I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Originally, Judith was supposed to visit the Duke’s Mansion two days later. However, the very next morning, someone had been waiting in front of Judith’s boarding house since dawn.

With the twilight behind him, he spoke politely.

“The Meius Duchess has personally ordered me to escort the Baron.”

The alley where her boarding house was located was too narrow for a carriage to enter. In some ways, it might seem pitiful for a noble with a baron title to live in such a place, but Judith showed no signs of embarrassment. If she had been the type to care about such things, she wouldn’t have been able to live like this.

She was very good at accepting things. From a very young age.

“Ah, wait a moment. I have several home tutoring sessions today… Let me just write a few letters to cancel them urgently and then we can depart.”

“That’s fine. The ducal house has already taken care of everything.”

“Ah… yes.”

Seeing that they had even figured out her lesson schedule and canceled it, they must have properly investigated her background.

Judith chose neat clothes to wear, then walked down the alley and boarded the carriage bearing the Meius crest.

Judging by how politely the servant treated her, the Duchess must have taken quite a liking to Judith. She rested her chin on her hand while looking at the Meius crest with its engraved eagle.

After the carriage had traveled quite a distance, the massive Meius Mansion could be seen in the distance.

‘What could Ekian Meius’s circumstances be?’

What circumstances could have made him turn his back on a guaranteed future, harmonious family, and enormous wealth to leave the mansion of his own accord?

Judith, who had never possessed even one of those things, found herself curious despite knowing she wouldn’t find the answer.

Why had the young marquis, who seemed to lack nothing, become a runaway teenager in his mid-teens?

‘Wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, he’s probably dead, right? That’s why he doesn’t appear in the original story, right?’

He had a much younger brother whom he cherished terribly, Karl Meius.

He never showed himself even when Karl, who was the villain in the original story, became an orphan, faced hardships, and eventually turned dark to become a villain. If he had been alive, he would have somehow helped Karl.

‘Maybe he was terminally ill from the beginning?’

She rested her chin on her hand and began to imagine.

‘So he hid his illness and disappeared because he was afraid his family would be sad?’

The people of the Meius Ducal House had blonde hair. Only the Meius Duchess had slightly lighter platinum blonde hair.

The Duke, and Karl too. Naturally, the young marquis was also known to have blonde hair.

‘Ekian Meius… I heard he had blonde hair and dark red eyes.’

She had only heard about it, but the young marquis’s appearance wasn’t in Judith’s memory. As Master had said, Judith had never actually met Ekian.

‘Blonde or platinum blonde hair isn’t that common. That alone would be considered special.’

The glimpses she caught of Master’s hair between his constantly changing wigs were also black. And hair dye was very expensive here. She had seen platinum blonde hair for the first time in the Meius Duchess.

While having such thoughts, the carriage arrived in front of the Meius Mansion.

‘Now.’

Judith smiled slightly and steeled herself inwardly.

‘Now it’s really time to make a decision and come back.’

The Meius Duchess, Isabella Meius, hadn’t been able to sleep for two days. It was because of the red-haired woman who had suddenly appeared, Judith Ailan.

The information she had recited about Ekian was extremely private, accurate, and very trivial.

Information that was useless meant it was information that would never be known…

‘That girl and Ekian definitely have a connection.’

Isabella thought with tired, wide-open eyes.

Judith Ailan, a woman being chased by loan sharks to the point where her baron title seemed laughable.

After Judith’s visit, Isabella had looked into her as Judith had advised.

Despite losing her parents at a young age and inheriting only debt, she was a woman who lived so diligently it was admirable.

She maintained a murderous tutoring schedule while selling miscellaneous information to the Information Guild. Though she was only managing to pay the interest.

‘Did she learn about Ekian’s information from that Information Guild?’

What was certain was that she had no choice but to call her back.

‘Ekian, my precious son…’

Isabella lowered her eyes. She had an idea of why Ekian had suddenly run away without saying anything, why there had been no news.

‘You… I need to see you again. Because we love you. We need to talk.’

It would soon be five years. If they couldn’t find any clues about Ekian like this, the death procedures would naturally be carried out.

She knew she was grasping at straws, but she wanted to delay those procedures by force. No, she wanted to show Ekian that she was somehow delaying the death report.

As a sign that we are waiting for you this desperately…

So Isabella had no choice.

“I can guess the method you have in mind, Madam.”

Judith, who had come at dawn, spoke with intelligent eyes shining.

“You plan to announce that there’s a woman pregnant with Young Marquis Ekian’s child, that you can feel the Meius aura in the unborn baby. Though it would damage Young Marquis Ekian’s honor, you’re trying to avoid the death report somehow.”

“…Yes.”

Isabella nodded heavily.

The Meius Ducal House didn’t particularly need paternity tests. Because there was a special aura that flowed only through the direct line of the Meius Ducal House. The head of the Meius family could feel that aura from when a fetus existed in the womb.

So it was a temporary measure she had thought of. Since she couldn’t create a non-existent child anyway, she would have to say it miscarried after a few months.

‘Still, wouldn’t it be some kind of message to Ekian, who might be somewhere out there?’

But this was a private thought she had only confided to her closest confidant, so how did Judith know about it? However, the fact that she had told even her closest confidant meant the secret couldn’t be guaranteed.

“I dare to speak to the Duchess.”

Judith spoke politely. Though her appearance was shabby, her posture was straight and upright.

“Acknowledging a woman carrying the young marquis’s child as a daughter-in-law and announcing it to society won’t bring the young marquis back.”

Isabella’s heart sank. Because Judith’s words carried conviction.

Just like when she had spoken about Ekian’s information or when she had guessed the Duchess’s inner thoughts.

“The young marquis will not return no matter what happens in the ducal house.”

Judith continued calmly.

“Nevertheless, if you still want to use that method…”

“If I want to use it?”

“I would like to become that contract daughter-in-law.”

“…What?”

“The daughter-in-law who will pretend to be pregnant with Young Marquis Ekian Meius’s child and announce a miscarriage a few months later.”

Isabella was dumbfounded.

Even if it only lasted a few months, it was still the position of ‘daughter-in-law.’ That meant marriage and divorce would be recorded. The groom would be missing and wouldn’t be seen throughout.

It would be a problem even if Ekian returned. Since it was all false anyway, she planned to pretend there was a miscarriage and divorce her.

The empire was still not a country where divorce was common. Especially for nobles, it would be a major flaw for remarriage.

Ekian would soon be declared dead anyway, so it was all or nothing for him, but wasn’t it different for the woman?

So Isabella had secretly set her sights on a foreign-born commoner among the maids who really needed money.

“Baron Ailan, this is not something I can ask of a young lady.”

“My motivation is simple. Money.”

Judith spoke simply and clearly.

“If you’ve investigated my background, you’ll know I have enormous debt. No matter what I do, I can’t pay it all back. Noble dignity and honor have long been luxuries for me.”

Isabella quietly looked at Judith. In the end, she was a child who had come to make a deal. They both had something they wanted and could exchange it.

But for someone who had come to propose a deal…

Isabella kept silent for a while, then suddenly asked.

“Baron, do you perhaps not know how to make deals? When you want something, why did you say such things from the beginning?”

“Pardon?”

“That even if we do this, Ekian won’t return to us.”

“…”

“If the Baron really wanted to make this deal succeed, you should have said that Ekian would likely return after just a few months. If you dislike lies, you also had the option of not mentioning it at all.”

Judith wasn’t flustered. Instead, she opened her mouth confidently with a face that showed she had expected this.

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