Why Is My Husband the Villainous Schemer! - Chapter 65

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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 65
“In any case, we’re business partners now and will work well together going forward. You understand, yes?”
“Then I’ll start the work right away tomorrow. I’ll finalize the contract with the vendor today.”
“Understood. So please calm down a bit. ……Would you like more cookies before you go?”
Isaar glanced down at the last remaining cookie and simply nodded.
At the sight of this, Asha chuckled and pulled the latch to let him out.
Thus Isaar’s visit ended, wrapped up with an armful of cookies.
* * *
Now that I think about it……
“Carcel, you said my former mother-in-law signed the Custody Waiver Document, didn’t you?”
“Yes. That very one I persuaded her to sign?”
“Then is my former mother-in-law still in the Detention Center right now?”
What was my former mother-in-law’s specialty?
It was spreading false rumors with deliberate malice.
And as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together—my former mother-in-law had friends throughout High Society who shared her tendencies.
If she were released now, she would certainly seek revenge in precisely that manner.
That my granddaughter was taken away by a stepmother, not even her biological mother, when she remarried.
To anyone who heard it, it would seem like there was something wrong with our family, and they would think our reputation was damaged.
‘She’ll probably position herself as the victim to preempt things.’
It was certain she would spread the rumor that Carcel and I—the only blood relatives of Linea, our deceased son’s child—had stolen her away.
Carcel answered me with a troubled expression.
“She was indeed in the Detention Center originally, but we agreed to release her in exchange for signing the Custody Waiver Document. House Delmore remains in custody on other charges.”
“My former mother-in-law is a loudspeaker.”
“So she came out yesterday and is now going around spreading rumors everywhere, is that what you’re saying?”
I nodded.
“Honestly, since it’s false, I could let it slide……but she’s so talented at this that I’m worried Linea’s friends might distance themselves from her.”
I have no interest in High Society, so it doesn’t matter to me how rumors spread.
I’m not sure about Carcel, though.
“If it were only my reputation at stake, I would have let malicious gossip spread without concern.”
“But Linea is our daughter.”
At those words, Carcel’s expression crumbled once more.
“Our daughter.”
“But others might misunderstand if they hear that I, someone who isn’t even her biological mother, took her away.”
“……Asha, don’t misunderstand—listen to me.”
I tilted my head gently.
“Why?”
“There is a simpler way for me to deal with Urigella Delmore.”
“A simpler way? Surely you don’t mean lopping off her head?”
“No, not that sort of method. But I can tell you that she simply won’t be able to show her face in High Society anymore.”
At those words, my lips turned bitter.
‘You bastard, you’re thinking of burying someone in the ground again.’
Duke Rakan had a habit of burying people deep underground like some moldy relic.
It wasn’t actually burying them in the earth, of course—merely confining them in underground dungeons.
But those underground dungeons were so deep and so heavily guarded and so labyrinthine that not a single person had ever escaped.
It was quite literally the Minotaur’s Labyrinth.
“That’s…that’s fine.”
Honestly, I felt like burying her there would be better.
House Delmore will collapse on its own even if I do nothing.
Perhaps it’s the price for abusing Linea.
They scatter like scattered dust due to the gambling-addicted House Delmore, and it’s only natural that my former mother-in-law ends up on the streets.
“So here’s the thing—I’ve already come up with a plan.”
I realized the only way was to make the first move before Urigella could act.
“Just give me your word, and I’ll proceed however you wish, Asha.”
“Then Carcel, could you find out where my ex-husband’s mistress is staying now?”
Even though she was released from custody, to prevent Urigella’s vengeful attacks before the trial……
“Sometimes the best way to stop a planned attack isn’t defense—it’s offense.”
“You mean to seize the initiative?”
“Exactly.”
I exchanged glances with Carcel and smiled, lifting my lips.
“I rather like this side of you, Asha.”
Carcel promptly ordered Matt to uncover the mistress’s current residence.
