My Contract Husband Demands a Divorce - Chapter 7

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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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It wasn’t that I actually doubted his identity; rather, the question was meant to test his reaction.
To see whether his amnesia was genuine or fake.
But why on earth was he checking it one more time?
For now, I played dumb.
It was due to the highly improbable chance that the man standing before me might not actually be Scheit.
If that really were the case, the moment he realized I was onto him, he would surely try to eliminate me to destroy the evidence.
“Doubt you? It was merely a joke. You just seemed a bit different today.”
Scheit stared at me in silence for a long while.
Just as his silence and piercing gaze were beginning to make me feel distinctly uncomfortable, he finally spoke again.
“Different in what specific way?”
Why was he asking that now?
Was he trying to feel out how much I knew about him?
To get rid of me if I knew too much?
Keeping my guard up, I kept my response as superficial as possible.
“Well. You used to trail off at the end of your sentences, and you stammered a bit. Your posture, too—you used to hunch your body forward quite a lot.”
“Like this?”
Scheit drew his neck in, rolling his shoulders and back forward into a slouch.
“Yes. A little more… bring your shoulders further inward, and clasp your hands in front of you… Right. Just like that. You need to bow your head a bit more and let your bangs cover half your face.”
I reached out and combed his bangs straight down.
The slouched posture, the face partially hidden by strands of hair.
The fact that his eyes looked entirely too sharp and normal was the only flaw, but now he finally resembled the Scheit I knew.
When I nodded with satisfaction, he glanced into the mirror.
Scheit inspected his reflection for a good while before straightening his posture and brushing his hair back.
Returning to that unfamiliar face in an instant, he offered me a smile.
“Aside from that, is there anything else you know about me?”
I knew it. He was definitely trying to fish for what I knew.
I intentionally let the corners of my eyes droop, adopting a regretful expression.
“I’m afraid it would be faster for you to look through your journals or documents rather than asking me. You and I are bound by a contract, and we weren’t particularly close.”
“…….”
“Ah! Or shall I call the butler for you? Wait just a moment.”
Perfect. I can use this excuse to escape…!
Or so I thought, but before I could even open the door, Scheit stepped close and turned me around.
He leaned down to meet my eyes, lowering his voice.
“My lady, I would prefer it if you didn’t inform anyone else that I have amnesia.”
“Not even the butler?”
“Not even the butler.”
“Why? He’s the one you brought along when we married.”
“I would simply prefer to keep this as a secret between the two of us.”
What kind of scheme was he pulling now?
I narrowed my eyes, studying Scheit.
A secret between the two of us. Was he trying to build some sort of rapport? What exactly was he trying to wring out of me?
The only thing I possessed was money.
Could he be trying to form a bond just to bleed me for even more cash?
Or perhaps he intended to use me for something else.
I forced my narrowing eyes back open.
Whatever his angle, I had already decided to play along for the time being.
“Understood.”
As I gave a solemn nod, Scheit lightly rested his hands on both of my shoulders.
Was he finally about to show his true colors?
The thought crossed my mind, but,
“You may leave now.”
He spun my body back around.
“Huh?”
Wasn’t he trying to build a rapport?
Before I could even voice my question, Scheit personally opened the door and gently nudged me out into the hallway.
His voice drifted over my shoulder.
“Have a good night then, my lady.”
“A good ‘night’?”
Dumbfounded, I whipped around to face him again.
Beyond his shoulder, brilliant sunshine was streaming through the massive windows.
The rain had stopped before I knew it, and dawn had already broken.
Watching the door thud shut, a fresh hypothesis late to form finally crossed my mind.
“Is he just completely out of his mind?”
* * *
Inside the room Amarynthis had just vacated.
Yulisian remained alone, sitting before the desk with his legs crossed. The deeper his thoughts grew, the slower his foot tapped.
Amarynthis’s intelligence-gathering capabilities were disappointingly subpar. Though he had at least managed to obtain the necessary clues to mimic Scheit.
‘I’ll have to search the desk for other information, just as she suggested.’
Yulisian pulled open a drawer.
The documents piled inside were mostly written in the Ancient Language.
‘This is troublesome.’
