Chapter 221 "I never dreamed it would be..."
They talked all day, from morning till night. The corridor lights were on, their dim yellow light flickering and scattering across the floor. I sat on the floor, in front of the room in the corridor. When I got bored waiting, I would count the circles of light on the floor, one, two, three… Why weren't they finished talking yet? Did Derson have so much energy to talk to Artis? How come I never noticed before that Artis had so much to say?
The maids kept bringing me dinner, snacks, juice, and hot water, but I didn't have much of an appetite and ate very little. The maids then brought me a soft, thick mat and cushions to make me more comfortable.
Just as I placed the cushion behind me, Daio appeared. He wore only a thin red robe, his face was pale and ashen, and the halo around his eyes gave off a chillingly fierce aura.
"Are you really considering marrying Artis?" he said. "And you've been waiting at the door for the result?"
"I don't have anything else to do anyway, so I'll just wait here," I replied lazily.
"Do you look down on me?" he asked angrily in a low voice.
I was taken aback for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Do you, like everyone else, think I'm useless, oppressed, afraid to oppose my uncle, cowardly, and lack the courage to be a true king?"
I stared at him in horror. "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?!"
I didn't want him to continue, lest someone with ulterior motives overhear, and he'd never have a peaceful life again. I quickly stood up, pretending not to understand what he was saying, and turned to leave.
He suddenly grabbed my arm, preventing me from leaving.
"Tell me, is it because I'm not strong enough that you're unwilling to choose me?"
I was on the verge of tears. What kind of logic is this? If you really want to discuss this with me, don't do it in front of my room. If your uncle hears you, you'll be dead.
"I'm asking you, is that right?" he pressed.
I replied weakly, "I don't understand what you're saying."
His eyes blazed with fury. "How could you not understand? I just want to ask you, why don't you want to marry me?"
"What's so great about me? What benefits would you get from marrying me? I have nothing, no money, no power, and I'm not even young or pretty enough. Why would you want to marry me? Any woman you find would be better than me."
His anger intensified, and he was about to speak when the door suddenly creaked open, and Artis appeared before us, looking slightly weary. "Lanna, Prince Desen wants to speak with you."
After saying that, he turned and left, as if he hadn't seen Daio at all.
I froze for a moment, then quickly went into the room. The instant I closed the door, I saw Daio's still indignant face.
“Lana, I have already accepted Artis’s marriage proposal for you.” Derson said weakly to me from his sickbed. “There are five conditions: First, he must marry you as his legal wife; second, he must give you half of his annual personal income; third, one-third of his assets must be transferred to your name; fourth, he cannot have a mistress without your consent; fifth, the children you bear will have first inheritance rights.”
Tears streamed down my face. "And what about you? What will you get in return?"
He painstakingly planned and negotiated with others despite his illness, all for my sake.
“I’m almost dead, what more could I want? No matter what I do, I won’t get the throne of the East. I’m not scheming for you. Even without me, if you made these demands, Attis would have agreed. It’s just that it will be easier if I’m the one negotiating. I’m just repaying a debt of gratitude to you. Without you, I would have died long ago. Two days before Attis’s men came to rescue me, I was on the verge of death, not much different from a dead man. Being rescued here, I can live for a few more months.”
"Don't say that, you have a long life ahead of you." My voice choked with emotion.
He smiled weakly. "It's strange, I'm not a very grateful person, but for the first time, I don't want to let you down. You're not good enough, really not good enough, not good enough in any way to be my wife, but I'm still willing to marry you, for your title of 'Kingmaker'. After marrying you, I was surprised to find that your appearance and your heart are consistent: pure, natural, frank, and magnanimous. I have never met anyone like you, at least not in the Eastern Kingdom's palace."
"You've praised me too much." I laughed through my tears.
His smile grew weaker. "You treated me with frankness and integrity, so I reciprocated with the same frankness and integrity, at least to repay your life-saving grace."
"Thank you for everything you've done for me." I cried again.
“It was just a small favor,” he said with a forced smile. “I only said a few words and I’ve already paid off your debt. Besides, most of the time I didn’t speak because I was waiting for Artis’s reply. And Artis was mostly silent too, thinking about whether to grant my request.”
"Stop talking, take a rest," I said quickly, seeing his face growing paler, and handed him a glass of warm water from the table. "Drink some water first."
He took a small sip, closed his eyes, leaned against the pillow, and said nothing more.
After that day, his health deteriorated. I took care of him every day, feeding him medicine, wiping his sweat, telling him jokes, and sometimes giving him massages to relieve the back pain he felt while lying in bed.
At first, he could still talk to me and respond to my jokes, but later he talked less and less, and stopped responding to my jokes altogether.
He now spends most of his time with his eyes closed, his face is pale and almost transparent, his lips are dry and gray, and his energy and spirit are constantly declining.
Occasionally, he would wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and say to me, who was sleeping on the carpet, "Thank you for helping me get through my last period of time and for making my death less tragic."
I chuckled, speechless. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
His voice was weak and soft, “It’s true. I thought I would die a terrible death, like being chopped up, beheaded, or burned to death.”
