The worst man ever.
From then on, Anton and I would always see each other at mealtime. What kind of bad karma is this? When I was in Ligisia I never had the opportunity to have a face-to-face meal with Anton at all. He put his work first and Noah and me second. That’s why I always ate meals with Noah before, but now I feel depressed having to spend time eating with him.
The servants here, including the maids, look at us favorably as an intimate couple. Once I tried to escape from the mansion. But, it ended up in a failure. Perhaps it’s because everyone has been successfully brainwashed by Anton, but they keep a close watch on me when I leave my room, and when I take even the slightest suspicious action, they always say “Master said—”.
They seem to think that I am angry because of Anton and Anna. On the other hand, they believe that Anton loves me deeply and is trying to rebuild our relationship, so everyone is cheering him on.
The more desperate everyone gets, the colder my heart gets. I can only imagine what card Anton played to get everyone to believe him so much.
I couldn’t handle being accompanied by Anton, who was acting as a greatly remorseful husband, acting out his abandoned wife’s grief in front of me. I was struggling with the unfamiliar steaming crab shells, hoping that Fii would come to my rescue soon, when Anton, seated across from me, called out to me, as if he was unable to let my struggles pass unnoticed.
“Yurika, would you like me to do it for you?”
“Please.”
I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t get the crab meat out properly, so I gratefully took him up on his offer. I’ll just leave it to the people who know how to do it. It was such a waste of time to spend on an unfamiliar task. It would be nice if I could eat good food without getting my hands dirty. Anton took the plate from me and pulled the crab meat out of the shell cleanly.
“Incredible. You’re used to that, aren’t you?”
“Well, I’ve been eating mostly crustacean food since I’ve been here.”
Admiring his familiarity, Anton showed shyness. In Ligisia, meat dishes are the main dishes. This kind of seafood is almost never served at a meal.
I wondered how the crab was eaten when it came to the table, but Anton said, “This is how you eat it,” and he broke the crab’s legs and squeezed the meat out of the crab and showed me how to eat it.
I looked at Anton’s hands as he dismantled the crab neatly, and then stabbed it with a fork so I could eat it.
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
I feel kind of uneasy. I have never had a mealtime with Anton, and I haven’t spent much time with him as a normal married couple would, so I’m not used to being taken care of by him. I feel unsettled.
“It feels strange to be doing this. I have always been with Noah.”
“I had to put my job first and leave Noah to you. I’ll try to make up for that here as best I can.”
“I don’t need you to make up for it. I was doing quite fine without you.”
“I intend to understand your feelings. But it hurts being misunderstood by you so much.”
“Are you talking about Anna? Even if you say there was nothing between the two of you, her affections for you were profound. You led her around by the nose, didn’t you? Before solving the misunderstanding between us, I believe you should settle the misunderstanding between the two of you.”
“Good grief, I am no match for you.”
“Don’t try to fool me. Both Anna and I are just convenient women for you to have, right?”
From my point of view, Anton was the worst of the worst. He treated me, whom he had taken as his second wife, as a caretaker for his son, and used Anna, who had approached him as a spy, as a way to fulfill his sexual needs. What does this man think of women?
The man called Anton is cunning. As good as he looked, I could sense a part of him acting as if he was aware of the fact that he is favored by women.