Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 17

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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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Episode 17
“If Grandmother finds out about this…….”
Linea was still afraid of her grandmother.
“She doesn’t like me playing with toys like this. I’m not a child anymore, and she says I shouldn’t play with things like that.”
“Ten years old is a child, not an adult. Don’t worry about what she thinks—you can play with it as much as you want.”
“Last time too……, she confiscated another doll I had. I don’t want her to see this one.”
Linea spoke in a dejected voice.
Her grandmother was always grabbing at her whenever something didn’t suit her mood.
It seemed she’d taken the opportunity to seize Linea’s doll on some pretext or other.
Things had improved somewhat since I arrived, but I couldn’t prevent what happened when I wasn’t around.
“I see. If Grandmother damages it, I’ll buy you a new one anytime, so don’t worry too much about it.”
I’d be leaving this house soon anyway.
Linea nodded, her baby-soft scent wafting through the air.
“I’m going out for a while this evening, so you eat something delicious and go to bed early. Understood?”
Starting today, I planned to feed Linea well and plump her up, which was different from before.
She was pathetically thin right now.
If it were her constitution, I could accept it, but it wasn’t that.
She looked so soft and fluffy, like a baby kitten.
Once I fed her properly, her current cuteness was sure to shine even more brilliantly!
“Let’s eat something delicious today too! Which dress should I wear?”
“Yes!”
“I’ll tie your hair for you too. It’s my first time trying, so I’m not sure I’ll do well.”
Linea silently let me dress her in the dress I’d chosen.
I fetched the ribbon I’d bought and tied her hair in a half-up style, and now she looked like the daughter of a noble family—a far cry from before.
“You look beautiful!”
I exclaimed with genuine admiration, and Linea grew shy while gazing at her reflection in the mirror.
With her soft cheeks flushed like a baby angel, Linea was becoming more and more endearing.
As I took Linea’s hand, styled just as I liked her, and stepped into the hallway, the eyes of the maids I passed widened.
I spoke to them.
“The door is locked, so don’t open it without permission.”
Among them was Mary, who had grown distant from Linea.
I deliberately drew a silver coin from my pocket and tossed it directly to Mary. She caught it deftly.
“Consider this a gift.”
That single coin was worth roughly fifty thousand won.
So the other maids’ jealous glances were obvious.
“I hear you’re the strongest among the maids, so you’ll be able to handle things well, won’t you?”
“Well……, I understand.”
Though she’d accepted the money, Mary nodded half-heartedly.
Linea didn’t even meet Mary’s eyes.
Her discomfort was plain.
For Linea, Mary was the first person she’d truly trusted before being betrayed—so of course Mary would be awkward for her.
‘By accepting this money, you’ll be in a difficult position later.’
Toward her, I smiled kindly with my lips only.
I ostentatiously took Linea’s hand and, as always, caught a hired carriage toward Lombardi.
For now, I planned to take Linea out and have a delicious meal with her every day.
Until I left this house.
* * *
At that very moment, Karsel swept back his blood-stained hair with a weary hand.
“It’s over…….”
Before him lay several Orcs, beaten so brutally and pitiably that they leaked blood in their death.
Karsel always wore a Silver Mask in front of the knights to hide his true identity.
Perhaps because of this, the knights cast glances at him mingled with awe and a hazy, fearful wariness.
It was because they’d just witnessed Karsel slaughter several Orcs single-handedly.
“Hey, I’ve never seen anyone subdue an Orc barehanded. I’d rather ask him to knock out a bear.”
“Come to think of it, the Duke isn’t human, or so I’ve heard. That’s why he hides his face and all…….”
The murmuring voices of the knights reached his ears.
Karsel offered no response to words he’d long grown accustomed to, but instead let out a long, heavy sigh.
No matter how capable Karsel was, his body felt somewhat worn from the relentless schedule.
He’d been slaying Monsters without sleep all day long.
Yet the image of Asha’s face, saying “Thank you so much, ……Karsel,” with a bashful smile, flickered before his eyes and gave him strength.
