I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 24
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
‘That’s right, I’m certain. That’s why the male lead goes abroad to find his brother, and in the meantime, Karl uses all sorts of dirty tricks to try to claim the female protagonist!’
There was no way two such unique stories could overlap. Judith swallowed dryly. Then the man before her eyes, Huyd Ramis who believed himself to be a commoner, was actually…
‘A marquis’ son! Not Huyd Ramis, but Huyd Soden!’
In the original story, he left for foreign countries when the Meius Duke and Duchess died. To find a place that would pay as much as the Meius Ducal House!
Right now, the Soden Marquis and Marchioness, who were the male protagonist’s parents, were also desperately searching for their missing eldest son.
“So whenever I see Prince Karl, I’m reminded of my younger siblings.”
Huyd continued speaking with a kind smile, unaware of what Judith was thinking.
“It’s a bit pathetic, isn’t it? Just… being a doctor who chases money for the reason of feeding my family.”
“Oh, no. Not at all.”
Judith waved her hands and spoke seriously.
“You’re someone who can endure that much. I don’t know for sure, but someone evil enough to plan poisoning the Duke and Duchess deliberately tormented you… It really couldn’t have been easy to endure…”
At her words, the corners of Huyd’s mouth trembled slightly.
“You’re someone who loves your family enough to endure all that. Right? Rather than thinking it’s pathetic, I think it’s heartwarming.”
“Ah…”
“I was also chased by loan sharks and had to take 8-hour classes every day, so I know. I know how hard it is to live being pushed around by money. So I would never think such things.”
When Judith spoke, Huyd stared at her for a moment. Then he smiled slightly and his ears turned red.
“In this mansion where everything is overflowing with luxury… I never thought I could be understood. I’m suddenly receiving great comfort.”
“Not at all. I just… I was in a similar situation too, and I’m even pretending to be pregnant like this.”
She continued the conversation gently while thinking to herself.
‘If such a kind and upright young man’s real parents are marquis, I think I should help him a bit?’
Judith now had no debt, was going to have a lot of money, and most importantly, thanks to Huyd, hadn’t this matter ended much faster and better than expected!
‘Huyd, I’ll help you find your real parents soon.’
She smiled broadly and made a resolution.
‘I’m the type who repays debts.’
Ekian was walking toward the secret passage.
Originally, he had intended to listen to the conversation between Judith and Huyd, the young doctor who had come to see her.
Of course, eavesdropping on private conversations was wrong.
‘But that room is my room. I’m listening to a conversation taking place in my room.’
Even so, interfering with Judith’s private life was wrong.
‘But Judith is my wife on paper. Naturally I should be concerned, shouldn’t I?’
Moreover, the young man named Huyd Ramis was unnecessarily pretty.
Suddenly Judith’s words came to mind. She said she would actively consider remarriage when the contract period ended, that she didn’t mind if he was a commoner, that anyone capable and diligent in their work would be fine.
Annoyingly, Huyd Ramis met all those conditions.
‘He didn’t even call her madam!’
Judith had even given him permission to call her by name.
No, when he dealt with the Information Guild, they hadn’t called each other by name for three years.
Ekian had felt very bad about something and was going to listen to their conversation. But what drove him back to the middle of the secret passage was none other than Huyd’s words.
‘No. The Duke’s interrogation just ended. Ah, it might not be over. Given the Duke’s personality, he might start again in about an hour.’
According to Huyd’s words, the Duke wasn’t in the prison right now. That meant Bart was locked up alone.
There would be guards, but he could put them to sleep with sleeping incense, so he had to go to the prison.
He had something he absolutely had to ask Bart. Because seventeen-year-old him had never doubted Bart’s loyalty.
‘Judith was really right about everything. I knew nothing.’
Just as he hadn’t known Sera was that kind of person, he hadn’t known Bart was that kind of person either.
In the end, Judith had been right about everything. Even while heading toward Bart, Ekian couldn’t stop thinking about Judith.
