My Contract Husband Demands a Divorce - Chapter 33

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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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I swallowed hard without realizing it.
To say he had a lot to discuss.
He seemed to have caught on to something, but it didn’t matter. I had no intention of hiding it anyway.
“Very well. But shouldn’t we check the laboratory first?”
Even though it’s likely all been reduced to ashes.
Swallowing the rest of my words, I watched the servants put out the fire.
The visible flames were now completely extinguished.
Still, we had to wait a little longer.
There was no telling what embers might still be lingering inside. Just as I was about to watch until the servants went in and finished suppressing the blaze entirely, Scheit Huniswald moved.
He was heading toward the annex.
Startled, I grabbed him.
“Where are you going?”
“To the annex, as you can see.”
“The fire isn’t completely out yet.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going. The interior could be dangerous.”
For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend his words.
Going because it might be dangerous? Normally, shouldn’t it be the opposite?
While I tilted my head in confusion, Scheit Huniswald began walking toward the annex again.
I caught him once more.
“If we just wait, they’ll put it out on their own. Why insist on walking into a dangerous place?”
“The servants are people who belong to this household, are they not? As the family head, they are my responsibility. Therefore, if they are entering a dangerous place, it is only right that I go with them.”
Yes, right. It was a proper sentiment.
Though it was also a stuffy, old-fashioned sentiment that belonged in a philosophy textbook.
While I stood dazed, Scheit Huniswald pulled his hand from my grip.
He ordered the people preparing to enter to douse themselves in water and cover their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs or cloths, then took the lead and vanished into the annex.
It probably wouldn’t be very dangerous.
Using the remodeling as an excuse, I had previously stripped away all the highly flammable wainscoting, curtains, and fabrics.
Any alcohol or stored items that posed an explosion risk had been moved, and the walls had been layered with plaster to prevent the fire from spreading significantly.
Yet even knowing that, I still didn’t want to court danger.
It’s only natural for a human being to desire safety.
But how could that man be so utterly reckless?
Even just a moment ago. When the ground shook from the explosion, he had shielded me as if to protect me.
Even while acting like such bitter enemies…
Is he fearless? Or does he simply not value his life?
As I stared blankly, I watched the servants follow him inside, carrying a heavy fire pump.
A long while later, a servant emerged from the annex and ran over to me.
“Ma’am, the master is asking you to come down to the basement for a moment.”
“…Is the fire completely out? Is anyone hurt?”
“Yes. It wasn’t much, so we put it out quickly. No one was injured either.”
As expected. What a relief.
Feeling a wave of reassurance, I shifted my steps.
When I stepped inside, the servants were already clearing out the interior.
It seemed only Scheit Huniswald had gone down to the basement.
A servant approached and handed me a lamp. I took the light and headed downstairs.
The basement, entirely charred black and drenched in water, was humid, bleak, and hideous.
Scheit Huniswald stood at the end of the dark corridor, staring at a collapsed wall.
Sensing a presence, he turned around.
“Is this where the laboratory used to be?”
“Yes.”
The laboratory had burned remarkably well.
Not a single scrap of paper remained.
The glass bottles rolling across the floor were shattered and blackened, making it impossible to tell what they had once held.
The furniture was in the exact same state.
I looked at Scheit Huniswald’s face.
Despite his laboratory being completely incinerated, Scheit Huniswald was serene.
“I was supposed to report the research results to the prince by this weekend, but coincidentally, that has become impossible.”
The voice uttering those words sounded almost satisfied.
He slowly stepped into the laboratory.
The entrance to the passage connecting to Scheit Huniswald’s room was covered in plaster and mud.
“Did you run over here after eavesdropping on my conversation with Kildian?”
“To be precise, from the moment Prince Kildian walked in.”
“This… did you take precautions in advance to keep the flames from spreading?”
“That’s right.”
“You aren’t even trying to hide the fact that you set the fire yourself.”
“Because there’s no need to.”
Scheit Huniswald looked back at me.
A peculiar smile hung on the corners of his lips.
“What if I tell Prince Kildian about this?”
“Then I plan to reveal that you are colluding with Archduke Yulisian’s people.”
Very slowly, his smile withered away.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Judging by your reaction, it seems I wasn’t wrong.”
“I asked where you heard it.”
The look in Scheit Huniswald’s eyes was different from usual.