I was horrified. "Don't overthink it."
"It's true, many members of the royal family die like this. I'm lucky."
I went to the hospital bed and covered him with the blanket that had come off a bit. "Don't think too much. Take good care of yourself. You can live a long time."
He wanted to laugh out loud, but he was too weak to lift his head. He could only laugh dryly: "How could there be a woman like you? How could I have met a woman like you? I thought my best ending would be to be poisoned by my wife or stabbed through the chest by my betrayed mistress."
He tried to laugh again, but he couldn't muster the strength and ended up coughing repeatedly. I quickly patted his back and brought him a cup of hot water.
He looked at me while laughing and coughing, "I never dreamed that I would die from being pampered by my wife."
I laughed too. "You're so eloquent and handsome. If you could live forever, you'd probably charm countless women."
"That's right, I always thought I would only die satisfied after having sex with hundreds or thousands of women."
I burst out laughing and gave him a sharp rap on the head. "Aren't you afraid of getting a disease? You men are truly incorrigible, still thinking about this before you die?"
“That’s right,” he laughed, a weak laugh, “Men think about this until they die; in the end, it’s just a question of whether they can or can’t.”
We laughed for half the night until he was exhausted and fell asleep. By then, dawn was breaking, and a faint light shone in, casting a dim glow on the carpet, while all the candles had been extinguished.
News from the East arrived every few days, and the region was in complete chaos. Bernot had initially gained the upper hand, but unexpectedly, King Amur's half-brothers, Bernot's two uncles, rallied together in rebellion. They joined forces with some high-ranking nobles and launched an attack on Bernot, forcing Bernot to withdraw from the capital.
“Now we’re all waiting, waiting for them to both suffer heavy losses,” Artis said to me with a smile at the dinner table.
"What good would that do you?" I asked dismissively.
“We have one plan for Bernot, and another for his uncles. Both plans are for the benefit of Achia.”
"Oh? Which set is more advantageous for you?"
At this moment, it was just the two of us at the table. I don't know when it started, but we often ate together, whether it was breakfast or dinner, and everyone else seemed to have disappeared.
Artis smiled at me, "You'll find out when the time comes." He was actually keeping me in suspense. Well, someone as cunning as him wouldn't tell me all their plans in one go; that wasn't his style.
Just as I was stunned, he handed me a document and said, "Sign it."
“This is…” I took it curiously and saw the words “Achia Contract” at the top, followed by the clauses below.
—These are exactly the same conditions for marriage that Desen told me before: he must marry me as his legal wife; hand over half of his personal income every year; give me one-third of his assets; he will not have a mistress without my consent; and the children I bear will be his first heirs.
“I’ve already signed my name,” he said to me with a grin. “Now it’s your turn.”
He placed a pen in my hand, and my hand trembled slightly; for some reason, I couldn't sign it.
He frowned. "You're not going to back out, are you? Although my agreement with Desen is verbal, it doesn't mean I can go back on my word at any time."
"What will happen if I don't sign?" I asked.
His brows slowly relaxed, but his eyes became deep and dark, revealing a sharp "you absolutely cannot regret this" kind of look.
"You're going to kill me?" I asked jokingly.
“No, I wouldn’t. I can’t bear to,” he said slowly. “But you’ll be in a terrible situation.”
"How bad was it?" I asked again.
"For example, if I make you bleed, I will hate you, hate you so much, hate you for deceiving my feelings."
I laughed out loud, "Hey, it's just a joke, why take it so seriously?" As I spoke, I signed my name on the sticky note, my handwriting was flamboyant and extremely messy.
After dinner, I sat by Desen's bedside, fed him his medicine, and told him about it with lingering fear.
"Sigh, I shouldn't have signed it. I always felt a little scared."
Desen smiled slowly and answered me in a voice so low it was almost inaudible: "You're always like this, afraid of things you can't control, which is why you keep rejecting my brother Bernot, as well as Mamboa and the Elf King, right?"
I paused for a moment, then said, "Maybe."
"You always feel that their world is too far away from yours. You feel that you don't understand them, and they don't understand you either. You are not willing to put in the effort, and you are afraid that nothing you do will make a difference."
I was stunned; he had hit the nail on the head.
“That’s your biggest flaw.” He coughed with a smile, coughing several times. I patted his back and gave him water until he finally stopped coughing. He was still smiling and said very weakly, “You have no confidence in yourself, no confidence in others, and no courage to change.”
I was silent for a while before saying, "I don't understand the world of the powerful and wealthy, and I'm afraid I can't handle it."
He looked at me meaningfully, "You surrendered before you even tried. Of course, perhaps it's because you want to live, you're afraid that if you try and fail, you'll die."
I'm afraid I'm not capable enough, afraid of exposing my shortcomings, and afraid of not being able to bear the consequences of a crushing defeat.
“So, you’re actually a coward, a wimp,” he said very slowly.
I lowered my head in shame and didn't dare to say a word.
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Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, everyone! I'm back~~~ Muah everyone~~~
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