The Villain Is Obsessed With His Fake Wife

Countess Hettel’s urgent gaze fell on her.

 

“Duchess Blanchett. It’s not good for your health to go out when it’s pouring rain like this. How about staying at Count Hettel’s castle until the rain stops?”

 

“You’re right! Count Hettel has many interesting things to see and do. Why don’t you stop by and take a look?”

 

Even Count Hettel joined in and began to beg her. When she turned her gaze to see John, he just nodded his head arrogantly.

 

‘This means I can do whatever I want, right?’

 

She looked at the expression on the face of Countess Hettel, who had now completely changed her attitude.

 

‘The most effective method in this case is…’

 

Having been burned several times in Libertan, she knew very well how to make her opponent feel the most tired and irritated.

 

‘If I do something wrong, my notoriety may spread throughout social circles.’

 

Unfortunately, she didn’t have any more reputation to go down. So, it would have been better to make sure that he couldn’t treat her carelessly.

 

“It is not for the Duke to apologize. It wasn’t the Duke’s fault that it happened.”

 

She smiled and answered innocently.

 

“If the Duke wants, I can go somewhere else like this.”

 

As she expressed her intention to return, Count Hettel’s complexion gradually turned white. But he couldn’t rudely interrupt the conversation between John and her.

 

“Then should we look for another place?”

 

“But…”

 

She looked at the rain falling from the sky.

 

“Since it’s raining like this, I think it would be okay to stay at Count Hettel Castle for the sake of the group.”

 

With every word she said, the expressions of Count Hettel’s people changed.

 

“What is there to worry about? My wife can do whatever she wants.”

 

“Then…”

 

Count Hettel and his people all swallowed their saliva. She asked, looking at Countess Hettel.

 

“Countess Hettel, is it okay if the Duke Blanchett becomes indebted to the Count Hettel for a day?”

 

“Sure! It would be a great honor for Count Hettel if you stayed at our House.”

 

“I guess it was my misunderstanding as expected.”

 

“W-what kind of misunderstanding…?”

 

“I thought Countess Hettel felt uncomfortable with me.”

 

Countess Hettel’s smile was misaligned. The Countess was unable to hide her embarrassment and she answered clumsily.

 

“I can’t believe you thought so. Why would I feel uncomfortable with the Duchess?”

 

“As expected, right? I misunderstood because you didn’t say hello to me just now.”

 

Countess Hettel began to take care of her laughing words.

 

“It’s understandable since you’ve been exhausted. Sometimes when I’m tired, I also have unnecessary misunderstandings.”

 

“How tired you must have been when it was raining in the middle of the day. Go inside and rest comfortably.”

 

The atmosphere gradually became more friendly. Until she asked back in an innocent voice.

 

“What a relief. I guess I misunderstood because you asked your adult daughter to guide my husband to his room in front of me, his wife. You didn’t even say hello to me and just told me it was a misunderstanding.”

 

“…”

 

“This can’t happen in the capital.”

 

Countess Hettel clenched the hem of her dress for no reason. Count Hettel could not bear to intervene, and the Count’s daughters, who were also mentioned, looked increasingly worse. A long silence followed. After a moment of silence, Count Hettel poked the Countess in the side. Countess Hettel, who was swallowing her dry saliva, quivered her mouth and apologized.

 

“Sorry. It’s been a while since I served guests, so I guess I may have broken some etiquette without realizing it. I’m so restless…”

 

“It’s fine. It’s a misunderstanding after all, right?”

 

At that time, a man walked out of Count Hettel Castle.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

He was a tall man with dark blue hair and purple eyes. His eyes were so long that they reminded her of a snake.

 

‘He’s a bit of a scary person.’

 

He was a man she had never seen before. The faces of Count Hettel and his wife became thoughtful.

 

“Prime Minister Orteca! Please go inside…”

 

Prime Minister Orteca. It was someone she had heard of in Libertan. He was the head of the writer’s family after Orteca and one of the figures who controlled the national affairs of the empire.

 

‘He was that kind of person.’

 

However, she was very curious as to why the Prime Minister was staying at Hettel Castle. Chancellor Orteca responded by lightly tapping the floor with the cane he was holding.

