The Search for the Duchess’s Husband - Chapter 138

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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 138

Madame Tungguel was born a commoner, yet wealth had blessed her cradle, and she possessed everything her heart desired.
Surrounded by an excess of possessions and people, she never learned to cherish anything truly.
She broke things carelessly and discarded them without thought.
Yet her possessiveness burned as fiercely as her indifference—she could not bear to see others touch what was hers.
Least of all her most treasured acquisitions.
Though Madame Tungguel was not nobility and could not participate in High Society, she knew of Artia.
The first woman to divorce after the current Emperor’s ascension. She had stirred High Society’s gossip, and eventually became an Ethereal, or so the rumors claimed.
“But what of it? Born fortunately into nobility, and all she knows how to do is gather and laugh and prattle on—what is so remarkable about such a woman?”
Yet Madame Tungguel’s interest lay elsewhere.
“She liquidated a failing enterprise and now she’s destitute, is she?”
Madame Tungguel reached her conclusion swiftly.
“A Ducal House in name only—an easy target.”
So she summoned Artia without hesitation.
But the woman who arrived bore no resemblance to what she had imagined.
Artia’s spine was perfectly straight, and an composure emanated from her—something I rarely sensed in the young noblewomen I encountered.
‘How amusing.’
Madame Tungguel’s narrow eyes gleamed with an unsettling light.
Meanwhile, Shine stood beside her wearing a practiced smile, though his mind churned with bewilderment.
Shine had only just learned that Madame Tungguel had summoned Artia.
‘Why did she come all the way here?’
Concern outweighed his surprise.
Madame Tungguel possessed a fiery temperament. Nobility meant nothing to her.
More than one aristocrat had suffered her humiliation.
The thought that even someone as kind to the people of Kudran as my master could face such treatment made my heart race with dread.
‘I should have told my master everything honestly…’
But it was already too late.
All I could do, a mere servant, was pray that Artia would leave the mansion unscathed.
Then Artia’s clear voice rang out.
“Might I state my business first?”
Madame Tungguel’s brow furrowed.
Yet even she could not bring herself to say something like “Who do you think you are, speaking first?” to the Duchess.
Her sharp gaze softened as she nodded.
“By all means.”
At Artia’s signal, Bibi handed documents to Madame Tungguel.
Artia spoke.
“Since Shine relayed the story to you, I’ll get straight to the point.”
“Shine?”
At Madame Tungguel’s question, Artia turned her gaze toward Shine.
“It’s the name I know him by. Since he never revealed his true name to me, that’s what I call him.”
The corners of Madame Tungguel’s mouth twitched upward.
“It seems my teaching about being cautious of strangers has borne fruit.”
“I haven’t finished speaking yet.”
“Oh my, my apologies. Please, continue.”
Artia offered no particular reaction to Madame Tungguel’s provocative tone and opened her mouth to speak.
“I’ve established the Edenberg Production Company and am preparing a performance. I proposed casting Shine as an actor, but he refused, saying he was already employed elsewhere. That’s why I accepted your invitation.”
Artia spoke while maintaining eye contact with Madame Tungguel.
“Allow Shine to work with me.”
Her tone was impeccably courteous.
Yet in her pink eyes gleamed an utterly aristocratic arrogance.
An ordinary commoner would have prostrated themselves and agreed at once.
But Madame Tungguel burst into laughter.
“Hohoho! I’d heard about you, but what an amusing thing to say. Putting a slave on stage, no less.”
In that instant, Artia’s eyes sharpened.
“The Empire abolished slavery twenty years ago.”
“Yes, yes, that’s true. But madam, law and reality are different things.”
Madame Tungguel giggled and deliberately knocked the dessert plate from the table onto the floor.
Crash! The plate shattered, and the cake that had been on it tumbled across the ground.
Madame Tungguel spoke to Shine.
“A treat from your master. Eat it.”
At those shocking words, Artia’s eyes widened.
And Shine knelt on the floor.
