Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 45

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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 45
So thinking, she began in earnest to pull out the clutter from the wardrobe and toss it outside with a thud.
In doing so, she came to understand what it was that Linea had been so desperate to hide.
“A doll? This expensive thing—did *he* buy it for her?”
And this premium doll that came with its own wardrobe, no less?
Yurigella had a rough sense of what such a doll cost.
“Throwing money around like some nouveau riche, are we? As if a few coins made you rich—flinging gold into the streets like rubbish,” she said with disgust, and confiscated the doll.
“Expensive things like this only spoil a child’s character. I’ll be taking it.”
“No, no—you can’t!”
Until now, Linea had sat silent as Yurigella hurled the dresses, jewelry pins, and shoes to the floor. But now she let out a cry.
And she rushed forward, desperately clutching the doll’s feet in Yurigella’s hands.
“Please. Don’t take this. I’m begging you.”
“What do you need it for, hmm? If I let you keep something this expensive, by your next birthday you’ll just be whining for something even more extravagant.”
“No, no it’s not like that. Even if I never get anything again, I—I don’t care!”
Linea squeezed her eyes shut in terror and refused to let go of the doll.
Her head swayed back and forth in denial, and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
“Grandmother, please.”
But her pleading only stoked Yurigella’s fury further.
“Linea Delmore, I let you stay with that woman, and now you dare speak back to me?”
“N-no, that’s not what I—”
Linea’s voice wavered through her tears as she stumbled over her words.
Memories of all the scoldings her grandmother had inflicted came flooding back, and her whole body began to tremble.
“Perhaps it’s time I locked you in the Storage Room again, hmm?”
Yurigella had never once struck Linea with her own hand. But she had other ways of inflicting punishment.
She would confine the girl to the Storage Room beneath the stairs until her anger cooled, forcing her to write Reflection Letters.
For a young child like Linea, that narrow, filthy room reeking of dust became unbearable within hours.
And if the Reflection Letters had to be written until her grandmother was satisfied, page after page, Linea’s hand would ache terribly.
With almost no light seeping in, her eyes felt as though they might burst from her skull.
It was one of the punishments Linea feared most.
“No, no! Please, not that, Grandmother!”
Linea shook her head in fright at the threat.
Yet even so, she could not bring herself to release the doll.
Finally, Yurigella’s fury reached its peak.
She glared at Linea and shouted.
“Come! You’ve grown too soft and careless under her protection. Today you’re going to learn a proper lesson.”
Linea had no choice but to follow awkwardly after her grandmother.
To endure once more the grueling discipline that was beginning anew.
As Linea walked, her mind drifted to thoughts of Asha.
Did she hope her mother would come and rescue her?
No.
She only prayed that her mother’s schedule would run late, that she would not witness this.
Because Linea knew with absolute certainty that her mother would step in to defend her.
And that was the last thing she wanted—to drag her mother into this.
So Linea prayed, over and over.
* * *
I finished signing the contract and received what I had asked Ishar to obtain. Then I headed home.
My thoughts drifted to the events of the day, but what mattered now was Linea.
‘Has Linea eaten dinner? If not, I could slip away for a moment.’
As I stepped down from the carriage and entered the Earl’s Residence, it happened.
“You, come here!”
My mother-in-law’s voice rang out from beyond the open Reception Room door.
‘Now what’s gotten into her?’
I had expected she would be on edge because of the business with Mery.
But I hadn’t anticipated this.
Apparently, contrary to my expectations, my mother-in-law had skipped the dinner party and spent the afternoon thoroughly ransacking Linea’s room.
With evident satisfaction, she had displayed the things I had bought for Linea in various states of destruction, piled high on the sofa like some grotesque exhibition.
And the doll that Linea cherished sat upon the table, with my mother-in-law standing before it.
“Mother, that’s too much, isn’t it?”
Honestly, I felt no anger at first.
At least, I would not have—if Linea were not kneeling beside her grandmother with a tear-stained face.
I would have simply responded by purchasing even more things in front of my mother-in-law.
But Linea had wept so bitterly that her eyes were swollen and puffy.
And before her lay several sheets of paper.
“What exactly have you done to Linea?”
