Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband - Chapter 31

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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 31

It was a promise I’d made only because Jed and Dylan pestered me so relentlessly.
Lily suddenly reached out and pulled both my hands toward her.
“I’m not sure where you’ll go, but once you’ve settled somewhere, write to me. It won’t be much help, but I’d like to send you a gift to celebrate your fresh start.”
“Oh… you don’t have to do that.”
“Did you forget we promised to be friends?”
“No! That’s not what I meant.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“You have to write. Through Jed is fine too.”
I nodded while my hands remained clasped in hers.
She held on as if she’d never let go unless I agreed.
“All right, I will. I should get going now—His Highness will be waiting eagerly, so you should hurry back too… oh, you’re already here.”
Sure enough.
Speak of the devil—Jed appeared in my field of vision.
He’d apparently come looking for Lily, unable to wait any longer.
At my words, Lily slowly turned her head. The gesture was like a scene from a film. Truly, a heroine.
“Jed!”
Lily bounded lightly to him, and Jed gazed at her fondly, drawing her close.
Ugh, hard on the eyes.
“So you’re really leaving? Hazel?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Thank you for everything.”
I inched away, dragging my bag behind me for fear he’d grab hold of me.
“Don’t forget you promised to visit every quarter. So there’s no need to say goodbye as if we’ll never meet again. For Lily’s sake, if nothing else.”
“Aha ha…”
Aha ha, damn him.
Even now he had to play the gallant before the heroine. I really needed to get out of here fast.
“I’ll be on my way now. Always be happy, Your Grace! Please love His Highness long and well.”
At that, Lily let out an “Oh my!” and her cheeks flushed peach.
After she insisted once more that I write to her, I made the promise twice over before finally managing to slip away from them both.
At last, I was free.

* * *

And yet.
I was back at this wretched Royal Palace again…
Still, I’d managed to escape before things got worse and build a happy life for myself.
“What, are you glad to be back?”
Dylan chuckled softly behind me as I surveyed the Training Ground and Royal Palace.
I shook my head firmly.
“No, not at all. I was just looking because nothing seems to have changed.”
“How cold.”
Then Dylan suddenly grasped both my shoulders, his expression turning serious.
“Hazel.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The Illusionist will be training inside.”
“You mentioned it before, and you mentioned it just now.”
I replied as if it were no big deal.
“Don’t be too shocked when you see him. Don’t run away. Understand? Please.”
What kind of being was he that Dylan was this stressed about it?
Now I was curious too.
I patted Dylan’s drooping shoulders and stepped into the Training Ground.

* * *

It was the fourth day since Hazel had gone to the Capital.
“G-gasp, huff, what—what mistake did I, did I make?”
A man with swollen eyes and blood smeared across his battered body lay crumpled in the corner of the Warehouse, trembling with terror.
It was Carrion, the one who had raised such a commotion at the Guild Representative Meeting, claiming that the Poison Scorpion had crawled across his body and attacked him.
“Is this him?”
A voice like that of a predator cut through the air, low and measured.
Cid nodded beside him.
“Yes, sir. According to Nizela, he dared to grab her shoulder at the Representative Meeting. She says he kept suggesting they go elsewhere, calling her beautiful, pestering her about being a female representative—that sort of thing.”
“I see.”
He replied as though unmoved, but Cid knew well that Kylus spoke in that tone when his mood was particularly foul.
The tap of dress shoes echoed as Kylus drew closer to Carrion, who remained hunched low.
“Ahhh!”
Carrion screamed.
“This hand, then?”
Cid’s face twisted with discomfort at the question.
“Actually, it was the right one, not the left…”
“Aaahhh!”
Even as Cid answered dutifully, his eyes held a hint of sympathy.
‘Tsk, why did he have to do that,’ Cid thought.
He shook his head slowly, turning his gaze away.
Carrion, gasping from the agony, was too dazed to even comprehend what had led to his current state.
Ever since that strange incident at the Guild Representative Meeting, it felt as though he had gone mad.
He’d only approached a woman whose appearance pleased him at a Guild Representative Meeting that hadn’t been held in ages.
Then, without warning, thousands of black Poison Scorpions materialized before his eyes.
A Carriage had followed him besides, forcing him to flee not to his home but to the Temple.
A priest who rushed out insisted he was caught in an illusion and dispelled it with Holy Power, only then could he break free from the hallucination.
Who in the world—
That same night, he’d had no choice but to go to the Temple and make an enormous donation.
Returning home in bitter spirits, the moment he opened his eyes he found himself trapped in this strange, cavernous Warehouse with an icy floor.
His body was already a map of bruises, with not a single unmarked inch remaining.
Only later did he realize he hadn’t returned home and fallen asleep in his bed—he’d collapsed in the Carriage.
But even so, he couldn’t fathom where this place was.
Then came a handsome man who appeared later, his eyes burning with murderous intent directed at Carrion himself.
‘What in the world is happening?’
Carrion was experiencing hell without understanding why.
Kylus bent his knee, lowering his gaze.
A hand clad in black Gloves seized Carrion’s face with brutal force.
Facing the trembling Carrion, Kylus clicked his tongue with disdain.
“So this is the face you dared to show.”
Daring to make my wife uncomfortable.
As that thought burned through him, Kylus’s already darkened mood plummeted further into displeasure.
So this was what she left my side to look upon.
The image of Hazel in that filthy den twisted something inside him.
“Kgh…”
A brutal force jolted Carrion back into consciousness just as he was losing it.
Carrion gasped, on the verge of collapse from agony.
Kylus released him with a casual toss of his jaw.
Meanwhile, Cid observed Kylus’s back with an inscrutable expression.

“Bring him in.”

After Nizela reported to Kylus and he gave the order, they had brought him in—but Cid hadn’t expected to see him dealt with so directly.
There had been many troublesome matters before, but Cid and Nizela had always handled them quietly, dealing with them as needed and reporting back.
Judging by his master’s current demeanor, it seemed unlikely that this man called Carrion would leave alive.
Carrion Molly.
He was the eldest son of the Molly Earl House, currently locked in a succession dispute with his younger brother Ralph.
The Molly Earl seemed to be suffering greatly, caught between his eldest son, Carrion, and his second son, Ralph.
According to the reports, neither was willing to relinquish their ambitions, and there was talk of dividing the house and inheritance separately.
At this rate, the eldest would vanish without a trace, leaving the house and all its wealth to the second son’s hands.
Cid, who worked tirelessly day and night to expand his master’s power and wealth, found himself mulling over whether he might arrange a transaction with Ralph Molly, the younger brother, in the midst of all this.
Any person with sense would bow in gratitude for having their troubles cleaned up without lifting a finger.
But when on earth would Cid come home?
Cid had sweated through his clothes, weighed down by a killing intent he hadn’t felt in ages.
If not for Cid’s message yesterday morning, he would have been picked clean like a withered squid and buried under even more work.
Fortunately, the report had been completed right then and there, and his master hadn’t so much as mentioned the paperwork afterward.
His master’s voice had changed so abruptly that he still wasn’t used to it—it sent shivers down his spine—yet he found himself hoping that a message would arrive each time he submitted a report from now on.
More than anything, he wished Cid would return soon.
On the other hand, something felt off.
When Cid had been at his side, small oddities had seemed unremarkable, but now that he’d left, the strangeness in his master had become something he could feel in his very bones.
It was as though his master had given away half his mind, while the other half had grown irritable to a fault.
He seemed to have room for only one thought in his head.
As if his master were waiting—yearning with every fiber of his being—for Cid to return.
“Cid.”
“Yes!”
Cid snapped back to attention.

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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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