalled it.
