This Marriage Must End In Tragedy Chapter 14
Chapter 14. The Way Back from the Candy House
“It’s not that there’s a problem…”
“Then I hope you'll spread the word until not a soul in the Empire is left unaware—that it was Damion de Orphe who unyieldingly sought out the once-retired Ansi de Rubelsa and brought her back into the light.”
So that no one ever makes the same mistake again.
Everyone present could sense what was being left unsaid behind those words. When Damion flashed a bright, carefree smile, the gathered men exaggerated their nods and offered their congratulations.
There was no room left to ask whether he’d lost his mind, or why he had made such a choice.
Damion knew how to lighten a mood and make it pleasant, but he was by no means an easy man.
“Well then, I’d like to spend a little more time with Lady Ansi. I’ll take my leave first.”
With a smile, Damion placed a glass of wine on a tray. His relaxed expression and tone loosened the tension, and the others teased him playfully.
“If you get married, she might have you completely under her thumb.”
“If she does, I’d be honored.”
Leaving behind their awkward laughter, Damion strolled over to Ansi.
It appeared the rumors were true—he was the one hopelessly taken. While she showed little to no interest in the affair, he was desperate to be near her.
As he approached, he had no idea what she was truly thinking.
The other ladies who had been with her were gone, and Ansi de Rubelsa now stood alone. Judging by her steps toward the back door, she seemed intent on leaving the venue altogether.
Being unsociable wasn't necessarily a flaw. Lacking basic social grace, however, was.
Frustration welled up within him, but he couldn’t simply leave her to wander off alone. In this little play, his role was to be the hopeless romantic, consumed entirely with thoughts of Ansi de Rubelsa, whether sitting or standing.
Marrying her was the easy part. The real challenge was that the choice lay with her. If she never gave him her heart, then he would remain silent about it—even for the sake of his own future.
Thus, he needed to win her over.
In that light, perhaps her current isolation was actually working in his favor.
Quickly focusing on the positive side of the situation, Damion brushed aside his annoyance and followed after her. Into the dark night, she had entered the peculiar hedge maze garden.
Ansi wandered for quite some time before she suddenly lifted her head and looked around. She was surrounded by tall walls densely covered in foliage.
The Baelis family's maze garden.
Ansi let out a sigh. She hadn’t meant to come here. Her feet had simply carried her, lost in thought.
She’d been here once before, with Élise.
They had gotten stuck, unable to find their way out, and were only rescued by adults after hours of being trapped inside.
The Marquis of Baelis, fond of new and entertaining things, had put considerable effort into creating this garden maze. It was renowned for its complex layout and vast size.
But it wasn’t a place people often visited anymore. The rumor had quickly spread after too many guests who’d entered for a brief amusement had come away utterly exhausted.
Still, she was older now. It had to be better than last time, right? With that faint hope, Ansi began walking again.
She only realized her sense of direction hadn’t improved with age after running into five dead ends.
Now she truly began to feel hopeless.
Darkness had deepened, and she was alone. If only she had tied a string to guide her like in those old folktales—but she was already far too deep inside.
And no one even knew she had come in here.
The terrifying thought that she might never escape crept up her spine.
There was a sound behind her.
In the pitch-black night, it was a strange presence. Ordinarily, she would have felt fear. But in her current predicament, it seemed like a ray of hope.
Ansi turned around without hesitation and strode toward the sound. She silently begged that it wasn’t a bird, or a rat, or even a cat—please, just let it be a person.
And just as she rounded a corner—
She almost collided with someone. As she instinctively stepped back, her foot caught on the hem of her dress.
She began to fall backward—
—But firm arms caught her, encircling her with strength.
Ansi’s hand reflexively landed on the man’s chest. Even through his frock coat, she could feel the hard, well-defined muscles beneath.
And then, a deep voice whispered in her ear.
Ansi quickly pulled away, her eyes wide with surprise.
“I saw you leaving alone and was concerned.”
So much for pretending to mingle and network—when had he even noticed her slipping out? As if reading her thoughts, Damion added with a playful smile:
“My attention is always on you, Ansi.”
Unable to find a proper response, Ansi turned her gaze away. Finding her reaction cute, Damion gently patted her head and glanced around.
“Do you know how to get out of the maze?”
“Ah, so that’s a no.”
