My Contract Husband Demands a Divorce - Chapter 52

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Scheit burst into laughter, stepping down from the carriage first to extend his hand.
I placed my hand in his as I disembarked, sweeping my eyes over the surroundings.
A few people approached us with smiles, but the overall atmosphere felt distinctly different from usual.
I returned their greetings while scanning the area, noticing Metterni Marquisate’s carriage rolling in from a distance.
“Excuse me for a moment. There’s someone I must greet.”
Requesting his understanding, I walked toward the carriage with Scheit.
As she stepped down, I called out to her affectionately, taking the initiative to greet her.
“Lady Metterni, it feels like it’s been a while. Have you been well?”
Her response was not particularly welcoming.
A curt nod served as a reluctant greeting, and her expression remained frosty.
Princess Lucretia followed, stepping out of Lady Metterni’s carriage next.
“Won’t you greet me as well? It’s been quite some time for us too. Wouldn’t you agree, Amarynthis?”
“It is a pleasure to see you too, Princess. This is practically the first time we’ve run into each other since graduation, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. I heard you married my fiancé’s subordinate, but I couldn’t even make it to the wedding. Were you terribly disappointed?”
“Not at all. It wasn’t as though your engagement was short, and I received blessings from plenty of other people.”
Princess Lucretia’s lips hardened.
She forced the corners of her trembling mouth upward.
Having been engaged for so long without ever holding a wedding, she had every reason to be incensed by my words.
The sound of giggles muffled behind fans echoed from the onlookers nearby.
Princess Lucretia’s face flushed crimson.
Honestly, why did she have to pick a fight?
I flashed a bright smile, seizing the moment while Princess Lucretia was at a loss for words to look back at the Marquis’s Daughter.
“I was worried because you didn’t reply to my letter. To tell you the truth…”
I was about to explain that I had realized there was an issue with the dress too late.
Thud!
If only a dull, heavy impact hadn’t struck my temple.
“Goodness!”
“Baroness, are you alright?!”
“Aah! Who threw an egg!”
A sticky fluid began oozing down the side of my head.
Splat! Crack!
The sounds of several more eggs bursting echoed in succession.
They flew straight toward my face, but Scheit blocked every single one with his hand.
With his other arm, he pulled me tightly against his chest.
His solid arm wrapped around my waist and the back of my head, shielding me entirely from any physical harm.
Yet even he could not block out the screaming.
“You murderer!!”
Was he talking to me?
No way. That was impossible. I had never done anything to deserve such words.
It couldn’t be. Surely not.
Even as I tried to steady my ragged, trembling breath to calm myself, a man’s voice, thick with despair, roared like thunder.
“You killed him, didn’t you? It was you, wasn’t it?! Tommy, my son! You said you would forgive him! You promised!!”
My mind went completely blank.
The noise began to fade into a distant hum.
Who? Tommy?
The child I had asked Sindy to watch over and protect?
…Then, then what about Sindy?
I staggered backward, pushing against Scheit’s chest.
My body shook uncontrollably.
It had to be a lie. He must be putting on an act to extort money from me, to frame me in front of all these people.
Yet the man’s despair and grief were undeniably genuine.
Even as he was dragged away by the Palace Guard, he continued to shriek and wail.
“Give me back my son! Tell me he isn’t dead! Let me go, unhand me! I will curse you until the day I die, Amarynthis Huniswald! Rot in hell, you hypocrite! You murderer!!”
The voice, a tangled mess of pleading, rage, resentment, and desperation, grew faint.
And the void it left behind was instantly filled by a different kind of noise.
“It seems the Baroness killed the child who threw a stone at her.”
“Did she pretend to show mercy by letting him go just to maintain her angelic reputation, only to kill him behind everyone’s back? How cruel.”
“How utterly atrocious. To a mere child, no less.”
“See? I told you there was something off about her. People who act all different behind closed doors are always the scariest.”
The malicious gossip began to balloon right then and there.
“Then that rumor must be true as well. The one about her sending the Metterni Marquisate’s daughter a torn-up dress to insult her, telling her to wear it to the Flower Show.”
“Isn’t that just the kind of person she is? I heard she didn’t shed a single tear at her own parents’ funeral.”
