My Husband Lives in a Painting - Chapter 36

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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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My Husband Lives in a Painting — Episode 36
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Gazing up at the Marquis of Boutere’s curtained chamber, I bit my lip in silence.
‘I hope Camille is managing well.’
Pagoda was a man who could possess any woman he desired with a mere whim. Making a single painting hold more value to him than an actual person was never going to be simple.
That’s why I suggested we use myself as bait to seduce the Marquis.
A being he longed for but could never have. I alone fit that condition perfectly.
‘If the strategy works as planned, I can’t say I’m thrilled about it.’
Because it would mean I was genuinely Pagoda’s type.
Though, of course.
That’s nothing compared to what Camille will endure, facing that repugnant man wearing my face.
For her sake, I need to end this quickly.
I was running through the plan one more time in my head when it happened.
“They’re coming.”
At his quiet voice, I lifted my gaze toward him.
Claude stood in his black robe, watching the servants rushing toward us from a distance.
Against all my worries, he’d already slipped perfectly into his role.
“From here on, I’ll take the lead.”
“As you wish, madam.”
Moments later, a servant burst from the Marquis’s mansion, breathing hard, and blocked our path.
“H-how did you come to be here?”
“We’ve come to see the Marquis of Boutere.”
“The M-Marquis?”
The flustered servant cut us short, firmly standing his ground.
“If there is no prior appointment, I must ask that you leave today. Please, I beseech you to depart.”
But it was a reaction I’d already anticipated.
“There is a prior appointment.”
“Pardon?”
I drew a piece of paper from my breast and extended it to the servant, and his face drained of color in an instant.
“This is…”
“It’s all there in writing. Two o’clock this afternoon, a private audience with the Marquis. We’re also to dine together this evening.”
“B-but I’ve heard nothing of such an appointment…?”
Of course you haven’t. It’s a forgery.
“My hobby is imitating his lordship’s hand, and I’m quite skilled at it! Don’t worry—leave it to me!”
“…Hope, we’ll speak later.”
“Y-Your Grace? I meant well—gwaaaah!”
Grateful for Hope’s tearful sacrifice, I offered a soft smile.
“Then my knight and I shall wait in the reception room.”
“N-no! Your Grace!”
Leaving the servants behind, I stepped into the Marquis of Boutere’s Mansion without hesitation.
From a corner, I caught the faint murmur of the household staff.
“Has the master still not responded?”
“He’s ordered that no one disturb him, no matter who comes calling…”
“What on earth is he thinking?”
The atmosphere in the reception room was decidedly awkward.
While the nervous servants fussed about, I accepted a cup of steaming black tea from Claude, falling into our “lady and knight” performance.
“Shall I pour you more, madam?”
“This will do. Though I must say, you’re spilling rather a lot.”
“You should have held your cup more steadily, madam.”
“How disrespectful.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
The longer our play continued, the more anxious our observers became.
At last, one of the maidservants gathered her courage and approached hesitantly.
“If I may, perhaps you could call again next time—”
“Don’t concern yourself. I can wait as long as it takes.”
“B-but…”
“Enough. Don’t disturb my rest.”
This was my first time wielding rank to suppress another, yet that imperious tone seemed to suit the logic of this place perfectly.
The visibly cowed servants didn’t dare address me again.
‘So this is why they all do as they please.’
But there was no time to savor power at leisure.
I swept my gaze quickly across the room over the rim of my teacup and opened my lips quietly.
“Ah, now that I think about it, I really shouldn’t be dawdling like this.”
“That’s right? Ma’am, surely you should be heading back……!”
“I dropped a Ring in the Observation Room last time. While I wait for the Marquis, I’d like to go find it.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The moment I rose from my seat, the flustered servants exchanged glances in unison.
Deciding that this simply would not do, the highest-ranking servant among them stepped forward and blocked my path with determination.
“Duchess, terribly sorry, but I cannot permit that particular request.”
“Why not? I’m only asking to go look for a Ring I’ve lost.”
“The Observation Room is a space that no one may enter without the Marquis’s permission.”
