I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 16

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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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“Hmm, well then. A fitting punishment.”
“Punishment? Honestly, that’s a bit much! Did I say anything unreasonable?”
Oh, this won’t do! My nerves are frayed to the breaking point, and here he stands, looking down at me so calmly that I finally snapped. Seriously, you can’t act like that when someone’s life is on the line. Not that you’re even human, mind you!
“Put yourself in my shoes! If Your Highness the Grand Duke were told to throw your little sibling into a fire, what guarantee would you have that you wouldn’t do the same?”
“Hmm. For my part, I don’t have any siblings to begin with, so…”
“Yes! You look like you have none, all right!”
“…”
I stared up at him as hard as I could, determined not to burst into tears. I couldn’t read the beast’s face behind the mask no matter how I looked, but the old Count behind him looked as though he couldn’t bear to watch, and quietly turned his head away.
My heart leapt up and down like a seesaw, thudding so loudly that I could hear it ringing in my own ears.
“Hic.”
I hugged Rose even tighter as she squirmed inside my arms. I buried my face in her messy platinum-blond hair, and the familiar scent of a baby drifted up to me. If that man would just take one whiff of this, he wouldn’t dare say such things.
Resentment and grief came rushing over me in a flood I couldn’t hold back. I glared up at him with all the emotion I had left, and Kiers’s crimson lips trembled.
“You seem to resent me quite a lot.”
“Ugh, hic. I can’t exactly say you’re wrong. How could you do this to a child like her?”
“Seems to me it’s you who’s putting the child in danger.”
“…”
“Unless you mean to smother her to death, I’d appreciate it if you let go.”
The Grand Duke’s gaze slid past my eyes and dropped a little lower behind his mask. Where on earth is he looking… Only then did I jolt in alarm and quickly loosened my arms.
“R-Rose! Are you all right?”
“Cough.”
Rose, still wheezing in her tiny body, shuddered all over, as if she had finally managed to catch her breath. Oh, what am I going to do! I hurriedly pushed away the tangled hair that covered her face to check on her.
“Hm?”
A kitten that had just come into the world blinked up at me. Even the way she squinted one eye against the light was utterly adorable. Yes, it’s definitely my Rose!
“Big sis, what’s wrong? Why are you fighting?”
“Hm?”
“Are you fighting because of Rose? Because Rose sneaked into the box?”
Tilting her head, she whispered in a worried voice at my ear, then slowly lifted her face. She had been trapped in my arms the whole time, and now she seemed curious about who this man was.
“…Rose.”
Oh, my Rose has never seen anyone like him before! There’s no letting my guard down for a second. If she screams in fright at his appearance, that’ll be the end of us, and we don’t have much life left as it is.
“R-Rose. Th-this, no, this gentleman is absolutely not a… a bea—”
“…Who’s this mister?”
“…Hm?”
Thankfully, she didn’t scream, but I hadn’t expected this reaction either. She whispered as if in wonder, quietly enough by her own standards, but there was no way he hadn’t heard. A long breath from the Grand Duke reached me where I sat crumpled on the floor.
“Well, that’s…”
Sweetheart, can’t you tell just by looking at him?
She really is still just a child. Her eager curiosity was daunting enough, but his reaction, as though he was waiting for my answer, was no less overwhelming. My shoulders were pressed down so hard they felt like they’d sink right through the floor, yet my lips refused to move.

“…Say hello. This is your brother-in-law.”