 

“Suddenly I heard a commotion outside and came out. Now I see that the Duke and Duchess Blanchett are here. Did something happen?”

 

“It was nothing. There was a brief misunderstanding, but it was resolved. Right, Duchess Blanchett?”

 

Countess Hettel asked her with a benevolent smile.

 

“That’s right. Everything has been resolved.”

 

So she smiled and answered. Countess Hettel nodded her head awkwardly. Chancellor Orteca’s eyes narrowed.

 

“I’m glad it was resolved. I don’t know if it’s really been resolved.”

 

Chancellor Orteca twisted his lips into a smile and then went back into his mansion. Belatedly, one of Count Hettel’s daughters hurriedly followed the prime minister. She didn’t know why there was a chancellor in Count Hettel’s family or what the exact situation was. It seems that Count Hettel was trying to establish ties not only with the Blanchett family, but also with the Prime Minister. But looking at the Prime Minister’s reaction now.

 

‘Either way, it will be difficult to wait in line.’

 

* * *

 

Countess Hettel came into her mansion, huffing and puffing.

 

“Did you see that adopted child smiling at me? She’s not even a proper Duchess, and she doesn’t even know my subject!”

 

“But mother, is it really true that she is not an official Duchess?”

 

The Count’s eldest daughter, Lotte, asked worriedly.

 

“Looking at Duke Blanchett’s reaction, it doesn’t seem like that at all.”

 

“Say something that makes sense now. The execution date for the Duke and Duchess of Libertan has been set. If she had regarded the adopted child as her real wife, she would not have exterminated the Libertan duchy. Isn’t that right?”

 

“Yes. Then why did the Duke show a hostile attitude towards us?”

 

The Count of Hettel thought that Duke Blanchett would be happy if they ignored Estelle. There were a lot of rumors that he brought Estelle in to throw it away after playing with it.

 

“You don’t know that. Maybe it’s because we acted too suddenly.”

 

Countess Hettel bit her fingernails.

 

‘For some reason, I showed a very bad image even in front of Prime Minister Orteca.’

 

It was a great fortune for such a big man to visit the declining family of Count Hettel at the same time. So Countess Hettel tried to create a good relationship by attaching her two daughters to the two magnates.

 

‘Prime Minister Orteca is great, but…’

 

The Blanchett family was famously wealthy. It would be of great help to the tilted Count Hettel family.

 

‘After all, I can not give up the Blanchett family.’

 

“Lote, Flora. Don’t worry too much.”

 

Countess Hettel saw in her vicinity her two daughters, reputed beauties. No matter how pretty the adopted child was, she could not compare to her own daughter, whose lineage was also proven.

 

“What’s important is not the past, but the future.”

 

“Well, then…?”

 

“Mom will provide you with a good opportunity. So don’t worry too much, just show Duke Blanchett and the Marquis Orteca as polite and pretty as possible.”

 

Lotte and Flora nodded shyly at her mother’s confident words. 

 

* * *

 

It looked like the summer rainy season was about to begin. The rain, which she thought would stop tomorrow, continued to pour.

 

‘If there is one thing that is fortunate.’

 

Aside from the fact that there was a problem at the first meeting, nothing special happened. However, if she had to point out something uncomfortable, it was, of course, Prime Minister Orteca.

 

‘Why is the Prime Minister here?’

 

When asked about this at a dinner party together, the Marquis of Orteca answered with a kind smile.

 

‘It was a car that was on its way to inspect my territory. I was in trouble because of the sudden pouring rain.’

 

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somehow hiding something.

 

‘But it probably has nothing to do with me.’

 

Dressed in a light dress, she went to see the orchestra that Count Hettel had prepared. It was a fairly famous orchestra that must have worked hard for Chancellor Orteca and the Duke and Duchess Blanchett. Count Hettel’s face was filled with pride as he watched the orchestra play. To be honest, he wasn’t very interested in music, so he stared blankly toward the garden. Perhaps because the rain had subsided, gardeners were wearing raincoats and tidying up the garden. At that time, she saw a man who looked somewhat familiar among the group of gardeners.

 

‘That person… Baron Penula?’

 

He was the head of the liver in John’s memory.

 

‘Why on earth is that person here?’

