Ansga asked, feigning ignorance.
“Has it been long since you went outside?”
“……Yes, a little.”
“It’s real winter outside now. You should go out for a walk and get some fresh air once in a while. You’ll feel better.”
“I like walking too. Do you remember? After meals, I used to spin around in the garden like a carousel.”
“Ah, right. No wonder my legs always hurt after meeting you.”
“That’s because you don’t exercise enough.”
“That’s not something I should be hearing from you as you are now.”
Aneteu covered her mouth with her hand and laughed. Anseuga snickered along with her. Soon, the sound of her laughter slowly subsided.
Lowering the hand that had covered her mouth, Aneteu spoke with the remnants of a smile still on her face.
“Ansga, I’m sorry.”
At her apology, Anseuga’s body stiffened slightly. Before long, he replied with a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
“What do you have to be sorry to me for?”
“…….”
“Even so…… you could have at least told me you were having a hard time.”
Aneteu quietly lowered her eyes. The truth was, ever since she had met Anseuga again—she had never once trusted him as a friend.
From the very beginning, she had believed his reason for seeking her out was merely to lend strength to the royal restoration faction—nothing more, nothing less. That thought had not changed even now.
“I’m sorry…….”
So these were not words spoken to him as a friend.
“I’m truly sorry.”
It was simply because she could not give him what he wanted.
The reason Anseuga was trying to take her to Peuranche was clear. To continue the royal bloodline. Or to increase their numbers.
Aneteu did not know exactly how many of the exiled royals were still alive. But at least among the women, she would be the closest to the bloodline, or equivalent to it.
“Aneteu. If you’re truly sorry…….”
Ansga reached out and took Aneteu’s hand. He had been outside, while she had stayed indoors the entire time, yet his hand was warmer.
“Come with me to Peuranche.”
“…….”
“I won’t ask why you didn’t tell me, or why you made such a choice. I won’t blame you for anything. Stop thinking such dark thoughts and…… come with me to Peuranche. Why did you make that choice when there was a better option?”
His voice was incomparably tender. Aneteu quietly let her hand be held and gazed into Anseuga’s eyes. Light brown irises, tinged with gold, held her completely.
Even if Anseuga’s proposal was not born of pure goodwill, Peuranche might be better than this place, just as he said. Even if she would not be welcomed there.
Truthfully, anywhere would be better than Padania. To Aneteu, Padania was hell.
“Ansga, I…….”
Aneteu slowly began to speak. Anseuga waited for her words with patience. She spoke slowly, but without hesitation.
“I can’t go with you.”
Ansga’s eyes widened. Aneteu drove the nail in again.
“I can’t go with you, Anseuga.”
“……May I ask why?”
“I know why you’re trying to take me to Peuranche. It’s because I carry royal blood, isn’t it?”
Ansga’s pupils wavered for an instant. Aneteu smiled faintly.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“Aneteu, I don’t know what you mean, but I truly am doing this for your sake…….”
“I know.”
Aneteu gently cut him off and pulled her hand free.
“I know, Anseuga. Even if you had another motive, it wouldn’t matter. Whatever it is, it would be better than here.”
“Yes. I swear I will devote myself to helping you, Aneteu. I’ll help you live a happier life.”
“I’m infertile.”
In a tone as flat and ordinary as if she were sharing some daily news, Aneteu spoke calmly. Anseuga’s face hardened at once.
“I cannot continue the royal bloodline.”
“……What…….”
“If you wish, I can bring in my doctor to confirm it. I am infertile, and my reputation is in ruins, so I hold little value as a symbol of the royal family. I’m grateful you came all this way, but…….”
“W-wait. Just a moment, Aneteu.”
Ansga waved his hand with a deeply flustered expression. Aneteu closed her mouth and stared up at him blankly.
“I heard what you said. So you, no, I mean…….”
Ansga stammered. He scratched the back of his head as if troubled, gazed at Aneteu for a moment, then let out a short sigh.
Out of consideration for him, knowing it would be difficult to retract the offer he had made himself, Aneteu added,
“I won’t mind if you don’t take me to Peuranche. I had no intention of joining the royal restoration faction anyway.”
“……Sigh. Aneteu, since it’s come to this, I’ll be honest.”