It was just like that night during the storm, the day he had transformed into a completely different person.
An uncharacteristically sharp gleam flared inside his otherwise plain brown eyes. His lips smiled even while harboring open hostility.
At a glance, his gaze almost made him look like someone who had been betrayed by someone they trusted.
He’s glaring at me with terrifying intensity.
I swallowed hard without realizing it. I wanted to take a step back from the sheer pressure, but I planted my feet firmly on the ground and tilted my chin up.
“I didn’t hear it anywhere. It’s a deduction.”
“A deduction?”
“Yes. You’ve been sneaking out for late-night strolls recently.”
“Are you saying you deduced I was colluding with them based on just that?”
“That’s not all.”
There was plenty of evidence.
Beldamin Pollen, who was rumored to be romantically involved with me before the divorce lawsuit, was an acquaintance of Papilion Cortius.
The villa in the Southern Region where the documents related to the divorce lawsuit were held.
The Rutshield family owns rarely used villas all across the country, so why did the court documents go specifically to the villa in the Southern Region?
That’s because the person Scheit Huniswald is cooperating with has easy access to buildings in the Southern Region.
Furthermore, the horse that brought me to the palace. I heard that when that horse came up for auction, Commander-in-Chief Tristan Wigras had attempted to purchase it.
Commander-in-Chief Tristan Wigras was also a famous close friend of Archduke Yulisian.
If there were only one such circumstance, it could be a coincidence, but when multiple pieces line up, it becomes a certainty.
“Lastly, the reaction you just showed is practically a confession.”
While I rattled off my explanation, Scheit Huniswald remained silent.
He looked a little surprised.
After appearing to ponder for a moment, he opened his mouth.
“It is true that I cooperated with them, but they are people who no longer matter to me.”
“You know that trying to protect them so openly only makes you look more suspicious, right?”
“I am not trying to protect them openly; it is simply the truth.”
“Did they abandon you because you failed to get a divorce?”
As if I had struck a nerve again, Scheit Huniswald shut his mouth.
He even frowned, looking displeased with the word ‘abandoned.’
I pressed on, entirely undeterred.
“Then that works out even better. It means you don’t have any helpers right now.”
“What if I’ve decided to side with Prince Kildian again?”
“I know you’re trying to patch over the weakness I caught you out on, but… try to lie about something believable, Scheit.”
Your persistent efforts to divorce me and the satisfaction you showed when the laboratory burned down made it glaringly obvious.
Leaving the directives lying around carelessly, even if they were written in cipher, pointed to the same thing.
It was as if you wanted whoever looked to see them.
“Above all, you’ve been calling Prince Kildian without any titles for a while now. Your loyalty has completely faded, hasn’t it?”
“…….”
“Join hands with me.”
Scheit Huniswald scowled, looking far from thrilled.
“I cannot do that.”
“Is it because my money is being used as Kildian’s war funds?”
Scheit Huniswald stared intently at me.
The flickering light of the lamp danced across his pale face.
He regarded me with a bizarre expression for a long time.
“Come to think of it, how on earth did you know about that? Mentioning one billion, war funds…”
“I decoded the directives you carelessly left lying around.”
“There was no sign of them being opened.”
“Of course not. Who opens something like that in a way that leaves a trace?”
Since I had melted the bottom of the wax seal with a heated knife to open it and then resealed it, it was only natural that no traces remained.
However, Scheit Huniswald still looked deeply suspicious.
“You decoded that in a matter of days? You expect me to believe that?”
Though I couldn’t express them in words, I vividly remembered the arranged symbols.
Male symbol, because, down arrow, circle, diamond, star, solid square, infinity, up arrow, triangle, male symbol, hashtag, section sign, solid square, diamond, star, circle, caret, percent, infinity, diamond, up arrow, infinity, infinity.
Judging by the breaks and the repeating symbols, it was a completely different structure from the Melbern Language, which merely strings together an alphabet.
The language of the Nodis Kingdom was composed of initial, medial, and final consonants in that exact manner.
And if you conduct a frequency analysis on text written in the language of Nodis and then substitute the symbols, you get the Melbern Language written phonetically.
Translating that decodes the cipher.
“If you can’t believe it, go to Prince Kildian yourself and verify it.”
“Verify what, and how?”
“Whether or not the contents of the last directives you received meant, ‘Assassinate Princess Isoldra.'”

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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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