Looking for a Husband to Confine Me - Chapter 13
Chapter 13
“Well.”
Even if that’s the case, it’s none of my business. As long as it doesn’t affect me, it’s fine. There are no perfect virtues or absolute evils in this world.
“What?”
“I don’t know why I should tell you.”
I don’t need any excessive attention.
“I’m hurt.”
Since when did we become close enough for him to feel hurt? Damian’s sense of distance seems impossibly close.
“You’re so curious about my relationship with my fiancé…”
“You called me Damian so casually a moment ago, but now you’re calling me ‘you’*?”
*Note: This is related to the whole convo about the him speaking informally. In Korean there are informal and formal language, and it is starkly different. Hence this thing about ‘you’ is her speaking in a formal way. I hope that makes sense since I’ve got no idea how to convey this.
“….”
“I felt a wall as soon as I thought we were getting close.”
What was he talking about? I stopped walking, unable to hide my disbelief.
“I think you’re misunderstanding. We’ve never been close, you and I.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Despite my firm words, Damian didn’t seem discouraged. He merely raised his left hand, his eyebrows twitching.
‘Why is he showing me his left hand?’
He pointed his right index finger at his left hand, as if to make me see it clearly. To be precise, he pointed at his left wrist, where my hand was still resting on his.
“…! ”
“We weren’t close?”
“…I’m sorry. I don’t know why I was still holding you.”
Startled, I let go of Damian’s wrist.
“You can keep holding me. What should we do next? Hold hands?”
“…I don’t need to.”
His response was a languid laugh. I tried to maintain a nonchalant expression.
“Anyway, you owe me a favor from last time, so you can at least answer me, Amelia.”
“A favor?”
Me? To Damian? No way!
I was dreading the debt the Count Hazel’s family was owing. But I would never take the initiative to owe him anything. Besides, when did I borrow money from Damian?
“…Ah.”
Perhaps the favor Damian was referring to was…
“Amelia, I played along with your act. I didn’t actually take a single sip of alcohol, you know.”
“….”
“Why did you do that back then? I was so surprised when you suddenly pushed me away.”
Damn, I was so out of it that I completely forgot. I still had this to deal with.
“Would it be okay if I tell the Knights about that today?”
Oh, should I just forget about it? I stared at Damian with serious eyes. Could he just… forget it so that no one would know? …Of course not.
“…Are you threatening me?”
At my words, Damian shook his head immediately.
“Of course not.”
“Then?”
“I’m just showing you some interest.”
“I like normal interest.”
“Noted.”
So all his actions up until now were to show me interest. Damian Ditronil was truly an unpredictable person.
No, even his words now could be empty, passing remarks without any real meaning.
Well, I didn’t take them seriously either.
“…I do owe you a favor. But the answer is too personal. I’ll repay you instead.”
“Repay?”
“Tell me what you want, other than something personal.”
I spoke with a face that didn’t seem very willing.
After all, I pushed Damian away, treated him like a drunkard, and got entangled in a poisoning case. I couldn’t just let it go.
‘Maybe I should just find something Damian would like and give it to him.’
I thought about the money I had left. After paying the salaries of Tepine and the other servants, I wasn’t even sure if I could make ends meet next month. There was no way I had any spare money to spend.
‘Money is the problem, as always.’
I could live without servants, but my family wouldn’t easily let me go. Besides, most of the servants had been working for the Count family for generations, so losing their jobs would be a sudden blow for them.
I couldn’t easily defy the Count and Countess, and if I messed up, they might end up working for free.
That wouldn’t do. Labor deserves just compensation.
‘What would Damian like, anyway?’
Something that costs as little as possible.
I recalled information about Damian Ditronil. He had a peculiar hobby. He collected poisons. From simple poisons that caused stomach aches to poisons that could kill dozens or hundreds with a single drop. He collected them all, regardless of type.
‘I was thinking of using the poison for trading.’
It was one of the cards I was going to show him if I ever made a deal with Damian. Poison was easy to obtain. I had my own venom, and there were a few other venomous snakes.
However, I was worried about…
‘What if he uses my children to make a snake wine?’
I glanced at Damian, feeling a strange unease. Our eyes met, and his eyes crinkled pleasantly as he smiled.
