The General's Wife Wants to Leave
Chapter 123: Treaty

Chapter 123: Treaty

"Is this a treaty of reconciliation? Or another card under your sleeve to achieve your goal, Joanna?" Canillas asked, lifting one of the corners of his lips as he moved his gaze from the cup of hot tea to his wife.

Upon hearing the question given to her, Joanna, who was about to grind the last variety of dried leaves, which was peppermint, that she had put into the new mortar that she had taken from the cabinet, halted before raising her head to look at the man who smirked at her.

"Lemon balm is good for health," Joanna simply answered, choosing to shorten the conversation as, despite her current mood, she still could sense that the conversation would be prolonged if she ate his tease.

"So, my wife is worried about my health now? What a miracle I have here!" Canillas exclaimed in a playful tone. A grin was plastered on his face.

As if not noticing the way the woman who had made the tea for him glared at him, he added, "But is it really good for my health, not the other way around?"

Soon, Joanna rose from her seat after hearing what he had said to her.

Placing the mortar from her lap to the table, she leaned over to take the cup of tea, which was suspected to be dangerous. But before Joanna could touch both the saucer and the cup, she had her eyes opened wide when the man, who had implicitly suspected her, took the cup containing the hot tea where the smoke was still rising and drank it.

Eventually, the cup was set back on the saucer after he took a big sip from it. The next action that occurred was that he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and waved his hand over it as if fanning the burnt tongue.

"It is hot, Joanna," he commented with a painful look, and a faint smile formed on his burnt lips when he caught her worried look.

A fleeting second later, Joanna dashed toward the cabinet, reading the label that was attached to the body of several porcelain jars that were neatly lined on one column of the rack. When she found what she searched for, Joanna strode back and stood near Canillas.

She then opened the lid of the jar and took a clean spoon to take out the honey that was contained in it. "Put this on your tongue. Don’t swallow it immediately. Let it rest on your tongue for several seconds. Just look up so you won’t... drool." Joanna gave instructions in a serious tone, trailing off in the end.

Noticing she was contemplating finding a word to substitute for the last word she just said, despite her anxious look, Canillas let out a low chuckle. He thought that she might try to find the other word, as she might be imagining how he looked when he drooled.

Taking the teaspoon filled with honey from Joanna’s hand, he stuffed it in his mouth, but he did not follow the next instruction given by her as he swallowed the sweet honey immediately.

Enduring the pain had been part of Canillas’ life as a soldier, and the burnt tongue was nothing compared to what he had experienced so far. Broken bones, torn skin, and stabbed flesh were indeed far more painful than what he felt in his mouth at the moment. Hence, he could easily cope with that.

What he wanted to see by showing that he was in pain was the response of his cold wife. He wanted to know how she would react when she found him in pain. Would she remain calm as if nothing had happened? Would she ignore him?

But now he was relieved by what he saw in her concerned face. She even gave him a remedy to ease the burnt sensation in his mouth, especially his tongue.

His wife was still a warm-hearted lady. The same warm-hearted lady that he recognized in the Powel Orphanage.

"I am fine, Joanna. Thank you for your concern," Canillas said with a smile. "And thank you for the treaty of reconciliation. It is very refreshing, and I feel healthy." He added with a grin, making Joanna drift her concerned gaze away when she heard the words of the treaty of reconciliation.

"And I won’t mind drinking it every day if you are concerned about me and want to boost my health," Canillas uttered when he noticed the change in her demeanor, as if his previous words had hit the bull’s eyes.

Not giving a response to his words, Joanna chose to return to sit on the chair and seal the jar of honey tightly. Setting it aside, she focused back on grinding the dried mint leaves in the mortar, as she wanted to finish her chores as soon as possible so that she could get an early rest before a long trip to the capital the next day.

Treaty of reconciliation. Those words ran through her mind while she was working on her chore.

Joanna was actually not sure how to define what she was doing at the moment. She only knew that she was currently in a state where she realized that she had to accept and face reality.

She felt that she had done a lot to make her marriage come to an end, to free herself from the man who, until now, after what she had done to him, still appeared before her. She had even done something that took the peace in her heart and made her feel wrong and restless.

Guilty struck her heart since she met Clara de Lorn, and the guilt penetrated deeper in her heart when she saw the look and heard the words of the man whom she wished for happiness with another woman who was far better than her.

What he said to her on the side of the river had also struck her heart, although what he had mentioned was the reasons that she made up to make him agree to annul their marriage, as she could not tell him that it was the dream that made her act this way.

Aside from that, what made Joanna feel guilty more was that everything he said was still the same as what he mentioned in their first meeting.

Even his facial expression was still the same. He was serious; there was no playfulness she could detect on his face.

Living in a separate house from his mother, coming to Terra to make amends for what he thought he had done wrong by leaving her on the battlefield for so long, and promising her that he would return safely from the battlefields were the solutions he had made to comfort her, convincing her to live as his wife and to return to Archess with him.

Was she swayed by him? Joanna was not sure.

She only felt a prick in her heart. There was no bliss and relief that she should have felt when he walked past her, leaving her alone and showing her his back. And what made it more absurd was that she felt a relief surge inside her when she saw him under the silver birch tree, and he went even further to talk to her.

But confusion soon followed when she also felt relieved that he still wanted to maintain their marriage.

Was it because she felt guilty toward him that she felt relieved because he still gave their marriage a chance so that she could remove that guilty feeling by living with the status of his wife?

Was she grateful that their marriage was maintained because he was a sharp-witted person and could easily read her mind so that he could know that there was no other man dear to her heart, like he suspected?

Was she thankful because he was a man of his words so that he fulfilled his words not to end their marriage as there was no other man dear to her heart?

But who was to blame in this matter if she was the one who threw away the only chance he gave her to be away from him forever?

He had given her the chance to make him change his mind about maintaining their marriage. Yet she threw away that chance because her heart was not willing to cooperate with everything she had in mind. She also could not betray her virtue as a married woman.

But strangely, she felt calm at the moment.

She was, of course, surprised when she heard him bring up Archess in their conversation, while she thought he had appeared, after he had gone for a day, to announce the end of their marriage. But it did not last long.

Joanna thought that guilt might defeat her determination to rebel.

Hence, what remained in Joanna’s mind now was that she had to prepare herself to return to Archess with him and face what she had to face there.

The dream was still haunting her. But one thing she would do for sure was not let what she saw in the dream come true.