The Villain Is Obsessed With His Fake Wife

7. My wife is mine

Treason was the heaviest crime in the Empire. Since they had already received the Emperor’s approval, everything went smoothly. All of the Libertan were miserably dragged away by the imperial knights. The Duke of Libertan, who learned that everything would end the moment he was imprisoned in the imperial prison, hung on ugly.

“There’s no way a high-ranking aristocrat is dragged away so suddenly!”

However, the situation did not change because they already had criminal records. John added the disastrous fall of the Blanchett Duke over the Libertan duchy, which had become a mess. The day happened suddenly. His father, who went to the imperial palace in the morning, did not return. At first he thought it was a busy job, but after a day or two vicious rumors began to circulate, he couldn’t stand it any longer.

‘I’m sorry. I think my father is in a big trouble right now.’

The Duke of Blanchett was an honorable family, but unfortunately, as a Duchy, their power was not very high. At first, the noble families who interacted well also turned away from them because of the strange rumors that began to spread secretly.

‘Wait a little while and I’ll be back with my father. In the meantime, take care of Lily.’

Eventually, the mother left for the imperial family with her family’s knight commander. However, it was not her mother who returned, but the imperial knights. The imperial knights, led by the Duke of Libertan, completely trampled on the noble legacy of the Duke of Blanchett, slaughtered the innocent, and took the rest to prison.

‘Young master! Run away!’

The butler tried to make Yohan run away, but Yohan couldn’t escape because he was taking care of his crying sister. He should have run away then. If he had then run away and foresaw the future, things might have worked out more easily. After all, nothing would have changed just because John, then a young boy, was taken to prison together. But as Yohan cried, he couldn’t abandon his sister, who couldn’t even run away properly. For failing to savagely reject his sister, John had to see his parents disfigured by torture. The father, who had left with a smile, was already in a state of being unable to speak, and the mother, who had become a miserable face, tried to comfort him by hugging him as a child.

‘It’s okay, John. Mom’s fine.’

After that, it was a hell that he dared not open his eyes to see. Everyone John loved was tortured at the hands of the Libertans and traditionally burned at the stake. The last one to be dragged to the stake was his sister. It was his little sister who was immature and slow to learn more than him, his younger sister. With a face that had lost its luster, the sister shouted as if squeezing out the last of her strength.

‘Don’t see anything, don’t hear anything. pretend you don’t know anything. Pretend you don’t know just think you’re not here. Understand?’

At that time, the sister was not the immature girl John had known.

‘Even if it’s hard, just do it. Promise.’

Even though she might resent John for being fine alone, Lily wanted to protect him. Even if it was unfair, he might have been cured if John had died along with his family at that time. But he couldn’t bear the moment when he watched helplessly the suffering of his family, alone with his fingertips unscathed. But, ironically, the law of the empire that unjustly brought down Duke Blanchett. The absurd laws of the Empire prevented the death or permanent damage of the last blood relative of the duchy, no matter how felonious. Instead, Duke Libertan took advantage of a loophole in the law and had John witness all the punishment.

‘Hell is from now on.’

‘Let’s see how long you can pretend to be the noble Duke Blanchett.’

His sister wanted John to forget everything and live, but John couldn’t. Instead of turning away from his family’s hell, John remembered everything by putting it in his eyes so that he would never forget it. He forced himself to recall even the screams of his family in pain. For the rest of his life, so that he could somehow repay all of this. The fall of Libertan was the moment he had been waiting for since childhood. However, the feeling he felt after completing the revenge was by no means exhilarating. As expected for a long time, John’s wounds were still vivid. The innocent woman came to mind as he stepped on the puddle of Libertan’s blood.

‘Duke.’

Everything was going according to plan. Libertan has been taken for mutiny, and now all that remains is to play with her and do the same to her and her family as they did to him. Strangely, though, John didn’t seem to enjoy the woman face in pain.

‘Why the hell?’

It was unexpected to visit the woman’s room at that late hour. It was also half impulsive to take a gorgeous bouquet of artificial flowers to mock the woman in his bosom.