I’d have to keep the children hidden from Damian for now.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Damian asked, his eyes sparkling, as I kept glancing at him.
“Nothing. Just… think about it slowly. What you want.”
“I will.”
I resumed walking. I thought I’d arrive comfortably thanks to Hector, but I seemed to have lost all my energy from talking to Damian.
“But you came in person?”
“Of course.”
“No agent or a lawyer?”
Most nobles preferred to delegate such tedious matters to an agent or hire a lawyer to handle them. I, too, wished I could, but I was forced to deal with it myself due to practical concerns.
Demian’s gaze fell upon me.
“What about you?”
“I don’t have the money.”
“Ah, I don’t find it that bothersome.”
His fine silver hair seemed to sway pleasantly in the breeze. Unfazed by my response, I simply nodded.
He truly was an enigmatic man.
Was he saying that while he found it troublesome to see a doctor after drinking a potion, he didn’t find this bothersome?
I suddenly became curious about his standards for what constituted bothersome.
***
My face burned red, as if it would burst. The heat that had risen within me wouldn’t subside. I spread my hands and fanned my face.
The cold wind and the weather made my body tremble. I desperately wished for winter, for cold winter to arrive right now.
‘Oh, how embarrassing!’
Thankfully, the investigation the Knights’ Order needed was nothing serious. They had contacted me to clarify the situation at the time. It seemed that since it involved the princes of Kishan, they felt it necessary.
The only minor problem was that I didn’t need to come to the Imperial Palace at all. The letter they sent me stated that they would come to me directly. I must have missed it while reading it quickly.
‘They definitely looked bewildered.’
Remembering the knight’s face as he explained things to me, I gnawed on my lip. Seeing him trying to hide his emotions and forcing a strained smile while looking at my flustered self made me feel even more awkward.
I tried to quell the heat rising in my face.
‘Why did Damian come then?’
I stared at Damian, who was sprawled out beside me.
The brief investigation was now over, and I was sitting with Damian in the Knights’ Order’s commander’s office. The knight who had been assigned to the investigation had excused himself, saying that he would bring the commander, and left.
“Why?” Damian asked, sensing my gaze.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That the Knights’ Order would come to me directly.”
I wondered if Damian had misread it like I had, but it didn’t seem so. The knight who had asked me the question had looked at Damian with strange eyes, as if asking why he had come as well.
“Just because,” Damian replied briefly.
“Just because you were bored?”
“No, just because you happened to be here.”
“….”
So, it seemed Damian had come to the Imperial Palace for something else, and seeing me here, he had come here too.
‘Did I do something to him without knowing it?’
I briefly recalled the events at the banquet.
Something that would win Demian’s favor, something that would attract his attention. Nothing came to mind. Yet, I had no idea why he was showing such fervent interest in me.
“Oh, well, if you knew, you could have told me. I came all this way for nothing.”
If he had told me as soon as we met, I would have turned around and gone back. At least if he had just told me what was going on, I would have known.
Come to think of it, Damian’s reaction when we met at the Imperial Palace had been subtle. I should have noticed then.
‘I really don’t want to come near this place.’
The face I didn’t want to see was, unfortunately, in the Imperial Knights’ Order. Fortunately, he seemed to be absent for the moment.
“I thought you knew,” Damian replied smoothly.
Lies! He must have known I was mistaken, yet he pretended not to know. How come there wasn’t a single decent person around me?
‘Is it me? Am I the problem?’
Could it be that I’m the problem, and that’s why everyone around me is also a problem? Is my life destined for a sad ending, a bad ending?
I was struggling with the urge to tear my hair out when I sensed someone’s presence. The door to the commander’s office opened, and the knight from earlier entered. Another knight was with him.
“I apologize. The commander is currently unavailable,” the knight said with a troubled expression. Before he could finish, the man who had entered with him spoke.
“Ricardo Div, deputy commander of the Crow Knights’ Order. Please forgive my rudeness in greeting you in the commander’s stead.”
The man with platinum blonde hair that glinted in the sunlight, deep violet eyes, and glasses was the deputy commander of the Knights’ Order.
Maybe it was a good thing I had been mistaken. Upon seeing the deputy commander’s face, my previous feelings of regret vanished.
‘Ricardo Div.’
He was the last person I had considered, along with Damian, Luke, and Bashar.
