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Chapter 35
Thud.
Joseph slammed the jewelry box on the table and glanced at Rita, who was busy organizing the herbs that she bought at the auction.
He felt a childish urge to ask her whether that suspicious-looking man was her lover or not. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud because the answer was obvious.
‘Is this why that clause was important to you?’
Joseph frowned as he recalled that in the contract proposed by Rita, it was stated that they must not interfere with each other’s private lives under any circumstances.
“It’s my first time seeing an artifact accessory. May I take a look, Your Highness?”
Rita smiled in satisfaction after finishing all the preparation, climbed onto the bed and raised her gaze to Joseph.
“Are you talking about the necklace?”
Completely oblivious to Joseph’s sour mood, she gave a light nod to him as a confirmation, but Joseph answered curtly.
“No.”
He wanted to gift it to her, who was sensitive to the cold, but Joseph shook his head as if he was upset.
“….Ah, is that so?”
“Yes.”
Rita scratched her head awkwardly at his firm rejection.
“Um, well, since it was meant as a gift, I don’t think it’s good for me to see it first.”
“…How did you know?”
Joseph was a little taken aback because Rita seemed to know that the necklace was a gift for her.
“Yes. Anyone can tell that item isn’t something that Your Highness would use, right?”
“But still…”
Did you really have to be all lovey-dovey with your lover in front of me?
“Yeah?”
Joseph pushed the childish question down his throat and dropped his head.
She was free to choose her loved one, and he didn’t have the right to question her.
He was only a husband in name, after all.
The night auction wrapped up at midnight, but right where the nightlife in Notte finally started, I was busy making the sleeping drugs that Oscar had bought at the auction.
‘I made it sloppily, but at least it will be enough to confuse his mind for a very short time.’
Having obtained the most popular mermaid at the auction, Marquis Darrieno would have been enjoying his success by now.
‘He participated in the auction without hiding his identity, so he must be staying with Count Leroy, the Lord of Notte.’
Marquis Darriano and Count Leroy were known to deluge themselves in entertainment, just like my father, Count Cardinale.
Joseph asked in a disturbed tone when I was busy getting ready to steal the mermaid.
“…Where are you going in that outfit?”
“Do you remember the mermaid that Marquis Darriano purchased?”
I wore revealing clothes typically worn by a dancer in Notte. I replied shyly, looking at Joseph, who seemed to be in a bad mood.
I’m sure it looked weird.
Notte’s dancers usually wore clothing that revealed their bodies as if they had run out of fabrics or something. And of course, that was the kind of costume that Oscar brought to me.
“I thought of a way to steal the mermaid.”
I wasn’t that close to Marquis Darriano, but I knew what kind of human being he was and what he liked.
‘And I know how he died.’
Marquis Darriano would definitely look for women in Notte, which was famous for its beautiful dancers. He was a man who was crazy about woman and alcohol, and he was sent to his death by an assassin disguised as a prostitute.
“Do you mean you’re going to approach the Marquis while disguised as a dancer?”
I nodded, looking at Joseph’s knitted eyebrows.
“Yes. Do I look awkward?”
Although I was considered beautiful, Notte dancers were known to be beautiful within the Empire.
‘I thought it wouldn’t be so obvious because I even put on makeup that the dancers usually wore.’
I touched my eyes that were covered with thick make up and got close to Joseph.
“But a dancer only wears heavy eye makeup, so I think this is enough to fool him. Do you think I look awkward?”
“It’s not like that…but…”
Joseph flinched and turned his eyes away at my advance.
“Why do you care so much about the mermaid?”
“Ah, well, I’m sort of interested in having eternal life.”
Joseph sighed at my playful answer.
“I can’t let you go alone.”
“But it will be dangerous if Marquis Darriano finds out that the Grand Duke of Katan participated in Notte’s auction. As you can see, the Marquis is a member of the Holy Council.”
Since I’m an alchemist, they would think that I needed the ingredients I got at the auction to make some cure.
