The Search for the Duchess’s Husband - Chapter 13

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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 13

The nobility knew that Lloyd had a mistress.
Since many nobles kept lovers on the side, few dared to condemn him for it.
But such things were only tolerated within the privacy of one’s own chambers.
In public spaces where one wore a mask of propriety, it was never permitted.
One of the nobles could no longer hold back and spoke out.
“How dare a commoner presume to appear in such a place…!”
Lirika’s delicate shoulders trembled.
In the past, she would have cowered at such words, but not now.
‘The Duke is willing to cross the barrier of status for me. I will do the same.’
Lirika steeled herself, her large eyes burning with determination as she responded.
“Status means nothing. The Duke and I love each other with genuine hearts. I will become the Duke’s wife…”
“Enough. Silence!”
Lloyd’s voice thundered through the hall. His handsome face twisted into something grotesque, like crumbling earth.
Lloyd spoke to the startled Lirika, whose expression had never seen him like this before.
“Leave at once.”
“B-but, Your Grace. I…”
“Why are you standing there gawking? Remove this deranged woman from my sight immediately!”
At Lloyd’s command, the Maids stationed in the corner rushed forward and dragged Lirika away.
“No, Your Grace! Your Grace!”
Lirika cried out with tears streaming down her face, but Lloyd did not spare her a single glance.
He had no time for such things.
He had to somehow explain away what had just transpired to the nobility, whose expressions had hardened as if they had witnessed a cheap theatrical performance.
And watching from afar was none other than Killian.
Lirika, wailing as she was cast out of the Banquet Hall, and Lloyd, wearing a twisted smile within it.
Observing this scene, Killian recalled Artia, who had come seeking him.
Her eyes had gleamed with unwavering confidence as she spoke of an almost impossible divorce.
“So she doesn’t intend to achieve a divorce merely through tears and pleas, it seems.”
Interest kindled in those golden eyes that had been bored mere moments before.

At that very moment, Artia, confined to her chamber, murmured to herself.
“By now, chaos must have erupted.”
She could envision the scene without witnessing it.
Lirika cast out from the Banquet Hall, Lloyd left alone to offer his excuses.
“I showed her a modicum of favor, and she loses her senses entirely, committing such an absurd act. Commoners are truly hopeless creatures…”
“Ha ha, the Duke has suffered an embarrassing ordeal by encountering a woman so utterly lacking in propriety.”
The nobility would laugh it off in Lloyd’s presence.
But in his absence, they would unleash every conceivable barb.
“He indulged her so thoroughly, bringing a concubine into his own household, and yet it has come to this. From what I heard her say, the wench actually believes herself to be the Duchess!”
“Tsk, how presumptuous.”
The nobility cared little whom a man took as a concubine.
Commoner, foreigner, slave—it mattered not.
After all, tastes in playthings varied from person to person.
But the moment a concubine dared challenge their authority, everything changed.
“The nobility’s wrath will extend beyond Lirika to Lloyd himself.”
Artia gazed out through the window.
She could see Lirika, seized by servants, wailing like a child as she was dragged into the mansion.
“Well done, Lirika.”
The clever little bird had kindled the spark—now it was time to fan the flames higher.

* * *

Lloyd believed that by confining Artia to her chamber, he had effectively clipped her wings entirely.
How foolish of him.
Through Elma, Artia had secretly sent a single letter.
The recipient was none other than Penelope, the Baroness.
“The Duchess of Edenberg has written to me? What on earth could this mean?”
Though Penelope possessed a sociable nature, she had never shared any particular rapport with Artia.
This made the contents of the letter all the more inscrutable.
Moments after reading it, Penelope’s face flushed as crimson as her own hair.
“The Duke of Edenberg has confined his wife to her chamber? And all so he might spend intimate time with his mistress like a married couple?!”
Penelope’s husband was a notorious philanderer, spending his days flitting from one lover’s residence to another, leaving her to live in near solitude.
Thus, she harbored an intense contempt for married men who kept mistresses.
From the nostrils of the refined noblewoman escaped a coarse, unrefined snort.
“I suppose I can overlook his debauched and filthy indulgences—I cannot stop a madman determined to become rotting garbage. But this? This crosses the line.”
One did not lay hands upon a wife.
It was the bare minimum courtesy owed to a spouse.
Penelope, possessed of a fiery temperament, immediately donned her outdoor attire and made for the Edenberg Estate.
To the maids startled by this sudden visitor, Penelope spoke with unwavering confidence.
“I have come to see the Duchess of Edenberg.”
The maids’ eyes widened.
For Artia to receive a visitor—and one of her own age and noble standing, no less—was unprecedented.
One of the maids soon collected herself and bowed.
“My apologies. The mistress has not been well of late, and it is difficult for her to receive guests.”
When a maid spoke thus, most nobles would gracefully depart. They considered quarreling with servants beneath their dignity.
Yet Penelope, arms crossed, did not budge an inch as she replied.
“It will only take a moment. Please show me in. It is a matter of importance.”
Her clear voice carried an unmistakable resolve to see Artia today, come what may.
But the maids would not relent, and ultimately Penelope was forced to leave the estate without catching so much as a glimpse of Artia’s hair.
Penelope bit her crimson lips and muttered to herself.
“It is exactly as she wrote in her letter.”
Artia was undoubtedly imprisoned.
By her own husband.
Penelope had already despised Lloyd.
Not only did he constantly demean his wife in public, but he had even brought a common mistress into his own household.
“Despicable wretch.”
Her concern for Artia, combined with the rage that had accumulated against her philandering husband, finally erupted within her.
Penelope spoke to her intimate circle of ladies.
“The Duke of Edenberg has confined the Duchess to her chamber so that he might spend time intimately with his mistress. How could he do such a thing?”
Despite the shocking nature of these words, the ladies readily believed them.
Not only was Penelope not one to fabricate tales, but recalling what Lirika had done at the Banquet Hall not long ago made such conduct entirely plausible.
The sensational subject matter—a persecuted first wife and a scheming mistress vying for her place—was more than sufficient to captivate the ladies’ attention.
Whenever the ladies gathered, they invariably turned the conversation to the House of Edenberg.
“It seems the Duke truly intends to marry a commoner. That’s why that shameless commoner dares to storm into the banquet hall, spouting such presumptuous claims about becoming his wife.”
“Is the Duchess of Edenberg even alive? Some say he murdered her long ago and has been concealing it, all while playing house with his mistress.”
As time passed, the rumors grew increasingly sensational, and the resentment directed toward Lloyd deepened proportionally.
And with it came a wave of sympathetic sentiment toward Artia.

* * *

The moment Lloyd entered the banquet hall, an eerie silence descended.
The ladies who would normally have approached him with smiles now stood at a distance, whispering among themselves.
Lloyd’s expression darkened as he sensed the shift in atmosphere.
‘I thought this would blow over in a few days, but the talk about Lirika shows no sign of subsiding.’
No one dared speak carelessly in the presence of the Duke of Edenberg, yet the way they looked at him had unmistakably changed from before.
Lloyd clenched his teeth.
‘I must extinguish these damnable rumors by any means necessary.’
Should I bring Artia out and display affection toward her?
No—Artia in her current state is like a live bomb. There’s no telling what she might say if I put her before these people.
‘It’s better to keep her confined to her chambers, regardless of what strange rumors circulate.’
With Artia removed from consideration, there was only one person who could help him navigate this predicament.

* * *

Lirika stepped into Lloyd’s chambers.

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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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