Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 19

#19. 76 Yufranga Street (2)

March 19, 2024

“Madam?”

Hazel, who was walking ahead, turned her head, looking puzzled.

She had waited for a while, but there was no sign of Belladonna following, so she looked back, perplexed.

Belladonna stood still, staring intently down the narrow alleyway.

“Is something the matter?”

Eventually, Hazel retraced her steps and stood beside her.

Belladonna looked at the entrance of 76 Yufranga Street with a heavy heart.

Scarlett Layton.

It was a name that kept surfacing and coming to mind, as if to flaunt its distinct presence, regardless of Belladonna’s will.

In Griblata, her traces were blatantly present everywhere.

“……”

It wasn’t even an unpleasant feeling.

From the start, she and Escalión weren’t close enough as a couple to feel such emotions.

It was a relationship with a clearly defined end, a temporary arrangement that would conclude in three months.

‘But this is……’

Belladonna swallowed dryly without realizing it and blinked.

A nagging curiosity. Would that be a fair assessment?

Belladonna stared blankly down the narrow alley, overwhelmed by an unknown impulse.

“Huh? Is there something over here……?”

Belladonna abruptly raised a hand and tightly gripped the hem of Hazel’s cloak that had slipped down.

Taking a deep breath as if making a big decision, she led Hazel and strode into the alley.

“M-Madam! Where are you going!”

A bewildered voice burst out.

Hazel looked back repeatedly as she was dragged along.

Just a few more steps and she could have taken the carriage back to the castle safely…!

Belladonna, who had emerged from the long, narrow alley, quickly turned her head from side to side.

76 Yufranga Street, 135.

It was the address of Scarlett Layton’s house that she remembered.

After confirming the address, Belladonna turned to the right and started walking.

“Madam! Where on earth……?”

Perhaps it was because she was suddenly faced with an unexpected situation that she was coming to her senses; Hazel opened her mouth repeatedly with a troubled face.

Now that she was a little more sober, she seemed to be worried about the repercussions.

Besides, this direction is… Oh, no!

Hazel, who had remembered something, closed her eyes tightly and stopped walking abruptly.

Belladonna, who had been holding onto Hazel’s cloak, also stopped with the momentum.

“……?”

What, why is she so heavy?

Belladonna cast a puzzled look at Hazel, who had suddenly stopped walking and stood motionless.

Hazel frowned and opened her mouth with a troubled face.

“L-Let’s go back now. If it gets any later, I might get scolded by the Captain…….”

Just a little further, and that woman’s house would appear.

Belladonna turned her head with a feeling of regret. Should I just run away?

But when she actually arrived in front of Scarlett’s house, she had no idea what to do.

Just…….

‘Just to check her face……’

But, what would she do by checking her face?

An unknown voice argued fiercely in her mind.

‘Just go and see her face! I’m curious to know what kind of woman she is to leave such traces in Escalión’s castle! Pure curiosity!’

‘No, what are you going to do by seeing her? You’re going to leave in three months anyway, and he’s a man you’ll never see again. Don’t bother with such useless things!’

Belladonna silently stared at the small gray building at the end of the alley.

If it’s 135 Yufranga Street, that house seemed likely.

“……”

At that moment, the door of the very house she was staring at burst open, and someone walked out.

“Eek!”

Hazel, who was also startled, grabbed her and quickly hid in the bushes by the roadside.

W-What! Why is she doing this!

Belladonna was dragged along without knowing why.

Hazel, who was crouching in front of a large tree, raised a long finger to her mouth with an urgent look.

“Shh! Shhh!”

‘Is she telling me to be quiet? Why?’

Besides, I can’t make a sound anyway, you idiot.

Although puzzled, she was more curious about who came out of the woman’s house.

Belladonna nodded roughly to Hazel, whose face had turned pale, and peeked her eyes out of the bushes.

The one who came out through the door was a slightly thin but tall and slender woman.

‘……Is that woman Scarlett Layton?’

The woman, who had features so distinct that she could be recognized from afar, was a considerable beauty at first glance.

The long black hair that flowed down her back wasn’t dazzling, but it looked beautiful in its own way.

Belladonna quietly watched the woman who exuded a unique atmosphere.

“Ugh……”

She was bothered by Hazel, who was making a strange, troubled groan next to her.

Seeing that she had hidden with her like this, the suspicion that that woman was Escalión’s mistress became even more solidified.

Clatter.

At that moment, one more person appeared from inside the house through the half-open door.

And he was a man Belladonna knew very well.

“……”

Belladonna bit her lower lip without realizing it and looked at the large man, Escalión.

