My Contract Husband Demands a Divorce - Chapter 46

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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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“Of course. It’s Nodis Kingdom silk, after all. Just looking at it was absolutely mesmerizing.”
“Exactly. The stitching was meticulous, and you could really tell how much care went into it. My dress turned out absolutely flawless.”
Beutelen and Eloen spoke in turn.
Metterni remained silent.
Their words meant that they had received perfectly fine dresses.
The only one who had received a torn dress was Metterni.
Reading her silence, the Count’s Wife lowered her voice even further and asked.
“What is it? Was there an issue with your dress?”
“Well…”
Metterni hesitated for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
“I received a torn dress.”
“Really?”
“Good heavens…”
As Metterni buried her face in her hands, on the verge of bursting into tears, Eloen quickly opened the terrace door.
The Duchess gently wrapped an arm around Metterni’s shoulders and guided her out onto the terrace.
Once the door clicked shut and the noise from the outside was somewhat muffled, the Count’s Wife handed over a handkerchief.
“Tell us exactly what happened.”
“It’s just as I said. The hem of the dress was completely shredded. It looked as if someone had deliberately hacked at it with scissors! Did I do something wrong? Even if I did, isn’t it terribly cruel to ruin a gift like this before sending it? You have no idea how much we were looking forward to those dresses!”
At last, the tears came pouring out.
Eloen and Beutelen exchanged a look.
The rather blunt Count’s Wife muttered to herself, sounding thoroughly bewildered.
“But still, the Baroness doesn’t seem like the type of person who would do such a thing, does she?”
Beside her, the Duchess nodded in agreement.
“Indeed. Is Amarynthis really the kind of person to play such a malicious prank just because her feelings were a little hurt? We all know her character.”
“If she felt slighted, she would have written a letter instead.”
“Or she would have quietly swallowed her grievances. She’s an absolute angel, after all.”
The two of them were right.
Metterni knew that well enough in her head.
Yet her heart refused to follow the dictates of logical reasoning.
She was simply miserable and felt utterly wronged.
The fact that no one was taking her side only intensified those feelings. In the end, the ballroom event drew to a close, leaving nothing but a lingering bitter taste in her mouth.
As the crowd began to ebb away like the tide, the smile vanished from her face as well.
Right then, someone spoke up.
“Excuse me, Miss Metterni.”
It was Melis Haller.
After their first meeting at Amarynthis’s mansion, they had occasionally exchanged greetings at other ballroom events or tea parties, making her a fairly familiar face.
Though they weren’t close enough to lay bare their inner thoughts. Metterni hurriedly wiped her tears and forced a smile.
“You haven’t left yet, Miss Haller.”
“Well, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop… but I happened to overhear your conversation about the dress earlier.”
Melis hesitated, her words faltering slightly.
“That was probably because of me.”
“Because of you, Miss Haller?”
“Yes. When I mistakenly intruded upon that gathering where only the three of you were invited. You stood up for me back then, Miss Metterni.”
To rip up and gift a precious dress over a trivial matter like that?
When Metterni’s expression clouded with disbelief, Melis pressed on.
“To be honest, it feels like she doesn’t particularly care for me. So I thought perhaps you had fallen out of her good graces because of me as well, and I wanted to apologize.”
“Miss Haller, would the Baroness really make an enemy out of me over something so petty? Amarynthis is not that small-minded.”
She wasn’t saying this to defend Amarynthis.
The Marquis’s Daughter was one of the most influential figures in social circles.
She understood her own worth and the inner workings of high society perfectly.
There was no way Amarynthis would throw away a long-standing friendship over a mere country bumpkin who had just arrived in the Capital and didn’t even belong to the hereditary nobility.
Yet despite Metterni’s firm assertion, Melis remained perfectly composed.
“If you find it hard to believe, would you care to go with me for a moment to meet someone?”
* * *
The place Melis took Metterni to was the Palace—specifically, the annex where Princess Lucretia, the Crown Prince’s fiancée, resided.
Only then did a slight crack appear in Metterni’s resolve.
‘What if the person I defended wasn’t just a simple country bumpkin, but an associate of Princess Lucretia? Could Amarynthis really have turned against me because of that?’
Princess Lucretia brought the hammer down hard on that fracturing heart.
