I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 13

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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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His tone was flat and unremarkable, as if he were being briefed on the day’s routine. Still, I had to remember that this was a man who rarely asked even for that much. When Kiers turned his head, the Count hesitated for a moment before bowing at the waist.
“…She’s upstairs now, Your Grace.”
“Hmm.”
His red lips thinned ever so slightly. The Count, still not lifting his head, hesitated a moment longer, then decided to add his own thoughts.
“Then again, I suppose I should be grateful. She seems to be adjusting far better than I expected.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I was worried she might be difficult, but judging by what I’ve seen so far, she bears no real resemblance to her father, the Viscount. She came all this way alone, and she seems remarkably spirited.”
“…Alone, you say?”
At last, Kiers’ crimson gaze turned toward him. It was no longer the indifferent stare he had worn moments ago, but a look of genuine interest, and that unsettled the Count even more.
“Yes. Just as Jerome’s report said, she came alone. Her luggage was so meager it amounted to nothing more than a single trunk.”
“Is that so?”
A quiet chuckle escaped him, and the Count looked up in puzzlement.
His face had already gone blank again, but his fingers worked the buttons of his coat faster than usual.
The Count accepted the robe he had prepared and changed the direction of his steps, heading not toward his own chambers but elsewhere.
“…Your Highness? At this hour, where are you going?”
“You said she’s upstairs, didn’t you? That woman.”
“Ah… but, well, it’s rather late, after all.”
“You said she’s my wife. Since when do I need to mind the hour?”
Well, technically, she isn’t yet.
Once the Grand Duke had made up his mind, there was no stopping him. Afraid that he might vanish at any moment, the Count hurried forward in alarm, trying to catch his stride.
“Y-Your Highness. I’m sure you’ll be surprised. At least take this…”
“Doesn’t seem likely to me.”
“Pardon?”
Never mind.
With that cryptic murmur, he glanced down at the object resting on the velvet cushion the Count held out. Then he lifted the corner of his mouth, and the expression alone made even a man who had served him for years flinch.
“…Well, that will be entertaining enough in its own way.”

◇ ◆ ◇

“…So this is the map.”
Swish, I unrolled the map of the North, which I had taken from the box, across the enormous marble desk. At first I had clicked my tongue at how pointlessly black and oversized all the furniture was, but once I saw it, I had to admit it was the perfect setting for a map like this.
Hmm… anyone looking at this would think it’s a chairman’s vibe.
Looking down at a map on that grand marble, I could pass for the head of a conglomerate agonizing over breaking into the global market. Of course, I’m not saying anyone actually looks like that. It’s just my small wish that I’d come across that way, more or less.
But what’s different now? This was the moment I had to decide exactly which spot in the North I’d pick out and sink my fork into, so the gravity of it could hold its own even beside a corporation.
And that’s not all. Our futures as two sisters hung on this, so I had to be careful, and then careful again.
“Rose, you’re sure no one’s coming, right?”
“Yeah, Sis.”
When I looked up to check, Rose, standing by the door, nodded. Pressing one ear firmly against the thick door, she then formed a little circle with her tiny hand, and the sight alone made my breath catch.
Huff, whose little sister is that?!
Give her a pair of wings and she’s a fairy, a fairy!
“I’ll keep watch right here. Sis, don’t you worry about a thing!”
“…Yeah, Rose.”
I’d love to run over right now and feel along Rose’s shoulder blades to see whether she has wings or not, but this is the time to focus on the map. The male lead, the Grand Duke, might come back and run into us at any moment. To avoid panicking when that happens, I had to concentrate and memorize one more thing.
Right, I have to do well. So I don’t end up shoving our Rose back into a crate.
“…Let’s take a look.”
The Cadastral Edit Map I had bought at the bookstore served a different purpose from an ordinary map. Where a regular map is used to find your way, a cadastral edit map clearly shows the land’s form and area, its lot numbers, and its boundaries.
…Yes, I know. Nobody has ever asked for this kind of explanation.
Put simply, this is my business capital and my source of income. Who am I? I’m a former real estate developer and a current prospective cast member of “I Am a Natural Man.”
Even with my eyes closed, I have the Four Guardian Beasts watching over me in every direction. For this body, an ordinary map is good for nothing but coloring exercises.
If you want to read land at a glance, you need a map like this, where the lot numbers and boundaries are clear. After all, it contains the most basic information needed to decide where to build houses and apartment complexes across this vast territory.
Not that the map I have now could be exactly the same as the one I used to look at in my previous life.
For one thing, since the entire North belongs to the Grand Duke, they haven’t bothered to divide the land into fine detail. It’s a shame they’ve deleted various pieces of information, perhaps to prevent it from being used for military purposes, but all things considered, it’s fairly detailed. And it’s useful that they’ve preserved natural features like mountains and lakes as much as possible.
…So why am I staring at land like this?
To buy a plot or build a mansion?
No, no. As if.
If I had that kind of money, I’d have run off with Rose long ago, and I wouldn’t have come all this way. The only reason I’m poring over this map with my eyes blazing is this: somewhere out there, there has to be the land I’m owed as alimony!
“Heh heh.”
Even if it’s a bit too scheming to be thinking this before we’ve even gotten married, I don’t mind. Clear strengths and weaknesses are exactly what make a supporting character worth reading.
Leads get money, fame, and a guaranteed life, but in exchange their bodies and hearts have to stay noble and righteous, nonstop. Supporting characters don’t get that deal.
Money and fame, my foot. One arrow grazing past and I’m flipping through the air to my death. At the very least, a supporting character should get the perk of doing whatever she wants and going all in. And I’m not even a supporting character. I’m dust among the little nobodies.
Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the one who gets to say “so cruel” in “Until the Grand Duke met the female lead, he was this cruel.”
Once Cecil the female lead shows up, I’ll be tossed aside anyway. So before that, I have to carve out a way to survive. I have no intention of playing around like Eliya did, so I’ll just play dead, keep his moods sweet, and hold on until I can squeeze out a fat alimony payment in one shot.
No matter how much of a Grand Duke that man is, if I don’t agree to the divorce, then the female lead or whatever else he calls it is just adultery. Let the two of them carry on their passionate love for a thousand years and ten thousand more. The legal wife is the one who has to step aside. Still, out of this miserable life, that’s one thing I’m pleased about.
So I plan to make the most of that fact. The Grand Duke won’t let his beloved female lead be remembered as the other woman, so he’ll have to make at least one humble request of me.
Right then, I’ll say this, pouring every ounce of the grief of a legal wife being pushed out in heartbreak into it.