In front of the man being dragged away while twisting in agony over the loss of his young son, dozens of lips curled into smirks.
As they spectated my downfall, their expressions curved like finely honed blades.
Their glazes flashed past me, sharp and cruel as shards of glass.
A shudder ran through me, as though my entire body were being hacked to pieces.
My breath caught in my throat.
I needed to shout that it wasn’t true, but no sound would come out.
My ears felt muffled as if submerged in water, and my breathing grew rapid.
I was terrified.
Terrified that something had happened to Sindy. Terrified that the man’s accusations might actually be the truth.
Everything I had built throughout my life—the admiration, the envy, my status, and my honor—felt as though it were about to vanish like foam on water.
Things without value are discarded.
And the things discarded are left to wither away in isolation, where no one will ever know.
They die.
I might die.
“Dearest, breathe.”
Scheit’s voice buzzed faintly against my ear.
Though I gasped for air, nothing seemed to fill my lungs.
No matter how hard I pant, the air barely scraped past my throat before hollowly escaping once more.
My limbs trembled violently.
A sensation of floating washed over me.
Over Scheit’s shoulder, my eyes locked with Princess Lucretia’s.
Framed by hair that billowed like the flames of a pyre, her crimson lips wore a sly, mocking smirk.
My limbs went limp and my mind grew hazy, as though I had been strangled for an eternity.
“Ah, Sindy… catch…!”
Something brushed against my whispering lips.
Feeling a sudden rush of air surge into my lungs, I lost consciousness completely.
* * *
Lucretia stared at the space Scheit and Amarynthis had just vacated.
Her eyes traced the path of the woman who had gone deathly pale, shaking violently while gasping for air, slumping down like dying prey.
A base, cruel ecstasy surged within her, threatening to make her burst into laughter at any moment.
While she barely suppressed her amusement, the crowd swarmed around the Marquis’s Daughter.
“Lady Metterni, did the Baroness truly send you a shredded dress?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Then it must be true that she killed the boy as well!”
“I never thought she was that kind of person.”
The Marquis’s Daughter hovered anxiously, unable to either deny or confirm the allegations.
While she believed Amarynthis had sent the ruined dress specifically to humiliate her, hearing the woman openly vilified to her face made her uneasy.
Princess Lucretia curled her lip, sneering at the woman’s hesitation as she stepped backward.
‘Weak-willed creature.’
Well, no matter, she had served her purpose.
“Lady Metterni, I shall take my leave now.”
“Pardon? But the Opera is about to begin…”
She no longer cared about some trivial opera.
A tragedy far more entertaining than any well-crafted melodrama of infidelity was rushing toward its grand climax.
“I suddenly remembered a pressing matter I must attend to.”
She needed to return quickly.
Before Amarynthis could regain consciousness, she would kill her maid and present the corpse as a gift.
She wanted to break her completely.
A hum nearly escaped her lips on its own.
The moment she arrived at the Palace, she sought out Saidel Nishurban.
Effortlessly concealing his irritation, he rubbed his palms together with a sly, fox-like grin.
“My, my. Did you look for me, Your Highness?”
“Do you know how to kill someone?”
“Goodness gracious. Such terrifying words from such lovely lips…”
“Do you know how, or not?”
“Whom should I handle, and in what manner? That maid?”
“Precisely. I figured it would be safer to employ a reliable man rather than wasting effort to silence someone else later.”
“Haha. Surely you could handle a matter of that scale yourself.”
“Are you suggesting I stain my precious hands with blood?”
Princess Lucretia snapped her eyes wide, glaring at Saidel with murderous intensity.
Saidel leapt backward with exaggerated alarm, waving his hands frantically.
“Oh, heavens no, how could I ever imply such a thing? I shall do it, of course. Absolutely. This lowly servant will gladly take care of it. Now, how exactly should I execute this to please your heart, Princess?”
As he groveled and catered to her whims, the tension in Lucretia’s eyes softened.
She pondered the question with a look of immense satisfaction.
“Sending the head would deliver the greatest shock, wouldn’t it? It takes up very little space, after all.”
Saidel instructed a servant to fetch a suitable weapon before turning back to Princess Lucretia.
“But what on earth did the Baroness do to earn such a deep, bitter resentment from you?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————