Chapter 59

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: My Bride's Teachings
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“?”

The list came through the curtain, passed to me by Pielle’s hand.

I blinked.

“……”

I looked it over. It was a thoroughly researched document, clearly listing names and their affiliations.

It even included their current activities.

I blinked, my thoughts momentarily in disarray.

A list had already been drawn up? Had Diello been thinking the same thing I was?

No…

I remembered his eyes, glowing with a blue light.

He might have compiled the list in a fit of rage during his rampage, intending to wipe them all out.

‘……’

I narrowed my eyes, picturing Diello with the blood-stained sword in his hand.

His eyes had definitely been glowing blue.

I’d been told that a rampage brings one closer to their true nature while stripping them of their reason, so that part made sense.

But if he’d gone so far as to create a kill list of the traitors, why were they all still alive and well?

“They aren’t dead yet, are they?”

When I asked, just to be sure, Rick answered cheerfully.

“Nope.”

That made it even stranger.

It couldn’t be that he’d drawn up the list to kill them all during his rampage, only to leave them be once it was over.

“Did Diello tell you to look into this beforehand?”

I needed to be sure whether the intelligence department had gathered this information on their own, or if Diello had ordered it.

Especially since…

[Recent: Unusual movement detected. Confirmed to be leaving periodically at 2 AM.]

Seeing clues like this, with dates from two days ago or even more recently, it was clear that an investigation had been ordered lately.

Rick fell silent for a moment at my words before speaking.

“This information has been known since they first entered the mansion.”

That made sense.

The intelligence department wouldn’t be so foolish as to know the mansion was a den of spies and do nothing.

But still, it was strange. My thoughts felt tangled.

Something was off.

Especially Diello.

Lately, the Diello I knew and the man I was seeing in these unfolding situations seemed to be in a strange conflict with each other.

“……I'll have to discuss this with Diello.”

I needed to see what he was thinking, and more importantly, if the aftereffects of his rampage still lingered.

I hadn't sensed anything unusual at the pool, though.

* * *

That night.

“Diello.”

Perhaps because he’d come from working in his hot office, Diello's face was slightly flushed.

A sweet, cool scent wafted from him, as if he had just washed up and applied perfumed oil, but it couldn't hide the heat radiating from him.

And it was clear that Argenta's unique healing method (?) was effective; he looked much more vigorous.

“Croire.”

He approached with a gentle smile and glanced up at the curtain in the middle of the bedroom.

It was the curtain I had briefly drawn because of Rick.

“Did someone come inside?”

It seemed he’d noticed the knot was different from how it was usually tied.

His powers of observation were incredible.

“Rick and Nirua stopped by for a moment earlier.”

Diello paused at my words. For a split second, I saw his eyes narrow.

“……Right up to the bed, you mean?”

It was bound to be a sensitive issue for him.

Another man entering a newlywed couple's room… But.

It had happened several times already, so why now?

I recalled Pielle and the maid drawing the curtain whenever they visited.

Could it be?

“Perhaps things are a little different in Argenta than in Alloje?”

I glanced down at the low threshold, similar to a doorsill, that ran near the bed.

That boundary, where the particularly thick curtain could be drawn, separated the private area within the bedroom from the more freely accessible part of the room.

In Alloje, at least, it wasn't a problem for someone to enter the bedroom, unless they crossed this boundary.

Diello narrowed his eyes, then, instead of denying my words, he said.

“From now on, unless it's urgent, please don't call others into the bedroom.”

His voice held no hint of coercion. If anything, it sounded as if he were pleading with me.

Like an earnest request.

“……Right. It would be bad for rumors.”

Even if they were the people of the fourth-floor Argenta, I shouldn't trust them completely.

I was just thinking that for all the times I’d called Diello soft, I was the one who had gone soft.

“No.”

Diello answered abruptly. The moment our eyes met, his pupils seemed a little darker, perhaps because of the lighting.

“It bothers me.”

