There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 81

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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 81.
Wickes.
At that single word, my hand—which had been reaching for dried fruit—froze mid-motion.
“Wickes?”
“You mean the Count of Wickes in the Crolin Kingdom?”
“That’s the place.”
Bertolt Kraus laughed richly, as if savoring the surprised reactions around him.
“Wickes is all anyone’s talking about these days. Want to hear?”
“Here we go again with this bastard! Do you enjoy watching people die of curiosity?”
My classmate raked his fingers through Kraus’s hair, shaking his head wildly, but Kraus only seemed to enjoy it more.
The fool even flopped flat on his back and shouted, “Be more curious! Come on!”
It was the typical behavior of a drunk.
My eyes watching such an idiot could only grow cold.
‘Was he connected to Wickes somehow?’
I already knew Bertolt Kraus was from the Crolin Kingdom.
He’d said so himself before.
And given that he came from a merchant family, it made sense that he’d be quick with gossip and information.
But if he had ties to Wickes, that was an entirely different matter.
I glanced at the wine bottle lying carelessly on the floor.
Glass could become a sharp weapon whenever needed—a useful tool.
“What happened with Wickes?”
I shifted the bottle toward myself, feigning idle hand movements as I asked.
“Since Rookle’s so curious, I have no choice but to tell! Remember the chaos at Wickes last year?”
“Oh right, someone killed the Count and ran off!”
“Exactly. So his heir took over—Count Edward Wickes.”
The name of my old friend, heard from a stranger’s lips, sounded oddly foreign.
Count Edward Wickes, no less.
Since I had killed his father, Benedict Wickes, it was natural that he inherited the title—and yet the feeling was strange.
“But that Count’s gone mad!”
“……What?”
Who’s gone mad?
That was entirely unexpected.
Edward—that man had gone mad?
“This is truly a secret, but the person who killed the previous Count was actually the new Count’s lover!”
“That’s impossible!”
“What kind of trashy melodrama is this!”
While the other trainees shrieked with a mixture of horror and glee, I could not laugh.
Forcing a false smile is as easy as breathing.
Yet I could not lift the corners of my mouth.
Fortunately, they were too engrossed in the sensational gossip to notice my expression.
“Seriously though? They say those two were absolutely inseparable!”
“But the lover killed the father?”
“Oh, what was that woman’s name? I’m sure I knew it!”
The woman who’d first asked if I was curious snapped her fingers, furrowing her brow.
“Helena.”
Four pairs of eyes turned toward me in unison.
“What did you say, Rookie?”
“That woman’s name you were trying to remember. It’s Helena.”
Like hearing my old friend’s name from that idiot’s mouth, speaking my own name aloud for the first time in so long felt like it belonged to someone else.
“That’s it! Helena!”
“So this Helena woman killed the father, and that’s why he went mad?”
Another trainee pressed Kraus for confirmation.
“Probably. Would anyone stay sane after something like that? But what matters isn’t the reason—it’s what the mad new Count is actually doing. That’s the real bombshell.”
“Is he wailing and screaming in the middle of the night?”
“Or is he searching the entire kingdom for the woman Helena?”
The trainees offered several plausible guesses, but Kraus shook his head with a tsk.
“If it were just those things, would anyone call him mad?”
“Then what is it!”
“Ugh, so frustrating!”
“Hey, aren’t you listening to me?”
The fool subdued his classmate’s fresh attempt with a threat, then drained the last of his wine in one gulp before speaking.
“He held a wedding!”
“……A wedding?”
Those expecting something far more dramatic all tilted their heads in confusion.
I did the same.
Edward had married.
It was unexpected but not shocking.
Now that he was a Count, it was natural to take a partner to lead the house with. It would have been the right move.
Especially given that Wickes was passing through turbulent times.
Had I still been serving as Wickes’s intelligence chief and Edward’s right hand, I would have given the same counsel.
Marry the daughter of a powerful Crolin family to show the kingdom that Wickes remains strong.
So what if the bastard married——
“To that Helena woman who killed his father and fled!”
“That madman.”
The curse escaped my lips before I could stop it, but it was drowned out by the trainees’ shocked cries of “What did you say!?”
Then came a flood of even more outrageous revelations.
“So Helena was finally caught?”
“No! There was no bride at the ceremony. And not long ago, he even erected a tombstone carved with Helena’s name!”
“So he married a dead person?”
“Wow, the Count really has lost it!”
While the trainees pitied Edward, I found myself undoing the top button of my shirt.
I couldn’t breathe.
‘What in the world is that bastard doing?’
He’d witnessed me covered in Benedict Wickes’s blood, and yet he held a wedding with me.
I’d become a married woman without ever knowing it.
And what was this tombstone?
I didn’t truly believe Edward had gone mad.
He was the type who calculated coldly and moved with unwavering purpose.
‘But even so, how could he——!’
A wedding. A tombstone.
I was gone, but Edward still had his staff around him.
What was the point of letting rumors spread that the Count had lost his mind?
‘Damn it.’
Edward—I had stayed at his side nearly every day for over ten years after formally joining Wickes.
Rumors of our intimate relationship had circulated for ages.
We were inseparable.
The fact that such a man had become the subject of these drunks’ idle gossip infuriated me.
“Sigh.”
I exhaled heavily to settle my agitation when someone abruptly spoke my name.
“But Rookie, you’re not drinking any wine?”
The gathering had grown quiet without my noticing.
I’d thought they were still going on about Wickes.
“Really! Your glass is just like it was at the start!”
“It feels lonely with just one person sober!”
“Is this wine not to your taste?”
The trainees took turns speaking to me.
I was not about to miss the subtle pressure in their words.
‘How clever.’
They were exactly what you’d expect from novices.
They were asking me to become their accomplice.
To commit a clearly forbidden act and reveal my vulnerability.
Seeing four pairs of pupils dilated by wine, a smirk escaped me.
‘My mood’s foul anyway. Might as well.’
I lifted my glass and drained it in one motion.
“Ooh!”
“Nice one, Rookie!”
The fools cheered and clapped.
Then they eagerly rushed to refill my glass.
The drinking bout, which had quieted briefly, erupted into chaos again.
Though by now, they were drinking far more than they’d intended to pour into me.
It was the result of technique honed over years of drinking—far longer than any of these youngsters had lived.
“Ah, what a great night!”
Around the time one of them began giggling to himself, I confirmed their guard had completely crumbled.
Then I asked my first real question.
“Felix Melcher, right? The fifth member of the Adit from before?”

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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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