“Your Highness, how could I possibly go back home now? I refuse to burden my father any further with this useless daughter of his.”

Dab away a tear here.

“Haa… If you’d permit it, I’d like to take that land you mentioned before and settle there. I have nowhere else to go. Would it be too selfish of me to hope to live quietly there, so as not to cause you any trouble?”

“…Ah, am I a genius or what?”
As I rehearsed the lines of my future, I was momentarily overcome with emotion.
Some people might object, asking why a legal wife has to be so pitiful, and why she doesn’t just squeeze every last coin out of her rich husband since she’s going to take something anyway. But no, no, you don’t understand.
No matter how much he’s changed because of the female lead, this man is still a former beast through and through. Where would that cruel nature stored in his bones go, really?
If I clung on, insisting on squeezing out more money, he might take my hide instead of my money.
Under heaven and over earth, the Grand Duke alone is supreme.
Not that anyone would punish him for it. At most, the female lead would say, “Your Highness, I thought you had changed, but you can still do something like this. I’m truly disappointed!” and lock herself behind a door, and all he’d do is chase after her, frantically clinging on. And he’d leave my hide lying on the floor all by itself.
“…Live within your means, just within your means.”
Shivering at a future that hadn’t happened yet, I unfolded the map.
If I’m looking for the most expensive land in the North right now, it would be the New City District of Liden where we stopped on the way here. Shopping streets of every kind, the center of tourism. Needless to say, the price tag would be sky-high. But if I went straight for a place like that from the start, I might look like a woman who had already made up her mind to divorce.
I had to play the pitiful legal wife who was nothing but an eyesore and would leave quietly. To do that, I couldn’t show even a hint of greed. What use is a New City District to someone who was in such a rush to leave, never expecting the female lead to appear at all?
Since it would have to be written into the marriage agreement in advance, it had to be a place that nobody would give a second glance, not even a single line of significance.
A barren, abandoned land, the kind nobody even knows exists.
Yet a place that could transform into a mountain of gold.
“…Heh heh.”
A self-satisfied laugh, the kind that would sound villainous to anyone who heard it, slipped out on its own.
I’m putting my life, my youth, and a single line on my family register on the line for this. Surely I can’t settle for some wasteland and call it a day?
The Second-Life Buff isn’t just for show. I clearly remember hearing that somewhere in the North would become the site of the Annex Palace of the Imperial Palace. The original author probably wrote it without much thought, as part of the “giving the final main couple everything” routine, but to me that one line is a lifeline and a ray of salvation.
So where exactly is it?
I’d like to wrap this up simply, but as I’ve said many times, unfortunately this novel is an Adult Novel that’s off-limits to anyone under nineteen.
And as is the nature of an Adult Novel… I’m skipping the descriptive parts.
Explanations, background knowledge, political death.
“Ugh, why did you do that, you idiot!”

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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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