Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 49

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 49
Frankly, there’s no way I’m backing out now that I’ve come this far.
It’s not that I have no feelings for Carcel, and I know full well there’s no one else who would help me this actively if not for him.
I’m the one who should be anxious, yet I can’t fathom why he’s so desperate about it.
“Please don’t just stand there watching.”
“Ah.”
Apparently, he’d assumed he would need to convince me further.
As though the reality of the moment still hadn’t fully struck him, Carcel reached toward my extended hand.
He wrapped it gently, then slipped a ring from its case onto the fourth finger of my left hand.
The faint redness around his eyes and the subtle tremor in his fingertips betrayed that he, too, was nervous.
‘I thought he was a shameless man.’
Seeing that slightly flustered expression, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself.
My hand, which had never borne any special adornments, suddenly felt heavier for the ring now encircling my finger.
“It’s beautiful. It seems there’s good reason why it’s been passed down through the Marquis’s family as such a precious jewel.”
“From what I understand, a long-ago ancestor once owned a mine, and they obtained an enormous diamond crystal from it. They split it—one piece became an engagement ring.”
Carcel’s voice dropped as he tickled my fingertips, continuing his explanation.
“The other piece was given so it could be set into the Crown’s diadem. So you see, Asha now possess a piece of the jewel embedded in the Crown itself.”
“Goodness. Am I really worthy of wearing something so precious?”
“If not you, then at least in my generation, there’s no one else who would wear it.”
When I suddenly felt burdened and my fingers trembled, Carcel laughed softly.
Then just as suddenly, he stopped laughing and spoke with unexpected seriousness.
“Let’s register the marriage this afternoon.”
“This afternoon? Without any prenuptial agreement or any other contracts?”
“Why would we need such a thing? Aren’t those written in anticipation of divorce? You’re not already planning a divorce, are you?”
“But you said it was a Contractual Marriage.”
At my bewildered question, Carcel’s gaze faltered momentarily into empty space as though searching for words.
Then, with brazen ease, he answered.
“Well, trust is the essence of any contract, isn’t it? I trust you, Asha.”
“I appreciate your trust, truly. But what if problems arise later? Wouldn’t it be better to at least write up a contract first—”
“Ah, so you don’t trust me?”
“What?”
Why did the conversation suddenly veer in that direction?
Yet Carcel was already gazing at me with pitiful eyes, a bittersweet smile playing at his lips.
“It’s all right. Truthfully, the time we’ve known each other privately is less than a month. Even I wouldn’t be able to trust a man involved in such a chaotic beginning.”
“Wait, hold on—”
“Rather than a marital relationship founded on trust, to introduce the mundane legal instrument of a contract—the measure of human law—is too worldly, too—”
“Fine! Just marry me! Today!”
Foreseeing how his large frame would soon slump with that pitiable, abandoned-puppy look, I cried out impulsively.
The moment I did, his lips curved upward as though he’d never been melancholy at all.
“Then we’ll register the marriage today, and hold a grand ceremony afterward.”
“I feel like I’ve been played somehow—”
When I fixed him with a suspicious gaze this time, Carcel let out a quiet laugh.
“You’ve already promised me, Asha. I can’t back out now.”
Then he slowly rose and settled himself beside me.
His expression looked like that of a satisfied predator—content, satiated.
“From now on, Asha is… mine.”
* * *
An hour later, as the exhausted Asha drifted to sleep on her bed.
Carcel stood before her door, his lips pressed tight, fighting to suppress the corners of his mouth that kept trying to curl upward.
‘I’m engaged to Asha.’
What surreal yet abundant emotion those words carried.
Though he couldn’t let his guard down completely, Carcel was certain of one thing.
‘Today, at least, there’s no man alive happier than I am.’
He found himself thinking how beautiful the world was.
Originally, he had never intended to propose in this manner.
True to his meticulous nature, Carcel had planned to take Asha to one of her favorite villas and propose there.
