I Don’t Want To Be The Hero’s Wife – Chapter 008

That goes for marriage, too.

The man delivered one last knife to the heart before leaving.

“If I were you, I’d be begging for cum instead of wasting time on stupid things like love.”

Clack.

As soon as Anark was gone, Rona’s tears burst forth as if they’d been waiting. She must have foolishly held onto hope because of how obsessively he clung to her.

That maybe… just maybe… he had come to love her after all…

That stupid hope had come back like a blade to strike her down. Thinking back, nothing like that had ever come true. It was all an illusion.

It felt like she had never grown past the child who read fairy tales and dreamed of fantasies.

“But… how could I not misunderstand…”

At first, seeing her husband so stirred…. so worked up… she wondered. Could it be… he actually desired her? That he truly wanted her?

But recalling their entire marriage made it crystal clear: there was no way that could be true.

And with good reason…

One day, when she was shaken by rumors that her husband had another woman, she climbed onto his naked sleeping body.

‘You must really have a death wish. I warned you what would happen if you pulled something like this again… you…?’

She had been slapped without warning.

Her ears rang like her eardrums had burst. She couldn’t hear a thing. It was a pain unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Only after a few moments did she realize that tears were falling from her eyes, stinging her face where it throbbed from the blow.

After that, she must have lost consciousness. She had no idea what happened next.

But when she woke…

As always, her husband was gone.

After becoming an adult, Rona had tried to seduce Anark several times.

She wanted his love, his attention, his warmth. Even the shame of their wedding night couldn’t overcome her desperate yearning for him.

But after that incident, Rona had been so shaken she practically gave up on fulfilling any marital duties.

Anark had rejected her with such revulsion that even when things happened that no longer seemed part of the so-called “treatment,” she couldn’t believe he truly desired her.

And so, without realizing it, she must have started to hope for love.

If a man who had never shown interest in her body suddenly changed the moment her illness became known, didn’t that only make sense if love was involved?

She so desperately wanted to believe that love was the root of it all.
That was why, even though she had demanded a divorce hoping he would stop her and whisper sweet words of affection, she ended up quietly tethered to him again.

But now, she had to let go of those lingering hopes and accept the truth.

Her husband didn’t want her heart… only her body.

“Just like today…”

She recalled how, that morning, he had left fully dressed in uniform as always. He had never once undressed in front of her.

No matter how soiled his clothes became, he always finished without ever taking them off.
Realizing that made her truly grasp the situation she was in.

“Love… what a joke.”

A possession that was convenient to toy with. That’s all she was.

Something he hadn’t even noticed at first, but once he’d touched it and found it pleasing, he decided to keep it after all, treating it as if it had value.

“Stupid… I still hoped…”

To him, her illness had never mattered from the start.

The Kama sickness was nothing but an excuse… a trick to heighten carnal pleasure.

He refused to divorce her not because he loved her, but because he didn’t want to lose control over something he owned.

There was never any love. From the very beginning.

“Ah… Aaah…”

She thought that after suffering so long from unrequited love, it wouldn’t hurt anymore. But a cry escaped her lips before she could stop it… perhaps the final cry, one that sensed the end.

When Rona opened her eyes again, after pouring out all her tears, the sorrowful feelings of a woman who once hoped for love were gone too.

 

1. The happiness I thought I would have

The earliest memory Rona had was of a small boy holding her in his arms.
The boy always wore a blank expression.

He was a child with a face as lifeless as a corpse, yet his eyes were different. His grey pupils were filled with killing intent, like he could kill someone at any moment.

And yet, no one noticed the hostility in his gaze. His shaggy hair obscured most of his face, and like a hunter waiting for the right moment, he always behaved properly in front of adults.

So everyone called him a diligent servant, an ideal attendant, a trustworthy child.

Only Rona knew there was something off about the young servant.

She had been in his arms since she was a baby. When she looked up, she saw his eyes… there was no way she couldn’t know.

His sky-hued grey eyes always glimmered with icy rage. She never knew what that hatred was aimed at, but she wasn’t afraid.

She believed that rage, that hatred, would never be directed at her.
Though the boy’s gaze wasn’t warm when he looked at her, it wasn’t as sharp as when he looked at others. And when he held her, it was always as if he were holding up the entire world… solid, steady, unwavering.

That’s why Rona never feared the boy with the eyes of a killer and followed him closely. She believed… without question… that he would always protect her.

That vague belief remained even after her parents died.

Despite losing her parents, the child did not cry.

The weather that day was uncertain, like it might rain. Heavy clouds loomed, but no rain fell… gloomy and oppressive. The funeral proceeded in that dull air.

“Tsk. Who could’ve guessed they’d go out like that?”

People attending the funeral murmured as they looked disapprovingly at the child playing alone outside.

“Really. Guess it’s true that death comes without warning. Who would’ve thought that couple would die like this? Do you know exactly what happened?”

“I heard from an officer… it was poison spit from a creature.”

“Poison spit? You mean they were hit with it?”

“No, apparently it happened during a hunt a long time ago. Just before the creature died, it sprayed venom on one of their legs. Over time, the leg deteriorated. And just when it gave out, their carriage happened to be crossing the bridge. It collapsed, and that was that…”

A hush fell. Just imagining it darkened everyone’s faces.

“And they left it like that all this time?”

“It happened back when creatures had just started appearing. You remember, back then, even the army was useless. They were too focused on fighting the things to worry about cleanup.”

After the Kingdom of Valencia won the war and became the Rostia Empire, strange monsters began to appear.

People soon came to call them “creatures.”

When the first creature emerged, no one was prepared. Many died.

But once the empire regained some stability, the imperial family organized a dedicated unit to deal with them. Slowly, things began to improve.

That was only a year ago.

They had just started to escape the monsters, and now, this second wave of tragedy.

A man, cigarette between his lips, exhaled smoke like he was spitting out bitterness.

“So what’ll happen to the kid?”

“She’ll probably end up in an orphanage. I heard no close relatives came to the funeral. And the ones who did… well, they were distant at best.”

There was a hint of pity in the way they looked at the child.

“Well, maybe the imperial family will pay out some kind of compensation? I mean, this was clearly a case of poor cleanup after the attack.”

“Yeah, right.”

The man drew a long drag, his cheeks hollowing, and blew out a thick puff before continuing.

“No matter how nice the policy sounds up top, once the money trickles down, it’s already gone. And that kid’s just a child… there’s no way she’ll get what she’s owed.”

“Even if they give anything, it’ll all end up…”

Their eyes drifted from the girl to a young man dressed in black. He stood among the mourners, speaking with them as if he were the one hosting the event.

The way he naturally welcomed guests made them silently predict the girl’s future. Their expressions hardened.

“That poor kid…”

* * *

Amid the adults throwing around cheap sympathy for appearances’ sake, a young girl approached the child who was playing alone.

“Hi. What’s your name?”

She had come to the funeral with her parents, but there were no other children around, so she had grown bored.

Wandering here and there, she spotted a child bundled up like a snowman.

Was she the daughter of the couple being buried today?
She looked so lonely by herself that Ophelia spoke to her before she even realized it.

The child, who had been building a castle out of damp sand, looked up at the voice from above.

“Rona.”