The moment he brought the cake to his lips, Artia shot up from her chair and cried out.
“Stop!”
Her voice rang out so sharply that both Shine and Madame Tungguel froze in shock.
Seizing the moment, Artia strode forward and spoke.
“Stand up.”
“….”
His violet eyes trembled violently, but Shine did not move. Rather, he could not.
His master was not Artia, but Madame Tungguel.
Just as Madame Tungguel’s lips curled upward in triumph, Artia’s voice cut through once more.
“Stand up. That’s an order.”
Her voice was cold, devoid of any warmth.
Shine could not bring himself to stand. He could not eat the cake.
In the suffocating silence, Madame Tungguel glared at Artia and opened her mouth.
“Madam Artia, it seems you’re not grasping the situation correctly. I didn’t hire this one.”
Madame Tungguel pointed at Shine with the tip of her shoe as she spoke.
“I purchased this child from their previous owner for money. They belong to me, Madame Tungguel.”
An ordinary commoner would have been too frightened of the nobility to say anything, but Madame Tungguel was different.
She possessed the strength to protect what was hers.
Especially when facing a young noblewoman from a fallen house with nothing but a name remaining.
Yet her expectations were shattered.
Artia was not the timid, incompetent noblewoman she had observed until now.
“Ah, thanks to you, I’ve become perfectly clear on something.”
Artia’s pink eyes deepened in color.
“I no longer need to maintain restraint, do I?”
“…?!”
“I’m taking this slave with me.”
Madame Tungguel’s eyes widened as she cried out.
“I said they’re mine!”
“But I want them too.”
“What, what did you say?!”
“Does a commoner dare to stand against nobility?”
Originally, Artia’s intention had been to persuade Madame Tungguel so that Shine could work as an actor.
But watching how she treated Shine, I realized she was not someone worth reasoning with.
Kindness deserves kindness.
Cruelty deserves cruelty.
This was how Artia dealt with others.
“…!”
Trembling despite herself, Madame Tungguel could not rise to her feet, overwhelmed by the entirely different presence emanating from Artia.
Artia extended her hand before Shine.
“Take it.”
Her tone was far more commanding than before.
Shine tried to gauge Madame Tungguel’s reaction, but he could not. Artia blocked his view, standing between them.
As if she would no longer permit him to serve that woman.
All Shine could do in this moment was obey the one who wielded the greatest power.
Shine grasped Artia’s hand. It felt as soft as a baby’s touch.
Artia held Shine’s hand firmly and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
Shine followed Artia without hesitation.
Behind the two of them, Madame Tungguel’s voice rang out.
“Stop, Shine!”
But Shine could not stop.
Because Artia would not release the hand she held.

* * *

The moment we stepped out of the Edenberg Mansion, I spun around to face Shine—no, Luca—and spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
“…!”
“I was so angry that I said all sorts of terrible things. I hurt your feelings, didn’t I?”
Luca’s eyes widened in shock, unable to formulate a response.
A noblewoman apologizing to him? He would have preferred a punch—it would have been less of a shock.
“Luca.”
A name he’d heard called dozens, hundreds of times by others, yet it felt unfamiliar now—because her voice was so tender.
Luca finally gathered his wits and answered, “Yes,” to which Artia smiled gently.
“You have such a wonderful name.”
“….”
“May I ask why you didn’t tell me your name when we first met?”
“That was….”
Luca possessed striking beauty.
Women would flock to him merely by passing on the street.
They gleamed like predators who had spotted their prey, pressing themselves upon him relentlessly.
To avoid offending them, he played the obedient servant while guarding his true name from their knowledge.
“But there were those who discovered it somehow and came searching for me. When that happened, my master would become furious—with me and with them alike.”
So that was the reason.
‘Yet I came looking for him anyway. How awkward that must have been for him. And then I caused such a scene….’

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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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