She had just been his young client whom he thought was somewhat clever and hardworking…
‘First, she saved my life.’
He bit his lower lip inside the mask.
‘She saved Karl, and also saved my parents.’
Thinking that, he was startled again by himself. Before he knew it, he was thinking of the Duke and Duchess as ‘parents’ in his mind.
Well.
How could he not think of them as parents? The Duke and Duchess who always created a stable home and even forged a marriage registration to send him a message that they were waiting for him.
‘I trusted Bart.’
He thought with lonely eyes.
‘I believed in his loyalty. His loyalty to Meius. I naturally thought it was right for everyone that I leave…’
He was seventeen years old then.
The words he heard from Bart, the ducal house’s personal physician, still remained in his mind.
‘Young Duke. I am one who serves Meius loyally. Therefore… though I respect you and like you as a person, for Meius I must tell you this.’
What Bart said after coming secretly in the middle of the night and bowing his head to him.
‘Young Duke… you are not the Duke and Duchess’s biological child.’
It was a night with rumbling thunder and lightning crashing loudly.
Ekian that day was an adolescent boy with blonde hair and dark red eyes. So the same brilliant blonde hair as Ben and Karl.
‘If you can’t believe it, try not drinking the tea I give you in the morning. The tea I prescribed contained a reagent that changes hair color.’
‘…What?’
As he said, when he didn’t drink tea for several days, before long Ekian could see black hair tips. The devastation of that time, the feeling that the world was collapsing, was still vivid.
‘Tell me, Bart.’
He said in a low voice.
‘Then who are my real parents?’
‘That is…’
When he heard that answer, Ekian thought he understood why Bart had told him to ‘leave for Meius.’ That’s why Ekian had also told Judith that ‘Bart is loyal to the Meius Ducal House.’
But conversely.
If he hadn’t been someone loyal to the Meius Ducal House…
Why had he told him to ‘leave for Meius’? Why had he bothered to reveal that secret?
Questions led to more questions. He had to ask directly.
The Duke’s Mansion he was returning to after almost five years. Ekian’s eyes darkened.
Because of Judith alone, his entire life was being shaken. Because of her who had somehow become his fake wife.
Bart was collapsed on the floor of the prison, breathing heavily.
Meius Duke’s interrogation was harsh. He had expected it, but it was truly painful.
But he had already swallowed poison. Though they all didn’t know, soon when the drug took effect, he would be able to die.
‘Who would have thought that wench worked at an apothecary…’
Bart gritted his teeth and gasped for breath.
One year, if he had fed them for just one more year, he could have completely destroyed the Duke and Duchess. No, since he had been putting medicine in Karl’s tea too, he could have completely eliminated the Meius Ducal House’s bloodline.
That was very regrettable. Because the name Meius was hatred itself to him.
‘Your Imperial Majesty.’
Bart muttered inwardly with resentment.
‘Please annihilate the entire Meius family.’
That was personal grudge rather than loyalty. It was hatred he felt toward the name Meius.
That’s when it happened.
After the Duke briefly went to see his wife, the guards watching his prison door collapsed with a thud.
‘What?’
Bart frowned and raised his head. Then he looked at the figure standing silently outside the prison and held his breath with a gasp.
“Long time no see, Bart.”
A young man with a sturdy build stood upright among the collapsed guards. Even though he wore a mask, he could guess who it was.
“Ah, this appearance would be your first time seeing it.”
He removed his white mask. The pale moonlight entering the prison illuminated the young man.
Jet black hair, cool dark red eyes. A solid body and a beautiful sculptural face, movements flowing with noble bearing.
Someone who could make others tremble with just his gaze, truly befitting the description of an elegant beast…
“Ha…”
The Ekian that Bart remembered was seventeen. No matter how excellent a talent, he had only been a young lord standing at the boundary between youth and boyhood.
But now, he had grown facing the world’s storms and winds, exuding an even more distant atmosphere.
Bart’s knees trembled. He muttered unconsciously.
“Ekian… Young Duke.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————