I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 24

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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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Without meaning to, I found myself glancing down at the famous sword hanging from his waist. Of course, I also remembered how many heads that blade had taken in one go, its cold aura blazing through the air.
“Y-yes… that’s right. That’s how it is. It’s just that what I meant was—”
“As you said, even if it isn’t you, someone else will come to be the Grand Duchess. If this is a process that will proceed without meaning, I intend to focus on the very beginning. It’s my nature to finish things all at once.”
“….”
That doesn’t mean you have to talk while fiddling with your sword, does it?
Growing unnaturally solemn, I clasped my hands together. I truly wanted to live. That desperate longing for life pulled up every scrap of courtesy and manners buried deep in my soul.
“I see. But relationships between people, and especially marriage, aren’t the kind of thing that works just because one decides to focus on it…”
“You’ve traveled across every continent there is, so I’d say you’re faithfully fulfilling your main calling as a warmonger.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I also intend to take on a certain degree of responsibility as the head of the household.”
“…I see.”
It’s a very admirable thing to hear, but why on earth is he telling me?
Flustered, I looked up at him, and Kiers’s expression softened, if only slightly. That I could tell what lay behind that mask was surely a problem on my end, and it made my head spin. And Kiers was not the type of man to hold back what he had to say just because the lady was dizzy.
“And as for the private chambers, you may confirm them yourself.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not in a position to say I have no confidence in it.”
…He isn’t even smiling.
My eyes were wide open, yet it felt as though both my sight and hearing had been sliced clean through. I simply shut my eyes tight and opened them again. I had reached the point where I couldn’t even tell what I was hearing or what I was saying anymore.
“Your Highness, I understand what you’re saying, but to spend such a profound intention on just anyone… It’s, well, a bit too much for someone like me.”
“Of course, before carrying out all of this,”
“….”
“I find you rather agreeable.”
Eliya Mayfield.
Kiers gave an indifferent nod and was about to turn away, then glanced back at me. Of course, he must have meant it in the sense of a political marriage partner, but my soul had already drifted past the point of no return.
“So, if it’s all the same to you…”
He approached me like a slow-moving beast, clearly intent on playing the husband role faithfully from the very start, having diligently relayed the upcoming schedule to his dazed bride-to-be.
“I do hope you find me rather agreeable as well.”

◇ ◆ ◇

“Ah…”
I had no memory of how I made it to the tea table. Once I finally sat down in a chair, I rubbed my dry face. At least Kiers had left first according to the schedule, but whether he was present or not, my stomach churned all the same.
“Lady Eliya, please, have some.”
“…Philip.”
Gurgle, gurgle. As he poured tea into my cup, I drained it in one gulp. This was no time to worry about other people’s eyes or my own dignity.
…What about my wasteland? Where did my alimony go?
Instead of saying what I had to say, I had come back loaded with a massive bomb. Even when Father told me that one of his daughters had to be sent off as the beast’s bride, I hadn’t been this flustered. I wanted to close my eyes for a moment, but right away, a phantom sound of tick-tock, like my lifeline burning away, rang in my ears.
“My lady, are you all right? You look unwell…”
“Well, no, I’m fine.”
My dry lips, which had parted as if to say something, closed again.
Well, my husband just said he intends to faithfully fulfill his role as a husband, you see.
Even if I confided this as a worry, I’d be lucky to avoid a thousand hateful comments and getting kicked out of the community for envy-provoking crimes. Besides, Philip was the Grand Duke’s lawyer.
…That’s right, wasn’t he a lawyer?
I jerked my face up from where I had buried it in my hands.
“Excuse me, Philip. There’s just one thing I’d like to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“I mean, this is just something I’m personally curious about. Of course, it has nothing to do with me, you understand.”
“…I see.”
Philip nodded along with a pitying look on his face. I knew full well how suspicious I must look right now, but there was no one else to ask.
“If the marriage contract isn’t carried out as written, is there a separate, p-penalty fee or something like that?”
“….”
“Oh, and of course, this is—”
“Yes. It has nothing to do with you, my lady.”
Philip gave a smooth, professional smile. Even in the way he gathered up the documents, the scent of a seasoned professional rose strongly.
“Generally, unless a predetermined settlement has been set, the principle is that the party found at fault pays back ten times the amount exchanged as dowry or bridal gifts, depending on who is at fault.”
“T-ten times?”
“Of course, that’s the general case, but since His Grace the Grand Duke is of imperial blood, it’s different. Money holds no meaning to him at all.”
“Right? I knew you’d say that…”
“Yes. Usually, you’d settle it with a sword.”
Philip was clearly a good lawyer, patiently explaining everything to someone who knew nothing of the law. But before all of that, he was also the Grand Duke’s lawyer. The lawyer of Kiers Valencia, master of the North and bearer of the fearsome reputation of the Beast.
“Ah, that reminds me of something from long ago. When Your Highness first came to the North, you dealt with the local administrators who failed to carry out the contract. Well, I didn’t see it myself, but…”
“Ah… well, rumors do tend to be a bit exaggerated, don’t they?”
“Naturally. None of the people who witnessed it survived to tell the tale.”
“….”
“Phew. When I went to clean up afterward, there was blood up to my ankles, and getting the smell out took a lot of effort. On top of that, flesh was flying everywhere, and…”
“I’ll be going now! Thank you so much!”
Detail, please, stop! Don’t reminisce over that kind of thing!
I forced down the nausea churning in my gut and bolted from the spot. Survive first, that’s all that matters. I have to stay alive.
I tore through the garden, gasping for breath.
“Haaah…”