“It seems you haven’t seen the Letter the Marquis sent me. He wrote that I should be treated with special consideration, as befits the mistress of this house.”
“Even so, I cannot break principle.”
Indeed, the vigilance of one who had guarded this mansion for so long was formidable.
‘So he’s saying he can’t trust a scrap of Paper like that.’
But this much had been anticipated.
I paused as if deliberating, then made my proposal in an even tone.
“If the problem is me rummaging through the mansion, then let me send my knight instead. I’ll sit here quietly in the meantime. Will that work?”
“You’d send your knight……?”
“Yes. If you’re still uneasy, assign someone to watch him. Make sure he doesn’t touch anything else.”
“…….”
I felt a persistent gaze trying to gauge the truth of my words.
But I’d come here today with every intention of deceiving them.
Suspicion to this degree—
I could slip past it easily enough.
“……You must return immediately once you find the Ring.”
“Thank you.”
Now it was Claude’s turn.
As I tilted my head slightly upward, the golden eyes hidden beneath his Robe gleamed distinctly, fixed only on me.
He gave a soft laugh.
“Then I’ll be on my way, ‘ma’am’.”
“…….”
The way he deliberately stressed the word ma’am with such exaggerated emphasis was rather playful.
‘I told you not to be so obvious about it.’
Ignoring my disapproving look, his footsteps across the Reception Room seemed tinged with barely suppressed delight.
‘……Think he can pull it off?’
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Once Claude left the Reception Room, his expression hardened immediately.
He glanced at the two servants leading the way, then followed them while collecting his thoughts.
‘Ob asked for two things.’
One: secure evidence of the crime.
Two: slip the Letter through the gap in the inner door.
As he smoothed the front of his clothes and confirmed the feel of the white envelope she had prepared for him, the servants ahead came to a halt.
“Five minutes. If you can’t find it by then, come right back out.”
“…….”
Claude nodded without a word.
Stepping into the Observation Room under the servants’ watch, he found before him a graveyard of Phonographs that was revolting no matter how many times he saw it.
As his gaze swept across the room with obvious distaste, the small inner door Ob had mentioned caught his eye.
‘So I’m supposed to slide the Letter through there?’
He had crouched low and was halfway through inserting the envelope when—
“Hey, what are you doing over there?”
The servant who had been watching Claude, seeing him remain still for a moment, had crept around to stand behind him.
But as his view was blocked by Claude’s back, the servant reached his hand over his shoulder.
“This won’t do. We’ll find the Duchess’s Ring separately and send it. You head back now.”
“…….”
“Hey, aren’t you listening to me?”
Claude recalled his conversation with Ob that morning.
“What if the servants stop me?”
“Hmm…….”
In truth, this plan was quite difficult to execute.
After struggling with the matter for quite some time, she arrived at an answer that was, surprisingly, the simplest one of all.
“Just force your way in. Or better yet, knock them unconscious at the nape. You’re good at that sort of thing, aren’t you?”
“……You make me sound like a thug. I’m not quite that crude. Besides, what if it causes problems later?”
“The servants I’ve seen only follow the Marquis out of fear. If this is over and the Marquis is ‘alive’ to hold them accountable, they’d finger us as the culprits—but…….”
“But?”
“That won’t happen.”
“……?”
Surely she didn’t mean the Marquis would die.
It was hard to say for certain, yet there was something oddly unshakeable in the way she spoke.
‘Well, we’re in the same boat now. Might as well trust her.’
In the worst case, he could bear all the responsibility himself and withdraw to the Western Territory.
“…….”
“Are you not listening to me—!”
The instant a servant’s fist came hurtling toward Claude’s back, he surged to his feet, caught the incoming wrist with effortless ease, and struck back in one fluid motion.
Thud—!
“I’m listening. Loud and clear.”
“Gaaack…….”
He left the servant unconscious with that single blow, then in moments laid flat the other one who rushed in after, strewing both figures across the floor like laundry.
“Impatient bastards,” he muttered.
And then, as he peered through the crack in the door again—
Whoosh—
The paper, which had been motionless, was suddenly sucked inward as if alive.
“……!”

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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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