Chapter 16: Alec’s Family

“The couple’s property is the couple’s property. There is no separation between the wife’s assets and the husband’s assets. I’m sorry I couldn’t say this earlier, but it’s already in the past, Rose.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s no need to worry about it. If you were in my position, you would have done the same thing.”

“Yeah.”

She nodded. Alec’s words were true. If the person in need of help had been Alec’s mother or father, Afrosa would have acted the same way. After all, they were the ones who gave birth to and raised Alec.

“You’re right, Alec. I was wrong to think otherwise.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’ve just been feeling so uncomfortable lately… Because recently, my father and I have been relying so much on you.”

If it weren’t for Alec, their household would have been in serious trouble. The financial situation of the chapel had gotten much worse than expected. It wasn’t just recently, but even before their marriage, the chapel had always been in financial hardship.

The chapel’s situation had never been good, but two years before Rose’s marriage, when she had just turned eighteen, it had reached a point where it couldn’t even be described as “barely enough” — they were barely scraping by.

If it weren’t for Alec… if it weren’t for him, they would have lived a much more impoverished life. They would have simply been a priest and his daughter, with the name “free people” having no meaning in their lives.

“But you and my father took me in when I was struggling. Even when the villagers didn’t treat me well.”

“That’s…”

“At that time, the chapel’s situation wasn’t good either. Not as bad as it is now, but still…”

Afrosa kept silent, studying his expression. His face, with a deep shadow, looked sharp. Could it be that he was tired of her? Had she been a bother today? As she lowered her gaze, biting her dry lips…

“The priest is like a stepfather to me. He probably thinks of me as his adopted son.”

Alec’s words were true. Though they were a bit distant now, her father had raised Alec as if he were his own son. Thanks to that, Afrosa had spent her childhood with Alec, as close as siblings, always together — sleeping, eating, and doing everything side by side.

Suddenly, she remembered the day after Alec had proposed, when she had told her father about their plans to marry. Her father had looked surprised. He had sensed it but hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. His voice had been slightly heavy with concern.

“Becoming a couple is a happy but difficult and exhausting thing. You’re not only partners sharing your life, but also a community of fate,” her father said quickly, his pale face muttering the words.

Afrosa, surprised by the unfinished sentence, lowered her gaze with a gloomy expression. She had never imagined that her father wouldn’t want her to marry. It didn’t seem like he harbored any distrust toward Alec.

Of course, after Afrosa became intimate with Alec for the first time, she had been more cautious with him, but that was the extent of it.

‘Does Father want me to marry someone other than Alec?’

Father, who had been silently watching Aphrosa, looked at her with concern. Afrosa stared at him, her face showing signs of hurt, unsure of what to do. Seeing his daughter’s eyes brimming with tears, the priest shook his head.

‘I’m sorry, Afrosa. I shouldn’t have brought this up.’

‘….’

‘I was just worried about you.’

Afrosa couldn’t understand what he was worried about. Even though they had grown up like siblings, Alec and Afrosa were not related by blood. Just as her father and Afrosa weren’t related by blood, neither were Afrosa and Alec. Still, her father had a worried expression on his face, a look that seemed full of concern.

‘Is it because you don’t like Alec? As a son-in-law…’

‘That’s not it. That boy is the best young man in this village. Even the elder would envy him as a son-in-law. Besides, he’s very popular with the village girls…’

In short, he was saying that Alec was without flaw. Unlike his childhood, when he was considered a calamity in the village, Alec had grown into an excellent young man under the guidance of her father, the village priest. He no longer faced criticism or gossip, even though he kept his distance from others.

In any case, Alec had become the best marriage prospect in the village. The fact that the elder would covet him as a potential son-in-law was widely talked about in the square. Still, her father seemed worried, his expression troubled. Afrosa turned away from him, silently.

No matter what her father said, she would marry Alec. If there was no special reason to oppose it, there was no reason not to marry him. Because, well, because Afrosa couldn’t imagine being with anyone but Alec. and Alec had said the same thing — that he couldn’t be with anyone but her. So…

“Rose.”

“Yeah?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Afrosa lightly shook her head and smiled faintly. Alec simply stared at her for a long time. In an attempt to change the subject, she opened her mouth again.

“You said your mother passed away early, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Do you have any relatives or other siblings?”

“Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them…”

“Don’t you stay in touch?”

It was the same answer she had heard when they first met, a long time ago. Afrosa, who had been eating the cold oatmeal, looked up.

“I guess not.”

Alec didn’t answer at length. Afrosa nodded, looking at him without saying much. It wasn’t rude to ask about family between spouses, but Alec was always reluctant to speak when it came to his parents or siblings. Afrosa knew this, so she usually avoided asking about his past or family.

