Marriage With A Suspiciously Demure Husband - Chapter 69

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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 69

Chapter 10. He is not Noah. Noah is dead!

“Don’t kill Annie.”
……
Annie had been taken hostage.
Kailas had told me this: if I returned quietly now, he would spare those who had helped me.
My hands held their lives in the balance.
That meant Ginger and Eggmen had been captured too.
How cowardly—to seize hostages.
Unlike Annie’s plea for me to leave her behind and run, I couldn’t do it.
So I found myself being dragged toward the carriage as if on a leash.
He paused his steps several times to match my pace, but I still felt the awful pull of my own will dragging me forward.
After walking for a while, I climbed into the carriage he had prepared for me.
It felt like a prison without chains.
“Please spare Ginger and Eggmen too. Everyone only helped me because they were trying to save me.”
“How could I harm her when my beloved wife stands beside me?”
……
“So long as you never leave my side, you will always be safe.”
At those words, my body went rigid.
How easily he made threats in that nauseating voice.
I tried to glare at him, then forced myself to stop.
Only my lips would hurt. Only my eyes would sting.
If he meant to kill me, why take me to Ferrarium in a carriage? Why not just do it here?
Irritating. Irritating. Irritating.
The pursuit hadn’t stopped at all.
We simply hadn’t been able to track those who were tracking us.
Perhaps on the very day we heard the pursuit had stopped, Kailas had discovered my location.
Whether it was because my mind wasn’t working properly or because my eyes were deceiving me, the moment I climbed meekly into the carriage, he looked profoundly relieved.
It made no sense.
“My lord.”
Kailas, about to board the carriage, lowered his foot again at Syde’s call. He looked back at me once, then closed the door without a word.
Outside, someone appeared to be reporting something; Syde’s lips moved constantly as he spoke.
The door opened again.
Kailas climbed in across from me and shut the door once more.
I didn’t spare him so much as a glance the entire time he boarded and closed the door.
“I’ve had them gather all your belongings.”
“Already? At the house too?! Fine. Do as you please.”
“Hazel.”
……
It would take at least thirty minutes by carriage to reach the nearest Portal Gate from here.
Kailas’s gaze burned against my cheek.
Without my Ability to aid me, I couldn’t escape unless I broke through the window—and he watched me unrelentingly, never once looking away, as if standing guard.
The carriage ascended the Portal Gate and arrived in Ferrarium within a matter of minutes, almost anticlimactically.
Then the carriage turned toward the Edith Baronial House.
The familiar scenery flooded me with a hollow sense of despair.
And so my escape ended after a month.
Along with three hostages in tow.
The moment I stepped down from the carriage, I found myself face to face with Nizela, who had been waiting at Edith Manor.
I had assumed she’d returned to her original duties once I left, but apparently she’d been working at the manor all along.
She greeted me, but the gaunt Nizela—hollowed out as if she’d lost ten kilograms—didn’t recognize me.
Of course not.
I had erased all her memories of me.
Restoring them would strain her body too much. And I had no desire to do so anyway.

A large hand touched my back.
I flinched and turned to look, but Kailas’s eyes had narrowed.
“…I can go in alone. I won’t run away.”
Then I pushed his hand away and entered the manor of my own accord.
I felt his gaze on me from behind, but I didn’t look back once.

* * *

Following the servants’ guidance, I headed toward the room I’d thought I’d never see again.
“Since you’ve returned from your outing, we’ll prepare a bath for you, madam.”
The maids showed no sign of anything amiss, as though nothing had changed.
I’d been away for a month, yet they treated it as if I’d simply come home from the guild.
That frightened me.
“…Never mind.”
Then they hesitated, exchanging glances but unable to leave.
Since they lingered, my mind began to wander.
Were they also within the scope of threats, like Annie, Ginger, and Eggmen?
They wouldn’t be dragged away or fired just for skipping bath duties, surely.
Staff had come and gone occasionally before, but I’d never witnessed anyone dismissed outright, so my imagination ran wild with possibilities.
Left with no choice, I rose from my seat.

