Surviving as the Wife of the Swordsmanship Clan’s Troublemaker - Chapter 91

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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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Chapter 91

Hallara was insane.
“Either a madwoman or a gold nugget dropped from the heavens. One or the other.”
Ludvin muttered to himself as he strolled down the corridor toward the Main Building.
All the thoughts and plans he’d harbored during his journey from the Capital to Bloodmere had vanished.
He was aware that his own demands were nothing but unreasonable coercion. But what of it?
This was a wretched world where brothers stabbed each other in the back and parents and children drew swords against one another.
If he could secure his own interests, he would exploit even family without hesitation. Besides, Francesca had been renowned since childhood for her brilliance—even surpassing her older sister Alasta. He’d assumed the Guild passed down through generations would become hers as well.
But ever since she met the Duchess of Bloodmere, she had transformed into a completely different person.
How to describe it….
Disappointing?
She had suppressed the ambitions she’d once displayed and devoted herself solely to supporting her husband.
When he heard rumors that she was conducting business, he’d thought it a lie. And the moment he learned that Docheop and a commoner woman were holding a wedding ceremony, he found himself already mounted on horseback. He’d ridden hard for three days straight, only to arrive after the wedding had already concluded.
According to his investigations during the journey, Hallara had entered the Castle quite some time ago. But because the place was so insular, information reached the Guild slower than usual.
Ludvin was disappointed the moment he laid eyes on Hallara.
‘Did he fall for a pretty face?’
She was certainly a beauty of a type he’d never seen even in the Capital. But.
‘Beauty doesn’t put food on the table.’
Though this woman had certainly earned considerable wealth from it.
Yet he couldn’t believe that alone had stolen the hearts of both Francesca and Nikolai.
“The Northern Emperor… what about him?”
He couldn’t bring himself to voice it aloud, but he turned over the information Hallara had revealed in his mind.
It was extraordinary intelligence.
Since becoming Guild Master, he’d never received information of such magnitude.
Likely no previous Master ever had either.
“Has she truly lost all fear?”
Ludvin murmured, thinking of Hallara.
Lies always reveal themselves somehow. Especially Ludvin—he made certain no one dared lie before him by coating himself liberally in expensive lie-detecting incense.
The incense had not activated around Hallara.
It meant at least that Hallara genuinely believed the information herself.
Ludvin’s lips curled upward despite himself.
“Wow, if it’s true, it’s a jackpot. And if it’s not, I lose nothing?”
If it were true, he’d be holding an enormous trump card.
If not, he could return and demand money as he’d originally intended. Of course, if that happened, Hallara would be finished.
But his instincts as a businessman told him the latter wouldn’t be the case.
“What exactly is this woman?”
He resolved to conduct a thorough investigation of Hallara once he returned, and made his way back to where Nikolai and Francesca were.
“Nikolai! Are we strangers to each other?”
And now, he casually draped an arm around Nikolai’s shoulders.
“My, how you’ve grown. Much taller and you’ll rival your uncle.”
For reference, Nikolai had caught up to Ludvin’s height and build by the time he turned fifteen.
Moreover, Ludvin had never once held him warmly in his arms when Nikolai was young.
“Why the sudden change, sir?”
Nikolai pushed him away, bewildered by this unfamiliar demeanor.
He suspected Ludvin was trying to extract money through this newfound familiarity.
“Why? Because I feel like it.”
“As I mentioned, the building is out of the question.”
“Fine, fine. Drop it.”
Ludvin waved his hand dismissively and pulled his hat down over his head.
Nikolai’s expression hardened further.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? I was just speaking off the cuff.”
Speaking off the cuff?
“Lighten up. And please, stop using that stiff tone with your uncle. We’re only ten years apart in age.”
His demeanor had shifted from composed to entirely relaxed.
“…Why are you suddenly changing your words?”
“I told you, I was just speaking off the cuff.”
“What did you discuss with Hallara?”
Pressed by his continued questions, Ludvin released his arm around Nikolai’s shoulder.
“Nothing in particular.”
