This Marriage Must End In Tragedy Chapter 5
Chapter 5: That Repulsive Affection
"What… did you just say?"
It wasn’t Rain.It wasn’t Larwil.It was Ansi.
At that moment, it felt as though every drop of blood drained from her body.
If it hadn’t been Orphe who came here today, she would never have accepted this meeting in the first place. Her hair color and style were different now, far from what they once were. But if anyone who remembered her old face had shown up, it would’ve been a serious threat.
Still, because it was Orphe, she had convinced herself that this man wouldn’t recognize her. It had been a calculated gamble.
Damion de Orphe had still been a soldier back when she fled to the South, and even before that, Ansi had never once crossed paths with him. Just as she did not know him, she had been certain that he wouldn’t know her either.
But her gamble had failed.
“So, I was right, after all. I wasn’t quite sure back at the viscount’s estate…”
His eyes pierced right through her, and Ansi’s body froze under the weight of his gaze. Damion raised his hand and gently touched her hair. Her long brown locks glinted red beneath the sun.
"Your natural hair color suits you better."
"I… don’t understand what you’re talking about…"
“I always thought it looked just like the night sky.”
He was now sure. The woman before him was Ansi de Rubelsa.
There was no point denying it any further. Even if she had kept a low profile in the aristocratic society, there were still a few photos from her days as Ansi. If someone were to compare them now, the truth would become obvious in an instant.
So now the question was:What would he do next?Would he go to the Ziden and reveal her true identity?Would he demand restitution from the Larwil family for sending a decoy to deceive House Orphe?
Whatever the outcome, Ansi had to decide on her next move.
If it came to it, she might really have to kill this man.And strangely, that thought brought clarity to her mind.
She quickly assessed the situation: he was a former soldier—there was no way she could overpower him and drown him by force. He likely knew how to swim as well.
So perhaps this was her last chance. And she had to use it.
If she apologized… if she claimed remorse and offered to do anything to make amends… maybe, just maybe, she could use him to get close to Cardian de Orphe.
“I’m sorry I deceived you. Regardless of my intentions or circumstances, I know what I did was wrong…”
"That doesn’t matter," he cut her off.
Once again, his response caught her completely off guard.
"Was it… hard for you?"
His voice was so gentle it seemed to echo in the air.
Ansi’s mind blanked. Then, as she processed what he meant, her eyes trembled.
Was it hard for you?She had never heard those words before.
Not back when she lived as the noble daughter of Count Rubelsa, wanting for nothing.Not when she lost everything and was driven to the edge.Not even now, living as Rain—clinging to another name to survive.
“I… I’m fine. I was fine.”
She forced herself to speak, lips moving with difficulty as she tried to suppress the maelstrom of emotion inside her. Damion had already withdrawn his hand from her hair and now looked at her.
"When you vanished a year ago, I was really worried," he said."I was afraid you might’ve… made a terrible choice, crushed by everyone’s judgment."
His low voice carried genuine concern.
He was worried? Ansi couldn’t make sense of it.
“You… you knew me? Back then? How?”
“The Jeff family’s charity ball.”
Yes. She had attended that event once. She had briefly appeared at that event once, just enough to show her face, and then left.
“You’re wondering,” he said, as though reading her thoughts, “how I could have recognized you, when we didn’t even exchange a single word that day?”
Ansi nodded, cautious.
Could it be?Did he also know what had happened to Rubelsa?Was that how he came to know who she was?
“I didn’t realize it back then either. Only later did it hit me… that I…”
Damion knit his brows, struggling to finish the sentence, as if forcing out something difficult to say. The man who always seemed so confident now hesitated.
Before the silence could stretch too long, he gave a small, bitter laugh and continued.
“That I fell in love with you at first sight.”
“I loved you. I still might.”
His voice carried more force now. As if finally voicing his conflicted emotions had brought him clarity and conviction.
Ansi was stunned into silence.
The absurdity of it all—this entire situation—left her speechless.
He said he loved her? Still loved her?
How could he? How dare he?
How could someone from House Orphe—the House that had ruined Rubelsa—say such a thing?
Even now, looking at her in disgrace, in ruin. Here she was, a woman pretending to be someone else’s daughter, wearing this ridiculous mask of nobility.
How could he feel love for such a thing?
To her, it was nothing more than pity masquerading as affection. Disgusting.
How noble of him. How kind-hearted.
She had to bite back a bitter laugh.
It made her feel filthy, like she was being toyed with by some pitiful, naïve emotion.
