I Will Become the Ex-Wife of the Beast - Chapter 42

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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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Last night, when she didn’t need to be there, she’d giggled up a storm on the bed. Yet this morning, when she should have been right here, the child had vanished.
The moment I remembered losing Rose in the Garden, all the color drained from my face.
“R-Rose is gone!”
I kicked off the covers and swung my legs over the side. I searched the bed and the enormous room from end to end, but there was no one here except this man. My eyes rolled back, and before I knew it, I had grabbed the hem of Kiers’s robe.
“Oh no! You didn’t eat her, did you?!”
“…I didn’t.”
“Oh…”
I see.
Of course, I didn’t really believe he would. My eyes had rolled back so easily that they returned just as quickly. I hurriedly smoothed out the fabric I’d wrinkled and shook my head.
“S-sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Your Highness devouring Rose, that’s absurd. Ha-ha. Ridiculous.”
“Of course it’s absurd.”
“….”
“Unless it’s you.”
His unhurried voice made the world tilt before my eyes. Kiers brushed past my shoulder as he turned, then lowered his head toward my ear.
“For the record, I’d mean it.”
“….”
Why is he suddenly coming in so hard?
I was grateful beyond words that he hadn’t devoured our Rose, but being pressed like this made my head go fuzzy.
Catching the expression on my face, he smirked faintly and tipped his chin toward the door.
“Unfortunately, Lady Rose has gone out for a walk with the Count. Unlike someone else, she isn’t a sleepyhead, and she doesn’t demand to know whether she’s been devoured the moment she sees someone who has waited for her.”
“…Your Highness, are you angry?”
“Why would I be?”
“….”
No, you clearly look like you are.
His lofty tilt of the chin was so imposing that I decided not to bring it up again. And if he were angry, then what? Right now, I felt I could only breathe if I got away from him.
“Ah, then I’ll go to my room.”
“No, I’ll be the one to leave. I was going to observe the training before breakfast anyway.”
Kiers gestured for me to stop as I made to head for the room, then walked straight for the main door. Watching him vanish from his own room felt awkward, yet somehow it also left me with a pang of regret.
Well, not that much. Let’s say awkwardness makes up 99 and regret is about 1.
What good could there possibly be in being with that man? Exactly. It’s only that throwing the room’s owner out is hardly proper, whether by moral or social standards.
While I was brainwashing myself, Kiers, who had been holding the doorknob, turned back.
“Your Highness, why….”
I shook my head at him as he stepped closer. I remembered that he had done exactly this yesterday… Hurriedly, I pressed my lips together as if to hide them, but when his hand brushed my waist, the breath I’d been holding burst out of me.
“What are you doing!”
“Hold still.”
Kiers pulled the sash of my robe and moved his hands as if measuring its length. For a man who I’d thought might tear it apart, his handling was nothing short of elegant.
Oh my. The front panels fluttered, and I panicked that my underclothes might have shown for a moment, but Kiers calmly lifted his gaze.
“Eliya, for the time being, sleep like this. I’ll consider anything beyond this an act of temptation.”
I held my breath and endured as the robe, which had been gaping wide, was firmly fastened in his hands. The robe now covered me all the way up to my throat, far beyond its original purpose, and before I could even feel stifled, I was thoroughly dumbfounded.
“For the time being?”
“Well, until our good Rose goes to bed earlier.”
“…Why would that matter for Rose?”
“Shall I explain it to you in words?”
Hup. As he pulled the final knot tight, a faint dizziness swept over me. If I collapsed now, who knew what he might do to me afterward.
“No, no thank you!”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Kiers studied his handiwork with evident satisfaction. Just as my eyes started to follow his gaze downward, he tilted his head slightly.
“Rest well, my lady.”
A soft press, and the moment his lips left mine was enough to scramble my thoughts. I wanted to argue that there was no way I could rest well while cocooned like a human silkworm, but if I grabbed hold of him now, I might not be able to handle what came next. And my instincts about such matters are never off by one or ninety-nine percent. They’re always right on the mark. Like that, I folded my hands, which had been stretched out as if to seize him, politely in front of my lower belly.
“…Yes. Take care on your way out.”

