I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 34

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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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Chapter 34

Naturally, the source of this information came from my memories before the regression.
So from Polmen’s perspective, he must have felt as though he were bewitched by a ghost.
I had pinpointed something he’d never even told his own family.
The shock was so great that Polmen could only stammer, “How? How?” over and over.
I scoffed at him and threw just one sentence his way.
“It’s happening in my own home. Did you truly believe I wouldn’t know?”
“Gasp?!”
I drove the final nail into the coffin for Polmen, who looked as though he’d seen an actual ghost.
“All this time, I’ve shown you mercy and waited for you to repent, but it was all for nothing.”
Polmen’s complexion turned ashen.
“Ah, ah, young master—no, Your Highness! I—”
I furrowed my brow and spoke.
“My ears are growing filthy.”
At that, the mercenaries gagged Polmen’s mouth.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
In the meantime, those I’d ordered to search Polmen’s quarters came down carrying a trunk.
It was brimming with precious metals, jewels, and money.
My eyes widened in astonishment.
‘He embezzled this much?’
I remembered where he’d hidden it from information I’d overheard in passing before the regression.
But seeing with my own eyes just how much he’d stolen was my first time witnessing it.
It was absurd.
Following the commotion and herded along by the mercenaries, the employees of Delphin came out, and I fixed each of them with a sharp, piercing gaze.
Among the gathered employees were people from House of Kielrn.
Their numbers were small—they were Ludwig’s close associates, and the highest-ranking among them would be on the second floor beside Ludwig right now.
The rest were mere chaff. Yet even these chaff had strutted about as though they were superiors within Delphin.
I set these aside entirely.
“After all, they’ll be returning to the Kielrn Manor anyway.”
At my words, the complexion of the Kielrn Manor employees turned deathly pale.
I ignored them as though they didn’t exist and began singling out faces I remembered from among Delphin’s employees and retainers.
“You, you, you, over there, and that one. And also that one hiding in the corner.”
The mercenaries seized them all and forced them to their knees before me.
Every person I’d identified was one who had betrayed me by siding with Evangeline.
More precisely, they were the ones among them who had been particularly zealous.
Those who had tormented me, stabbed me in the back openly, or caused trouble that left an impression on my memory.
There couldn’t have been only these.
Yet when I swiftly identified Evangeline’s key people, everyone seemed to be in shock.
They repeated words similar to what Polmen had been muttering moments before.
“H-how is this possible?”
“It wasn’t me!”
“Why are you suddenly doing this? Miss?”
“I have committed no sin except to serve with utmost loyalty…!”
Those shrieking and denying their guilt, and those cowering in fear, shrinking back.
I issued my command coldly.
“Detain them all separately. We can interrogate them slowly.”
Of course, Polmen couldn’t have been the only one embezzling House Delphin’s assets. They too had all done their best to pocket their own share.
So simply turning over their rooms would send dust swirling like a sandstorm.
For Evangeline, purging the tainted ones required nothing more than this.
I planned to cast them all out with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Chaos erupted.
I looked down from above at the Black Mercenary Corps subduing the servants.
And behind the mercenaries, quietly observing how I was handling things, maintaining the same vantage point as me—the only man who did so.
Arpard.
No, rather, Gerald, the Mercenary King.
He was observing how I was taking control of Delphin.
‘He’s probably considering this another one of those tests.’
What an infuriatingly troublesome man.
Just then, a noticeably thinner Anny came rushing out.
Among those who had returned home, she was the only face I was glad to see.
“Anny!”
“Miss, no! Your Highness!”
Anny approached me with a brightened face and bowed gracefully on one knee.
It was a respectful greeting befitting one before the Crown Princess.
Among those I had told to mind their manners, none had observed this.
Anny, who had no need to do so, was the first to show such courtesy.
I took Anny’s hand and helped her up myself.
“That’s enough. There’s no need for this between us.”
Anny was my milk sister, and one of the few in the Manor who truly cared for me.
Yet her eyes burned fiercely with anger and determination.
“No! Precisely because we are close, I must observe proper courtesy all the more!”
Anny fixed the subdued servants with a gaze full of anger and contempt.
Unable to ignore how the situation had shifted, they shrank back in fear even of Anny.
Anny whispered several things into my ear.
Though I had lived through three regressions, I did not know all the traitors. Anny admirably filled in those gaps.
“You’ve caught them all well. But those three maids over there, the stable keeper, and that cook’s assistant—they were all fawning over that woman Evangeline.”