I can’t let this go on.
In a flustered state, I grabbed the child’s shoulders. Rose belatedly hid her face in my chest, as if embarrassed, and peeked out at him with only one eye.
“…It’s His Highness, the Grand Duke. You told me about him before, didn’t you, Big Sis?”
“Oh! I know! Rose knows!”
“…”
“But Big Sis, you clearly said that His Highness the Grand Duke is a bea—”
“Rose-y! You’re a good girl, aren’t you? My little baby! Peekaboo!”
That’s far enough! Just that far! I frantically shook my eyes at her, having been forced to meet her gaze, and Rose clapped both hands over her mouth. We were on the same wavelength, it seemed, but even I couldn’t make sense of her reactions.
…Kids really do love beasts, don’t they? I had expected her to burst into tears or hide and tremble right away, but all she seemed to feel was shyness. Anyway, Rose was somehow taken care of, but the real matter of survival begins now.
“…Y-Your Highness the Grand Duke, she’s my little sister.”
That man is still here, after all.
I chewed the inside of my lip in agitation and looked at him. His blood-red gaze, impossible to read, turned toward me. Hidden behind the black mask, I couldn’t tell whether his feelings were anger or resignation, but at least one thing was certain.
…He’s not going to kill me on the spot. It was an instinctive realization, the kind one has in the presence of the apex predator of the food chain. Feeling relief even while staring into those crimson eyes only left me more confused about what was going on. I couldn’t quite look away from him, and my lips parted with a stammer.
“I-I was going to tell you. I really was.”
“…When, exactly?”
“S-sometime soon?”
If you promise me the land, that is.
“Ha, if Your Highness had a younger sibling, you’d understand how I feel. And I can’t very well leave this little one there alone.”
“I believe you have other family members, though.”
“Well… not all families are the same kind of family, you know.”
Can’t you tell just by looking? Stop asking so many questions!
Resignation welled up alongside a stinging bitterness. If there were anyone I could trust to take her in, would I have hidden this child and brought her here? Even if I had no affection or attachment left, it was miserable to have to speak ill of my own family in front of the man who was supposed to be my husband.
Well, what was the point? He would never understand, no matter what I said.
He was not a man who showed sympathy or understanding. As I pressed my lips together and held my ground, his voice came down from above my head, sounding subtly different than before.
“As you said, I have no younger siblings, so I can’t claim to understand how you feel.”
“….”
“Even if I had, I wouldn’t have put them in a place like that from the start.”
His crimson gaze lowered, calm and still. My body stiffened, and my grip on Rose tightened. He wasn’t showing murderous intent, but his presence had grown a little heavier, and the air in the room turned chilly.
Only moments ago the fireplace had felt warm, but now a sudden cold sent a shiver down my spine.
“…Count, let’s go.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
With words that could have been a farewell or could have been something else entirely, he set off in measured, heavy strides. When the Count opened the door with practiced ease, the hem of Kiers’s coat swept out behind him.
What? Is he really going to leave like this? Without killing me or throwing me out?
I was too dumbfounded to look away from him. My eyes brimmed with hope and expectation, and only after a long moment did he answer, his tone indifferent yet composed.
“This doesn’t seem like a suitable time, so let’s return for now. As I mentioned, the specific details of the wedding will be conveyed through the Count soon.”
“Y-yes, yes. Of course. Goodbye then.”
“And as for how we’ll handle this matter, tomorrow morning should do.”
“…Excuse me? You’re going to do it again?”
Crack. Under my frozen stare, the corner of his crimson lips slowly curled upward, as though I’d turned to ice.
“As you said, I am a beast.”

◇ ◆ ◇

His steps back to the study were more relaxed than before. He still didn’t glance back and kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, but his stride was no longer the wary, wind-scattering pace he usually carried.
“…Your Grace, I apologize.”
“For what?”
“Through my own failure… I only received Jerome’s report and failed to consider it at all.”
The moment he stepped into the study, the Count bowed deeply and begged forgiveness for his own fault first. A chief advisor was expected to know everything about his lord’s affairs in advance and see to them. Moreover, he hadn’t merely been an advisor; he had arranged the marriage itself, which made his sense of responsibility all the heavier.
“I… when I saw her earlier, I never imagined she would be the sort of person who…”
“The sort of person?”
Kiers turned around only after reaching the front of the desk, letting out an unreadable laugh. It was so brief it barely registered, but his red lips had definitely twitched.
“Are you talking about that woman who called a beast a beast?”
“Y-Your Grace! That part is—!”
“Well, it isn’t wrong, is it?”
His large left hand rose to his face. With a faint rustle, the black mask was lifted away from his forehead and cheeks, and the low chuckle that followed became more clearly audible.
“Well… it’s just that no one has ever said it to my face.”
“Your Grace.”
The Count quickly fetched a stand and took the mask from his hand. Blue mist curled around the mask resting on the black velvet, then slowly dispersed into the air.
Taking care not to let his hand touch it, the Count set it down and lowered his head respectfully.
“I’ll send someone to Aden again right away. We’ll start by looking into her family records.”
“Do as you like.”
“But… how did you know? Even so, there should have been some sound of breathing, yet I didn’t notice anything at all.”
“That’s just…”
“Of course. For Your Grace, a presence of that sort must be nothing at all.”
The Count corrected himself, as though he’d asked a pointless question. And who was Your Grace? The one who had utterly conquered the South and West. Breath and presence from every direction were things he could tell apart faster than the wind that passed him by.
“Still, I can’t believe she was hiding inside that crate. She was so young, her breathing must have been very faint.”
“There was none.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said there was no breathing.”
She had held her breath to the point of nearly not breathing at all. Even so, it wouldn’t have been enough to fool his senses. Something else had stirred him first.
“…A fierce desire to survive by any means, I suppose.”
“Your Grace.”
“I’ve heard that before. No, I suppose I should say I’ve felt it before.”
He swallowed a bitter smile and ran a hand through his hair. Only then did the Count, understanding what the Grand Duke meant, adopt a solemn expression and carefully open his mouth.
“That being said, about the little kitten in the crate just now… I doubt the young lady, being so small, understands anything at all.”
At the Count’s hurried concern, one of Kiers’s eyebrows lifted. The moment he noticed Kiers’s gaze on him, the Count returned to his usual composed demeanor, though his lips seemed to hold many more words he wanted to say.
“We’ll find out tomorrow.”
“But…”
“Enough.”
Kiers raised a hand, cutting off whatever else the count meant to say. Now that his master had made his wishes plain, even a count could not press the matter any further.
The count quickly remembered his place and lowered his head. Leaving him behind, Kiers stepped toward the window, his expression unreadable. As he gazed down through the glass, which was so dark it looked like pitch, his eyes slowly narrowed.
“Still… I can’t say I’m not looking forward to it.”

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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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