The Fake Wife of the Strongest Husband Wants to Survive - Chapter 11

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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 11
Owen’s voice cut through the air like ice, directed at the Butler.
“Any objections?”
As he spoke, he pressed down harder on the Butler’s hand with his boot.
“Aaaah! No, no! None at all!”
The moment the Butler signaled his surrender, Owen flicked his hand away with a dismissive kick, as though finished with him entirely.
The Butler curled into himself like a pill bug, trembling violently as he cradled his injured hand.
Pesha watched the scene unfold and shook her head slowly.
‘And here he was, betraying someone who believed in him.’
Reaping what he’d sown, she thought, glancing sideways at Owen.
He was already summoning servants to have the Butler dragged away.
‘I took him for someone who knew nothing but the sword and couldn’t survive outside a battlefield—just a dupe, really. But he’s got a sharpness of judgment that cuts like a blade.’
Owen’s gaze followed the Butler as he was hauled out, his eyes unusually cold.
When the matter had first come to light, he’d seemed to exercise remarkable restraint; she couldn’t fathom what had triggered this sudden outburst.
‘Does betrayal wound him that deeply?’
For a moment, his expression had seemed almost vulnerable in its raw brutality—but Pesha watched as he composed himself back to his usual impassiveness, and she exhaled with relief.
* * *
Under Owen’s direct supervision, the Butler was subjected to a thorough investigation into all transactions conducted since his arrival at Namoi Castle.
He proved uncooperative throughout the interrogation until a Double Ledger was discovered beneath his mattress, at which point his composure cracked noticeably.
Watching him, Pesha thought to herself:
‘Just a bit more pressure, and he’ll crack entirely…’
He wasn’t merely grieved at losing the embezzled funds he’d accumulated—there was something far more frightening looming ahead.
The end of the investigation meant the evidence would be handed over to the Security Force.
He’d be stripped of his position and left with a fraud conviction on his record, making future employment nearly impossible.
Backed into a corner with nowhere to retreat, he could only deny everything desperately.
Seeing through his desperation, Pesha made an offer the moment the Butler seemed on the verge of cracking.
“I know what you want.”
All eyes in the interrogation room snapped toward her.
“Return every last coin you stole, and I’ll let this end with dismissal—no report to the Security Force. I can even write you a letter of recommendation for another household. What do you say?”
Murmurs rippled through the room.
Everyone had assumed proper punishment would follow; instead, she was offering to settle for mere restitution? The penalty seemed far too light.
A knight began to voice his objection, but Owen raised one hand silently to stop him.
“Is that truly so, my lady?”
The Butler’s eyes gleamed with hope as he asked; Pesha nodded emphatically.
“Of course. I stake House Raidel’s honor on it—I wouldn’t lie.”
“Then the truth is…”
Bolstered by this reprieve, the Butler began hesitantly revealing details of the embezzled funds.
He must have felt genuinely relieved.
After all, banishment from this castle alone wasn’t so terrible; with no conviction on his record and a letter of recommendation in hand, he could slip into another region and resume his duties as a butler in some baron’s household.
“That’s everything. There’s no more embezzled money…”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes, absolutely certain!”
“Good work, then.”
“Then, as promised…”
The Butler’s voice trembled with anticipation as he began to ask.
Pesha smiled and issued an order to the soldier standing beside her.
“Take him to the Security Force.”
“What? What do you mean by that!”
The Butler cried out, his voice breaking with betrayal.
Pesha’s eyes widened, and she arranged her face into an expression of innocent confusion.
“What’s the problem?”
“But you swore by the name of House Raidel! How can you have no sense of honor as a noble—”
As the Butler shouted, Pesha blinked and abandoned all pretense, speaking plainly.
“House Raidel’s honor? You keep it.”
“What do you—”
“Besides, I’m not a daughter of House Raidel anymore, am I? That’s your mistake for falling for my words.”
“What are you saying?”
“Listen here—where do you get off raising your voice to the Countess of Namoi? You’re frightening me terribly. I really must take my leave.”
“This… this…! What kind of scoundrel are you!”
“Scoundrel? Who’s the scoundrel here—you, who stole from this house, or me?”
His fever rose so high that the Butler clutched the back of his neck and nearly stumbled.
“Then, take care of yourself?”
Pesha left the interrogation room with a satisfied laugh, her chest flooded with relief.
After that, the castle’s household ledgers naturally fell to Pesha, now the Countess.
Though it was her first time managing such accounts, years of being overshadowed and dismissed by her younger brother Jeremy had made her an expert at stretching meager budgets into functioning households.
The moment Pesha seized control of the castle’s finances, she began recruiting the most pressing need: more hands.
Construction workers, servants, cleaners, kitchen staff——
The castle was desperately understaffed in every regard.
After supplementing the workforce both within the territory and beyond, she prioritized the most urgent expenditures in order of need.
Among them, the Embezzled Funds recovered from the Butler were channeled first into repairing the territory’s crumbling Embankment and the Monster Defense Fortress.
With these repairs in place, she could stem the worst of the flooding and buy precious time against Monster attacks.
‘Though repairs won’t do much about the land already corrupted by Monsters,’ she thought.
The ledger she received after the repairs were complete showed that forty percent of the embezzled funds had been spent.
Forty percent. No small sum.
Regret tugged at her heart, but the safety of the territory’s people came first, so she set the thought aside.
Once the most pressing matters were more or less resolved, Pesha found herself on an afternoon——
——sitting at a tea table on the balcony overlooking the territory’s landscape, she set down her teacup with a sharp clink.
In her other hand she held a copy of the castle’s financial report.
“This can’t be right.”
The cold tea left a bitter aftertaste coating her tongue as she’d been absorbed in reading the ledger.
Pesha opened the ledger once more and expelled a long sigh.
“Money’s leaking out like a sieve. What on earth is happening?”
She understood that forty percent had gone toward repairing the critical Embankment and Fortress, yet in just a few weeks, another ten percent had vanished.
‘That carefully hoarded Embezzled Funds from the Butler——!’
He’d saved it so diligently that when she first recovered it, it felt like receiving a hefty lump sum from a mature savings account.
Knowing it was meant as the territory’s emergency reserve, she’d felt pleased—even though it wasn’t her own money.
But beyond the major repair costs, small expenses leaked away, and leaked again, and again.
Pesha’s eyes burned red with suspicion as she flipped through the ledger, checking for signs of another embezzler among the minor expenditures.
[Stable repair costs: 500 gold coins
Castle outer wall plastering costs: 1,400 gold coins
Arrow slit interior repair costs: 300 gold coins
Keep safety equipment inspection costs: 150 gold coins
Drawbridge counterweight replacement costs: 320 gold coins
Chapel expansion costs: 400 gold coins
Main building third floor construction costs: 220 gold coins
Workshop craftsman employment costs: 90 gold coins……]
Every repair had passed through Pesha’s own inspection and approval.
The sums were fair and market-appropriate, showing no signs of inflated costs, and all went to genuinely necessary work.
Yet there were simply so many ‘genuinely necessary’ places to fix.
The old, decrepit castle had endless work waiting, and the shortage of funds extended far beyond the castle walls themselves.
The territory’s public facilities were equally worn and urgently needed replacement and repair.
Pesha murmured through lips gone ashen and drawn.
“If this keeps up, the Embezzled Funds will be completely exhausted……”
And then the territory would sink back into poverty.
Even the hastily repaired places would crumble and decay again with time, becoming a monster that devoured coin without mercy.
To feed this monster’s endless hunger, she would need to earn wealth abundant enough to pour into its maw without restraint.
‘But how?’

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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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