About Becoming My Ex-Husband's Mistress - Chapter 50

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 50. Welcome Home, Darling
Irina hesitated at the sight of me, but at a gesture from Madame Laber, she took a deep breath and settled into an empty spot on the long sofa.
Madame Laber exhaled a long plume of smoke and asked in a languid voice.
“What’s the matter?”
Irina’s gaze flickered toward me.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry and speak freely.”
At Madame Laber’s words, Irina clasped her hands together neatly.
“I was wondering if you’d met my teacher.”
“Ah, the one who lives on Heril Island?”
“…Yes. Did they refuse to come?”
Madame Laber answered with perfect composure.
“I went to look, but couldn’t find them.”
Irina’s voice rose a pitch in surprise.
“What? You couldn’t find them? What do you mean?”
“It seems they left the island recently.”
“They left?”
Irina’s voice shot up far too loudly in her shock.
Madame Laber clicked her tongue softly once, and Irina flustered, quickly covering her mouth with both hands and lowering her head.
Meanwhile, Madame Laber, still composed, pointed at me with her cigarette holder.
“So on my way back, I recruited someone I met. They have considerable talent.”
“I… I see…”
Her voice had grown dejected. Her hands, clasped together in front of her, fidgeted nervously.
Seeing that, I felt a pang of sympathy.
Should I not hide this from Irina?
Madame Laber, who had been watching Irina with her head bowed, eventually rose from her seat.
“Well, when you think about it, you’re the one who told me, so I went and ended up meeting Priscilla and bringing her along.”
What she pulled from the desk was a small purse.
“I’m grateful to you. This is the money I promised.”
Madame Laber pressed the purse into Irina’s hands and smiled.
“The newly arrived Priscilla is just as skilled as the person you recommended, so work well with her, and now off you go.”
Dismissed, Irina bowed with a reluctant expression and left.
* * *
For about a week, I remained in a powder room assigned to me alone under the pretense of adapting to the facilities and tools.
The entrance was concealed by a curtain.
In truth, I had finished organizing and arranging my tools long ago.
Most of my time was spent receiving, studying, memorizing, and transcribing summaries of information ledgers about the countless figures in the social circle.
The ledger, compiled from multiple files, contained names, portraits, personalities, family trees, influence in society, relationships with other nobles, wealth, hobbies and preferences, and even which shops they frequented and who they kept as mistresses.
I let out a low whistle.
It wasn’t just information about the salon’s clientele. Though the volume was limited, there were records on everyone whose name was worth mentioning in the social circle.
‘Wow, this is like an X-file level of information. In modern times, you couldn’t even imagine something like this because of privacy protection laws.’
After compiling the information, I reopened several files I had previously marked and examined them carefully.
First, Melissa Bilsty, the young lady of the Bilsty household.
And her brother-in-law who became her escort knight, Count Veloda Genoma.
Both were exactly as I knew them.
However, there was an additional detail that differed from the novel.
It was the part about being “a fortunate man blessed by divine grace.”
Without any significant wealth, approximately four years ago, he became rich by remarrying Priscilla Sellen, the widow of Baron Sellen.
Three months after the marriage, Priscilla Sellen died in a fall, and he found himself alone once more.
Priscilla Sellen’s estate included not only bank deposits but also the inheritance of the late Baron Sellen, who had fallen in battle.
Thanks to that, Count Veloda Genoma’s prominence skyrocketed.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
If it had been processed as a disappearance, it would have taken two years.
But seeing that it was written as death by accident, it appeared he had employed some clever scheme to claim the inheritance immediately and enter the Central Social Circle.
After confirming the information on both of them, I moved on to the file concerning Matilda Bilsty, the Countess.
She was riding high in her Town House, basking in her daughter’s success.
She primarily frequented the Eleonora Salon but occasionally visited the Raber Salon, where she would pick absurd quarrels and resort to violence—the records described it as quite a spectacle.
‘It seems her condition has worsened since then.’
Next, I examined the files on figures from the Doerban Empire.
Since the novel I had read and the main stage of my previous life were both set in the Arde Kingdom, the information about the Empire felt somewhat unfamiliar.
Emperor Fleit Doorban, who had not appeared in public since the war and devoted himself entirely to governing the Empire.
And—Prince Eclite Doorban, an extra-level character whose name never appeared in the novel, whose existence I only now properly understood.
