The Search for the Duchess’s Husband - Chapter 103

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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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In Search of the Duke’s Husband – Episode 103

“Your accounts differ. To render a clear judgment, I require witnesses or evidence to substantiate both of your claims. Is that possible?”
Count Elysium nodded as though he had been waiting for this moment.
“Yes, I have someone who can prove my innocence and my wife’s falsehoods.”
Moments later, a white-haired man took the witness stand.
“I am Brahman, the personal physician of House Elisium.”
Calvin posed the question.
“You must have examined the Countess as well during this time.”
“Yes, I conducted regular examinations. While her ladyship was of delicate constitution and occasionally suffered ailments lasting several days, I have never once observed any marks consistent with physical assault.”
Frigia’s beautiful face contorted with rage.
She had never sought proper medical attention after Count Elysium struck her. She could not bear for anyone to discover the truth.
Yet despite her caution, her pale, delicate skin frequently bore bruises in various stages of healing, and the physician attending to her had certainly witnessed them. Of course, he had pretended to see nothing.
“How dare you speak such shameless lies!”
Frigia cried out, trembling violently. Brahman’s expression grew fearful, but he did not retract his testimony.
Count Elysium’s lips curved upward in a smile.
Elysium had always beaten Frigia behind closed doors. Even in his drunken state, he had never laid a hand upon her face.
Thus, no one had witnessed his violence, nor had anyone seen the marks it left behind.
And yet, there were those who had grown suspicious.
The physician who examined Frigia… and the maids who attended to her.
Knowing this well, Count Elysium had long since gathered the maids and made his intentions clear.
“I hear Frigia seeks a maid willing to testify on her behalf. She has offered quite a substantial sum as compensation.”
At those words, several maids shrank back, their faces draining of color. Count Elysium continued, his serpentine gaze fixed upon them.
“Do not forget—I am your master, and I am not so foolish as to overlook a servant who dares defy me.”
It was a chilling threat.
Count Elysium regarded Frigia with leisurely composure and spoke.
“Frigia, this is a courtroom. If you have something to say, do not shriek. Bring forth a witness who can substantiate your claims.”
Surely despair would now settle upon that beautiful face?
Such a thought would be foolish indeed.
Artia, seated in the gallery, gazed upon Frigia. As their eyes met, Frigia regained her composure and opened her mouth to speak.
“Your Honor, I too shall present a witness.”
A woman in humble attire stepped forward.
‘Who is this woman?’
The woman’s voice echoed in the ears of the bewildered Count Elysium.
“My name is Anna. I worked as a maid in House Elisium. I left the position a year ago.”
A former maid!
Count Elysium’s handsome face twisted at this unexpected variable.
Watching him, I recalled what had happened not long ago.
Susan, the head maid, had met with the maids of House Elisium and tried to persuade them, but they refused to testify, their faces etched with fear.
To Susan, who apologized for not handling the task entrusted to her properly, I had suggested something.
“What if we reached out to retired maids? Those who left the estate would be beyond Count Elysium’s influence.”
Susan nodded and investigated the maids who had left House Elisium over the years, finally locating one woman—Anna, who took the stand today.
Anna opened her mouth, her face trembling with fear.
“On days when the master came home after drinking, my lady’s chamber door was locked tight, and I could hear her screams through the crack. And the next day, she would always be bedridden. …My lady tried hard to hide her wounds, but I saw them. The red marks covering her body.”
Frigia spoke before Count Elysium could respond.
“Your Honor, it is not merely the testimony of a witness. I have evidence to prove that what I say is true.”
A faint glimmer appeared in Calvin’s gray eyes.
“Show me.”
Count Elysium clenched his teeth at this unexpected turn of events.
‘It’s all lies and bluster.’
There couldn’t possibly be evidence of an assault from so long ago.
At that moment, I rose from my seat among the spectators.
Count Elysium’s mask slipped away, revealing a vicious face beneath.
‘That woman who seduced Frigia…!’
I approached Frigia’s side, meeting the Count’s piercing glare.
I had never witnessed Frigia’s assault directly, so I could not stand as a witness. But there was something I could do.
Fight alongside her.
I looked at Frigia with warm eyes. She nodded, as if steeling her resolve.
Moments later, I began unfastening the buttons down Frigia’s back one by one.
A noblewoman undressing before so many people!
The crowd gasped at this shocking act. Calvin felt the same, but he chose to exercise patience and observe further.
Moments later, everyone in the courtroom was seized by overwhelming shock.
Dozens of scars covered the exposed, skeletal expanse of her back.
My eyes reddened as I saw the wounds up close.
‘Since arriving at Edenberg Mansion, I had forbidden her from applying medicine to these scars.’
It had all been for this moment.
Though they had faded somewhat with time, the white skin still bore unmistakable marks of wounds not yet fully healed. More horrifying was the fact that scars accumulated over years lay layered beneath the newer wounds.
Frigia opened her mouth, her eyes threatening to spill tears at any moment.
“My husband and I swore an oath to God on our wedding day. To cherish and love each other in every moment. But…my husband would beat me whenever he came home drunk. Like livestock, like a slave, wielding a whip. I was truly…in such pain.”
No one could speak in response to the woman’s sorrowful and anguished confession.
It was Count Elysium who broke the heavy silence.
“It’s all lies. I have never struck my wife!”
At words that threatened to reset the trial entirely, Calvin’s brows drew together.
“Are you suggesting that the Countess inflicted these wounds upon herself? On body parts she could not possibly reach?”
“Your Honor, as you well know, my wife did not orchestrate this alone. She has an accomplice—no, she is being manipulated.”
Count Elysium’s gaze turned toward me, standing beside Frigia.
“The Countess of Edenberg must have manipulated my wife. She convinced her that false testimony needed supporting wounds to win the trial, and she deliberately inflicted those injuries on my wife’s body with a witch’s smile. That divorcée is consumed with envy over her failed marriage and is desperate to tear apart our happy union.”
“Stop spouting such nonsense!”
Frigia, who had avoided meeting Count Elysium’s gaze until now, fixed him with a sharp stare.
“Artia helped me out of pure goodwill and has nothing to do with this case. It was I who reported you, and it was I who stood in this courtroom.”
“….”
Frigia turned her gaze from Count Elysium, whose expression had become as bewildered as a man bitten by a stray dog, and looked toward Calvin.
“Your Honor, through this trial, I have lost much. The shameful secrets I wished to hide from the world have been exposed, the Countess’s honor has been destroyed, and my relationship with my husband has been damaged beyond repair for the rest of my life. Yet the reason I stand in this courtroom is….”
Frigia drew a breath and continued.
“It is because of my young daughter, Elizabeth, who is more precious to me than life itself. I want to teach her that no matter the reason, a person must never strike another person—and certainly a husband must never strike his wife. That even the most powerless woman deserves to live with dignity and respect.”
Frigia clasped her hands together.
“What I ask of the Court is not my husband’s punishment. I do not seek an apology. I only ask that you prevent my husband from striking me ever again. I beg you.”

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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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