Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband - Chapter 119

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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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Episode 119

“…It’s nothing, really.”
“What’s wrong? You didn’t overexert yourself getting here, did you? Are you so tired you’ve forgotten how to talk?”
“Do I look that fragile to you?”
Hazel shot him a sideways glance.
“Now that I’m back outside, I can smell the smoke on myself. I was inside the whole time, so I didn’t notice it before. I’d rather not linger if there’s any more of it.”
“Hmm, you’re right. We should go back in.”
Dylan swallowed whatever he’d been about to say.
As they made their way back inside and he followed along, Dylan kept stealing glances at Hazel.
After showing Dylan through Duke’s Castle at length, Hazel led him to her study.
As they walked side by side, Dylan continued to press his questions.
But Hazel seemed entirely unaware that she’d been tracked during her time in the Knight Order, or that the Worshippers had kept her under their watch.
Even from my perspective, though she did seem melancholy at times during her years in the Knight Order, that was simply because of the workload—she’d never caused any real trouble.
She never missed a single day, and she completed every task flawlessly.
Even now, Hazel was devoting all her strength to hunting down and preventing both Monsters and Worshippers in the Northern Region.
Alongside her husband, Duke Hardid.
‘Does she not know that the previous Duke and his consort were deeply entangled with the Worshippers?’
It was information Dylan had uncovered when he found the Documents.
There was no way Duke Hardid, who had grown up in the ducal house, could be unaware of that fact.
Now Dylan found himself questioning the sudden deaths of the previous Duke and Duchess.
The previous Duke Hardid had been shrouded in as much secrecy as the current one.
He could face and speak with Duke Hardid now thanks to Hazel, but there was no information at all about his predecessor.
Still, one couldn’t say that the current Duke Hardid had cast off his veil. He remained a man of many secrets.
Through Hazel, though, Dylan felt he might learn more.
In any case, it was confirmed that Hazel had no idea the Worshippers had been watching her for so long.
No hint of concealment, no trace of suspicion.
Which left only Duke Hardid.
“Come in. I wanted to talk about work for a moment before dinner. That’s all right, isn’t it? You seemed troubled about something, so I thought I’d bring it up first.”
“Did I look that unwilling to work?”
Dylan replied with a wry smile, glancing around the study.
Within this sprawling castle, there seemed to be no small room anywhere—even Hazel’s study was vast.
Bookshelves lined one wall, and on the desk where she conducted her work, Documents were stacked nearly a hand’s breadth high, arranged in neat order.
On the opposite side stood a table and sofa arranged like a small parlor.
The castle itself could not shake off a cold atmosphere, as befitted the rumors of it being a great fortress of white, yet Hazel’s study alone felt cozy and warm.
“Looks like you did quite a bit of work here too.”
Dylan settled comfortably onto the sofa.
He was wondering whether he’d be able to meet with Duke Hardid today when Hazel spoke in a somewhat measured tone.
“Dylan.”
“Yes?”
“The people you arrested at Martin Castle back then—you did dispose of them all, right?”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed.
It had been one of the more troublesome incidents.
“You’re talking about Fay Martin?”
Dylan waved his hand dismissively as if to say, don’t even mention it.
The man had been so vicious right up until his execution that he’d caused no end of headaches.
“Yes.”
Dylan recounted that day’s events vividly and then asked her.
“I had the details sent to your Guild about how we handled it. You didn’t receive it?”
He recalled that no answer had come back at that time.
The communication had suddenly cut off, which had struck him as odd.
When he looked at her as if to ask why she was bringing it up again, Hazel’s expression became far more serious than before.
“…It seems we didn’t dispose of Fay Martin properly.”
“What?”
“Of course, I don’t think you did it on purpose.”
At those words, Dylan straightened in his seat.
The implications of what Hazel had said tangled Dylan’s mind.
He hadn’t expected Fay Martin to come up out of nowhere like this.
Had she uncovered something here?
Are you pretending not to notice that the Worshippers are watching you?
“You’re saying the situation wasn’t properly handled—surely you don’t mean what I think you mean?”
“Yes, Fay Martin was alive. I’m not sure how it happened, but he managed to infiltrate this place.”
Then Hazel began to speak of what had occurred that day.
Dylan seemed so startled at her words that he appeared on the verge of retching.
“S-so what happened?”
As Hazel laid out the details, Dylan found himself torn between shame, humiliation, and a grudging measure of respect for them both.
……
“I’m telling you again—it’s not your fault.”
“I have no excuse. Things went the way they did because I grabbed you. I can’t even lift my head from the shame. And the Forbidden Power, no less……”
“I only learned about it from the Magic Tower myself. If we hadn’t captured him that day, it could have been a real catastrophe. I’m planning to inform the Imperial Palace as soon as I’ve gathered all the details.”
Dylan was overwhelmed by such profound shame that he nearly forgot why he’d come here at all.
He’d believed the matter was resolved, fully and completely—yet not only had he missed it outright, but it turned out they’d caught the culprit in the Northern Region.
And worse still, it was Duke Kailas Hardid and his wife who’d done so.
Whether that was a blessing or a curse, he couldn’t say.
Hazel seemed to have more to say.
“You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”
When Dylan asked, Hazel hesitated for a moment.
After a long pause, she began to speak carefully, hoping he wouldn’t misunderstand.

* * *

That evening.
Dylan dined with Duke Kailas Hardid and his wife.
“You’ve traveled a considerable distance. Thank you for the effort, Lord Banker.”
“The honor belongs to the two of you, who defend the Northern Region. I am grateful for your welcome.”
Dylan was somewhat astonished as he watched Duke Kailas Hardid greet him first.
Wasn’t Duke Kailas Hardid the sort of man from whom even the Emperor struggled to receive a greeting?
Of course, his gaze remained fixed on Hazel, but the mere fact that he showed no hostility toward Dylan made the young man’s heart settle.
This dinner with Duke Kailas Hardid and his wife had seemed the greatest trial of his visit.
It was strange enough to be seated across from the Duke at the table, but witnessing him tend so carefully to Hazel felt like a dream.
For a moment, he forgot entirely why he’d come here.
‘…Is that really Duke Kailas Hardid?’
The man said to be without blood or tears?
The rumors went so far as to claim he was merciless even to people, that he’d abandoned his own humanity for the sake of duty.
And that made him all the more uneasy.
What if Duke Kailas Hardid’s lack of human warmth was connected to the Worshippers somehow?
In the sleepless hours before dawn, Dylan had even entertained the ridiculous notion that the Duke had deliberately approached Hazel.
The Worshippers had been hunting her for so long, after all.
‘But if that were the case, they wouldn’t look so lost in their own world right now.’
Earlier, Dylan had found it amusing how Hazel’s face flushed whenever the Duke’s name came up—but now he saw they were both completely smitten.
Duke Kailas Hardid attended to her as though he were her hands and feet, even carefully arranging her napkin.
‘If that’s the behavior of a man targeting Hazel, then love has no place in this world.’
His doubts melted away before he and the Duke had even properly begun to speak.
It was shocking to realize that the version of him Dylan had seen at the Imperial Palace was merely the restrained one.
If Lux and Josh had witnessed this, they would have reacted even more strongly than he did, no less.
It was dripping with sweetness.
Throughout the meal, Dylan felt as though he were drowning in a vat of honey, pickled in it.
At last, the evening’s ordeal—though in a different sense—came to an end.
“Your Grace, might I trouble you for a moment of your time?”
After finishing tea with the couple, Dylan gently requested a private audience with Duke Kailas Hardid.

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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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