“I’ve heard the whole story, and perhaps Amarynthis held you in such low esteem after all, Miss Metterni. Why else would she shred the dress and send it to you without a single word of explanation?”
The Marquis’s Daughter’s eyes wavered.
Lucretia took her hand, her expression practically dripping with profound empathy for Metterni’s plight.
“I understand exactly how you feel. She’s managed her reputation so meticulously that no one will believe you, right? Everyone is just taking Amarynthis’s side.”
“…That’s true.”
“How terribly upsetting it must have been. In fact, I went through something similar back when I was attending the Imperial Comprehensive University.”
The more Metterni’s expression hardened, the deeper Lucretia’s smile grew.
Ultimately, Metterni returned home with a completely rigid countenance.
Lucretia summoned her maid and tossed two pouches toward her.
“Deliver one portion of this money to the butler of the Huniswald mansion. Tell him to give the other portion to the servant who tore the dress. And make sure that servant moves to another city if possible—no, actually, it would be better if they left the country entirely. So they can never be found.”
“The butler actually went through with it. Even though the Huniswald Baroness is the one he serves.”
“Oh, please. The person that butler truly serves is Prince Kildian. And I am his fiancée. Stop blabbing about useless things and move quickly.”
“Yes, Princess. I shall return shortly.”
The maid bowed politely and left the room.
Lucretia rose from her seat, humming a tune to herself.
Moving out to the garden, she instructed the butler in charge of the annex to bring a certain child before her.
It was the son of a laborer who came to deliver groceries.
He was also the very boy who had thrown a stone at Amarynthis’s carriage.
Lucretia pressed another gold coin into the boy’s hand.
“An investigator will come to see you soon. If they ask why you threw the stone, just say you did it as a harmless prank. Absolutely do not mention that I told you to do it. Do you understand? If you keep quiet, I’ll provide enough to cover your younger sibling’s medicine.”
Clutching the gold coin tightly in his fist, the boy looked up at Lucretia with pleading eyes.
“Thank you, Princess! I won’t say a word, I promise. So you must keep your word too.”
“Of course I will.”
Her crimson lips curved into a wicked smirk.
* * *
“Snoooooore…”
For a second, it sounded like a wild beast roaring nearby.
Turning my head, I saw Supreme Commander Tristan fast asleep with his head tilted all the way back.
The man was practically a human clock. No matter how hard he tried to endure, he would lose consciousness right around three in the morning as if he’d been knocked out.
In other words, his snoring was the signal that this strange late-night gathering had come to an end.
Sitting beside him, Papilion, who had been decoding ciphers, finally set down his pen.
“Let us call it a night.”
A tinge of regret lingered within me.
Papilion had been exceptionally inquisitive today, leaving me with barely any time to work on the ancient language in the notebook.
‘I suppose asking to take it with me is out of the question?’
I stole a glance at Papilion to gauge his reaction.
The moment our eyes met, his brow furrowed deeply, his sensitive temperament laid bare across his entire face.
‘Figures.’
Just as I was about to give up, Papilion slid the closed notebook toward me.
“…It is partly my fault. However, you must bring it back tomorrow.”
Scheit, who had been merely watching from his chair across from me while leaning back, spoke up in a playful tone.
“I’m the actual owner of that notebook, you know.”
You’re not the owner, you’ve just taken possession of the owner’s body.
My eyes narrowed automatically at his shameless reply. Papilion wore a very similar expression.
As their gazes collided, Papilion’s brow twitched once more.
As if thoroughly displeased that they had made the exact same face, he immediately stood up from his seat.
“Both of you should leave now.”
With that, he kicked us out.
Scaling the wall in the manner I had now grown accustomed to, I returned to my room.
Instead of heading back to his own quarters, Scheit naturally took a seat right in front of me.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. I simply wished to watch you for a bit.”
“It won’t be very entertaining…”
Despite my words, I didn’t drive Scheit away.
It wasn’t as if he was causing a disturbance.
Spreading out the papers, I focused entirely on the cipher and the ancient language decoding, yet his gaze remained pinned to my face.
It was undeniably the exact same situation as before, yet the atmosphere felt subtly different compared to when we were surrounded by others.
It made me feel needlessly self-conscious.

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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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