The Male Lead Is Going Mad Searching for His Dead Wife, and I’m That Wife - Chapter 2

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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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The male lead goes mad searching for his dead wife, but that wife is me. Chapter 002
The Emperor didn’t send Princess Lisana because he trusted Lucian.
Just look at this shabby wedding. It says it all.
He sent off a princess he’d treated with contempt for being an illegitimate child as Lucian’s bride, purely to keep Lucian in check.
It came right after the war with the Demon Beasts had intensified, and word spread that Grand Duke Lucian would marry before his deployment, as custom dictated.
The Emperor of Hermian was a timid man, and he feared that Lucian, who already commanded the affection of the entire empire, would marry into a powerful house and grow his strength even further.
So he sent Lisana to be his wife.
It was only natural that Lucian despised me now.
What did Lisana do in the original novel, you ask?
She siphoned off supplies meant for her husband, sold them on the black market, and tried to run away. She was caught by Lucian when he returned from the front, and she was executed.
On top of that, Lucian was being consumed by Berserk Corruption as he fought the Demon Beasts. For now, he was still holding it down with medicine.
“At this very moment, the two of you have become husband and wife. Princess Lisana, I will ask you first. Do you vow to take Grand Duke Actes as your husband, to love him without change, and to stand by his side for the rest of your life?”
Wait, I’ve never even seen this man before…?
Well, I know who he is, since he’s the male lead from the novel I read. But still, this is too much. What am I supposed to say?
“…I do.”
Pressed by the piercing gazes that bore into my skin, I forced the words out of my mouth.
I paused, then added in an even smaller voice, barely managing it.
“I will.”
“Now I ask Grand Duke Actes. Do you vow to treasure the bond between the two of you and to protect Princess Lisana for the rest of your life?”
“…I do.”
“Once again, I congratulate you both on your marriage. May this married life, blessed and arranged by His Majesty the Emperor, be filled with good fortune.”
The Chamberlain stepped back, looking satisfied.
The people who had forced this shabby, dreadful wedding through also took their leave.
In other words, the Imperial Knights who had packed the lobby filed out all at once.
We had held the wedding under the sharp killing intent of those knights.
“Ha.”
My knees gave a little as the tension drained out of me, and Lucian let go of my hand without a second thought. As I barely stood on my own, Lucian spoke.
“Do as you wish, Princess. Do what you want, enjoy what you wish to enjoy, and indulge in whatever you please.”
“….”
“This marriage has already served its purpose simply by being formed, so we are under no further obligation to uphold it. Do not expect any duty from me…”
“I won’t expect anything. I don’t want anything from you either.”
I cut him off, quickly added that, and gave an awkward smile.
Lucian’s reaction was easy enough to understand.
Everyone here probably knew that Princess Lisana was the imperial family’s unwanted burden, after all.
The servants’ stares, as they watched me, the one who had been practically thrown out, were all sharp and stinging.
The only things the imperial family had sent along for appearances were a few dresses.
There wasn’t even a dowry, let alone any cash or jewels I could spend freely. Lisana had never once been treated like a proper princess to begin with.
‘If you do as you’re told, I’ll at least let you be of some use, Lisana.’
In the end, it all came down to one thing: extracting information about the Ducal House. And Lisana had gone along with it.
Lisana, who had never received proper treatment as a princess, wouldn’t be given decent treatment anywhere, after all.
Even part of the living allowance set aside for Lisana was routinely pocketed by the servants as they pleased.
Just the usual bullying, I suppose.
I chewed on my lip before speaking.
“I will never cause you any trouble.”
It was a declaration that I would never lay a finger on the supplies.
If I kept my head down, maybe someday this marriage would be dissolved.
By then, the Emperor wouldn’t be able to order Lucian around at will, and I might be able to quietly leave this place as well.
“…Yes, thank you, Your Highness.”
Your face says otherwise, though.
Lucian turned to leave but paused for a moment, then called the Head Maid and gave an order.
“Show Her Highness to her room.”
“Yes, Grand Duke.”
His tone made it clear he would never acknowledge me as his wife.
Once Lucian had walked out, I pressed my fingers to my throbbing head.
From now on, my life’s goal was absolutely not to be a burden to Actes.
Keep it ordinary. Just ordinary.
Not touching the supplies is important, but I also must not behave extravagantly like the original Lisana or bully the servants.
I also must not squander the budget and then beg for more money.
And I must not meddle with the Ducal House’s household affairs and throw everything into chaos.
There were far too many things I shouldn’t do. I guess they didn’t get through my ears when I was taught etiquette as a child. Why did I live like that?
Well, at least there’s that. If I do the opposite of what Lisana did, maybe I won’t die.
Either way, this was the start of a struggle to survive.
In the original novel, Lucian left for the front less than three months after marrying Lisana. That leaves me with only three months.
In that time, I need to plant good memories of me in Lucian’s mind. I have to show him that Princess Lisana isn’t a bad person.
Alright, I can do this.
Let’s show them the K-Social Survival Techniques I picked up from years of working in the real world!
Lisana, you’re a moral person!
* * *
My stomach let out a growl. Calling it a whale’s cry would be too generous; it was more like a toad croaking in a swamp.
Is this how I die? Well, starving is better than being executed.
In the original novel, Lisana lashed out at the maids who refused to feed her, and that only earned her more hatred from the people of the Grand Duke’s Castle.
I’m not falling for such a petty trick.
I’d rather be a hungry… no, wait, I want to be a well-fed pig. Sob.
Am I losing my mind? I lay limp on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
It’s been two days since I arrived here, and I haven’t eaten a single meal. Spider webs clung to the corners of the gray stone ceiling, and faint morning light caught the dust drifting beneath them.
If dust had any weight, I’d have thought it might fill my stomach.
“…I’m hungry.”
The moment the words left my mouth, a practical sense of crisis hit me before any misery did.
At this rate, I might really starve to death.
I rose to my feet, summoned strength into my wobbling legs, and barely made it to the window.
If I ask for food carelessly and they’ve poisoned it, what then?
I chewed on my lower lip.
Then a memory of Lisana surfaced.
Back when she lived like a weed in the Imperial Detached Palace, strange powders often turned up mixed into her meals. There were times she ate them and her tongue went numb, or she suffered from diarrhea for days.
‘If you keep this up, you won’t be eating for a while, will you? Tch, why are you making such a fuss? You’re just a useless parasite who can’t do anything!’
Better to find food myself than to bother anyone else. Yeah, that makes sense.
It was the imperial family who had let her be neglected and ignored, which allowed the maids to treat her so cruelly.
On top of that, Lisana had neither social grace nor the ability to take care of herself, so all she could manage was throwing tantrums.
She’d hacked off the hair of those maids who gossiped about her, so yeah, Lisana was a real hellcat.
But I won’t be like that.
I’m a modern person who knows how to cook my own meals, aren’t I?
Even when I was growing up in the orphanage, I came close to starving to death more than once. I picked up a few survival strategies along the way.
There’s always a way to make a living, no matter where you are.
I couldn’t just sit here and die of hunger, so it was time to go out and hunt.
Not that I’m planning to go into the forest after wild boars or anything. In my current state, I’d just end up as the boars’ dinner.

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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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