Kailas entered the room several hours later.
Night had already fallen thick and dark—normally, it would be time for bed.
The moment he stepped in, I pressed myself into the corner farthest from him.
With a hostage in play, I couldn’t even escape through the window.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Kailas couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
In his hand was a tray of food.
Poison?
“Are you—are you trying to kill me now?”
From the moment he’d removed his mask and started speaking informally, I’d lost the formal register too, my wounded pride getting the better of me.
Though my voice trembled with fear.
Still, if he’d taken me as a hostage, he probably wouldn’t kill me outright.
Then why bring me here at all, if not to kill me?
There’d be no reason to seize me otherwise.
“Why would I kill you? You hadn’t eaten dinner, so I brought it. You haven’t eaten anything all day either, have you?”
“I haven’t been thinking straight…”
God, just one more step closer and I’d lost my nerve entirely, the formal register slipping from my tongue.
My pride stung, but fear won out, so I decided to lean into the familiar cadence of speech.
“Thinking or not, you need to eat. Your stomach’s been empty far too long.”
“I said I won’t eat… Why did you bring me here in the first place?”
Regardless, he set a thin soup and spoon neatly on the table.
“Because this is our home.”
“This is your home. My home is at Mayble Street 11, Number 27.”
“No, Hazel—your home is here. Why are you being stubborn?”
“…….”
“Come here. Sit and talk with me.”
He pulled out a chair without sitting, gesturing for me to come join him.
When I refused to budge, standing my ground, he let out another sigh.
I’d lost count of how many sighs that made.
“I won’t kill you. Why would I hurt you? I won’t do anything—just come here. Let’s eat and talk slowly.”
With suspicious eyes, I took a slow, tortoise-like walk to the chair and sat.
Even the courtesy of him tucking in my chair felt undeserving of gratitude.
I kept my lips sealed even as I looked across at Kailas.
We maintained a taut silence, our eyes locked on each other.
Even when he forced the spoon into my hand, I didn’t lift it once.
“Eat first. Slowly.”
“I’m not really hungry.”
“…All right, then let’s talk. When exactly were you planning to come back?”
“Come back to what?”
“So you really were planning to leave me altogether?”
He seemed to have cast off that detestable Mask, yet he asked the question as though genuinely puzzled.
It left me bewildered—that he would ask when he surely knew the reason.
Whether I’d truly meant to abandon him.
Perhaps it was outrageous.
Perhaps it was absurd.
His eyes held a strange, profound mixture of emotions—betrayal and hurt mingled with a bafflement he couldn’t fathom, and he fixed that gaze upon me like an interrogation.
How could he wear that expression of having been betrayed, when it had all been a lie anyway?
It was infuriating.
This strange country of mine—unwilling to borrow another’s hand, wanting solitude, yet eaten away by loneliness.
I understood his weakness well: that outward strength, that boisterous façade masking a heart that could be swayed at any moment.
That’s why he needed something to hold onto.
So that no matter what tempest blew or what happened, I could stand firm beside him.
So that even if I faltered, those large hands would gently cup my cheeks and turn my face toward him.
So that if I wept, those warm fingers would brush away my tears.
But it wasn’t true. Yet it wasn’t true.
He was a man who came to kill me.
Regardless of his reasons, he came to strangle my neck.
Someone fundamentally different from me since the beginning.
Someone content to hold me in the palm of his hand and watch, prepared to end me whenever he pleased.
“You came to Ferrarium to capture me in the first place. Don’t try to fool me now—I already know everything. You brought me here to dispose of me, didn’t you? Because I stole from your coffers, and you resented it.”
“…….”
“S-s-sorry, but that money wasn’t legitimately earned in the first place.”
Timidly, I voiced my grievance.
“Ah, so you took it upon yourself to be a righteous thief, did you, my dear wife?”
“My dear wife? This is a Fraudulent Marriage. Don’t twist your words.”
At that, Kailas’s face flickered with a crack before smoothing over.
“…So.”
The conversation kept circling back on itself. Frustrated, I pressed on.
“I’ve repaid it all. I paid it back with interest—generously. Yes, you have reason to resent me, but it’s been over a year now. All that time you’ve deceived me, and I’ve deceived you in return—doesn’t that make us even?”
“If you’ve repaid it all—”
“Then let me go. There’s no point in continuing a Fraudulent Marriage that was discovered anyway. There was never any love to begin with.”
“I said I wouldn’t harm you. I said I had no intention of killing you. Why should we divorce?”
I stared at him incredulously.
Why should we divorce? He didn’t understand?
“What are you saying?”
“I have no intention of killing you, and as for money—take as much as you want. Just ask if you need anything.”
“…….”
“You said I loved you. But knowing who I am—why would that lead to divorce? I did everything you liked. I matched your ideal type perfectly. Before and now, you are still my Noah Edith. What exactly is the problem?”
What kind of nonsense was that?
“What do you mean? That you matched my ideal type?”

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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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