Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 3

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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 3
In the end, I accepted the check and slipped it quietly into my inner pocket. Then I handed him a slip of paper with someone’s name written on it.
“And would you mind throwing in some information about this woman as well?”
Master fell silent for a moment at my request, then let out a helpless laugh.
“Just this once, specially.”
“You’re the best, Master!”
Master soon handed me the information about the woman.
My business here was finished.
Just as I was turning toward the door, pleased to have accomplished what I came for.
“……Ah, but there’s one more thing I ought to mention, if I may?”
“Yes.”
Worried he might have a change of heart now, I pressed the check in my breast pocket firmly and nodded.
“Recently, a VIP of a rank I cannot mention purchased information about you. So I thought I should warn you in advance that the most troubling situation might befall you, given that I’m your creditor.”
“I might die? Because this VIP learned about me?”
At those words, a chill ran down my spine.
In this novel, the people Master refers to as “VIPs of a rank I cannot mention” are extremely few.
And among them is Duke Rakan…….
“I’ll be careful.”
To me, who is fated to die by the hand of Duke Rakan—also Rinea’s secondary love interest—this was invaluable information.
I began wracking my brain over what the Duke might be doing at this point in the story.
In any case, I needed to finish the errands I’d come to do today and head home, so I opened the door and stepped out.
“Sigh.”
As I walked on, I heard someone following behind me, drawing steadily closer.
“……Hm?”
For a moment, Master’s words flashed through my mind.
‘Has Duke Rakan already set his sights on me?’
But that made no sense.
As far as I knew, Asha Delmore—the original owner of this body—had no significant connection with Duke Rakan.
‘Could the information I sold have twisted something somehow?’
I’d never sold anything important enough to alter the plot—I really should have gotten myself a self-defense weapon earlier.
I suppose I’d grown far too complacent, thinking the story hadn’t even begun yet.
I quickened my pace.
But the footsteps behind me caught up far faster than I expected.
“……Madam.”
“Kyaaaah!”
It was a languid, deep voice.
Just the sound of it carried an inexplicable air of menace, and I broke into a faster run.
But the man pursuing me caught up even on the busy Main Street and suddenly cut off my path, blocking me entirely.
In an instant, my view was entirely obscured by a powerfully built man, solid as a wall.
“I’d like to ask you something, if I may.”
“W-who, who on earth are you?!”
Startled, I looked up at him with a face pale as death.
The unfamiliar man possessed features I had never once seen before in my life.
Just the sensual, cool intensity of his long eyes bearing down on me was enough to make me feel suffocated.
“I believe you know who I am better than anyone, madam. Now, might I impose upon your time?”
“You’re saying I know you?”
He looked like the very head of an underworld organization.
‘Is he someone who appeared in the original work?’
Since the backgrounds of the antagonistic minor characters weren’t detailed, I honestly had no idea who he was.
But one thing was certain: I couldn’t so much as breathe freely in front of this man.
I’d always thought I had courage.
“W-what business could you have? Speak here.”
If he didn’t talk here, where there were plenty of witnesses, I’d surely be dragged off somewhere and killed.
‘Looking at that terrifying face, burying a person alive seems like a daily routine for him.’
At that, the man pressed a gloved fingertip against his temple.
His face bore unmistakable signs of boredom and fatigue as he shook his head.
“This is hardly the sort of conversation for a public place.”
“Th-then…….”
“I have my carriage nearby. Shall we step inside?”
At those words, a vertigo seized me and I shut my eyes tight.
And at the man’s gesture, a Black Carriage pulled up to the curb. The coachman understood at once and quickly opened the door for me.
As if nothing could stand before him now, the man smiled with evident pleasure.
“It will be quite comfortable, I assure you, so please don’t worry and do step in.”
Quite comfortable, he said. That only made me more uneasy.
‘It feels like I’m entering a coffin.’
At my hesitation, he tilted his head with genuine curiosity and asked.
“Do you perhaps not know how to board a carriage?”