After all, the answers she would get would be something like “I don’t remember” or “I haven’t been in contact for a long time.” But how could someone forget their family and then claim that they don’t know when they last had contact? Could it be that they were hiding something, not forgetting at all?

If Alec was hiding something about his biological parents and family, there must be a reason for it. He wasn’t the type to hide things from her without a reason. If it was something he couldn’t bring himself to talk about, or if there were circumstances that made it difficult, it would be better not to press the issue.

At first, Afrosa had thought that way too and hadn’t asked. After all, he had wandered the village and begged for food since his childhood. When she had first met him, she had heard that his mother had passed away shortly after giving birth to him, and his father had died a few years later. When she asked about other siblings, he said he hadn’t been in touch with them, and the same went for his relatives.

So, it wasn’t that he had no family. Still, shouldn’t he at least tell her why he, someone not from this village, had come here? About his family’s composition, where they were from, or what they did—shouldn’t he share that with her, as his “wife”?

As he said, they were now married and family… well, perhaps it wasn’t as urgent in the past, but the situation was different now. Still, Alec had never once brought it up on his own. Afrosa had chosen not to ask, thinking it might be too uncomfortable for him to talk about, but now it seemed like something she needed to address.

“Hey, you’re not from around here, are you?”

She set down her clinking utensils and asked. She couldn’t quite understand why she felt so uneasy today.

Was it because Alec’s expression wasn’t good? Or because of what had happened earlier today? She didn’t know. She couldn’t understand it. It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand Alec anymore—it was that she no longer understood herself. Something inside her kept pushing up, again and again.

“What does your family do?”

---

It had returned. There was no other way to explain it. Alec stared at his wife’s round eyes.

The winding sand-colored waves, the cascading hair, the messy yet white and breathtaking nape of her neck. Her elegant eyebrows, her high nose bridge, her lips with the freshness of a maiden, and her blue eyes… all of it was vividly real and, incredibly, true.

He had returned to that year exactly, to start over again. He was looking at her again in the same year when he almost lost Afrosa. He wasn’t dead… he placed his hand over his left chest. Thump-thump-thump—his rapidly beating heart felt cold.

The scent of Afrosa seeped into his nostrils, and every moment felt saturated with it. The pure nape of her neck, her disheveled hair. He wanted to kiss that rich hair. To worship and revere her, just by seeing her again, he wanted to bow down at her feet…

He couldn’t believe that the woman he adored was right before him. But it was reality. He lowered his gaze after seeing himself reflected in his wife’s eyes. He recalled something Dallas Suza, Aphrosa’s father, had said.

He had looked truly concerned when he spoke about it being a terrible nightmare. His expression had been one of real worry. The kind of expression that asked how hard the dream could have been that it made Aphrosa so uneasy. It was wrong to confide in him like that. Dallas Suza…

“My family lives in Travis.”

“Travis? The capital?”

Alec raised his head and looked straight at Afrosa. He had never spoken about his siblings or father before. He didn’t want to mention them in the first place, but after seeing Dallas Suza react negatively about their marriage, he had kept even quieter.

In his previous life, Afrosa hadn’t known anything. Because he hadn’t said anything.

He hadn’t spoken of his family’s history to Afrosa until he declared his intent to return to Travis to reclaim what he had lost. He had been afraid. Afraid that, just like her father, she might push him away.

Dallas Suza didn’t dislike him, but he wasn’t happy about him being his daughter’s husband. It was because he was from royal blood. Because he was a prince who had lost everything and been exiled by his own brother.

“There’s a family business we’ve been running for a long time.”

“A family business?”

“It was about construction in the capital, repairing the city walls, and overseeing the farmlands. But after my father passed away, my brother took over.”

“I see.”

“Since it’s the capital.”

“Yeah.”

Afrosa nodded. It was hard to believe, but her expression showed she wanted to believe. Alec suppressed a smile and spoke again.

“Actually, there were more people who wanted me to take over, but my brother didn’t think kindly of it.”

He thought of Rubero. The man now known as Ignuel X, the one he had personally beheaded in his previous life and whose head had been displayed on the palace’s outer wall. The eldest son of his father, the emperor’s firstborn… a greedy and cruel man.

The fact that his father had spared his half-brother, whom he had seen as a rival, wasn’t out of compassion but simply out of concern for public opinion. Therefore, it made sense that he had sent an assassin to kill him. Even after all these years.

“After my father passed, my brother gathered others who shared his views to discuss what to do with me. The relatives supported me because my mother had been his legitimate wife.”

“…”

“But my brother thought it was impossible for a child like me to inherit the family business.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. His face contorted with the emotions of the past. It felt like years had passed since he had seen those people, and the memories rushed to his mind like a procession before his eyes.