Hiding My Identity From My Husband - Chapter 5

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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 5

No, she’s far too adorable for what I imagined!
I never thought our Lu would have low standards, but I certainly didn’t expect him to be this particular either!
“Oh, um. Did I greet you incorrectly?”
Charle tilted her head, her pale pink hair twisting between her fingers in nervous spirals.
The gesture was nothing remarkable, yet something about it stirred an urge to sweep her into an embrace. The Young Noble Ladies pinched their own cheeks hard, fighting for composure.
No, I won’t. Get it together!
“W-well, hello, Charle. I’m Everlyn Floria, the Count’s ward.”
Everlyn recovered first and offered a greeting. The other Young Noble Ladies followed suit, each introducing herself in turn.
“I’m Dorothy Harrington.”
“…Agatha Lockwood.”
“Catherine Winslow.”
Charle approached the round table where they sat and lowered herself into the empty chair before speaking.
“It’s an honor to meet you all like this.”
Charle smiled brightly and continued.
“I’ve heard so much about you from Lu. He told me there were kind people in the Capital helping in my stead. I wanted to thank you again.”
“…”
On the surface, it sounded like a simple expression of gratitude.
But the deliberate emphasis on Lu’s name and her choice of the word “stead”—anyone could hear the mockery threading through it.
That adorable face, and yet such a cutting way with words. The Young Noble Ladies’ faces flushed crimson, then ashen.
“Ahem!”
Everlyn cleared her throat and composed herself.
“The truth is, we don’t know much about you, Charle. Only that you’re Lu’s Fiancée.”
Everlyn had carefully phrased it to mean: your presence here exists only because of Lu Banssen.
“That’s why we invited you. You’ll be staying in the Capital from now on, so shouldn’t we all get to know each other better?”
Charle’s violet eyes turned toward Everlyn.
They seemed to hold the pure innocence of violets, yet also the fading beauty of dying petals.
Everlyn felt her throat tighten as she swallowed hard.
“Must I…”
Charle parted her lips slowly.
“Do we have to?”
Everyone heard the same words, yet no one answered. Or rather, no one could.
It was an answer entirely unexpected, a response they’d never even imagined.
“Lu is all I need, and I’m all Lu needs…”
“…”
“So why must I befriend you all?”
Every mouth fell open.
How could anyone be so shamelessly presumptuous?
Two of the Young Noble Ladies shot to their feet, voices raised.
“Listen here, Charle! You can’t dismiss our kindness like this!”
“How could you be so rude!”
They’d already decided to point out her rudeness and throw her out—and they voiced this plan together.
But that’s when it happened.
Whirrrrrr—
A sound like a spinning propeller filled the air. Impossibly loud.
What?
Every eye snapped to the same point.
There hung a wasp the size of a forearm.
A wasp.
A wasp?
Could a wasp even get that large?
Someone had said it best.
If you called it a Giant Wasp, it was just a regular hornet—
“…A monster?”
But if you asked if it was a monster, then it was a Giant Wasp.
“Kyaaaa!”
The Young Noble Ladies, taking in the situation at once, shrieked and scattered.
If that thing stung you, you’d die. Really die!
“Stay back, stay back! Ahhh!”
Bzzzzzz!
But the Giant Wasp was not the sort of creature to obey commands to keep its distance. It dove straight for Everlyn, whose panicked thrashing made her the most conspicuous target.
Its face was more terrifying than any monster’s.
Everlyn shut her eyes tight.
‘Am I really going to die like this…?’
‘Never even had a proper love, and already at such a beautiful age…?’
“Ugh!”
Bracing for the pain she knew would come, her body went rigid.
But no matter how long she waited, the sting never came.
Instead,
“Ow.”
Charle’s voice reached her ears.
‘Ow? What does that—’
‘What…?’
“Eek! Charle! You’ve been stung!”
“Are you all right?!”
The Young Noble Ladies, who moments before had kept their distance from Charle, gasped in alarm and rushed to check on her.
Everlyn too opened her eyes in shock, staring at Charle.
Charle’s arm was already swelling badly.
Despite the pain that must have been excruciating, Charle showed not a flicker of distress—only looked around, searching.
Bzzzzzz!
Still circling somewhere nearby, the Giant Wasp had to be found.
“W-what do we do?”
“Isn’t it true that wasps die after stinging once? Why isn’t this one dead?”
“We should call the guards—”
It was then.
Charle reached for the Silver Tray on the trolley and spoke.
“Everyone, keep your heads down for a moment.”
And then.
Clang!
She swung the tray and struck the Giant Wasp hard.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Again and again.
“How is a metal tray making that sound hitting an insect…?”
The Giant Wasp, enraged, beat its wings with even greater fury.