He had been the Empire’s sole prince until Luderne appeared, and he was currently actively involved in state affairs.
A question suddenly occurred to me.
He had originally been the sole prince and was actively intervening in state matters—so why had he never been designated as Crown Prince?
Upon reflection, it wasn’t that the Emperor didn’t know of Luderne’s existence.
He knew; he simply concealed it.
Moreover, Eclite was one year younger than Luderne. Even as a bastard, Luderne was the eldest son.
Seeing this, a suspicion crossed my mind.
‘Has he not yet decided whom to grant the imperial succession to? Even though both sons have passed their mid-twenties?’
I could not discern the Empire’s situation based solely on my speculation.
But I felt certain that if Luderne had not fallen into the schemes of King Zerox and Count Veloda Genoma and remained powerless, he would not have been abandoned by the Emperor.
If not for the poisoned chalice that Melissa handed him, might he have become the Crown Prince of the Empire and eventually the Emperor himself?
Of course, he appeared as a villain in the novel, but that was from the perspective of the Arde Kingdom.
Luderne and Zerox were half-brothers, with Zerox being two years younger.
Even if Zerox, born of the Queen, inherited the throne, the existence of his older half-brother Luderne with the same blood would inevitably be inconvenient.
In contrast, in the Doerban Empire, Luderne was justice itself.
Luderne was a man who possessed both the opportunity and justification to swallow the Arde Kingdom, and he excelled in every way.
“Ah, so that’s why….”
After reaching this conclusion and reflecting on past events, I understood even more clearly.
The day Luderne denied me.
When we reunited, I wondered if the war had caused him to lose his memory. After all, he claimed he’d never gone to war.
But Sir Jester’s testimony told a different story.
Luderne was likely pretending not to know me.
The reason was simple—unlike when he was known only as an illegitimate son and unwelcome as a potential husband, his status had transformed dramatically. Now he stood at a completely different station.
With no marriage record to his name, a mere glance would summon a procession of daughters from the highest nobility.
And if he looked at me from that vantage point?
First, I was pitiful—unable to even manage the wealth he’d entrusted to me, having squandered it entirely.
I could never measure up to the capabilities required of a Grand Duchess managing such vast estates.
My origins in a provincial count’s family made me wholly unsuitable for such a position.
Yet he’d taken pity on his cursed former wife and even maintained me as a secret mistress.
Fortunately, with Sir Jester’s help, the curse had ceased, and I’d found some measure of peace—but without bearing the child of the one I loved, my life remained finite.
Therefore, I must never draw close to Luderne again. If he lived, he might walk the path of an emperor.
At the end of the file was a single line about Brissel Mohr, Luderne’s guard knight and advisor.
It noted that this aging man had sworn to dedicate his life to Luderne—a loyal retainer of the highest order.
I didn’t know whether Brissel Mohr was aware of me or not.
But a loyal servant would inevitably view a woman of unremarkable status lingering near the Grand Duke with disfavor.
Just then, the grandfather clock in the lobby chimed twice.
Two o’clock in the afternoon.
The appointed time with Madame Laber had arrived.
My investigation was complete. I placed the ledger in the safe, drew back the curtain that had concealed the entrance, and pushed the three-tiered tray containing my tools out into the lobby.
Madame Laber, Irina, and the salon’s other designers were waiting for me.
The model who would receive my styling today sat in a chair.
“Come here, dear.”
Madame Laber, her lips curved in a smile, gestured toward the model.
“Begin.”
I positioned the three-tiered tray beside the chair and examined the model.
She had an inverted triangle face with prominent cheekbones and hollow cheeks.
Her skin was in poor condition—dull, rough, and dotted with blemishes.
Her eyebrows were sparse and irregularly shaped.
Her long brown hair, left unbound, was at least combed, but it lacked volume and the texture was a mess.
She looked exactly like someone pulled from the slums, scrubbed clean, and seated here.
While I assessed the model’s condition, the designers’ gazes remained cold.
Understandably so. I’d been brought in through Madame Laber’s recruitment and had spent an entire week locked in the powder room without seeing a single client.
To anyone’s eyes, I appeared to be nothing more than a nepotistic hire.
But starting today, their perception of me would change.
I’d summoned all the designers with strong reputations to select two assistants to aid me after today’s styling.
I picked up a comb and scissors, beginning to arrange the model’s hair.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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