177 - The Evil Husband (15th Anniversary Edition) Chapter 177
Aileen looked at Cesare with familiar and unfamiliar eyes. He had experienced countless Aileens over an immeasurably long time, but the Aileen before him was a completely different being.
The Aileen of reality was very different from the one in his dreams. Her face was hardened, with fear overshadowing any bright smile. She was happy about Cesare's return, but she couldn't run into his arms and hug him, only awkwardly congratulating him on his victory.
It would be a lie to say he didn't feel bitter at her cautious demeanor. Cesare knew the Aileen who would smile and hug him without hesitation.
But this was the Aileen of reality. The one he wanted to protect even if it meant sacrificing everything.
He couldn't help but scoff at himself for seeking the dreamlike figure in the real Aileen. Cesare twisted his lips into a smile and approached Aileen.
He lured Aileen with cunning words, as if driving a small animal into a trap. The innocent child reacted exactly as he expected, flinching at each of his words.
Aileen looked at Cesare, trembling like prey before a predator. As if he were about to pull out a gun and summarily execute the drug offender before him.
How could I ever kill you, Aileen?
He muttered the contradictory words to himself. Cesare did not back down, even as he saw Aileen's fear.
What he was about to do was a forceful act towards Aileen. Aileen would surely suffer. She would cry a lot too.
But what Cesare wanted was not Aileen's happiness.
He reached out, picturing the child crying and resenting him in his mind. He swept back the frustrating bangs that covered half of her face and took off her glasses.
Her beautiful golden-green eyes were revealed, shining mysteriously with a light-filled color that was more than just mystical; they were the eyes of a fairy. Cesare smiled as he looked into the color he loved.
"I happen to need a Grand Duchess,"
He slowly lowered his head. He narrowed the distance, watching her eyes widen with tension.
"Will you marry me?"
The proposal, without flowers or a ring, reeked of blood instead of floral scents. Aileen must have felt the undisguised traces. Aileen resisted, flailing her front paws with all her might like a small animal cornered.
"I... I don't want to marry Your Excellency."
She trembled, but stubbornly spat out what she had to say.
"Your Excellency doesn't like me, and just sees me as a child."
"That's right, you are my child."
There was a time when she was his wife, but it was only in a dream. A mere illusion that meant nothing to the current Aileen.
Cesare stared at Aileen, alive and moving before his eyes. He listened to her voice, murmuring with her plump lips.
"You need an heir, and you'd have to do th-that kind of thing to me. But you can't..."
Aileen firmly believed that Archduke Erzeht only saw her as young and immature.
He couldn't take it anymore. Unable to suppress the impulse he had been feeling since earlier, Cesare snatched Aileen.
The moment their lips met, a thrilling sensation pierced through his body. The warmth that proved he was alive, the sensation of soft flesh, plunged him into an agonizingly intense pleasure.
He wanted to dig all the way to the deepest part right now. He had dug countless times, but in reality, he had never entered her body even once, and he wanted to put himself inside her and confirm that Aileen was alive.
This was far from enough. But Cesare endured with only a deep kiss.
"How is it?"
He only asked Aileen in a languid voice, without hiding the desire revealed in his eyes.
"Did you confirm it?"
Aileen stared at him with dazed eyes. She was so surprised that she couldn't react and just froze. She had never experienced sexual contact, so she must have been very shocked. But instead of comforting the shocked Aileen, Cesare only lightly stroked her flushed cheeks.
Suddenly, poppies caught his eye. Cesare looked at the red petals swaying in the wind, then looked back at Aileen in his arms.
This was just the beginning. To create a world solely for Aileen.
He already knew how Aileen would react when she learned the truth. Aileen couldn't even cry. She just stared blankly at him.
Of course, he had never even imagined that she would be moved by his confession of love and cry, or that she would answer that she loved him too. But even though he had expected it, he was not pleased to see Aileen broken.
Empty golden-green eyes stared at Cesare. Soon, the lights in the dim Tavern turned on, and a new performance began. Smooth music enveloped the surroundings.
Was it because he had been dwelling in the past for a while? The music coming from right below him felt quite distant. Perhaps it was because he was focusing all his attention on the being in front of him.
"C-Cesare..."
Aileen moved her lips. She seemed to want to say something, but her voice wouldn't come out properly. After a difficult attempt, she whispered in a dry, parched voice.
"Why... why do you love me...?"
That was a question that even Cesare couldn't answer. Even when he sacrificed countless lives as a Burnt offering, even when he killed himself and Aileen in his dreams, he did not fully realize his emotions.
If it hadn't been for the confession that the Aileen in his dream had made to him at the last moment, he might never have known.
"I love you."
It was only after hearing those words that Cesare realized that everything he had felt and done so far was all love.
However, his love was different from the emotions that were commonly heard, seen, and learned in the world.
God had forced him to reveal the truth sooner than he had expected, but it was a moment that would have come eventually.
If he had really wanted to hide death from Aileen, he might have found a way to do so.
But Cesare didn't. Instead of completely concealing it, he gradually leaked pieces of the truth and handed over the Pocket watch.
It wasn't just because Aileen was smart and would dig into the secret of his death until the end, and would eventually find out the truth.
Cesare wanted to leave a terrible scar on Aileen, a scar that would never be erased.
So that he would never disappear from Aileen's mind, so that she would never give her heart to any other being in the world. He wanted to take all of Aileen's heart with him when he died.
Cesare answered with the only reason for love he knew.
"Because you appeared before me."
Cesare was the one chosen in the Lily flower garden that day.
Aileen couldn't speak, then staggered for a moment. She had been inhaling smoke in the passage for a long time, and she had also experienced emotionally intense events, so she eventually collapsed.
Cesare caught her falling body. Aileen pushed Cesare away with her weak hand.
"No..."
She moved her lips, breathing slowly in and out as if she was dizzy.
"I have to die... Cesare, please..."
Cesare ignored Aileen's refusal and kissed her. He caressed her flesh, which was not yet cold or stiff, to confirm her life.
Aileen shook her head. Even though she was dizzy from the smoke, she shook her head wildly and pushed Cesare away.
"I don't want to... If I die now..."
"It's too late to turn back."
Her eyes, looking up desperately, were broken. Cesare, looking into the shattered golden-green fragments, kissed Aileen's neck. He gently licked the neck that he had taken life from so many times. As if licking her wounds belatedly.
Aileen's body twitched slightly. Then, a moist sensation lingered on Cesare's lips. She had finally cried. He didn't know how to comfort Aileen this time. He might never be able to comfort her.
But it was irreversible. Instead of gently coaxing her, Cesare kissed Aileen deeply again and commanded.
"Live, Aileen."
That was the only wish he had.
