The Fake Wife of the Strongest Husband Wants to Survive - Chapter 17

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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 17
Iceberg had finally received formal approval as a painkiller in the Swarf estate.
After granting the permit, Owen canceled the bulk order he’d placed for Hoban and switched the inventory to Iceberg instead.
“Well, that’s a relief.”
Pesha rested her chin on the balcony railing of the castle, watching the gardens gradually take shape.
The newly hired gardener had thoroughly explained how to cultivate flowers that grew in the Northern Region, and his eager note-taking and earnest desire to learn had given her confidence.
As Pesha smiled, imagining gardens soon filled with white blossoms despite their current barrenness, she spotted Owen and the Adjutant walking side by side through the corridor just beyond the gardens.
He wore a rather serious expression, as though receiving an important report.
Pesha watched them, and when her eyes happened to meet Owen’s, she waved awkwardly.
But he merely lowered his gaze without response and continued on his way.
What? Did he just ignore my greeting?
“Ha ha ha…….”
Pesha slowly lowered her hand, forcing herself to maintain a smile.
‘Well, that’s typical. Male leads always treat everyone coldly except for their own woman anyway. I just need to endure until the divorce. Just think about the alimony I’ll receive!’
And yet…….
Pesha’s eyes wandered across the sparsely planted gardens, the uneven pathway that cut through them, the weathered castle walls, and then she sighed.
“It’s a problem that I’d feel sorry receiving alimony from him…….”
Everything had been resolved smoothly, and she should simply stay quiet—but somehow only the regrettable parts caught her eye, which was maddening.
As she stood there, head bowed, a low voice came from behind.
“Madam.”
Startled, she turned to find Owen, who had been walking through the corridor moments before, standing directly behind her.
“Lord Namo!”
Pesha flinched as if caught doing something wrong.
How does he move so quietly?
Could he have heard what I said about the alimony?
No, that can’t be. I barely whispered it!
“W-what brings you here, my lord?”
“The sun is high. The light is harsh. Shall we go inside?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The Eastern sun is strong. If you stay in such heat without a parasol, your skin will burn.”
What’s this…… concern? Is this his way of responding to my greeting?
If he answered like this twice more, my heart might stop altogether.
Pesha pressed a hand to her fluttering chest and replied with the most innocent expression she could muster.
“Oh, I see. Were you worried about me, my lord?”
He’d surely say it flatly—no, that wasn’t his concern.
Still, she’d planned to make light of it and brighten the mood by praising his kindness.
She’d asked without thinking, but Owen suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
“…….”
“My lord?”
She couldn’t make sense of his behavior at all.
He’d come all the way out here to tell her directly not to linger on the balcony, which seemed so thoughtful—yet he wouldn’t even answer her question.
Maintaining a forced smile, he suddenly changed the subject.
“The Iceberg should arrive at the estate next month.”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
“The seeds will need to be procured separately, so it seems it may take some time.”
“I see…….”
But could someone explain why the Adjutant behind him was glaring at me like that?
As Owen spoke of the project’s progress as though reporting to a superior, a red-haired man standing behind him fixed her with a gaze so intimidating it made her blood run cold.
Under that stare, cold sweat began to trickle down her back.
‘Oh, this bitter in-law trouble.’
Until now, she’d only encountered servants who either didn’t know much about her or occupied positions where they couldn’t openly show hostility, so she’d never witnessed such overt antagonism.
But perhaps because this man was Owen’s fellow soldier and colleague, he seemed to dislike her intensely even before exchanging proper words.
The gaze of a knight who had survived harsh battles and been formally appointed cut like sandpaper across her face.
‘What exactly have I done?’
She wanted to protest that the marriage was her father and the Emperor’s arrangement, not her choice, but there was no chance he’d listen.
Thinking of ways to either use Owen as a shield or send both of them away, Pesha opened her mouth.
“Well, I…….”
“My lord. Forgive the interruption, but there’s an urgent matter I must finish reporting on. May I continue?”
He definitely knew what I was about to say and cut me off on purpose.
The way he asked for permission only from Owen while treating her as transparent was so childish it made her want to scream.
It happened that Owen’s expression as he glanced at the Adjutant was decidedly unfavorable.
Rather than call him out for his rude interruption, she—playing the mature one—yielded her turn.
“Oh, please, don’t mind me. I’m fine,” Pesha said with understanding.
Yet Owen still seemed thoroughly displeased with the situation.
“… Speak.”
The Adjutant clearly disliked saying anything in front of Pesha; he stared at her pointedly before Owen irritably pressed him, and with an air of resignation, he began his report.
“What’s the rush about?”
“My apologies. It’s simply that there are rumors circulating—rather insistent ones—that this year’s wheat harvest will be quite substantial.”
Wheat? Pesha, standing across from him, perked up her ears.
“Why is that?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t learned the details myself. All I know is that the information comes from the Eastern Merchant Alliance.”
“If rumors like that are spreading, the price of wheat will surely fall.”
“Yes, precisely. Which is why I wished to ask—might it not be wise to begin purchasing wheat now, even if it requires considerable effort, in order to prepare for the coming winter?”
Eavesdropping on this exchange, Pesha blinked her wide eyes.
The content seemed unremarkable enough.
The season had slipped into high summer.
Any lord with his wits about him would, by late summer and early autumn when the spring wheat harvest drew near, be calculating the harvest tax to be collected in the months ahead and scraping together funds scattered across various budgets.
‘Of course, in this land where farming is so difficult, circumstances are different.’
But farming, you say?
A strange sense of déjà vu struck her suddenly.
Pesha felt a forgotten memory abruptly resurface.
‘Wasn’t there something in the original work about wheat prices falling in the year of marriage?’
In the year that the protagonist Io married Owen, the two of them were still distant with each other.
But just then, a bumper crop was expected in the Eastern Region, and grain prices plummeted.
Merchants, anticipating that market volumes would increase and prices would crash, competed with each other in lowering their asking prices.
Upon learning this, Owen—recalling how the estate had suffered through a food shortage the previous winter—issued orders to secure as much wheat as possible in preparation for the coming winter.
But hidden within this situation was a trap.
‘The prediction of a bumper crop was an intentional false rumor spread by that scoundrel, Count Tomkins.’
By spreading word that large quantities of wheat would flood the market, he sowed anxiety among farmers and lords alike. And when wheat prices fell as planned, he crowed with triumph.
Ah, the price of wheat falls.
But what does that have to do with me?
‘The problem comes when Tomkins’s market manipulation is exposed and Owen is arrested!’
Tomkins artificially depresses the wheat price, Owen purchases massive quantities, and only then is the bumper crop rumor revealed as false.
To make matters worse, a wheat plague strikes during harvest, and the price of grain skyrockets…….
Tomkins’s crimes are exposed, but Owen, who merely bought more wheat than the previous year to prepare for winter, comes under suspicion of conspiring with him in market manipulation.
Of course, it was merely a pretext seized upon by an Emperor who despised Owen, but considerable time was required to prove his innocence.
With the lord arrested and the stockpiled provisions confiscated by the Crown, Swarf’s winter that year was brutally harsh.
‘Many readers even skipped that arc entirely, calling it “insane filler.”‘

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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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