‘The column said she’d like it if I proposed at sunset from a cliff overlooking the sea at one of the villas.’
To propose in such a shabby, chaotic way.
It was honestly unlike him.
‘Everything I’ve ever done has had a plan. But the moment it concerns Asha… I act on impulse.’
Though this new version of himself felt foreign, when he recalled Asha accepting the proposal with her cheeks flushed transparent rose-pink, his heart raced uncontrollably.
Today, Asha had been especially innocent—so pure he feared his heart might burst.
Carcel was seized by conflicting desires: to give her everything, yet simultaneously to lock her away in a clifftop villa where she could meet no one but him.
‘I can never tell Asha such thoughts.’
She had entered this marriage unprepared at heart, proceeding only out of necessity.
If he hadn’t proposed a Contractual Marriage, Asha would likely have continued hesitating.
To spare herself—and him—from pain, she would never have accepted his proposal without certainty, even if it meant accepting loss.
Simultaneously, he had sensed instinctively that for her to accept the proposal, the matter of bringing her daughter here had to be resolved first.
“From now on, Asha must never find out.”
If she ever discovered that he was that Rakan she so feared.
‘It wouldn’t be strange if she packed her things and disappeared overseas with her daughter tomorrow.’
Yet Carcel knew he would find her wherever she went.
Only, he wouldn’t reveal himself unless Asha came looking for him first.
But one thing was certain—he would always need to know that Asha was safe, wherever she was.
That was Carcel’s way of loving.
Should Asha flee, he would buy the entire region and hire actors to confine her in a false, perfect world.
He would see her, no matter what.
So Carcel was grateful that things had ended here, at least.
“I told Asha this morning… perhaps I should visit.”
The image of Asha throwing herself into his embrace the moment she saw him was still vivid.
Asha was not someone who was easily shaken.
Yet for a moment, she had tried to lean on him.
What must have tormented her so greatly?
And Asha’s daughter was tear-stained all over, unusually weak and malleable today.
‘They must have been abusing the child to torment Asha.’
Carcel gripped tightly the recording magic tool Asha had entrusted to him.
He had no intention of using it immediately, as the contents were crucial evidence.
First, he would present evidence that showed them loopholes, let them spin increasingly elaborate lies.
‘Then this recording will corner them completely.’
Everyone remaining in that household was guilty.
Carcel strode purposefully toward his office.
“You’ve arrived?”
“Matt, we have somewhere to be today.”
“B-but it’s three in the morning—”
“A problem?”
At that simple yet cutting tone, Matt’s resistance crumbled instantly.
“Oh, no sir. I only wondered if you might be tired.”
“Play this for me.”
Carcel handed the magic tool to Matt.
Matt examined the unfamiliar device, then finally succeeded in activating the recording.
And what poured forth from it…
—So tearing up Linea’s dresses and shoes, crumpling all her books… that’s the type who finds stress relief in it?
“Good heavens, what in—”
The malice in the recording exceeded what Carcel and Matt had anticipated.
Of course, Carcel himself wouldn’t normally consider this degree of cruelty remarkable, but the fact that the victim was a child—and Asha’s daughter—made his blood run cold.
Matt’s composure also shattered.
“This is insane. Just because the granddaughter has nice things, they destroy them all? How could anyone—?!”
“Classic narcissism. Nothing strange about it. They can’t bear not being the center of attention.”
A thin, grim smile pulled at Carcel’s mouth.
“Go inform them they’re to undergo investigation for Child Abuse charges, along with the various other crimes we’ve gathered evidence for.”
As an Inspector of Caldrath’s Empire, Carcel held the authority to freely investigate and punish crimes.
“We should depart now. Let’s have everything settled before Asha wakes.”
“Understood, sir!”
Matt, grasping the gravity of the situation, nodded with fervent agreement.
Thus, the Delmore Earl’s Residence found itself confronted by the Knight Order crashing through its gates before dawn even broke.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————