◇ ◆ ◇

“What! So nothing happened between you two!”
“No way! How could that possibly be?!”
The moment I returned to my room, Renie and Rea, who had been pacing about anxiously until then, rushed to check my body first. Their eyes searched for some trace with such obvious intent that I was worn out by it, and when I simply told them nothing had happened, they wore long faces for the rest of the day.
“…How could something like that happen.”
“How much effort did we put into this, you know.”
“S-sorry.”
They followed me right into the tub, gripping one of my arms each and scrubbing, and I apologized. I had no idea what I’d done wrong, but it still stung to have upset a pair of young ladies in the prime of their lives. Rea had buried her face in her hands entirely, looking like she might cry.
“Honestly, I just don’t get it. You’re supposed to be a beast, right?”
…Tell me about it.
I leaned my head back against the rim of the tub with a listless sigh. Sure, it fell far short of what they were hoping for, but I had kissed him until my lips felt like they might melt and fuse together.

“Eliya.”

Just recalling that moment in the warm water sent a flush climbing up my neck. This was probably something I’d better keep to myself.
“Your Grace, I had such high hopes. I was only curious whether a chest really gets crushed and leaves marks like that.”
“Um?”
“Me too. I lifted her legs all at once and draped them over my shoulders, and then the sweat was dripping down, drip, drip…”
“Hey, hey!”
Ladies!
The longer I listened, the more outrageous it got. I tried to stop them in a panic, but the twins were already utterly absorbed in their own descriptions. I had no idea what emotional craving they were trying to satisfy by using me, but this one phrase could sum up these two sisters’ characters perfectly.
Every household has an Eliya.
“….”
Noble or not, rich or poor, every household has someone who’s gone a little too far down this road. No wonder they call it an adult novel. If my family had an Eliya, then the Starfield Count Family apparently had these two.
If I had to point out one difference, it’s that my family lacked money, adults, and power all at once, which is how we ended up like that. These daughters of an illustrious house, on the other hand, were barely holding it down through vicarious satisfaction.
Even lust comes with a silver spoon, I thought, watching them with a bitter taste I didn’t bother hiding.
“…Rea, according to the books, rather than spreading both legs apart, it’s better to hold on to just one leg and…”
“No, Renie. That’s not it. The best is still laying her on her back first and then…”
“….”
If you two had been around, I wouldn’t have paid for anything in the first place, and I’d never have ended up in this world.
If someone wrote down what these two sisters were saying right now, it would practically become a novel worth paying for on its own. It was outrageous, but I didn’t feel much urge to stop them forcefully.
Holding my breath as if I wasn’t there at all, I stirred the surface of the bathwater with my hand.
“You two, honestly. Where on earth do you even see stuff like that? Ah… I suppose they sell it at bookstores.”
“Bookstores? Ugh, Your Grace, you’re really something.”
What’s with that smug little laugh?
Renie and Rea covered their mouths and exchanged glances again, just between themselves.
Look at these two. I had definitely heard that they sell those kinds of books in the shops of New City District in Liden, and I bristled.
“What’s wrong? Is it hot inside the knight’s armor? Something like *The Marchioness’s Secret Night*?”
“Oh no! Our Grand Duchess Consort is so innocent!”
“….”
I’d lived my whole life without anyone calling me innocent, so for the moment I kept my mouth shut. Renie leaned in close and whispered behind her hand, as if it were a secret.
“Those are all stale leftovers, you know. We don’t even bother with those mass-market things!”
“…Then what?”
“We obviously get them through other channels. The most famous author these days is someone called C. S., and apparently they’ve made a name for themselves even in Hessen.”
“C. S., the author?”
I wanted to say that’s a strange name, but I was well aware that it’s hard to find a proper name for an adult novel, given the nature of the genre. Right now, even *Beauty and the Night Beast*… what was the author’s name again?
“…Anyway, if Your Highness is interested too, I’ll lend them to you anytime.”
“No thanks. I’m not in a position for that right now.”
“Oh, of course it isn’t. You should be spending fiery nights with His Grace the Grand Duke.”
“That’s right! You’re a newlywed!”
“….”
Before I could even think of a reply, the two sisters pestered me from either side. Only then did I understand a little why the Count had sent them to me. Their minds were so consumed by a single thing that there didn’t seem to be any room left for trivial ideas like scheming or betrayal.
“Your Highness, we’ve been thinking, and wouldn’t it be better if we just took Lady Rose in ourselves?”
“Rose?”
“Yes. The thing is, His Grace the Grand Duke said no. We’d cherish her and look after her so well, but I honestly don’t know why he won’t allow it.”
“….”
Somehow, I think I do know why.

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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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