 

Wasn’t he the person who accepted bribes from the Libertan duchy and helped torture young John?

 

‘Did I see it wrong?’

 

She wasn’t sure because a lot of time had passed since then and she hadn’t seen it properly. So she asked the nearby trees. The Hettel Castle trees cheered loudly when she, a fairy, spoke to them and then answered.

 

-A gardener with graying red hair? That gardener’s name? Was it Jake? I’m not sure.

 

Unfortunately, the trees were not interested in humans and did not seem to remember them well.

 

-When did you come here? When was it… I just remember suddenly becoming a gardener even though I had no skills.

 

-Ah! Come to think of it, that guy, that guy. The guy who secretly buried strange things under my roots and checked them every night.

 

‘You buried something strange under the roots?’

 

It was full of questionable behavior. Under the pretext of going out to rest for a while, I went out into the garden and went under the roots. The tree kindly moved its roots and took the box outside.

 

‘As expected, the Baron Penula I saw at that time was right.’

 

Inside the box were keys and documents. The key was the key to the safe of the capital’s most famous bank, which she knew well, and the document was a list of nobles that Baron Penula had recorded. There were names of not only those who received bribes from the Libertan duchy, which was implicated in treason, but also those who tried to bring a line to the Libertan duchy through the jailer.

 

‘What should I do with this?’

 

First, she asked the trees to hide the box somewhere else and calmly returned to her room. When she returned to her room and was just changing her dress, one of Count Hettel’s maids said something strange.

 

“Duchess Blanchett, Countess Hettel would like to see you briefly before she goes to bed. Can you come?”

 

“Late at night?”

 

“Yes. It seemed like she wanted to ease the Duchess’s feelings.”

 

‘Are you suddenly asking for reconciliation like this?’

 

It’s not strange, but somehow it felt very uncomfortable. However, the identity of her discomfort was quickly relieved. It was time to leave the room to meet Countess Hettel. John, who had not been visible during the day, appeared. And he grabbed her wrist as she was about to go out.

 

“Ma’am. Did you know that among nobles, there are many people who are impatient because they cannot sell their daughters? Sometimes they just let them into the bedroom late at night.”

 

John blinked, not sure what he was talking about. John sat her down on the bed and whispered in a low voice.

 

“Tonight, the Count’s daughter called me to her bed. I could see from her face that she was planning on coming herself if I didn’t go.”

 

“…”

 

“Of course I will refuse. But is that enough for my wife?”

 

Something boiled inside.

 

‘Is this why you called me late at night?’

 

No matter how much John would refuse, she didn’t want to let another woman into his room. She opened her mouth cautiously.

 

“Then what should I do?”

 

“Well. I don’t think they know how good a couple we are yet.”

 

John rolled the corners of his eyes and whispered sweetly.

 

“It would be best to show it properly.”

 

His face heated up at John’s words.

 

“What do you think, ma’am?”

 

The darkness outside the window grew darker and the sound of the second hand became louder. The candlelight that was quietly lighting us swayed in the wind.

 

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. To deceive others, something I can do on my own.”

 

John lowered his voice to a whisper so only she could hear. He slowly took off his shirt. Then his voluptuous and solid muscles were revealed. She swallowed her saliva. This still seemed unexpected to her. But the situation made her active. 

 

Knock, knock.

 

There was a knock on the door outside. Whether it was the maid who came to pick her up or Lady Hettel, the purpose would be one.

 

“…no.”

 

In the end she made up her mind.

 

“It’s fine.”

 

If you don’t do it to the end anyway, your scar won’t be discovered.

 

“You don’t like being close to the Duke.”

 

John seemed to be suppressing his rapidly rising breathing.

 

“You don’t like it, do you?”

 

The bed blanket covered our bodies. But this situation, where she was in close contact with a half-naked John, made her feel very strange. The sound of her heart beating loudly rang in her ears. Now she didn’t even care about the popularity she felt from outside.

 

“Estelle.”

 

John growled in her ear in a sinister voice that seemed to be oppressed.

 

“Pretend to touch me more.”

 

He pulled her hand closer to his chest. She could feel his strong, muscular chest.

 

—————————————————————

Translator Note: