The Fake Wife of the Strongest Husband Wants to Survive - Chapter 63

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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 63
“How on earth did you get hold of something like this?”
“When a war ends, everything from the defeated nation gets put up for auction. I used some connections with the merchant house that runs the auctions.”
Duke Pontloi had asked no questions when Pesha made her request—he’d simply ordered that all materials related to the Clapton Kingdom be gathered, and the command was carried out at once.
With the merchant house leader moving personally, it hadn’t taken long for the materials to arrive.
‘If anything, it took longer to sort through everything and pick out what I actually needed.’
Pesha turned back the cover of a bundle of papers bound together.
Faded handwriting in the continental common tongue came into view.
“This is the enemy command’s Operation Finance Ledger.”
“W-what does this prove, exactly?”
“‘Concluded transaction with traitor: five hundred gold coins. Initial payment of two hundred fifty gold coins dispensed.’ Peter Poton.”
She then turned over several more pages and pointed to a passage.
“Peter passed along any information he could get his hands on to the enemy in order to receive the remaining money. You can see it just from this Code Decryption Report. ‘Partial decryption of the Empire Army’s Taligan Unit night signal system complete.’ You’ll know if that’s really their signal system when you see it.”
“There’s nothing here that says Peter stole it!”
One of the mercenaries cried out, and Pesha shrugged.
“That’s true. But it’s a fact that there was a spy in your mercenary corps back then. Whether that spy is here now or died long ago—I couldn’t say.”
…….
“Owen knew these materials had fallen into enemy hands, but he didn’t punish Peter right away. As you all know, Peter had the unfortunate circumstance of having to support a sickly younger brother.”
The mercenaries’ eyes began to flicker with agitation.
“By rights, it should have been dealt with under military law, but Owen simply expelled Peter from the unit and buried the matter.”
The air grew heavy all at once.
Every eye was fixed on the documents.
“This is all nonsense!”
One of the older mercenaries shouted in a booming voice.
“Listen, I—”
“Documents like these can easily be forged! For something that happened years ago!”
“If you argue like that, nothing can be accepted as evidence.”
Pesha had clearly anticipated this objection; she drew out another envelope from her pocket with an unbothered expression.
This time it was a thin bundle of letters.
Yellowed paper with ink bleeding through, leaving the script faint and smudged.
“These are letters Peter’s younger brother sent to him. Read them.”
Encho reached out and took one letter, then began reading aloud in a trembling voice.
“‘Brother…… The fever won’t break. I can’t even eat properly, let alone take medicine. I’m ashamed to ask, but I desperately need your help. I don’t think I can endure much longer like this…….'”
There were more letters than just one.
The repeated pleas were always the same: “Help me,” “I need money,” “I’m worried—write back, please.”
Encho’s voice wavered and broke.
“Peter claimed to Owen that he’d had no choice but to betray them to support his brother, but his brother had been abandoned long ago. The money was squandered on gambling and drink long before that.”
“Now that I think about it…… Peter was excluded from every operation a few days before he died. When I asked the captain why, he just said something urgent had come up at home……”
“That’s what he was trying to do—keep it quiet. Peter was supposed to be sent back home once you left the Mountain Range, but he still had his eye on the balance payment he was supposed to receive from the enemy.”
…….
“He was planning to set a fire, then?”
“That’s…… when I heard Peter suddenly tried to set a fire, I thought it was some kind of ridiculous excuse……”
“It was a shallow scheme—expelled as he was, he thought if he burned down the unit and then crossed over to the enemy, they’d recognize his service.”
“But at the time, the captain was drunk……”
“He was drunk, of course. But you should know—Owen doesn’t enjoy drinking. A couple of glasses for a victory celebration, and you’re the ones who claimed his judgment was clouded by intoxication.”
The mercenaries’ faces paled with consternation.
They stared at one another in profound confusion.
“Did you really think Owen Namoi was the sort of man who would kill an innocent person in a drunken rage? What if he truly executed Peter by summary judgment to save the rest of the unit?”
Lucas’s face twisted with anguish as he spoke.
“But he could have at least told us Peter was a spy. Why did the captain hide even that?”
“With his own misjudgment nearly getting everyone killed, could a man of his character ever forgive himself? And back then, evidence like this was scarce. You didn’t look like you’d believe him anyway, so he gave up trying to defend himself.”
A deathly silence settled over them for a long time.
It was hard to believe, yet with evidence laid bare like this, disbelief became impossible.
They had convinced themselves that Owen had tasted power and changed.
The thought that a comrade they’d shared life and death with since their youth had betrayed them cut deeper still.
But in their narrow view, they had forgotten the sincerity they’d witnessed in those youthful days, blind to what they should have seen.
Pesha watched the expressions of the mercenaries gathered in the tavern twist and contort with bewilderment, astonishment, despair, and anguish.
Before long, the quiet tavern began to fill with murmuring voices.
“Is all of that really true?”
“Then…… the captain was……”
“What have we done? What have we possibly done……?”
Georg, who had been sitting quietly and downing his drink, burst into laughter.
“Cursing him, treating him like a traitor…… Hell, we’ve made a spectacle of ourselves.”
“We each owed the captain a debt the moment we enlisted. He was the only one who picked me up when I was dying as a vagrant in the streets.”
“Damn it.”
With the evidence before them and the situation properly laid out, the warning signs came flooding back—the ones they’d hastily misjudged, the ones they’d dismissed as insignificant and let slip past.
The rough, burly men looked infinitely small in that moment, like children who’d done something terribly wrong.
Pesha watched the scene unfold, then spoke quietly.
“Do you want to apologize?”
In an instant, the murmuring ceased.
Everyone lifted their heads to look at her.
Her voice was soft, yet that softness cut deeper into their ears.
“Do you want to set the Taligan Mercenary Corps back the way it was?”
“Is that what you call it?”
“I knew the captain wasn’t the sort of man to do such a thing, but seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe it…….”
“It was a foolish judgment. We don’t expect forgiveness, we just want to apologize, but how could men like us ever face a count?”
Everyone seemed to share the sentiment; no one spoke up easily.
Looking at their dejected faces, Pesha spoke.
“If you truly wish to mend things, there’s one way you can help Owen.”
“There’s a way? The captain’s already a noble, he has a vast territory…… he must have forgotten about fellows like us by now.”
Hearing the uncertainty in their voices, Pesha smiled slightly.
“Do you really think so? Since receiving his countship, Owen has had to keep fighting.”
“What?”
“An emperor openly resentful of the hero’s arrival, nobles who scorn a count of commoner birth, people consumed by envy and jealousy—in front of all of them, Owen has had to prove himself fiercely, again and again.”
“…….”
“Every moment, Owen stood alone…… he must have been so lonely all along. If you clear up your misunderstanding and offer your sincere apology, he won’t turn you away.”
“But even so, how can we face him now…….”
Pesha looked the wavering mercenaries directly in the eye and spoke.
“Not ‘now and then,’ but ‘now, even now.’ I want you to become Owen’s blade, even at this late hour.”
“……Is something happening to the captain?”
Sensing the dread in their question, she drove her point home.
“He needs you right now—your strength, as his comrades and friends.”

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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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