There was something else rising within her.
If she could use him—if he could bring her to Cardian—then maybe, just maybe, she could hope for more than a hollow ending of revenge.
Maybe she could achieve something else entirely.
“Thank you for your kind regard.”
A conclusion where she returned everything she had been given, with interest. A payback tenfold for what she had endured.A final act that would drag the Orphe name through the mud.
"Even after today, would you… still want to see me again? As Ansi de Rubelsa, this time?"
Ansi met Damion’s eyes directly.
He raised one of her hands and bent his waist, brushing his lips lightly against her skin. Ansi bit the inside of her mouth to stifle the churning within her.
“In that case, it would be my honor.”
He looked up at her with a drowsy smile. Under the spring sunlight, his face looked radiant, smiling as if this moment genuinely made him happy.
“Then I’ll head south next. How about one o’clock, a week from now, at the lounge in the Verdi Hotel?”
“Sounds good. Well, I should get going now.”
“Where are you headed? I’ll take you.”
“No, it’s fine. I have an appointment nearby.”
“That’s a shame. A week feels like a long time.”
“Then I wish you a safe trip home.”
Damion soon turned and walked away. Ansi silently watched his retreating figure. As he turned around wistfully for one last glance, she forced a soft smile and lifted her hand in a light wave.
And once his figure had vanished from sight—
Ansi ran to the bushes and vomited. Her entire body ached.
To think she was fluttering, even pretending to be happy, in front of the brother of the man who killed her father—
The thought alone made her stomach churn. Her head spun. Her eyes reddened, she glared into space, then turned and walked away.
She arrived at the graves of her father and brother.
It had been a year since her last visit.
Though she had often come to the capital to find work, she couldn’t bring herself to come here. She just couldn’t.
Seeing the graves made their deaths loom far too real, too enormous to deny. She had feared accepting that truth. She needed to stay grounded—she was the only one left—but she felt like she might crumble the moment she did.
But if she had known the graves were in such a state, she would have come sooner.
Ansi’s face stiffened. A pained breath escaped her lips.
The gravestones of her father and brother were covered in cruel graffiti.
She nearly fell as she stumbled toward them. Knees giving out, she collapsed in front of the graves and pulled out a handkerchief with trembling hands. Her lower lip trembled. But she pressed her lips tightly together and began scrubbing at the gravestones with all her might.
Traitor’s grave. Die, House Rubelsa.
The graffiti wouldn’t come off. If anything, it seemed to etch itself even deeper into her soul. Her handkerchief eventually slipped from her hand, but Ansi couldn’t even pick it back up.
A sharp pain pierced her chest. Clutching her heart with both hands, Ansi curled in on herself, bowing until her forehead nearly touched the earth. Then, slowly, she raised her head just enough to look at the tombstone.
In her red-rimmed eyes, her blue irises burned with an intense glow.
Yes. Even if she were to kill Cardian Orphe, the ruined honor of House Rubelsa would never be restored.
If anything… all it would do is add the word murderer to this gravestone.
“So, killing that bastard alone… would feel hollow and unfair, wouldn’t it?”
The cracked question drifted into the air.
No reply came. But she already knew the answer.
She would bring Orphe down.
She would use the man who had approached her and destroy them all.
And she would crush them so thoroughly they would never rise again.
“Seemed like you had a good time,” said Renot, the chauffeur, with casual interest. Not the type to usually initiate conversation.
Only then did Damion realize that a faint smile had crept onto his lips.
He leaned back into the seat, a flicker of interest dancing in his violet eyes.
Ansi de Rubelsa, who disappeared a year ago.
At first, he hadn’t been sure it was her.
The first and only time he’d formally seen her was at a Jeff family charity event. Even then, by the time he arrived, she was already leaving. They’d merely passed each other in a fleeting glimpse.
Before that—long ago, when they were both children—he had seen her once more.
But there was no need to bring up something she likely didn’t even remember.
When he said her name earlier, the woman before him had visibly trembled, as if afraid of something.
Her dyed reddish-brown hair reminded him of the deer he had hunted last fall.
Backed into a corner, trembling—yet still meeting his eyes with that fiercely shining gaze.
A look that, despite clearly understanding her situation, carried the pure, almost arrogant belief that she was the noblest being in the world.
Damion didn’t mind that.
It was easier to deal with someone with a bit of pride than someone who constantly dug themselves into the ground.
So long as she didn’t try to end her life again, she might finally be someone worth using this time.
She was the woman who would carry away his misfortune.