‘What kind of expression would that woman make?’

In fact, this blatant mockery was not to John’s liking. He preferred a more elegant, subtle way. But he acted impulsively. It was a very strange thing. The woman with the bouquet of artificial flowers stared at him with her indigo blue eyes. The woman who was carefully examining the flowers smiled brightly.

“It is really pretty.”

At first, he thought he had heard wrong. Harmony in the world was a classy insult, especially when only the stamens were jeweled, meaning fake. If it was even a red rose, it meant that it’s a fake that only looked gorgeous.

‘Can’t it be that she doesn’t know what that means?’

Still, John thought of many things according to what this woman did not know if she did not know, and if she noticed. If she didn’t know, he’d be seducing her as she planned, and if she figured out the meaning, he’d comfort her by pretending to have brought it by mistake. But Estelle didn’t move the way he wanted.

“Yes, this is the first gift the Duke gave me.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t know what it meant at all. It was because he confirmed that her hand, which was checking the stamens, stopped momentarily. In addition, she even checked with John to see if she had any hopes of not knowing.

“Is that a compliment?”

Despite his blatant insult, she smiled with genuine delight.

“Then I’m happy too.”

The woman with a red rose in her ear was dazzlingly beautiful.

“If I fulfilled your wishes in some way.”

She was a woman who knew nothing, she was a woman who could only pretend that she didn’t know even if she knew something, John somehow felt sorry for her.

‘This woman is the target of revenge.’

To feel sorry for the woman, the daughter of Libertan, was a betrayal of his family who died unjustly. Estelle, who was rolling her twinkling blue eyes, suddenly took out a stack of cookies from the room and put them in his hand. He was taken aback by the sudden cookie.

“It’s nothing special, but would you like some cookies?”

“Cookie?”

“I heard you finished a project you’ve been planning for a long time.”

Estelle congratulated him on a subject she had no idea what was going on.

“Congratulations, I will pray that everything goes well for the Duke in the future.”

Why was this woman so naive? To a stranger she had never seen in her life, maybe she would be so suspicious. On such a subject, why did she not seem like a daughter who was loved and raised?

“Ma’am.”

John impulsively reached out to Estelle’s cheeks, which were shining white as if they had been covered with sugar. A soft touch tickled his palm. Estelle obediently rubbed her cheeks and smiled as if she liked his touch.

‘This…’

It was a habit his sister used to do to her family whenever she did something wrong. As soon as he felt that fact, disgust should come up, but, funny enough, he didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. It just made him feel bad that a woman’s soft cheeks were pleasant.

‘Have I been this weak?’

The more naive Estelle was, the more perfect his plan would be. The more John felt Estelle’s loveliness, the more he felt a strange reluctance to his revenge plan. It should never be like that. After receiving the cookie, John looked at Estelle and smiled lightly.

“Feed me another one.”

“Ha, one more?”

“I’m never satisfied with just one.”

Estelle innocently rolled her indigo blue eyes. The image of her contemplating holding a bag of cookies was as tense as a rabbit in front of an enemy.

‘Perhaps it’s because she’s shy?’

She always reveals her true feelings.

“Hurry.”

John patted himself on the lips and asked. The woman who looked at his red lips dyed her cheeks red and carefully put the cookie into his mouth. John joked around pretending to eat Estelle’s fingertips.

“It’s delicious because it was given to me by my wife.”

Estelle was very embarrassed when she touched his tongue as her fingers brushed her, and she hid her hand. He stared at the woman’s hand he had hidden with red eyes and grinned.

“Is it because my wife’s hand touched me?”

“Eating my hands is a no-no.”

“Why not?”

Estelle, who was seriously thinking, carefully opened her mouth.

“Isn’t it bad to eat humans?”

“My wife is mine. Is eating what’s mine a problem?”

“Anyway, according to social norms…”

Seeing the innocent woman’s stare, John involuntarily kissed her hair with an involuntary smile.

“Okay. I’ll be quiet until my wife wants it.”

When he whispered in her ear in a low voice, Estelle reacted sensitively. He looked at the woman and twisted his lips.