“We’ll just find the way out.”
Feigning nonchalance despite her earlier panic, Ansi moved to stand beside him. Her tension eased slightly, reassured by the simple fact that she wasn’t alone anymore.
Damion, watching her, chuckled softly and placed a hand against the wall.
“In most mazes, if you place your hand against one wall at the entrance and follow it continuously, you’ll eventually find the exit. The walls are all connected in the end.”
“Then we should be able to leave, right?”
“No. If we’ve already made it halfway through, we can’t use it anymore. Instead, let’s do this.”
Damion picked up a fallen tree branch and drew an X on the ground.
“It’s a way to avoid going back the way we came. Shall we?”
They began walking in sync once again.
In the quiet garden, only the chirring of insects, the sound of their footsteps, and the occasional scrape of a branch against the soil could be heard.
The fresh scent of spring’s budding grass mingled with the lingering aroma of winter’s dry leaves.
After each X, Damion drew a cross over it to create a star shape. They never stepped where the stars were marked.
As he bent down silently to carve another cross into the dirt, Ansi spoke up.
“There’s a fairy tale like this, isn’t there? About kids dropping breadcrumbs to mark the path to the candy house.”
It was a story she had heard in childhood. Damion straightened up and began walking again as he replied.
“Not a story I particularly like.”
“Do you like it, Ansi?”
“I don’t remember the details well, but yes, I think I liked it. The witch who tried to eat the children gets punished and dies. That felt right.”
It was the sort of ending that felt right. Where the wicked are punished, and justice is served. That was what Ansi liked about it.
“You must be fond of poetic justice.”
“Isn’t everyone? Why don’t you like it, Sir Damion?”
“Maybe because even after taking the candy house from the witch, they didn’t stay. They just went back to their old home.”
“Well, they had family waiting there. No matter how sweet the house, you can’t live there forever, leaving your family behind.”
“Do you remember why the children had to drop breadcrumbs in the first place?”
Ansi paused to think, but the details escaped her—it had been too long since she’d heard the tale. Wasn’t it to escape from the witch’s candy house?
“I’m not sure. Was that part important?”
Damion shook his head. His voice momentarily dipped, as though shadowed by some emotion, but then he spoke again.
“I just don’t enjoy stories where children suffer. And yet, so many fairy tales are like that."
“Well, every good tale needs hardship. That’s what makes the heroic journey interesting. And if it’s a story for children, it makes sense for the hero to be a child too. In the end, the protagonist always gains something greater.”
"But maybe," he said, his tone edged with irony, "what those children truly wished for wasn’t some grand reward, but something simple and peaceful."
Ansi stared at him, her gaze steady.
In a way, he wasn’t wrong.
The catharsis at the end of suffering was just a form of consolation. A better life, truly, was one without the suffering to begin with.
She, more than anyone, understood that now.
The conclusion where they escape death and claim sweets and treasures—sure, that was nice. But they would’ve been happier never meeting the witch at all. There should be no need to live with memories of nearly dying.
“Well, there’s no need to get too serious. Fairy tales aren’t real,” Damion said brightly, breaking her deepening thoughts.
“And our hardship ends here.”
Ansi turned her eyes forward again at his words. Bathed in the soft moonlight, the exit finally came into view.
They hurried out of the maze, where a wide backyard stretched before them. The place that once felt impossible to escape had now opened up, and a tingling sensation surged from her head to her toes.
This kind of minor hardship wasn’t so bad, after all.
“I thought we might never make it out.”
“But even if we didn’t, being with you wouldn’t have made it too awful.”
“Let’s head back now.”
“Before that—Ansi, look up.”
At Damion’s words, Ansi instinctively lifted her gaze to the sky. Her eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, met with a black sea studded with shimmering stars.
A soft breath escaped her lips. The scattered lights looked as though they were drifting, and at the same time, as if they could swallow the entire sea.
It wasn’t her first time seeing the night sky, yet oddly, she just wanted to keep staring. Even blinking felt like a waste.
A strange feeling washed over her—one that felt almost like joy, and yet, perhaps sorrow as well.
“When I was on the battlefield,” Damion said quietly, “I would sometimes lie flat on the dirt and just stare up at the sky.”
At his low voice, Ansi turned to look at his face again. He had lowered his head, and their eyes met.