Chapter 94: Kidnapped for Love? That’s Impossible… Right?
Chapter 94: Kidnapped for Love? That’s Impossible... Right?
Elyn’s POV
"What did you just say?" My voice had probably cracked from sheer disbelief, and I felt my entire body tremble. The words seemed absurd, like something plucked straight from a fever dream. No one could possibly do that and call it love, I thought, shaking my head.
Morthen and Rin jumped simultaneously at my question. Their sudden, synchronized movements made me flinch, and they turned to me, their faces twisted into confused frowns. Morthen’s compound eyes blinked rapidly, multiple lenses focusing as if trying to process what I’d just asked. Rin’s head tilted, an almost feline expression of curiosity and disbelief crossing her face.
"I do not understand what you mean, my lady," Morthen told me, adjusting himself.
"I’m asking you what you just said because it’s absurd, right?" I asked them. "This has to be some sort of joke."
Morthen frowned. He and Rin exchanged a look, then he turned back to me.
"No, my lady. We are not joking with you," he told me.
Nah, no way. I refused to believe this. It couldn’t be possible. It shouldn’t be possible at all.
I leaned back in my chair, my hands moving on the desk. "I just want to be absolutely sure that I heard this correctly. Lady Tyrrhenia... didn’t really kidnap her husband and lock Lord Caleth in a tower for three hundred ninety-five and a half years before they got married, did she?"
Rin and Morthen exchanged a glance again that was equal parts amusement and disbelief. I swear I saw Rin’s eyebrows raise so high they nearly disappeared into her hairline. Then they both turned back toward me, giving me a look that was far too calm for what I was feeling.
"We’re being serious," Rin said slowly, her voice measured, almost as if she was weighing my reaction.
I blinked. Then blinked again. "Wait... so you’re telling me this actually happened?" My words came out in fragments, my mind racing to make sense of it. "She... she kidnapped him. She... she locked him up. For... for nearly four centuries. That’s... that’s... love? That’s supposed to be love?"
Morthen and Rin nodded immediately.
There was no doubt or any sign of unseriousness in their gaze to let me know that they were playing a trick on me. There was nothing of that sort, at all.
"That’s insane," I continued, waving my hands as if to physically push the words out of my head. "That just means Lord Caleth didn’t want to get married to her at the time, right? And if he didn’t, then what she did... that’s not love. That’s force. That’s... abuse! That’s basically no different from an arranged marriage."
"But they were not sworn to each other from when they were young," Rin told me.
"And no king told them to get married," Morthen added.
"And they do not benefit anything from their marriage like land or politics. I don’t see how it’s an arranged marriage," Rin told me.
That doesn’t make it any better. Just because their families didn’t force them didn’t mean that it still couldn’t be an arranged marriage.
"My lady, from what you told us about arranged marriages, Lord Caleth and Lady Tyrrhenia’s marriage is not an arranged marriage. That is not it, my lady," she told me.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to reconcile her words with what I had been told. "Not it? Rin... you just told me she kidnapped him! That’s literally forcing someone into marriage. That’s... terrible!"
She leaned forward slightly, her gaze sharp but patient, almost teasingly so. "But to Lord Caleth, it wasn’t force. He willingly entered, and he enjoyed every single aspect of it too."
I froze mid-breath. "He... enjoyed it? What are you talking about?"
"Yes," Rin said, tilting her head to the side, a faint, amused smile tugging at her lips. "Lord Caleth talks about it. All the time. About how Lady Tyrrhenia wooed him. About how she—well..." She hesitated, her voice dropping slightly, "how she played with him, lured him, made him surrender. And he... he loved every single moment of it."
I felt my jaw drop. Literally, physically, my jaw dropped, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if I’d even breathe. "He... he... he loved being kidnapped?" I whispered. My voice came out as more of a strangled sound than actual words.
"How does one even live being kidnapped?" Vaelory asked. "That’s... that’s absurd."
Exactly my thoughts. What in the dark romance novel happened three hundred ninety-five and a half years ago when Lord Caleth was kidnapped?
"Yes," Rin said, voice unwavering. "Lord Caleth will tell you himself. He always talks about his time at the tower dreamily. And he tells anyone who is willing to listen, or within earshot, about his time there. That he would do anything to go back to that time. That he wouldn’t change a single moment. And he doesn’t mess with her too. He also didn’t even try to escape from the tower. He stayed there throughout, enjoying every aspect of it, and he is also absolutely in love with her too. Actually, they are in love with each other, suffocatingly so. Anyone who has had the opportunity to meet them knows that."
I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of it. My brain was spinning, and my stomach churned as I attempted to reconcile this narrative with everything I knew about normal behavior—or human logic. "That... that’s impossible. That cannot be love. That’s... that’s... kidnapping! That’s forcing someone to marry you! Caleth was forced! How can you say he... he—" I gestured wildly between Rin and Morthen—"how can you say he loved it?"
Rin exchanged a glance with Morthen. Both of them seemed suddenly far too amused for my liking. Their expressions softened into barely contained laughter.
"My lady," Morthen said, his voice shaking slightly as he laughed, "you are choosing not to understand this. Lord Caleth was kidnapped only because he let it happen."
"I like to say he was taken by his lover," Rin said with a smile.
"I know you guys said he loves her, but why didn’t he even try to escape once?" Vaelory asked.
Rin rolled her eyes. "That’s because he loves her. He could have escaped; he’s stronger than her, faster than her too, but he didn’t even make an attempt to do so. He could have walked away at any moment but chose not to do so."
Morthen nodded. "That’s love."
I could try to argue that it wasn’t love, but then I remembered this was the demon realm. Things like this were the norm here.
"You know what, seeing is believing. I’ll wait until I see Caleth and his wife to know if you guys are being honest with me or not," I told them.
"Me too," Vaelory piped up from here.
And then I stood up since I wasn’t sure I could cope with the remaining lecture again.
"We still have three other dukedoms to talk about, right?" I asked Morthen.
"Well yes, but you should also know that we only scratched the surface of—"
"I asked you a question, and I got my answer," I told him, interrupting him. "I’m tired, and I need some rest."
He nodded. "Yes, my lady."
My first stop was the kitchen, where I asked Kethra if she could create another box so the snake, who was eagerly following me with his hands in mine, could stop stealing mine.
What I didn’t know was that while Morthen and Rin were telling Vaelory and me about Caleth and his wife, someone else was taking notes. Someone who was now currently holding my hands and smiling up at me with his cute blue eyes. But that would be a story for another day.