He was truly a man who kept the Information Guild under his command.
* * *
Urigella read the information she’d obtained once more.
“These people. Throwing my son and me in the Detention Center, and then they go and enjoy the ball without a care in the world?”
Her every word dripped with blood-rage.
For some reason, only the times she’d been good to Linea surfaced in Urigella’s mind.
“I abused my own granddaughter? I may have been a bit harsh with my discipline sometimes, but it was all out of love. These young people nowadays……”
It would be wonderful if Linea married into a good family and lived a life of comfort and dignity.
All the discipline she had administered had also been for the child’s own good.
“Today I’ll teach them both a lesson they won’t forget.”
Urigella entered the Ball Hall, grinding her teeth as she approached her friends.
“My goodness! You came out?”
“Heavens. Look how thin you’ve become—you must have suffered so!”
Her friends chattered away, expressing their concern for Urigella.
Urigella swallowed the rage she had been displaying mere moments before, and suddenly burst into tears before them.
“Oh my!”
Her startled friends helped her into a chair and began asking all manner of questions.
“Is it true your daughter-in-law suddenly became a marquess’s wife and took Linea with her?”
To such questions, Urigella wept so dramatically that bystanders couldn’t help but glance over.
The answers she gave were conveniently in her favor.
“I can’t bear this injustice!”
Before long, the ball’s attention had shifted entirely to the commotion in the corner.
Just as a dance had ended.
Urigella seized the moment, pointing at her former daughter-in-law, who had finished dancing and was moving back through the crowd in the center of the ball hall.
“Yes! You forcibly took away my dead son’s only blood descendant, and now you have the audacity to show your face in a place like this?”
At her cry, everyone’s gaze turned subtly toward Asha and Carcel.
Asha tried to pass her by without acknowledging her. Then Urigella shrieked even louder.
“Hey! Where are you going! Making me sign away custody! And now you’re trying to take Linea’s Trust Fund too!”
The crowd was shocked at the shouting—something one would never normally hear at a ball.
Urigella’s friend chimed in right after her.
“That’s right! No matter how good the title of marquess’s wife is, you took away the only granddaughter left to an old woman who lost her son just a month ago, the only one to dote on in her declining years!”
To her friend, who spoke so vehemently in support, Urigella whispered.
“I’m not old.”
“That’ll make them sympathize more. Be quiet, you fool.”
Her friends, undeterred, came to her aid.
Of course, to anyone hearing only Urigella’s version, it truly did seem unjust and tragic.
As the crowd’s attention fixed excessively on her, Asha’s face showed alarm.
She pushed through the crowd and approached her mother-in-law.
“It’s been a while since we last met, Mother.”
Asha spoke only one sentence to Urigella, but the friends fired back with countless words.
“Do you really have the position to hold your head high like that?”
“No matter how much you might dislike your mother-in-law, you shouldn’t do that. Your son died just a month ago, and she didn’t throw you out—she fed you, gave you a place to sleep.”
Urigella’s friend let out a scoff loud enough for all to hear.
“Do you have any idea how grateful you should be?”
“And then not a month later you remarried—but that wasn’t enough, you had to steal away the only blood relative your son left behind! It’s too much.”
Urigella wore an almost triumphant expression.
Then Asha turned and asked Urigella in return.
“Mother, you really do think blood is more important than anything else, don’t you?”
“Of course! My only granddaughter—the only blood relative my son left—you took her away, so how am I supposed to go on living?”
“Even though you abused that granddaughter?”
“That wasn’t abuse—it was discipline. Respecting a family’s discipline is common sense, isn’t it?”
To Urigella, speaking thus, Asha nodded calmly and replied.
“Then Mother, if your granddaughter were to come back, would you plan to stop the discipline you’ve been administering from now on?”
Asha’s lips curved upward softly.
As if she were waiting for Urigella to walk right into a trap.

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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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