The man held out a hand clad in Black Leather Gloves—the kind that wouldn’t show blood even if it were spattered on them—and asked.
I had no intention of boarding, but his elegant coercion won out, and I finally climbed inside.
Even so, I tried to keep at least one escape route open by speaking up.
“Please keep the door open, and let’s just talk…….”
“It won’t take long.”
“Y-yes.”
The thought ‘so this is it’ flashed through my mind, but in that same moment the man bent his massive frame and ducked inside the carriage.
Click.
The door shut behind him with brutal finality.
‘Who on earth is this man to…….’
As I sat there gauging the situation, he spoke from the seat across from me.
“I wished to apologize for having rejected your confession some time ago, and felt compelled to bring you inside where we might speak privately.”
“Eh?!”
With a face as striking as his, I surely would have remembered meeting him before.
He continued without paying the slightest attention to my reaction.
“I couldn’t very well discuss a lady’s personal affairs in the middle of the street, after all.”
What on earth was he talking about?
I blinked rapidly, trying to organize my scattered thoughts.
“So you’re saying that I confessed to you, and moreover, was rejected?”
“If you prefer to pretend you don’t remember out of embarrassment, I’ll grant you that courtesy.”
He smiled slightly, his expression saying, ‘Yes, I understand perfectly.’
But that smile was so fierce that I couldn’t tell if it was a threat or an act of kindness.
“Forgive me—my memory isn’t what it should be—but your name is……?”
For a moment, his face seemed to register a question mark, but he answered at once.
“Marquis Rivandel.”
Who?
Since I had no memory of this character from the original work, I rolled my eyes around as if it were coming back to me.
“Ah yes, now that you mention it, I think I do recall……?”
“It’s been only about two months, if I recall correctly.”
“I’ve been so preoccupied—what with my marriage and then losing my husband in such quick succession—that my mind has been rather scattered.”
At my words, the fearsome-looking man apologized with unexpected gentleness.
“……I see I failed to account for such circumstances. My apologies.”
Contrary to his appearance, Marquis Rivandel’s manner of speaking was quite considerate.
Emboldened by this, I ventured a question.
“But if you rejected my confession, shouldn’t that be the end of it? Why did you pursue me and bring me into your carriage just to apologize?”
If he’d rejected her, it should have been over.
It seemed that before I transmigrated into this body, Asha Delmore had been harboring an unrequited love for Marquis Rivandel, and had made a confession to him just before her scheduled marriage…….
But that was no longer my concern.
Yet Marquis Rivandel’s thoughts, it seemed, differed.
He leaned toward me slightly and smiled, his eyes crinkling.
That dangerous, seductive smile made me feel as though I were gazing upon a flower that carried poison.
Since he didn’t appear in the original work to any significant degree, I had no idea what he did or what his true intentions were.
But he continued speaking to me with remarkable cheer.
“At that time, you were already engaged to marry another gentleman, so I refused you outright.”
“Yes.”
Easily deduced: Asha Delmore disliked her intended husband, had harbored a crush on Marquis Rivandel all this while, and on impulse confessed to him right before the wedding.
The logic was plain.
But surely this man had no interest in me whatsoever.
With that certainty, I adopted an indifferent expression, and Marquis Rivandel smiled broadly.
“However, I too found myself wishing to come to know you better.”
“……What? Me?”
“Of course I held no romantic interest in you at the time, but you were the first to ever make a confession to me.”
“What is this.”
I muttered involuntarily in disbelief, though Marquis Rivandel didn’t seem to hear me, and he continued.
“So I’ve long wished to apologize, but since you’ve made no appearance at any social gatherings, I had no way to convey my message.”
“You weren’t following me, then?”
“Not at all. I’d stepped out on personal business and happened to see your figure from behind, and I thought……could this be fate?”
“Fate……?”
Why would such a handsome man, and a Marquis no less, speak to me of fate?
‘I have a feeling. This is……!’

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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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