I abandoned any pretense of lightness and fixed my mother-in-law with a cold smile.
The angrier I became, the colder I froze.
‘Ah, I think this scene was in the original too.’
Being nobility, my mother-in-law never resorted to direct violence. But she knew other methods well—ways to break a child’s spirit until she bent to her will.
One of them, surely, was locking Linea away and forcing her to write Reflection Letters.
I reached into my pocket and gripped the object I had retrieved today, then addressed her with a sneer.
“So tearing up Linea’s dresses and shoes, crumpling her books—does this relieve your stress?”
“You dare speak to me that way?”
My mother-in-law held up the hammer in her hand as if to make a point.
“Buying nice things for a child only spoils her character. The fault lies with you from the start.”
“So you confined her to a room so cramped she could barely move and forced her to write Reflection Letters? Even when she wept and pounded the door begging to come out?”
Scenes from the original story that I had glossed over suddenly became vivid before me, and my breath caught.
“Did you think it right to torment her until she was broken enough, humble enough, to grovel before you?”
“Yes, I did! That’s how children should be raised! With things befitting their station!”
“My station suits these things perfectly. And I wonder—did you ever believe, from childhood until now, that your own station was too low even for such things?”
I posed the question to her.
“After all, you were born a mere sub-baron’s daughter. Lower than I.”
“You—you’re insane!”
“Isn’t wielding a hammer to threaten someone a serious crime?”
“I never threatened you. I was simply—”
My mother-in-law laughed sharply and swung the hammer down at Linea’s doll.
Bang! Bang!
Just a few strikes reduced the doll to wreckage.
“I was only disciplining Linea.”
“That’s not discipline. That’s abuse. Severe emotional abuse.”
But my mother-in-law seemed to have lost all interest in further conversation.
“Seize her!”
Before I could say more, she pointed her finger at me and barked orders to the servants.
In an instant, several maids surrounded me and seized me roughly, dragging me away.
“Experience it yourself. And don’t you dare tell Linea any more nonsense about me having abused her.”
“No, stop! Mother!”
Though Linea’s legs were too weak from kneeling, she tried to chase after us.
But one of the servants caught hold of her, and her voice quickly faded away.
The Storage Room directly beneath the stairs was barely large enough for a child to stand in…
My mother-in-law looked down at me and pointed.
“Spend tonight thinking carefully. You’re not here because you’re worthy—you stay here only because you crawl before me.”
The maids shoved me inside and slammed the door shut. Bang!
“Ugh.”
Trapped in that darkness, my face was a picture of disbelief.
‘Never thought I’d experience the Crown Prince’s confinement in a regression fantasy novel.’
This was absurd.
A woman who would lock a child in such a narrow, filthy, unclean space—was she not a psychopath?
I sank to the floor and swept my hair back.
“Though I suppose it’s fortunate.”
Saying this, I checked the object in my pocket once more.
Evidence secured.
I had planned to leave within weeks, but this clinched it.
‘Tonight. I need to escape with Linea tonight.’
* * *
Time passed endlessly.
Honestly, being locked in a place like this didn’t rattle my mind in the slightest.
Once night fell and everyone was asleep, I planned to break down the Storage Room door and escape with Linea.
My rage burned cold and silent in the darkness, sharp as ice.
When the hour grew late and everyone was asleep, just as I was raising my foot to kick the door down—
“M-Mother…?”
A thin, frail voice came from beyond the door.
“Linea, are you all right?!”
I lurched to my feet at once, desperate to assess her condition through the door.
The child’s voice was thick with tears and ragged.
“I’ll open it. Just a moment.”
I heard Linea grunt with effort.
It seemed the door wasn’t locked, only blocked by a chair on the other side.
After a long while, Linea let out a weary exhale.
The child dragged something across the floor and finally pushed the door open.
“Linea, I—”
The moment the door swung open, Linea threw her arms around me.
Without a word, the slight weight of her small, baby-scented form pulled me close with all her strength, and I found myself unable to speak.
I felt through that embrace how much she had worried about me, how much she had wanted to see me. I closed my eyes.
And I held Linea tighter against my chest.
Ah, now I understood.
‘I came to this place for you.’
The certainty filled me.
In that moment, I felt as though I existed solely for this child.

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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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