But then.
Clang!
Charle struck it once more with the tray and spoke.
“Look here.”
She fixed the Giant Wasp with a stare, tray still raised.
The intensity of her presence was extraordinary.
So fierce that even a mere insect could sense it.
Fierce enough to trigger an instinct for survival—a primal warning that to come closer meant certain death.
The Giant Wasp, for all its aggression and stubbornness, would normally never retreat after being struck, but—
“Wait? Wait? I’m leaving!”
Sensing the mortal threat, it simply abandoned the fight and departed.
‘That was fortunate.’
Charle set down the tray, muttering to herself.
“Charle! Are you all right?”
“You were stung earlier—weren’t you?”
The Young Noble Ladies cried out to her.
Their manner toward her now was starkly different from how they had shunned her moments before.
Charle looked down at her own swollen arm.
‘It’s fine.’
When one becomes an agent of Caracle, there is one thing done first.
It is to ingest poison.
By gradually accumulating small doses of toxin in the body, one builds a tolerance to poison.
So Charle not only had a resistance to poison, but she felt almost no pain from the Giant Wasp’s attack.
“We need to fetch a physician at once…!”
“What on earth has happened?”
At that moment, a gentle voice rang out.
The Young Noble Ladies started in alarm, turning their heads toward the sound.
“Lu!”
“Charle’s been hurt!”
Lu had stepped out briefly when the commotion arose, only to find that Charle had gotten injured in that short span. He hurried toward her at once.
“Charle? What’s the matter?”
“Ah, it’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious? Your arm is swollen!”
Lu stared at Charle with an expression of utter bewilderment.
Then he leaned in close, speaking in a voice too low for the others to hear.
“What trouble have you gotten into while I stepped away?”
“I didn’t cause any trouble. The wasp did.”
“That’s hardly the distinction—”
Lu couldn’t contain the exasperation that rose in him.
But Charle didn’t quite understand his frustration.
It wasn’t as though this was her first injury, so why the anger?
As Charle paused in confusion, she suddenly remembered: they were at the Count’s Residence, and many eyes were watching them.
‘That’s why.’
We’re supposed to be a devoted couple.
So of course I must show everyone that he cares.
With that thought, Charle leaned against Lu quickly.
“I’m sorry for worrying you, Lu.”
Lu’s body went rigid at once. But Charle didn’t stop there.
“Oh, now I’m beginning to feel it. It hurts terribly.”
Just moments before, she had seemed perfectly fine, so the sudden complaint of pain was oddly timed.
Yet those who knew that delayed shock could follow a wasp sting all let out worried sighs.
“We must call the physician!”
“Good heavens, and with such a delicate frame…”
Lu pressed his lip between his teeth, then wrapped an arm around Charle’s shoulders and addressed the gathered company.
“Your Grace, I apologize, but I’m afraid we must take our leave for today. I should take Charle to the physician without delay.”
Having decided that their exit was necessary, Lu spoke. The others responded at once.
“Of course, yes! You absolutely must!”
“Miss Charle, I do hope you recover swiftly.”
They bade farewell with smiles of exceptional warmth, as though they hadn’t been bearing down on Charle mere moments before.
Part of this was due to Lu’s appearance, but it was also because they had been moved by the courageous conduct Charle had just displayed.
They said that being stung by a Giant Wasp hurt worse than death itself. That one could easily perish from it!
Yet Charle had endured the pain until her Fiancée arrived, only then revealing her suffering.
That had made a profound impression on them.
‘So she was hiding her pain out of concern for us!’
These were the same people who had been preparing to corner her just moments earlier.
Not only had Charle rescued them from that predicament, but she had concealed her agony so as not to embarrass them.
What a remarkable person she was.
It was only natural that their eyes now shone with genuine fondness.
“Um, ah, well…”
Everlyn, who had nearly been stung and narrowly escaped death, began to speak to Charle hesitantly.
She ought to thank her.
She ought to say that she owed Charle her life.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Everlyn Floria was not a woman who had ever made such a gesture before.
For she was more accustomed to expressing gratitude with coin than with words.
After a long while spent searching for words, Everlyn finally shut her eyes tight and exclaimed.
“I—I’ll repay you for this!”
What…?
Leaving behind a bewildered Charle, Everlyn departed with the other Young Noble Ladies.

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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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