I ordered the Black Mercenary Corps to subdue those Anny had identified as well.
Smaller than before, but screams rang out once more as if death itself had come.
“Your Highness! Please forgive me!”
No one called her “miss” anymore with contempt or mockery in their tone.
“I only did what I was ordered to do!”
“I have served House Delphin since my grandfather’s time!”
Yet none of them deserved my mercy.
After sweeping through them, two-thirds of Delphin’s staff had been subdued.
But I couldn’t trust the remaining third either.
So I left a warning for them as well.
“Don’t think I’m simply overlooking those who’ve wronged me. I’m merely giving you a chance to atone for your sins.”
In other words, it was this.
‘From now on, go ahead and accuse each other of wrongdoings. Then maybe I’ll let you live.’
And needless to say, I had no intention of forgiving anyone simply for denouncing another’s crimes.
It was merely sifting through the sieve once more.
Then, slightly later than I’d anticipated, a familiar face appeared from the passage leading to the basement, supported by two mercenaries.
But I had no leisure to feel joy at the reunion.
Count Beltane, whom I hadn’t seen in so long, looked absolutely wretched.
“Count Beltane!”
I gasped and rushed toward him.
His exposed skin—face, arms, and limbs—was covered in bruises, and whip marks scarred several places.
Half his face was so swollen that it was difficult to recognize his handsome features.
Yet he recognized me and smiled.
“You’re… safe…”
Then, as if his strength had given out, his head drooped.
I panicked and checked whether Count Beltane was dead. Fortunately, he was still breathing well. It seemed he had simply lost consciousness.
Anny spoke to me from beside him, her voice trembling with tears.
“You have no idea how cruelly the Grand Duke imprisoned him in the basement and tortured him!”
I was shocked.
I turned my head and glared at Arpard, who stood there like a spectator.
I had definitely asked Arpard.
To investigate the circumstances of Anny and Count Beltane within Delphin.
And I’d been told there were no major problems.
So I had been somewhat reassured.
I glared at Arpard with only my eyes and asked silently, ‘What is the meaning of this? Why didn’t you tell me Count Beltane was in this condition?!’
Arpard, understanding my meaning, irritatingly shrugged his shoulders.
‘He’s alive, isn’t he? So I simply reported it as it was.’
Fury surged within me. But this wasn’t the time to fight with Arpard.
I issued orders to the mercenaries.
“Take Count Beltane to a physician immediately and treat him!”
The mercenaries faithfully obeyed my command as their employer.
The mercenaries faithfully followed my orders as their employer.
Arpard—or rather, Gerald—must have given such an order. But Count Beltane’s condition was kept hidden?
Grrrgh.
The sound of teeth grinding echoed in my ears.
Then Arpard, who had been standing like a decoration against the wall all this time, silently approached my side.
And he touched my chin lightly, saying something absurd.
In a voice so quiet that those beside us couldn’t hear.
“Be careful. You’ll hurt those pretty lips.”
I swatted his hand away with an audible smack. And I started a whispered argument.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I’ve always spoken only the truth before you.”
“When we return, I won’t let this slide. You definitely owe me information about Count Beltane—”
“That was merely your request. It wasn’t a contract I had any obligation to fulfill.”
“…!”
Arpard lowered his voice even further, whispering directly into my ear.
“That’s why I said so—asking your husband to look into the wellbeing of another man is asking too much of him.”
“Don’t insult Count Beltane’s… honor.”
Arpard shrugged.
“When you come running with such an anxious expression and fuss over him like that, saying otherwise isn’t very convincing, is it?”
Though hidden by the mask, Arpard’s expression seemed genuinely displeased.
But I was equally furious.
‘If I’d learned about this even a moment later, Count Beltane could have died!’
He is one of the two people I want to protect at all costs in this life.
In a sense, protecting them was more important than my own survival.
Anny and Count Beltane had already sacrificed all three of their lives to protect me.
So I had no intention of letting this matter slide.
“Think what you want. But if anything happens to Count Beltane because of such a misunderstanding, I won’t let you off either.”
“….”
I expected Arpard to mock me further or ridicule me.
But surprisingly, he remained silent, his expression deeply furrowed.
And we weren’t given time to argue further.
Despite all the commotion, Ludwig, who had been nowhere to be seen, suddenly appeared on the second floor in a state of complete intoxication.
“…Hillia?”
A half-empty bottle of liquor hung from Ludwig’s hand.
He rubbed his eyes and studied me carefully several times before finally reaching an absurd conclusion.
He cried out with a bright smile.
“You’ve finally come back!”

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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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