Ansga straightened his posture and leaned his face close to hers. Aneteu nodded expressionlessly. Whatever he was about to say truly did not matter to her.
“First, your assumptions aren’t wrong. It’s true that the royal restoration faction needed you, and it’s true that my superiors sent me to Padania. The matter of continuing the royal bloodline…… I really didn’t want to say it myself, but yes, that’s right.”
Ansga explained carefully, looking deeply apologetic. But since she had already expected all of this, she felt nothing at all. She didn’t particularly resent him.
“But that’s not the only reason I came to find you. So even if you’re infertile…… I won’t take back my offer to take you to Peuranche.”
“……Why?”
She could not understand. She was useless to him now. Aneteu shook her head.
“There’s no reason to take me.”
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
Ansga frowned as if slightly angry, opening and closing his mouth. Eventually, he spat out words like a sigh.
“Did you not know that I liked you?”
She had known. There was no way she could not have known. In the past, Anseuga had courted Aneteu for quite a long time. Even after she began dating Haineo, his courtship had continued for a while.
Aneteu did not react much to his confession. She merely questioned him flatly, and with a hint of puzzlement.
“But Anseuga. …You didn’t love ‘me’ entirely, did you?”
He had loved Aneteu herself, but at the same time, he had equally loved the things that composed her.
Status, power, wealth, glory, fame, dignity, standing…… the things the past Aneteu had possessed.
And now, things that had vanished without a trace.
“Now, I have nothing left to give you.”
“No, Aneteu. Even without those things…… I still want you.”
‘He wants me.’
For some reason, those words sounded strange. Aneteu lowered her eyes and fell silent for a moment, then asked a few beats too late.
“Do you want to marry me?”
“That is.”
A brief pause followed his trailing words. Anseuga resumed speaking with his characteristically kind smile.
“Of course. But your divorce is still pending, and I haven’t been divorced long myself, so let’s think it over slowly.”
“……Is that so?”
Aneteu nodded as if she understood, yet her face was subtly cold.
“It would be difficult to decide right away, after all. I understand your intentions, Anseuga. Thank you for thinking of me until the end.”
“So, what is your answer? I’d like to hear your answer before I go.”
Ansga spoke again, as if anxious.
“Come with me. To Peuranche.”
Aneteu quietly gazed at him. Those pale irises were still the ones from his youth.
Ansga had a gift for putting others at ease. With him, she could laugh and chatter and enjoy herself without a care in the world.
That was why Aneteu had truly liked Anseuga as a friend. It was a bygone time to which she could never return.
She slowly opened her mouth.
“I…….”
***
“I would appreciate it if you stopped filing visitation requests from now on.”
A low voice stopped Anseuga in his tracks as he was leaving the residence. At the corner of the first-floor hallway, Haineo stood with his arms crossed, watching him coldly.
“In any case, they’ll all be refused from now on, so I’m telling you not to waste your energy.”
Ansga let out a scoff.
“By what right do you refuse Aneteu’s visitations?”
“By the right of being her husband.”
“Can a husband who drove his wife to suicide still be called a husband?”
“Aneteu is currently in a mentally unstable state. The doctor said we should minimize external stimuli as much as possible, so this is also a measure for the patient’s sake.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’ll help Aneteu with her divorce lawsuit. Let’s see if you can still spout such nonsense after the divorce.”
“Who knows.”
Haineo tilted his head, a frigid smile upon his lips.
“If you can win.”
“Aneteu will divorce your son and leave for Peuranche.”
“……Has she agreed?”
“Is that even a question? Isn’t it a path a hundred times better than rotting away in this place?”
Ansga sneered, quite unlike himself. Haineo, who had been leaning halfway against the wall, straightened his upper body.
“If you’re planning to use that woman for the royal restoration faction, give it up.”
Even though he knew Anseuga might reveal it to outsiders, Haineo spoke acidly.
“Because she cannot bear children.”
“I know.”
“……What?”
“I said I know, you bastard. What, did you think I’d hear that and go, ‘Ah, I see,’ then return to Peuranche alone?”
Though it was a fact he had only just learned himself, Anseuga acted as if he had known all along. A frigid light swirled in Haineo’s gray eyes.