Only a select few individuals could fluently decipher the Ancient Language.
And unfortunately, Yulisian did not belong to that exclusive group.
Which meant there wasn’t a single document here he could actually read.
‘Judging by the diagrams, it looks like a research journal.’
He set the papers down and examined the desk here and there. Soon, his eyes caught an ornament that bore an unusually high number of scratch marks.
‘A man with many secrets is bound to create a space exclusively his own.’
When he twisted the ornament, both side panels of the desk creaked and swung open.
One side was packed with letters and documents, while the opposite side held a notebook dense with records.
The letters and documents were written entirely in cipher, while the notebook contained a chaotic mix of cipher, the Ancient Language, and the Melbern Language.
Though the notebook occasionally featured drawings, they were just as difficult to decipher.
After flipping through the notebook once, he read a section written in the Melbern Language.
December 30, 1804, 14:40. Lord Welotl told me that I am a gloomy bastard with a hunched back. Count Treas agreed, saying it’s a relief I at least use my hair to cover my face.
January 1, 1805, 06:01. A petite maid with brown hair and green eyes told another maid, ‘Isn’t the master a bit gloomy? I want to save up some money quickly and go somewhere else.’
The contents were straightforward.
It recorded, down to the exact minute, who had badmouthed Scheit, when, and how.
‘Why on earth would he record something like this?’
While he couldn’t comprehend the motive, it was useful reference material for grasping Scheit’s reputation.
‘There is hardly anything regarding his lady.’
Though there were records of when she left the house and whom she met, most of it consisted of observations made while spying on her alone.
They truly seemed like a couple who shared no private conversations whatsoever.
‘It was true that she wasn’t close with her husband.’
Leaving the notebook back where it belonged, he moved toward the bookshelf.
Resting alone atop the neatly aligned books was a single roll of parchment.
‘For a document to be drafted and preserved on parchment, it must be fairly important.’
He pulled it out and unrolled it, only to find it was a Prenuptial Agreement.
To leave a document like this tossed aside so carelessly.
It was a telling detail that revealed exactly what Scheit Huniswald had thought of this marriage.
Just as he was about to fold the parchment back up, one particular word caught his eye.
Amarynthis Rootsild.
‘That woman was a bigger player than I thought.’
As Yulisian read through the agreement, the truth finally dawned on him.
Exactly where the massive dowry Amarynthis had paid upon her marriage and the monthly living expenses she provided were flowing.
The sudden expansion of Kildian’s mercenary forces had taken place over the span of roughly the past year.
During that time, Yulisian had been tracking Kildian’s military funds.
Yet, no matter how deeply he dug, he could never unearth the path through which that vast wealth was entering.
‘It was flowing out from here.’
The period when Kildian began moving in earnest perfectly aligned with the time Scheit married Amarynthis.
When he tallied the initial dowry Amarynthis had provided alongside the daily living expenses she handed over, the military funds of unknown origin roughly matched the sum.
‘Is the lady an accomplice? Or is she merely being used?’
The moment his train of thought concluded,
—Thud.
A heavy sound echoed from beyond the bookshelf.
Soon after, the sound of footsteps followed.
He swiftly rolled the parchment back up, wedged it between the bookshelves, and stepped back toward the wall where a decorative sword hung.
This was so he could respond instantly in the event it proved to be an intruder.
‘To freely frequent a private space via a secret passage, it must be someone intimate with Scheit Huniswald.’
A single misstep could expose the fact that he was not the real Scheit.
Maintaining his tension, he recalled the details Amarynthis had shared with him.
Just as he lowered his head and hunched his body forward, the bookshelf swung completely open, revealing a pitch-black passage.
A lone figure stood motionless in the hallway where not a single ray of light reached.
Once the movement of the bookshelf ceased, the suspiciously dressed man walked in slowly, pulling back his hood.
He was someone Yulisian knew entirely too well.
‘Brother.’
The man approached, taking the seat of honor on the sofa with practiced familiarity.
Leaning his weight against the backrest, Kildian scanned Yulisian from head to toe.
“I came to check since there was no report even though the hour had passed, and yet look at the wretched state you’re in. What became of Yulisian?”

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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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