Episode 17
‘Congratulations on the opening of Wolf Detective Agency. From R, who misses you.’
‘…As expected.’
It was as I remembered.
I stared intently at the elegant initial ‘R’ written in beautiful handwriting.
Was it a coincidence?
But can something overlap three times? It could be coincidence up to two times, but not with three times.
The person who sent the congratulatory flowers and card for the opening of the agency.
And the author of the two books on the bookshelf that I didn’t even know I had.
The ‘R’ who wrote this card was also the only person who knew ‘Celia Wolf.’
“Is this the first time you’ve seen me?”
“Of course. I didn’t even know there were people living in this building.”
“Oh, I almost fainted thinking you were a ghost at first.”
When I talked to the local merchants, they said it was the first time they had seen me.
I thoroughly investigated to see any known relations of this body, but I couldn’t find any family or relatives.
In other words, no one knew Celia Wolf.
It was as if a character that never existed was suddenly added.
This place didn’t have a system that identified citizens like Korea, so there were no institutions from which to obtain information about Celia.
‘Even so, requests keep coming in, as if devised by someone.’
A detective who appeared suddenly without any connections.
The surrounding characters and clients accepted her existence with unexpectedly not much fuss.
The only person who knew her was someone who wrote an absurdly large number of books (they were trash) with only their initial revealed…
Welcome aboard!
You have taken your first step into a new life as ‘Celia Wolf.’
I was just being guided by the system window.
At this point, I was curious.
Who exactly had I possessed?
What kind of ending awaited at the end of the path the system window was leading me to?
It was when I was lost in my thoughts.
“…You seem to be close.”
Damon said, looking at me who was pondering deeply while holding the card.
“With whom?”
“The person who gave you that bouquet.”
Was he talking about this guy named R?
Was he asking if I was close to someone who was in the top three of people I wanted to crush when I met them?
“I’m planning to get close to them in the future.”
And I’d make sure to dish it out to them when I did.
Whether he knew my resolve or not, Damon just looked at the bouquet with an unreadable expression.
I extended the bouquet to him.
“I wonder why it hasn’t wilted, but it’s harmonizing. Just decorate it anywhere.”
“…”
Damon, holding the bouquet, said nothing and lowered his eyes.
Beneath his shadowed pupils, an unknown light rose and disappeared.
Soon, he quietly opened his mouth.
“Yes.”
* * *
“I can’t believe he couldn’t find a single woman to marry even after rolling around like a dog for the empire. It’s quite pitiful.”
When she first received a marriage proposal from Karl, Elisa scoffed like that.
Due to the hideous burn scars covering her neck and face, Elisa was treated like an outcast by her family and society.
In contrast, Karl was a man with a handsome appearance, an excellent character, and the honor of being the admiral of the empire’s western coast.
For such a man to be unable to find a wife and eventually end up having to propose to Elisa.
“Everyone else must have hated the idea of becoming a widow.”
Serving on the western coast was probably the biggest drawback.
It was practically the same as going to die on the battlefield.
But Elisa didn’t really care about that fact.
Because she had never felt the need for a husband.
Life was lived alone anyway.
Rather, she even thought that the life of a widow, untouched by anyone, wouldn’t be so bad.
After she accepted the proposal thinking that way, until they met, Karl didn’t send a single formal letter.
“To be this late on the day we first meet. I guess I must not be to his liking after all.”
He was even late for their first meeting.
Elisa, who had a fiery personality, had no intention of just quietly waiting for someone.
She resolved to consider the engagement as if it had never happened and stood up from her seat.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
But then, Karl appeared.
Holding a bouquet of colorful, shimmering flowers.
Whoosh.
Through the gap of the door Karl opened and entered, the sound of cool waves flowed in.
Karl was a man who, despite spending most of his life fighting at sea, possessed a refreshingly handsome appearance.
His looks were even more impressive than the rumors suggested, and Elisa momentarily lost her words, staring blankly up at him.
“I was delayed by work… Would you accept this?”
Mesmerized by the gentle, melodious tone of his voice, Elisa forgot to get angry.
She just accepted the bouquet with a dumbfounded expression.
“What is this?”
“These are flowers made of mother-of-pearls. Since ancient times, sailors have given a bouquet like this to those they wished to protect.”
It was the first time she had ever received flowers from someone.
And to think it carried such a grand meaning.
Her heart felt awkwardly ticklish.
“You don’t have to force yourself to be so kind.”
So she deliberately said something harsh.
I didn’t want to expect anything for no reason.
“It’s not like you want to get married anyway, right? Just going through the motions is enough.”
It was such a rude thing to say that an ordinary gentleman would have immediately stormed out of his seat. However, Karl just tilted his head with a casual expression.
His hair swayed like the sea waves accordingly as he did.
“Why do you think that?”
“…Don’t you think about anything when you look at my face?”
“Well, it’s like a sandy beach on a clear day.”
“A sandy beach?”
“Yes, the hair.”
Was he talking about her light brown hair?
She had never heard the comparison to a sandy beach before.
Was he trying to show that he was someone who lived on the sea?
“I guess there are beaches with scars from burns?”
Elisa pointed to her scar, speaking bluntly.
“No.”
His gaze, which had been calmly following Elisa’s finger, met hers again.
There was neither pity nor disgust in his eyes.
It felt like it had been a very long time since she had seen such eyes.
“It’s like the traces left by a wave.”
…That single sentence was the beginning.
Elisa’s life changed completely.
After that, Elisa began to visit the Lerint estate almost every day to be the first to meet Karl when he returned from the sea.
She even started going to the temple, which she had never visited in her life, to pray for him.
Elisa, who had always spent her time alone, found new happiness in waiting for Karl.
Striving for someone else’s sake was both painful and joyful.
So even if she spent a lonely time missing him from afar, if she received callous replies to her letters, or their plans were postponed for a lon time…
Elisa could endure it.
Compared to the sacrifices Karl made, this was nothing.
“So it’s okay to spend his birthday alone. It’s just a day. It’s okay. He must be busy…”
Crumpling the invitation for a birthday party she’d planned for Karl, Elisa murmured to herself, as if consoling herself.
* * *
You have read all the free chapters of <How to Be The Hero’s Spouse>.
Cash shortage! If you wait until 23:59:59, you can read it for free.
Cash recharge station has been activated normally.
Current cash recharge station: Lerint Estate.
(Other locations are locked.)
I closed the library system window that gave me a ‘cash-shortage’ notification.
And I leaned back in my chair, thinking.
“The hero’s spouse…”
It was a common story.
A partner who prioritizes work over love, a lover who waits for them endlessly.
And even the ending where one eventually becomes a sacrifice.
Elisa, who once mocked Karl for sacrificing himself for the empire and called him stupid, ended up being equally committed to him and was ultimately abandoned.
After that, Elisa vanished without a trace.
‘Why did Karl ask Elisa to call off the engagement?’
He was an indifferent man, but also a righteous enough man to make Elisa fall in love with him.
He’d willingly entered the Western Sea fleet, which everyone avoided, and fought the sea monsters.
For such a man to suddenly demand his fiancée, who had waited for him for so long, to break off their engagement…
What on earth happened between the two of them?
‘Hmm…’
To find out how the original story unfolded, I have no choice but to diligently collect cash again this time.
Because…
here’s what mother of pearls look like. I wonder what those flowers look like.