From the start, Karsel possessed the superhuman physical ability to beat Monsters to death barehanded, so losing one night’s sleep didn’t cause him any real trouble.
It was Matt who suffered, having barely managed to snatch a little nap.
Matt hurried over and reported the situation to Karsel.
“Ten minor injuries, and fortunately no fatalities.”
“Good. Have them handle the cleanup.”
“Understood!”
Karsel issued the order to Matt, whose face already said “Finally, quitting time.”
“And I’m heading back to the Capital right now, so you finish up here and come back.”
Karsel spoke as he approached the Teleportation Magic circle that the mages—whom he’d forcibly requisitioned from the Mage Tower last night after thoroughly intimidating Matt—had set up.
Matt answered listlessly.
“……Yes, sir.”
“Take tomorrow off—you’ve earned a day’s rest.”
“Yes, sir!”
Leaving Matt behind, suddenly energized by the reprieve, Karsel stepped onto the Teleportation circle.
His heart felt hurried. It was unlikely, but he feared the time might be running late, or he might miss a call from Asha, and the date would fall through.
He felt the light of the magic circle wrap around his body.
And in an instant, Karsel arrived at the Teleportation circle in a secret location of the Duke’s Residence.
‘At least I’m not late.’
Today was the first time Asha had asked him out on a Date.
Before, Asha had harbored feelings for him, but now that she’d let them go, it was he who harbored one-sided feelings.
How could he possibly return the heart of a woman he’d already lost?
There was only one thing Karsel could do.
Approach her with honesty, but without burdening her.
“Now that I think about it, there will come a time when I have to reveal that I’m the Duke Karsel.”
Even now, he knew there were moments when Asha showed a faint wariness toward him.
But Karsel instinctively sensed that if she learned he was that notoriously infamous Duke, she would withdraw from him all the more.
He would confess when they’d grown closer—then, and not before.
It was a secret he’d have to tell anyway, eventually, if they were to marry.
Karsel sank into deep thought about what gift to bring for the evening Date.
At that moment, his gaze fell upon a Rose outside the window.
* * *
<Monster sightings increasing……, but fortunately no major damage yet.>
I was reading the newspaper as I headed toward Lombardi.
“That’s right. In the Original Work too, Monsters that originally appeared mainly near the borders and in the north began appearing suddenly around the Capital as well, or so I’ve heard.”
Since that wasn’t treated as a major plot point in the Original Work, I don’t know much beyond that.
The reason I remember even the minor details of the Original Work was for survival.
Just as during a college entrance exam, crucial information I’d forgotten suddenly surfaces in moments of emergency, as if an ancestral spirit dwells within—
I too, driven to remember for the sake of surviving, had dredged up information using every ounce of strength, so I had quite a lot of it.
‘Still, information about Monsters or the Duke is mentioned so rarely in the Original Work that I don’t know much.’
There’s still a long time before Linea becomes entangled with the Duke.
And since I haven’t abused Linea in any way, she won’t die at his hands.
So the Duke wasn’t particularly frightening anymore.
But what if that notoriously wicked Duke sets his sights on our Linea?
From the start, I’ll have to manage things so that Linea and the Duke Karsel never have occasion to meet.
As I was thinking this, the carriage gradually came to a stop.
“We’ve arrived.”
I nodded lightly to the driver who opened the carriage door, then pushed open the door to my destination, Oliveto.
“Hmm?”
The moment I stepped inside, a fragrance I hadn’t noticed yesterday wafted to my nose.
At the fresh scent of Roses, my eyes widened.
‘Did they change the concept in just one day?’
And despite this being the evening rush hour, there were no other customers.
As I entered, the manager approached me and asked warmly.
“You’re Countess Delmore, aren’t you?”
“That’s correct.”
“I’ll show you to your table.”
I curiously observed the restaurant interior, decorated entirely in pink Roses, as I followed the manager to a private room.
And beyond the open door……
“Karsel?”

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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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