Angel's Shelter - 2
The day had grown late, and the lunar eclipse was nearly upon them, but they reached the lake in time.
Of course it has to be a cliff.
He had taken the mountain path with as few monsters as possible for Isabel's safety, and it seemed they had ended up higher than the planned spot.
Do I just drop Isabel from here?
The cliff was quite high. He worried that a bad fall might leave her seriously hurt before the Angel's Shelter could take effect.
I can't go in with her.
There was something he had to be careful about before entering. He could not enter the lake before Isabel. If he did, the Shelter's power might apply to him instead of her.
While he was still turning the problem over in his mind, Isabel spoke.
"Ian."
"I'm sorry. I'm a little busy right now…"
"Why do you love me?"
"What?"
The sudden question left him momentarily speechless. He had already told her he loved her any number of times. For her to ask something like this out of nowhere made her intent impossible to read. All he could do was parrot an answer and try to get past the moment.
"Of course I love you."
"That isn't what I'm asking. I'm asking why you love me."
He found it hard to answer. Why did he love her? Honestly, even he was not sure.
Why am I trying so hard to save Isabel?
This world was full of women, and heroines far easier to conquer than Isabel were everywhere. Reina was already within reach, and focusing on the other heroines who would eventually visit Entiel Village was another perfectly viable path. There was no particular reason it had to be Isabel.
So why was he working this hard for her sake? Why did this body keep crying out that he must love Isabel?
"I…"
The moment he started to answer—
A deep rumble, then a crash. A brilliant mass of light plunged into the lake. An angel had come to wash a body soiled by the eclipse. It was now. Only by entering the lake now would they receive the Angel's Shelter's blessing. Injuries could wait.
"Forgive me, Isabel!"
Without waiting for her permission, he threw her into the lake. In the same breath, he leapt after her.
. . .
Because of Rose's Punishment, Isabel's life had been nothing but endurance. She had endured pain. She had endured lack. And the way she chose to endure was to give up.
She told herself she could never be happy. That she could never be loved. She gave up on everything, and in doing so she killed her own feelings. If she had no feelings, there would be nothing left to suffer over.
Then a man appeared before her.
"Isabel. From now on, I will make you happy."
Everyone else treated her like a burden. That man loved her as a woman.
"…How?"
How are you going to make me happy?
At first Isabel doubted him the way everyone else would have. He had chosen a burden like her instead of her beautiful older sister. He had to have some hidden motive.
"I swear I will make you happier than any woman alive."
But by now Isabel knew. This man loved her more than anyone. Affection filled his voice whenever he spoke her name. Love lived in the way he looked at her. She still thought of herself as a burden—but he never once treated her as one.
Ian… I was happy.
Simply being with him made all the suffering of her past feel repaid. The time they spent together had been that happy. And that was exactly why she could not bear to see it. She could not bear to watch the man she loved stop loving her the way her father once had. She could endure anything else. Not that.
I'd rather die. Better that than become your burden.
As the man's hands sent her falling toward the lake, Isabel closed her eyes.
A splash.
. . .
"Isabel!"
He had believed the Angel's Shelter would free Isabel from the curse the moment she hit the water. But strangely, she was nowhere to be seen inside the lake—as if she had simply vanished.
Is there some hidden setting I don't know about, like with the Giant Weed?
He searched the water for her. And then he saw it.
Rising from the lake was an angel with three pairs of wings. The right hand of Helia, Goddess of the Sun. The angel who governed love and light. Archangel Seraphim.
Why is a Seraphim here?
The Angel's Shelter sometimes held hidden events that involved interacting with an angel. But a Seraphim appearing—this was a first.
"Is this beautiful woman your wife?"
Seraphim looked at him and asked the question at once. He had no idea why a being of a Seraphim's rank would be here, or why it would ask him such a thing—but he had to answer.
"That woman is not my wife."
The woman Seraphim showed him was so beautiful she could have been called a goddess without shame. More beautiful than Isolde, warmer than Adelia, more alluring than Reina. And yet, strangely, he felt no pull toward her.
"My wife is not beautiful like that woman, nor is she alluring."
"Then is this lover—who would bring her husband wealth and glory—your wife?"
Seraphim showed him another woman. Around her lay riches, power, and every rare elixir imaginable. If she were his wife, he could claim a great many things. Once again, he felt no attraction.
"That is not her either. My wife cannot support her husband the way that woman can."
"Then is this woman your wife?"
At last Seraphim showed him Isabel. He smiled as he answered.
"Yes. That woman is my wife."
"This woman is not your wife."
"She cannot support you, nor can she bear your child. There is nothing in her worth loving. How can you call her your wife?"
He denied Seraphim's words in turn.
"The mere fact that she smiles at me gives me strength. Even if she can never bear me a child, having her is the same as having the whole world. How could a woman like that not be my wife?"
"This woman rejected your love."
"That is because I failed as a husband. I should have paid more attention to her heart, and I did not. That she could not receive my love is entirely my fault as her husband."
"Your wife is the same. Husband and wife are one body, yet she used her broken health as an excuse and failed in a wife's duty. How can you call that marriage? How can you call that love?"
"Then I will try even harder for her sake. I will love her, and love her again, until she herself reaches out to receive my love."
Only then did he understand. Why he had loved Isabel.
At his answer, Seraphim smiled softly. He did not yet understand what that smile meant, but one thing was clear: the Rose's Punishment that had tormented Isabel all this time was fading away.
With those words, Seraphim left a single mark upon his chest—and vanished.
. . .
A splash.
"Isabel!"
Someone called her name. It was the voice of the man she loved.
"If you can answer, please answer me!"
He kept searching for her, and Isabel could not understand why.
I'm a woman who doesn't deserve your love.
Isabel dreamed. She saw herself made beautiful. The moment she beheld that form, she went straight to the man she loved. But he did not recognize her.
"My wife is not beautiful like that woman, nor is she alluring."
At his answer, Isabel's appearance changed. This time gold and rare treasures filled the space around her.
"My wife cannot support her husband the way that woman can."
Once again, he did not know her. Her form changed a final time—plain features, an unhealthy body. The most worthless version of herself.
And yet.
"Yes. That woman is my wife."
The man she loved recognized her at once.
Don't love me.
Isabel tried instead to hide the self he loved.
I'm a useless woman. I don't deserve to be your wife. So please—don't love me.
But for all her efforts, the man poured everything he had into her.
"The mere fact that she smiles at me gives me strength. Even if she can never bear me a child, having her is the same as having the whole world. How could a woman like that not be my wife?"
All the love he possessed.
"That is because I failed as a husband. I should have paid more attention to her heart, and I did not. That she could not receive my love is entirely my fault as her husband."
Please!
Every time she refused his love, he offered it again.
"Then I will try even harder for her sake. I will love her, and love her again, until she herself reaches out to receive my love."
Until Isabel accepted his love. And the outcome of that confession had already been decided.
"Ian, you're a fool."
Cradled in his arms, Isabel spoke with difficulty.
"Why do you love a woman like me?"
To her question, Ian answered.
"Because being with you makes me happy."
One-sided love does not exist. Ian, too, received something through Isabel. And that something was happiness. Being with her would mean no small amount of hardship—but even accounting for that, he still wanted to be with her. Because it made him that happy. So he could not abandon this love.
"Even if you never accept my love, that is fine. But at the very least—stay by my side."
"…How could I not accept it?"
Isabel spoke in a voice thick with tears. Then, wearing the brightest smile of her life, she took hold of Ian's hand.
"I'm this happy just being with you. How could I not love you?"
"I love you, darling."