Chapter 55: Soul-Deep Confession
Ace looked like a hero ripped straight from the pages of the romance novels Evelina used to read in her cold, lonely bedroom back in the Capital. He was the perfect husband, pouring his heart out under the moonlight.
[System Notification!]
[Target Ace: Emotional peak reached in the current situation]
[Status: Soul-deep confession]
[Warning: Host’s heart rate is elevated. Logic circuits are under heavy interference from romantic atmosphere.]
Evelina sat perfectly still. She looked at his hand on hers and then she looked at the expensive wine in her glass.
She took a slow sip of the vintage wine. The silence between them stretched and the candles flickered as the wax began to drip.
Ace held his breath, his entire existence hanging on the words she was about to speak.
Finally, she set the glass down with a soft clink. She looked him in the eye, her expression unreadable as a polite smile played on her lips.
"That’s lovely, Ace," she said, her voice smooth and as cool as the night air, "Truly."
The System, who rarely interfered in Evelina’s daily life actions without any cause, seemed to have glitched as it beeped.
[System Notification: ...That’s it?]
[Target Ace’s Heart Rate: Stalled]
Ace’s smile froze. He looked at her, waiting for the rest of the sentence.
But Evelina simply pulled back her hand, picked up her napkin and daintily patted her lips, as if he had just complimented the seasoning on the roast duck rather than offering her his entire soul.
"The wine is exceptional," she added, her tone light and conversational, "We should definitely look into acquiring the vineyard if it’s possible. I doubt that with such a quality wine, their profit margins are likely higher than the current reports suggest."
Ace felt like he had just charged into a brick wall at full gallop. The God of war felt like he was besieged from all sides.
Ace had heard of something called ’friendzone’ and he wondered if he got friendzoned by Evelina. But then, he realized, even being friendzoned would be considered a luxury seeing how she treated his words right then.
The silence in the conservatory had shifted.
A moment ago, there was a expectant silence in the air.
But as Evelina spoke those three polite, chilling words; ’That’s lovely, Ace. Truly’, the air curdled.
Ace fingers wrapped around the edge of the table. His grip tightened until the wood groaned, his knuckles turning a ghostly white.
He was trembling from a wounded realization that cut him deeper than any blade he had faced on the battlefield.
He looked at her. She seemed so aloof and detached as if all the words he had just uttered had meant nothing to her at all.
"Is that all?" Ace’s voice was low with an emotion he couldn’t quite name, "For all that I told you, for all that I confessed from my heart... is that everything you could say? Lovely?"
Evelina felt a sudden, sharp ping in the corner of her vision.
[System Warning: Host’s heart rate is exceeding normal parameters.]
The warning only made her retreat deeper into her armor.
In this life, her logic was the only thing she felt safe with.
"It is a significant gesture, Ace," she said, her voice smooth and measured, like she was reading a contract, "Your emotional investment in this marriage is beneficial for the stability of the North. So, naturally it is a great thing because it ensures our partnership remains firm against external threats."
Ace pulled his hand away as if she had burned him. He let out a sharp laugh that contained no mirth, "Do you even hear yourself? You’re talking about us like we’re a joint-stock company, Evelina."
He leaned in, his face inches from hers. The candlelight flickered in his dark eyes, reflecting a desperate hunger for the truth, "I’m going to ask you the question and you only have this one chance to answer me honestly. Am I just an investment to you, Evelina? Am I just a political asset to be managed alongside your work?"
Evelina felt the ache begin then, it was like a tiny, sharp needle pricking the center of her chest. But she ignored it. She looked at the man who had ignored her for years, the man who had let her rot in the cold until she had to dig her way out with her own bare hands.
"Why not?" Evelina responded calmly, "Feelings are temporary.They change with the weather or a good meal. But a good investment goes a long way. If you want a woman who will swoon because you bought some roses then it’s not possible. She is long dead and it will all be in your fantasy only.
Ace stood up abruptly.
The chair screeched against the marble floor, the sound harsh and jarring in the elegant room.
The romantic setting he had worked so hard to create; the lace, the silver, the flowers now looked like a pathetic and amateurish stage play.
"A fantasy?" Ace’s voice rose. Like the God of War, his aura enveloped the entire place in a suffocating energy, "You think this was a game to me? I spent three days personally overseeing every detail of this room. I banned the coal smoke because I know you hate the smell. I hid your ledgers because I wanted you to have one single night where you weren’t a Duchess, but just yourself, just the same old Evelina."
He gestured wildly at the room, his eyes brimming with a frustrated, wounded fury. "I spent weeks studying what women want. All of it, just to show you that I am trying to change."
"What about it? I didn’t ask you to do it. Moreover, am I expected to get touched and cry just because you noticed my existence after years and suddenly realized that you wanted me in your life?" Evelina looked at him like he was being childish.
She stood up and met his gaze. She was smaller than him, but in that moment, her presence felt like an iron wall one couldn’t break, "Nevertheless, you did a great job.The aesthetics are a ten out of ten. But I’m a bit curious, did you do it for me, or did you do it for your own guilt? You want to feel like a her’ who rescued his neglected wife. But I have long rescued myself, Ace. Whoever said I needed your roses to bloom?"
