Chapter 473 Noble Sacrifice
Chapter 473 Noble Sacrifice
her mother's frail voice carried a single wish—to see nina married, to know she wouldn't be alone before it was too late.
it wasn't a demand, but it might as well have been. nina could never deny the people she loved most.
at first, they sought someone from their own race, someone who shared their traditions and understood their ways. but life wasn't that simple. there was no one nearby in a little town in the outskirts, and with time slipping away, they turned to a human family with a son also in need of a match.
it wasn't perfect, but it was something.
i could imagine nina's fury when they first told her. she would've fought it, her voice sharp, her protests unwavering. but when her mother's health worsened—when she saw the hope and desperation in her parents' eyes—something in her must have cracked.
i could see it as if i'd been there: the resignation in her gaze, the way she'd bit back her pride and agreed, not for herself, but for them. because that's who she was, someone who bore the weight of love, even when it crushed her own dreams.
but even though nina didn't manage to marry someone who truly understood her—someone she thought would one day sweep into her life and see her for all that she was—she didn't let that heartbreak swallow her.
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nina wasn't the type to wallow. she was spirited, resilient, the kind of person who could face storms with her head held high. so, she made a decision: if this was the life she'd been given, she'd make the best of it. she convinced herself that love could grow with time, that she could carve out something meaningful from this marriage if she just worked hard enough.
but reality had other plans.
her husband, from the very beginning, seemed disinterested in building anything with her. he wasn't cold in the traditional sense—he didn't argue or cause conflicts.
no, his indifference was worse.
it was passive, quiet, and unrelenting. nina quickly realised that he had been forced into this union just as much as she had. his parents, alarmed by his reclusive nature, had likely seen her as the perfect solution: a strong, independent woman with a thriving business, someone who could provide him with stability.
but the truth went deeper.
he hadn't just been unwilling to marry anyone; he had been unwilling to marry someone like her. a variant human.
nina wasn't naive; she had heard the whispers and felt the weight of stares from those who saw her as different. but she'd never let it define her. she carried herself with pride.
yet, in her husband's eyes, it seemed to be an insurmountable barrier. he had wanted a "normal" human girl, someone gentle, someone demure, someone who fit his narrow idea of what his life should look like.
nina, vibrant and unapologetically herself, wasn't that.
at first, she tried. she reached out to him, gently encouraging him to spend time together, to talk, to share even the smallest pieces of their lives. but he rebuffed her efforts at every turn. he ignored her calls to bond, avoided her presence in their shared home, and refused to join her in public. he kept his distance as though she were a stranger rather than his wife.
the most interaction they had came in the form of his frequent requests for money from her. he contributed to the hot spring's operations by handling some accounting, but it was purely transactional, and it still didn't amount to the large sums he was receiving from nina. there was no warmth, no partnership, just a begrudging coexistence.
eventually, nina also gave up.
she told herself it was enough that he had sacrificed as much as she had by agreeing to the marriage. she let him be, retreating into her own world while he stayed in his. they lived as strangers under the same roof, bound by nothing more than a piece of paper and a shared history of family obligations.
if her parents had still been alive, things might have been different. they would have seen her unhappiness, seen the emptiness of her marriage, and insisted she walk away. they would have realised the mistake they had made in their desperation to see her settled.
but they weren't there anymore. her mother had passed away soon after the wedding, and her father not long after. their absence left a void in nina's life that no one, not even her husband, had tried to fill.
she let out a quiet sigh and continued, her voice tinged with both resignation and a strange acceptance.
"until the day comes that he himself gets fed up with me and pushes me away, i'll stay, kafka." she said, her eyes steady, almost too steady. "i can't bring myself to be the one to walk away. if he wants out, then i'll go...but until then, this is my choice. i won't be the selfish one here."
her words echoed in my mind long after she spoke them. nina, with all her strength and resilience, was holding onto something that, to her, was a duty—something she felt obligated to honour for the sake of others.
it made her admirable in a way, but also, in my eyes, a little gullible. she was blind to the true dynamics of her marriage, and the longer she held onto this misplaced sense of duty, the more she would remain trapped in a cycle that might never let her go.
but as sullen as her words were, the more i thought about it, the more i realised that there was a way out for both of us—nina, with her sense of duty, and me, with my endless love for her.
i couldn't help the sudden excitement that bubbled up inside me. maybe it was the hopeless romantic in me, or perhaps i was just looking for an excuse to get closer to her, but i knew this was my chance to turn the tables.
a grin spread across my face as i leaned forward, my voice light but eager.
"well, if your husband were to leave you...ahem...on his own accord, of course..." i started, my words playful. "...you wouldn't mind getting together with me, would you, nina?"
nina's eyes widened, and her face flushed a deep shade of red. she blinked at me, completely taken aback by my boldness.
"you...you're happy about asking a wife about her husband leaving her?" she sputtered, her voice both exasperated and embarrassed.
i chuckled, unable to contain my amusement. her reaction was too cute, too perfect if i had to say.
"hey, i'm just saying." i teased. "it's an interesting thought. you've got options, nina.".
"you're unbelievable, kafka!" she exclaimed, though there was no real malice in her voice. "who asks someone about something like that?!"
i smiled, enjoying the moment, but her expression shifted, becoming more contemplative. slowly, she looked up at me, a coy smile playing on her lips.
"well..." she said, her voice a little softer. "...if he did leave me. then i guess i wouldn't have much choice, would i?...s-since i don't want you to start crying if i choose someone else after my husband leaves me."
my heart skipped a beat at the way her gaze lingered on me. it wasn't just the words; it was the way she said it, the challenge behind her eyes.
i could see the shift in nina's expression as her voice softened, a bit of mischief still lingering there.
but before i could get too comfortable in the thought that she might be open to the idea, she quickly added,
"of course, there's no way he'd leave me!...i've told him countless times that it's fine to go and find his own happiness...but for some reason, he always says no, even though it's so obvious that he's not interested in our relationship." she let out a small sigh, as if this was just another thing she'd accepted as part of her life.
i couldn't help but furrow my brows at her words. she'd already given him permission to leave, but why was he still sticking around, especially when it was clear that their marriage wasn't even close to what it should've been?
there had to be something more to this than she was letting on.
and then, a thought crossed my mind, cold and unsettling: what if he had a reason to stay? a reason that had nothing to do with love or obligation but something darker, something that might not be as straightforward as it seemed.
but even as a chill ran through me, a cold, calculated smile stretched across my face without thinking.
the more i considered it, the more i realised that if i could figure out what exactly he was after, it wouldn't be too hard to push him to sway in a justified manner. even if i couldn't find some dirt on him, i could just make him disappear one day and treat it as a noble sacrifice for me and nina to get together...
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