Currently, George believed that he will become Emperor, so I didn’t want to do anything that might raise George’s suspicion.
“This should be enough, right?”
Joseph took out a weird looking mask from his pocket. The black mask was made of material that could absorb light, and had horns like a devil’s feature.
‘It’s a devil hunter’s mask.’
In Katan, the land ruled by Joseph, of course there was no law to suppress the demon hunters. However, a lot of territories in this Empire still strictly controlled demon hunters. One of those laws was that young demon hunters must wear a mask that dampened their dark aura for ‘safety’ reasons.
“…I promise I will wear this all the time.”
He didn’t commit a crime, but he had to live his life like a prisoner. I didn’t know all of Joseph’s childhood exactly, but I could remember the young demon hunter who was hiding at the Cardinale mansion to avoid public eyes.
‘I remember he was caught by my father in the end.’
I tried to trick my father because my young self was determined to hide that child no matter what, but he was eventually caught. I didn’t know what happened after that because my father locked me in a basement as a punishment.
“Yes. I think this mask will be enough, Your Highness.”
I put on the face mask that a dancer usually wore with a slight smile, recalling the old memories.
Joseph was a courteous man. Maybe he was the human embodiment of chivalry itself.
He kept his duty to everyone regardless of their status, and he was such a sweet person that I felt incredibly ashamed of how I treated him in the past.
‘But I think it was all my misunderstanding.’
I looked down at three young men who were lying on the ground and clicked my tongue briefly.
‘I should’ve persuaded him to go alone.’
I was afraid that Joseph would be caught in trouble, so I asked him to stay quiet unless I was really in a dangerous situation.
But it seemed like our standard of danger was a little different.
‘Was it dangerous enough to go this far…?’
Notte was an entertainment district and a holiday spot for aristocrats, and of course, the street was crowded with drunkards and gangsters. Furthermore, Notte’s dancers made a few bucks by entertaining such people, so it wasn’t that surprising if people came up to me to flirt.
‘What I didn’t expect is….’
Thud!
A gangster was kicked by Joseph until his body flew to the wall and fell like a broken doll.
‘It must be Joseph’s automatic response.’
Because knights didn’t use their fists recklessly. It was disgraceful to overpower an opponent with bare hands instead of a sword. In addition, Joseph was so mannered that he never raised his hand recklessly while training the knights.
Bam! Bam!
“Argh! Aaaah! I-I’m sorry!”
However, my sweet and polite husband was currently beating up people who didn’t even have the energy to fight back.
Well, that trash deserved it for touching my shoulders without my permission….
The men under Joseph’s feet were sick bastards who treated dancers like lowly prostitutes and harassed them.
“Pardon me for showing you this unsightly appearance.”
Joseph wiped his blood-stained fists on his pants and bowed his head as if apologizing.
“…If only I brought my sword…”
What do you mean by bringing your sword?
He sounded regretful that he couldn’t dispatch them neatly with a sword.
‘I’m glad I told him not to bring it so he won’t attract any attention. It could’ve created a big problem if the Grand Duke of Katan killed people in another’s territory.’
It would have been a disaster if Joseph, who already had a bad reputation, was revealed as a criminal.
“Joseph. Did something bad happen today?”
It was so unlike him to lash out emotionally like this. I narrowed my brow because I was worried if something happened in his personal life.
“You’re not someone who uses your hands carelessly like this, after all.”
Joseph’s wide shoulders flinched, perhaps he didn’t like what I just said. He looked at me with a gaze that I couldn’t really decipher, but he soon nodded briefly.
“Yes. I’m not feeling good today.”
Did he simply need to vent?
I put my hand on my chest, feeling relieved that the men who fell on the ground were just ruffians.
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“Has there been any report from the estate earlier? Did something happen?”
“…It’s not that big of a deal for my wife to be concerned about.”
He made an excuse in a hurry as if hiding something.
‘I guess something really stressful happened.’
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