‘John Blanchett. Think of your dead family.’

This trouble was not caused by this woman. However, unlike what he initially envisioned, a suspicious part arose. It was to make the revenge against the family more perfect.

“Instead, tomorrow evening, there is a dinner with the vassals at the Blanchett duchy.”

“It will be a very important position.”

Estelle nodded her head without knowing anything.

“As the duchess, I will do my best to show a good image.”

“No. Quite the opposite.”

John looked at Estelle’s dark blue eyes and opened his mouth kindly.

“My wife, don’t come there.”

* * *

To be honest, John’s words came as a bit of a shock.

‘Why are you telling me not to go?’

It wasn’t that she had a compelling reason to go to that dinner. However, the dinner that evening was different from what had happened before, and it was an incident that came out of the original work.

‘I shouldn’t have fallen for it.’

After the fall of Libertan due to treason, the case of inviting and humiliating her under the pretext of gathering vassals who helped the Blanchett Dukes and celebrating lightly. Depressed by people’s cold treatment, she became more dependent on John.

“Why?”

She opened her eyes wide as if she was very surprised by his words.

“Is there any reason why I shouldn’t attend?”

“I thought it would be difficult for my wife, who had just come from Libertan, to attend.”

John rolled his cool eyes and smiled languidly.

“Of course, I want to monopolize my wife by myself, so I do.”

He slowly took her hand. John, who raised her hand and kissed the back of her hand, looked at her intently. But his gaze had a strangely suffocating pressure.

“My wife doesn’t mind looking at me.”

* * *

The next morning, Erich arrived at the office at John’s call. John opened the jewelry box and was examining the jewels. Among them, he subconsciously gave his eyes to the jewels for trinkets that a woman would like.

‘Master, you’ve never been interested in women’s accessories?’

Of course, this was not to say that John was ignorant of women’s gifts. Originally, John was always well aware of things that fit the purpose. But on the other hand, it meant that there was no such thing as seeing things that were not necessary for the purpose.

‘I haven’t had a chance to look at women’s accessories lately.’

In particular, John did not like women’s jewelry. Erich asked John cautiously.

“Are you planning on giving her a present?”

“Her?”

“…That fake one.”

After briefly looking at the woman’s jewelry in the jewelry box, John covered the jewelry box.

“No. I have no interest in my wife.”

Clean movements without any regrets. However, in Erich’s eyes, he could feel John’s subtle change. Although it couldn’t be explained with certainty, it was true that there had been a change in John’s attitude. John, who looked at the jewelry box again, opened his mouth slowly.

“I called you today because my wife is not attending the dinner party.”

“…yes?”

Erich asked back with a face of disbelief.

“Did she say she didn’t want to attend? How can a woman who knows herself as a Duchess…”

Dinner with the retainers was a must for a hostess. But she refused to do it. Erich was taken aback by the woman’s ignorance.

“No. I told her not to attend.”

“The master did?”

“Yes. She’s still new from Libertan and she’s an unstable woman.”

John, who had just cut it off, opened his mouth calmly with an undisturbed face.

“If she encounters hostile vassals, we may get into trouble.”

“… I see.”

It was clearly an instruction for a more perfect plan. It was an order that John, a perfectionist, would have given. But Erich heard those words.

‘She doesn’t want to meet them at all because she fears that she will be hurt by the vassals.’

Estelle’s face, whom he had met in the study, suddenly appeared in Erich’s mind. She was a neat woman who seemed like she would melt away at any moment into the sunny air.

‘I can’t believe the master is because of her…’

However, it was true that strange changes began to occur after Estelle appeared. At that time, John’s office hurriedly opened and Knight Commander Blanchett appeared inside.

“Master. I got a call from the imperial prison.”

“What is going on?”

“Duke Libertan says he will tell the truth. Instead, he set a condition.”

As soon as he heard that, Erich frowned.

‘How dare he ask for conditions?’

John, who was looking at the knight commander wearing clasped hands, slowly raised his lips.

“What are the conditions?”

“Lastly, he asked to see Miss Estelle just once.”

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Translator Note:

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