We’re Married, After All - Chapter 122

I turned my body to look at Danel. His gaze was fixed on me, not on the praying monks.

“Are they all deacons too?”

“Probably not all of them.”

“Do all monks pray here?”

“They don’t necessarily have to do it here… but they usually come here when their minds are unsettled. Because there are many eyes watching.”

Having said that, Danel took my hand again. A gentle warmth spread across the back of my hand.

He was focused solely on me.

Soon, Danel led me further inside. A scene beautiful enough to elicit admiration revealed itself.

The apse was even more magnificent up close than from a distance. Intricate religious paintings filled the semicircular space.

Perhaps because it was a place where light and shadow intersected, the paintings felt particularly realistic. The figures in the paintings seemed vividly alive.

I looked around at the numerous figures gazing down upon the earthly realm. Gods, divine messengers, and saints were watching over the monks’ prayers. It seemed these were the ‘watching eyes’ Danel had mentioned.

“Did you pray here too?”

“Yes. I did.”

“Weren’t you bothered by the people? There must have been people staring, like me.”

“…I’m not sure. I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to such things back then.”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh at his words.

We walked behind the altar amidst the solemn echoes. The resonating sound of the prayers felt strangely unreal.

I wondered if Danel had recited prayers like that too.

I tried to imagine the Danel of several years ago. Danel Veloche, sitting stiffly not in a splendid formal suit like now, but in coarse monastic robes. And the multicolored light pouring down upon him…

The exact same thought I’d had before came to mind.

‘He really was too good to have become a monk.’

Just then, Danel spoke.

“What are you thinking about?”

Danel’s eyes were fixed intently on my face. Just as I could read his emotions even within his expressionless state, Danel seemed to have noticed my change in mood.

I answered by quoting what Danel had said earlier.

“A thought one shouldn’t be having here.”

“It is a place where such thoughts easily come to mind.”

“There was nothing sacred about it at all, was there, Danel Veloce?”

“I was mostly that kind of person from the very beginning.”

I let out a low laugh.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine the impious thoughts he must have harbored here alone in the past. The old drawings hidden in his desk, my belongings piled up in the space behind his study, the countless desires he had revealed to me… I now knew so much about this man.

So, I could roughly guess what the content of the prayers Danel had offered all his life must have been. And he had even said that after those long years of prayer, we got married, and since then, he had never prayed to God again.

Those amethyst eyes carefully scanned my face as I thought these things.

“…Did you enjoy it?”

How many times has he asked this question today? Even though it’s not even noon yet, I feel like I’ve heard similar words at least three times.

But I didn’t find it bothersome. No, in fact, I could have given the same answer over and over again.

‘I love every day I spend with you.’

“Yes, it was good. Learning about parts of you I didn’t know.”

The times of Danel Veloce that I was unaware of.

Learning about my husband’s past—how he clung to God while holding in his heart a love no one could have guessed—was truly delightful.

As I smiled with that thought, Danel showed no reaction. Realizing this belatedly, I met his eyes, but Danel was just staring at me with a dazed expression.

For a moment, we held each other’s gaze in that sensation of time standing still. Then, Danel slowly grabbed my wrist.

And he headed somewhere.

Held by the wrist, I followed behind Danel. He opened a small door I hadn’t even known existed and led me outside.

“Danel?”

There was no answer.

After pulling me along for a while, Danel abruptly stopped. Still holding my wrist, I looked around.

At first, I didn’t realize where we were. But the multicolored glass high on the majestic wall and the religious painting depicted there looked familiar.

We had somehow ended up behind the altar, on the opposite side of the apse.

Beneath the depiction of God descending to earth in radiant glory. The man who had turned away from God was looking down at me. I instinctively understood what he was about to do.

“Not here.”