He had no intention of revealing the deal with Hallara. Instead, he recalled the condition she had added at the end.
“Because we’re family, that’s why.”
“…Since when have you been like this?”
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nikolai. Cherish your family. Your mother too.”
Nikolai’s face stiffened immediately.
“Why are you bringing up my mother?”
Could Hallara have mentioned what happened at the last banquet?
“Your sister lives for you.”
Ha.
Nikolai exhaled sharply, as if exasperated. He couldn’t fathom what Ludvin was saying.
Then Ludvin continued with a smile.
“Don’t you see the mark on your wrist?”
“This has been here since childhood.”
Nikolai answered indifferently and pulled down his sleeve.
The faint mark etched on the inside of his wrist was far too familiar to him. It had been there since birth, and so he had never given it much thought.
Yet Ludvin’s smile did not fade.
“Yes. That’s what you would have thought.”
He didn’t seize Nikolai’s wrist or lean in for a closer look.
He simply spoke with absolute certainty.
“Do you know what that mark is?”
Nikolai’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Ludvin stepped back and adjusted his hat.
“That’s a protective seal. An old-fashioned one at that.”
Nikolai gazed down at his wrist in silence.
No magical resonance, no activation he’d ever sensed—just a mark he’d always dismissed as a scar.
So he’d simply lived with it as such.
“Protection? You mean magic?”
“Yes! Incredibly expensive and rare magic, I should say. Permanent, too. I couldn’t even do it for my own daughter, you know?”
“Why would she—”
“She never told you? You fell gravely ill not long after you were born. Just a fever that anyone might catch, but for your mother, it was as if the world was ending. After that, she went mad with worry and begged a retired Archmage to place a protective spell on you. Spent days on her knees pleading.”
Ludvin shrugged.
“After the seal was inscribed, the household fell into chaos. There was talk of divorce, real talk. But what could anyone say? She was protecting you.”
Nikolai’s eyes darkened. A mark carved so long ago, in infancy, that he’d never even noticed when it was done. All these years, no one had known of it. He himself had forgotten about it, too preoccupied to dwell on it.
“This isn’t a seal meant to make a child stronger. It’s not carved into the weak either.”
Ludvin’s gaze fixed upon Nikolai.
“It’s carved into those you cannot afford to lose.”
A brief silence fell.
Only the sound of wind rustling through the corridor somewhere nearby.
“Mother did this?”
Nikolai asked quietly.
Ludvin neither nodded nor denied it.
Instead, he spoke thus.
“Docheop and Helbeorn had plenty of accidents and incidents from childhood. Docheop because he couldn’t awaken, Helbeorn because he was simply a troublemaker. Well, I probably know more about that than you do. I know everything, after all.”
…
Ludvin continued with a smile.
“But you?”
Nikolai did not answer.
“You never cried. You never complained of pain. You never ran away.”
Ludvin’s voice grew softer.
“That’s how your mother knew.”
He spoke slowly.
“That you, Nikolai, would break before you’d ever utter a word of complaint.”
Nikolai’s fingertips trembled faintly.
“So she inscribed that seal. Because she thought you wouldn’t know how to protect yourself.”
“Then why….”
Nikolai fell silent.
Why had it seemed like I was shielding Docheop more than him?
Why did I always raise my voice only at my younger brother, yet turned away from him in silence?
“It must have looked like favoritism.”
Ludvin spoke first.
“But that was discipline.”
He looked directly at Nikolai.
“What I did for you was protection.”
Ludvin added one final thing.
Then he turned away without hesitation.
“Ugh, I’m absolutely mortified saying things like this. Look, look at this—goosebumps all over my arm.”
Ugh.
Ludvin rubbed his arms while picking up his jacket. If not for Hallara’s request, he would never have spoken of such ancient history that held no interest for him, nor uttered words that made his chest flutter so uncomfortably.
But now was the moment to push forward the image of family, so he had no choice but to let the words spill out.
“Ah! Nikolai. Since I told you something, you tell me one thing too.”
“…What do you mean.”
Nikolai slowly lifted his head.
Seeing him with his guard seemingly lowered, Ludvin asked with a brightened expression.
“Why did you give that Hallara a bracelet as a gift?”

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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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