Hiding My Identity From My Husband - Chapter 11

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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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Episode 11

Temis was a young man.
Yet his hair streaked with grey, his unkempt beard, and his wrinkled shirt suggested someone with little regard for personal grooming.
‘A vagabond like that possesses information about Sacred Relics.’
It seemed unbelievable, yet both Guardian and Katakl had confirmed the same intelligence.
So I had to meet with Temis and hear him out.
‘He won’t tell the truth from the start, of course.’
But there were any number of ways to loosen his tongue.
I quickened my pace, thinking of the Short Sword and Musket strapped to both thighs.
The Marquis’s Garden connected to the forest, and Temis was heading in that direction.
As though searching for a place sparse of people.
I kept my distance from Temis and hid behind a wall.
If he was meeting someone, I needed to identify them first.
Hush.
I held my breath and leaned against the wall.
That was when it happened.
“You were here?”
A figure poked his head out from just beside me—it was Adrian.
I’d thought I should extract information from Temis before Adrian arrived.
‘Why did he get here so fast?’
Though slightly caught off guard, I replied as though it were nothing unusual.
“You’re late.”
Speaking as if I’d anticipated Adrian following me from the beginning.
“The Marchioness herself detained me—I couldn’t help it.”
“I can greet her later, then?”
“Of course. I’ve already prepared an excuse for her, so it should be fine.”
Adrian answered while observing Temis.
Temis paced between the garden and the forest path with his hands clasped behind his back, as though waiting for someone.
“Does he have an appointment?”
“Otherwise, there’s no reason he’d come to this deserted place.”
“Hmm. I wonder who he’s meeting.”
That’s what I wanted to know too. I’d wanted to know it alone.
Tch—I was clicking my tongue when it happened.
“…Huh?”
A strange wind brushed across my nose.
The air carried an eerie tension.
I’d felt this flow once before—that air which had been created by the Sniper Fire that pierced through Asmerald’s body in the past.
This was unmistakably…
“Watch out!”
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
And at the same moment, Temis fell.
“Damn!”
I rushed toward Temis, but a second shot fired even faster. Bang!
Fortunately, it didn’t strike Temis’s body.
Whoosh!
I slid in front of Temis and hurriedly examined his wound.
“Ugh, ugh… it hurts! It hurts!”
Good—at least there was that.
It was only his shoulder that had been pierced through. If I could stop the bleeding, there would be no serious damage.
“Argh! Medicine, bring medicine!”
“Complaining over a scratch like that? Hold still for a moment.”
I seized his uninjured arm and supported him.
“Adrian!”
The instant I shouted, Adrian aimed his Revolver into empty air.
Bang! Bang!
The one who had fired a warning shot gave his orders.
“Protect Temis for now!”
I didn’t need to be told.
To escape the sniper’s line of sight, I’d have to move while keeping to cover.
But this was a garden.
There was hardly any place to hide.
What was left was…….
‘The forest.’
I dragged Temis along and bolted for the trees.
The whole time, he kept whimpering.
“It hurts…… it hurts so much…….”
What a complainer.
Back in my heyday, I’d kept moving even with bullets lodged in my body.
“Just bear it. Once we’re hidden, I’ll stop the bleeding.”
At that, Temis’s eyelids lifted at an angle.
“Who…… are you?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
I brushed off his question curtly and kept moving.
Once we’d gone far enough into the forest, I found a spot decent enough to hide.
I leaned Temis’s body against a boulder and tore open his shirt.
“In situations like this…… don’t people usually tear a dress?”
“Ah. This shirt’s practically brand new.”
Why waste my own clothes when his are right here.
“This is going to hurt.”
“Ahhhhh!”
I pressed on his shoulder to stop the bleeding, then wrapped the torn cloth around the wound.
“It hurts so much!”
Temis thrashed about, but I paid him no mind. I had to keep him alive first.
“Phew.”
Once I’d finished the basic bleeding control, I checked him over again. There didn’t appear to be any other injuries.
“So.”
I listened to his breathing grow steadier and asked.
“Who are you?”
“Wh—what?”
“Who attacked you? Tell me.”
Temis shook his head, his face drained of color.
“I don’t know…… how would I know such a thing…….”
Temis seemed to be in a panic.
Well.
He’d nearly died just moments ago. Only natural.
But that wasn’t my problem.
“Then who were you supposed to meet out here?”
Temis’s vacant eyes finally focused on me.
“Why should I…… answer you?”
Look at him.
I twisted my lips into a smile and stepped hard on the crouching Temis.
“Ow!”
“Don’t you realize your life and death are in my hands?”
“Th—that is……!”
Temis nibbled his lower lip nervously, showing signs of distress.
“Want to die? Keep your mouth shut then. I’d actually find it easier to kill you anyway.”
I decided to drive the point home and placed my finger on the gun’s trigger.
Of course, it was a bluff. I don’t kill people.
But what did Temis know?
“Ah! Wait! Wait! Stop! I’ll talk!”
It seemed Temis had never been threatened like this before—he folded immediately.
Lucky for me.
“I…… I was supposed to meet an agent of Katakl.”
He spoke in halting bursts.
The fact that he knew of Katakl’s existence made my frown deepen.
“Well, Katakl is a secret organization of the Empire…… The Crown Prince introduced me to them. Yes. So that’s why I agreed to meet.”
The Crown Prince mentioned them?
‘That fool.’
I asked again.
“Why did you want to meet with them?”
Temis swallowed hard, then answered slowly.
“To discuss the distribution channels of Modified Aura…….”
“Modified Aura?”
I narrowed my eyes as I spoke.
“Y-yes. It’s something like an elixir…… anyway, not me, it’s not me. We just need to discuss it first.”
Katakl was trying to distribute an elixir?
That would never benefit the Empire…… why?
“I-I’ve told you everything! Don’t kill me! Please don’t!”
Temis cried out, trembling violently. If Rue learned this information, she would recognize Katakl’s existence and hunt them down.
Temis, who possessed this information…… should have been killed.
But.
“I won’t kill you.”
More precisely, I couldn’t.
I could not take a life.
I could not end a human being.
Having resolved this, I withdrew the gun I’d been pointing at him and lifted my foot from where I’d been pressing him down.
That was when it happened.
Bang!
A gunshot cracked through the air, and Temis collapsed.
I stared blankly at Temis, crumpled like a puppet with cut strings, then quickly turned my head.
“……Rue?”
I wondered if perhaps Rue had followed me here and heard everything.
But.
“Oh, how careless. Charle.”
The person who appeared was not Rue, but someone else.
“Mistaking me for the Empire’s lapdog, were you?”
It was…….
“Why do you insist on angering me?”
Adrian.
The Commander’s son and Katakl’s second-in-command.
He had appeared.

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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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