「I hope I’m at least somewhat pleasing to you.」

Are you serious? No, please, somebody tell me this is a joke.
Ugh. Maybe I should go to a shrine and beg, knocking my head against the floor. All I had to do was keep up a respectable appearance and collect the alimony. But a real husband? Sure, I’m pretty, and sure, you’ve been starved for a long time, but this just isn’t right.
I can entertain such hopes only because I’m a scrap of an Extra who isn’t even a Supporting Character. If I got tangled up with Kiers, that alone would be a source of future calamity.
Do you think I’ve only read one or two novels? The heroine is right there, and the moment I mix my body or my heart with the Male Lead, I become a Disposal Target.
Of course, it’s also because most of those women are villainesses who scream, ‘You can’t take my man!’ But in novels, dealing neatly with the leads’ pasts is a kind of fan service. Why? Because a woman who slept with my man can’t be allowed to exist. Even if she once had something with Your Highness, a heroine who says something like, ‘I understand you with the same heart as Your Highness,’ isn’t good. She’s just stupid.
“…Please be stupid, Cecil.”
Now there’s only one possibility left to bet on. That’s the only way to send our Rose to the Academy in Hessen, make her head of Platinum, and then I go overseas to the branch office and deal with a younger male employee…
“Rose!”
Right! Our Rose!
“Rose! Where are you!”
A chill shot through me as if someone had dumped a bucket of icy water over my head. Even if he insists on playing the husband’s role, even if he expects the same from me, and even if I add up every brutal situation where his cruelty is beyond words, none of it compares to losing our Rose.
“Rose-ey!”
My vision went black in an instant as I looked around the empty grounds.

◇ ◆ ◇

「I-it’s a bit too much for someone like me…」

I could still picture the confusion spreading through those deep violet eyes.
Honestly, it’s strange. Kiers chuckled to himself and raked a hand back through his hair. The mask caught on the strands each time, which was a nuisance, but after living like this for years, it no longer felt as suffocating as it once did. And once he took the mask off, a different kind of suffocation waited for him.
“…Hm.”
Still, there were moments when he wanted to take it off. Like when a woman puffed out her chest and lifted her chin at him. Or when she turned away with a smug air of composure and laughed behind his back.
“….”
That he still had any impulse or anticipation left in him was both surprising and unfamiliar. Scowling, Kiers turned away, and a sound reached his ears that was the most unfamiliar of his entire eventful life.
“Hmm-hmm. Wild strawberries, one, two, four…”
“….”
The only sounds one would expect within the Grand Duke’s Castle were the shouts of knights, the neighing of horses, or the last desperate cries of criminals. To hear a child’s thin, humming song in such a place was not something he could dismiss as impossible, for he knew all too well who the singer was.
“…Mountain rabbit, gave Rose, some candy, hmm, mm-hmm.”
Rose stood on the garden’s back trail, humming a tune. She was dragging a basket nearly as big as her own body. No telling when she’d made her way all the way out here.
“….”
And, of course, he had no idea why his own knights were hiding behind the trees, either.
“….”
Just where had they started following her from?

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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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