Escalión, who came out walking crookedly, tilting his head from side to side as if he was stiff, went and stood next to Scarlett.

The two of them standing on the street, which was starting to get dark, looked like a very well-matched couple to anyone who saw them.

And that fact was somehow tightening Belladonna’s chest little by little.

“Go in.”

Escalión, who came out, passed Scarlett indifferently and spat out.

Scarlett nodded as if she was used to it.

“Just a moment.”

At that moment, Scarlett grabbed Escalión, who was about to leave, once more.

She placed her hand on his arm and raised her other hand to gently brush off something that was on Escalión’s forehead, who had turned his head.

Escalión, who silently accepted her touch, seemed very natural in that situation.

“It’s done. Go.”

“Come again.”

The words they uttered were short, but Belladonna could tell from the conversation how long they had been interacting.

Escalión turned away from Scarlett and walked towards the main road without regret.

Scarlett stared at him for a while, then slowly turned and entered the house.

“……”

Belladonna silently watched his receding figure.

She felt strange. She didn’t even know if she regretted coming all the way here.

“Madam……”

Eventually, when Escalión’s figure completely disappeared, Hazel, who had been crouching with her, stealthily straightened her knees.

He stood up hesitantly, watching Belladonna’s reaction.

Hazel rolled her eyes wildly as if trying to explain this situation somehow and opened her mouth.

“T-That is…… well, how should I explain it…… T-The two of you are old……”

But she didn’t want to hear it.

Belladonna wasn’t in a good enough state to hear such words directly from her husband’s knight.

She shook her head and raised the corners of her lips.

“Madam……”

Hazel trailed off with a troubled face, but she didn’t have the energy to pay attention to such things.

Belladonna stood up from her seat as nonchalantly as possible and walked out of the bushes.

She gestured in the direction of the carriage, as if to say let’s go back now.

* * *

Even when she returned to the castle, Escalión had not arrived.

I thought he would come straight back to the castle, but I guess not?

Belladonna moved to the second floor with a somehow twisted heart.

“Madam, I’ve prepared warm water!”

Even when she took a bath with the water Cindy had prepared, completely dried her hair, put on clean pajamas, and lay down on the bed, he didn’t come back.

The thought that he might have gone back to Scarlett made her feel even worse.

Belladonna nervously lifted the blanket and went inside to go to sleep.

She woke up slightly around dawn.

Belladonna slowly opened her eyes, feeling the thick, warm arms wrapping around her waist.

That action, which should have become familiar by now, felt very annoying today.

Belladonna tossed and turned, raising her hands to release Escalión’s arms.

“Were you awake?”

A low, subdued voice landed in her ear.

It was ticklish, but she didn’t shrug her shoulders.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

Belladonna nodded without turning to look at him.

She felt him pause for a moment behind her, but she didn’t turn her head in the end.

Finally, as if giving up, she felt Escalión turn to lie straight, facing the ceiling.

‘He said something urgent came up, so that was something related to Scarlett?’

It must have been urgent…….

Belladonna closed her eyes, feeling the rising resentment.

She thought he had fallen asleep because the breathing she felt from behind was even, but suddenly a voice came.

“That… Are you perhaps upset?”

It took her a while to figure out what the question was about, but Belladonna soon realized that he was referring to the fact that he had left her at the festival, saying that something urgent had come up.

Belladonna slowly shook her head.

“Then show me your face?”

Escalión subtly moved closer to her again.

Belladonna frowned and slowly moved forward, avoiding him.

Don’t touch me!

“I can’t think of anything because my wife is angry. I’m much more nervous than when I have the enemy in front of me, right now.”

Escalión let out a groan and spoke anxiously in a low voice.

Belladonna quietly snorted.

“What can I do to make you feel better?”

Escalión carefully reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear as he asked.

Even with his affectionate actions, she didn’t feel better, but rather more upset.

And at the same time, a certain question arose.

‘……Is it normal for me to feel this bad?’

I can’t develop a deeper relationship with Escalión than this…….

As she was pondering, Escalión’s soft voice landed in her ear.

“How about this? I’ll call the jeweler when it gets light. I’ll let you choose whatever you want. If the things he has aren’t satisfactory, I’ll bring in a merchant from Astanya.”

“……”

“Or how about a dressmaker? It might be nice to have a few more beautiful dresses made. Tell me if you need anything else. It feels like my heart is shrinking like a cowardly child because you’re like this.”

Belladonna, who was listening to Escalión’s voice filled with embarrassment, blinked her eyes quietly.

Am I, his wife of only three months, allowed to feel these emotions?

And why is this man trying so hard to make me feel better?

Unknown, complex emotions swirled through her mind, confusing her.