I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 11

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

◇ ◆ ◇

“Milady, have you had a good look around?”
“Oh, I certainly have. Such kind people, and such clean streets! I never knew the North could be this wonderful!”
“……I-I’m glad to hear it.”
I clasped my hands together and gushed like a street vendor’s advertisement, and Sir Jerome stammered, flustered all the way through. Looking at him again, I could tell this brother of mine was weak to this sort of thing. I gazed at Sir Jerome’s chestnut hair, stirring gently in the breeze.

Jerome had been quite the charmer when he stood alone, but the moment the Duke appeared, he lost all his shine.

“Hmm……”
Why did that line suddenly come to mind?
Whichever way you looked at him, from the right or the left, Sir Jerome was a handsome man with hardly a flaw. He had looked that way right up until he stepped out of the carriage, but for some reason, he seemed to be lacking something after returning from his errands.
Hmm.
I didn’t need to puzzle over why a gentle, warm-hearted knight like this was acting so strangely. I already knew the reason well enough.
It was because of that man I’d seen.
Golden hair like a sun veiling one eye, and a silver mask that held the glow of moonlight.
One face, yet it seemed to hold the entire universe. In other words, he was an extraordinarily handsome man the likes of whom might never appear in the world again. Even his pose, with his legs crossed and his body turned slightly aside, could have been lifted straight out of some famous painting, and I wouldn’t have called it an exaggeration.
Cake to eat and a handsome man to look at!
There was no denying now that “The Melts” was the finest dessert shop around. I had only glimpsed him briefly in the salon earlier, but after seeing that man, every passerby on the street looked like a paper doll.
“……Is something wrong, milady?”
“No. Nothing at all.”
I shook off my idle thoughts and pulled my pitying gaze away from Sir Jerome. Well, what fault was it of his? Being born in the same era as such a handsome man was not something Jerome could do anything about.
Still, now I could understand a little why the original author had kept emphasizing those copy-paste lines.
Hmm, I wish I’d gotten a closer look.
Since I’d never seen anyone that good-looking before, I couldn’t help feeling I should have committed his face to memory more carefully. Honestly, that barely even counted as impure thoughts.
After all, didn’t that mischievous young lady in “The Shower” say she’d be content to be buried with the best memory of her life? I was about to marry a beast myself, so at the very least, a humanitarian allowance like that should be granted to me.
“Hmm.”
……But wait, wasn’t he smiling at something?
I tilted my head at the flickering memory. I had been so busy teaching that greasy manager a lesson about the terrors of the world that his final expression had grown hazy.
Even from a distance, his red lips had seemed to be holding back a smile somehow……
“Milady, where did you put the goods you purchased? Perhaps I could have them delivered separately if you’d like……”
“No. How could I trouble a knight with such things?”
A shy smile.
It was no exaggeration to say that this one expression got me pretty much anything I wanted from Sir Jerome. The red stains spreading across the silver armor rising to his throat made me quickly hold out the cake.
“……This is.”
“The people of the North were so kind. Really, I only bought one cake, but they insisted on giving me all this.”
Now, now. Don’t make a fuss, just eat this.
With a bright smile, I offered him the complimentary cakes “The Melts” had given me as hush money. And what better bribe for keeping someone quiet than food? Besides, I’d been given far more than I could ever eat, so being generous was perfectly convenient.
“Please enjoy them. That cake is worth a whole thousand gold……”
“Th-thank you, milady.”
Seeing the armored knight carry a single cake so carefully, I could tell he had already forgotten what I’d bought. Once I was sure Sir Jerome had completely disappeared, I opened the chest again.
“Oh my, Rose. What on earth are you doing, young lady!”
“Sis! Mm-hmm.”
Rose, her whole mouth smeared with white cream, blinked her deep violet eyes, which looked just like mine. With her face buried in the cake plate, cream was piled so thickly on her cheeks that she looked like the cat from a postcard.
“This is so good! Sis, you have some too!”
“Eat slowly. Did you like it that much?”
It wasn’t until the carriage had set off that I sat Rose on my lap. The cakes I’d tucked away in the box when I came back early had been split in half. The little thief cat gave me an indignant look, as if she had only just now realized how unfair it was.
“No, I was going to hold it in my mouth and eat it carefully, bit by bit……”
“But?”
“It melted on its own. Mm-hmm.”
Oh my, is that so?
Unable to hold back any longer at the sight of Rose’s lips pouting, I pulled her into a tight hug.
Well, the cake must be to blame. It should have stayed firmly stuck inside our Rose’s mouth instead of melting away on its own.
As I squeezed my eyes shut and drowned in the cuteness of my youngest sister, Rose used the moment to pass the remaining cake back to me.
“Sis, have you ever tried a Beritz Fruit? I honestly thought it was a strawberry!”
“Hm?”
“Was there really a Beritz Fruit on the mountain behind our village? Hmm, how do you even know about something like that, Sis? You’re amazing!”
“Hmm… well, sweetheart, about that.”
Rose stuffed another forkful of cake into her cheeks and praised me, but I had no real answer for her on this one. Sure, I’d spent over ten years climbing mountains and felling every sort of tree like a country woodsman, yet I’d never once laid eyes on a Beritz Fruit. By the ordinary logic of the world, a precious thing like that had no business growing on the back hill of some small village.
And yet, I’d caught the manager’s lie only because I remembered the novel’s contents in great detail.
Among the countless extravagances Grand Duke Valencia lavished on the heroine Cecil, the most luxurious goods of all made their appearance without fail. But to tell Rose about any of that, I’d always have to keep in mind that this novel was off-limits to anyone under nineteen.

At his sudden appearance, Cecil dropped a Beritz Fruit, and green juice spread across her petticoat.
“What am I supposed to do with this? It won’t come out easily…”
“…Is that what you’re worried about?”
Kiers smirked, as if to make a point, and began crushing Beritz Fruit all over her body…

“…Unbelievable.”
No, no. What am I thinking, holding a five-year-old in my arms and imagining something like that!
I shook my head hard and focused solely on Rose, who was happy over a single slice of cake. What exactly that high and mighty duke had done with the fruit was something I could leave entirely to the imagination.
Reading does have its power. Thanks to it, I caught the manager’s lie right away. Would anyone really put a fruit that costs over a hundred gold apiece on a single slice of cake?
The novel featured every luxury good imaginable, so this knowledge might prove useful down the road. Of course, the catch was that most of it only ever showed up in the bedroom, no matter the kind.
“…Sis, are we almost there?”
“Hm?”
“So I have to get back in the box now, right?”
Having already finished every bit of her cake, Rose climbed into the box on her own.
She’s so quick to read the room. I’m less proud than I am sad and sorry.
“Sis, are you going to let me out again today?”
“Of course. I’ll do my very best to follow the plan.”
“…But what if the beast-sir eats me? Hmm, that’s scary.”
“No, he won’t. That man doesn’t eat things like that.”
He only eats the expensive stuff. The very expensive stuff.
Dwelling on that bitter reality, I stroked Rose’s hair. Even after days without a proper wash, how pretty she was, and she took after whoever she took after. Walking through Liden’s streets today, I hadn’t seen a single child as lovely as our Rose.
If we dressed her up prettily like those other children and put her in a proper dress, she’d make an even more adorable kitten.
“My lady! We’ve entered the Grand Duke’s Castle!”
“Ah…”
Along with Sir Jerome’s voice, the clatter of hooves drew closer. Before putting Rose back in the box, I held her so tightly it almost took my breath away. I felt that doing this would serve as a vow to myself.
I have to do well, Bella. The life of this little kitten rests entirely on me.
“I’ll go and do my best, sweetheart! This is the last time. I’ll make sure you never have to hide in a place like this again!”
“…Mm-hm!”
Without a single word of protest, Rose nodded and crawled into the box, and at the very same moment the atmosphere outside the carriage changed. It wasn’t the bustling noise that had filled the streets when we entered Liden.
If anything, it was a deathly stillness.
Because only the sound of iron striking iron rang out, that silence seeped into the carriage itself. Even before stepping out, I instinctively knew this was the Grand Duke’s Castle.
Tap-tap. I swallowed my nerves and gently patted my cheeks.
“My lady, if you’re ready, please step out.”
“….”
The carriage came to a complete halt, and at last the door swung open. I tried to stay as composed as possible, reminding myself of our two lives, and took a deep breath, but even before I set foot down, I swallowed hard.
“Ah…”
So this is that very Grand Duke’s Castle,
I didn’t even have a chance to voice admiration or offer any comment. Before I knew it, my mouth had fallen open, and my jaw ached.
“….”
A solemn castle, black upon black, so vast it seemed the very sky had been draped in darkness.
The carriage and the knights’ formal attire had been dark as well, but the solemnity of the Grand Duke’s Castle was beyond comparison. From the main gate to the battlements, even the marble laid across the ground shimmered with blackness. Everything I saw was so overwhelming that I half expected my own body to be stained black the moment I stood before it.
Most ordinary enemies would turn around at the entrance, their knees trembling, and that wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
How do I put it? If I had to describe it, it feels like going to meet the final boss before I’ve even managed to accomplish anything.

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