Bothers… you? I blinked.

After a brief moment of silence, a smile appeared on Diello's face.

“It would be troublesome if something bad were to happen, wouldn't it?”

If we let people in for work, even into a personal space like the bedroom, it might provide an opening for an attack like last time.

For some reason, as Diello spoke in that soft, calm tone, he delivered the long sentence without pausing for breath.

“……I understand.”

Still, on the surface, a husband is a husband.

Indeed, a husband who let other men into his bedroom would surely suffer a blow to his prestige.

“I'll be careful.”

“There's no need for you to be careful, Croire.”

With that, Diello sat on the edge of the bed, next to me.

“The fault lies with the one who entered so thoughtlessly, even when summoned.”

Was it my imagination, or did the room suddenly feel colder at that moment?

When I looked at him, he smiled gently.

“By the way, I heard you were looking into the spies, Croire.”

It seemed he'd received a report from the intelligence department.

I nodded.

“That's right. What are you planning to do about them?”

I swallowed the rest of my thought: *You already have a list drawn up*. When our eyes met, his pupils, like a calm lake, shimmered.

—Tak.

Diello untied the fabric holding back the bed's canopy and raised the corners of his mouth in a soft smile.

“We can't just leave them be, can we?”

I watched him for a moment before asking.

“The intelligence department already knew about the spies, didn't they?”

“Yes.”

Diello answered lightly. That was to be expected, but the information was all up-to-date.

Anyone could see it had been recently reinvestigated.

And the only person besides me who could give such an order was…

“You requested that information recently.”

At my words, Diello turned to me. For a split second, the blue light of his mana flashed in his eyes.

Just as I thought. He hadn't fully escaped the influence of his rampage's mana.

“Yes, thanks to my bride's teachings.”

My teachings? As I blinked, Diello continued in his gentle voice.

“To be ruthless with our enemies.”

His words made me recall that I had seen his eyes look just like this several times before.

When he saved Nirua, and when he interrogated the traitors.

He had been watching me with those shining eyes.

“You taught me well, so I was able to handle it naturally.”

As he said this and smiled, a bewitching blue light still swirled in his eyes.

Eyes glowing with mana. A classic symptom of an emotional rampage.

This is Diello's true nature?

Moreover, he's acting on his true nature, but he says he's acting as I taught him?

More importantly, what I taught him was how to interrogate enemies, not how to secretly grasp their necks and time the perfect moment to twist.

To say he was doing this because I taught him… he seemed far too proficient.

Besides.

‘……’

Back when he gathered the servants in the hall.

There had been blood on his sword. It must have meant he'd cut down a traitor.

At that time, his rampage had just begun, so he would have been acting much closer to his true nature, but…

Still, something was strange.

I gazed into his calm eyes.

If his suppressed nature was decisive enough to cut down even a familiar servant without hesitation if they were a traitor, why had he left the others alone for now?

Could he really treat them so kindly while planning to kill them at any moment?

That Diello Argenta?

Does that even make sense?

I couldn't tell where the act ended and his true feelings began.

“……There's no chance the information is wrong, is there?”

When I asked to confirm, Diello gave a light nod.

His eyes were still twinkling with a blue light.

“Just in case, I told them to double-check in case there were any problems with the information.”

Diello continued in a leisurely tone.

“After I made an example of one, some of the others began to waver, as expected.”

My eyes widened slightly at his words.

That example… was it when he killed the servant?

Does that mean even that was a completely rational, calculated decision?

Or is that just his true nature, revealed by the rampage?

I was starting to get confused.

“Just as you taught me, Croire.”

Diello smiled radiantly.

I had worried I was teaching something too harsh to such a gentle person, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

Is this a good thing?

For our survival, it was definitely good news, but…

Just as I raised an eyebrow at the strange feeling…

—Mwah.

Diello pressed a kiss to my forehead.

The soft touch brought me to my senses.

Up close, the eyes I met curved into a beautiful crescent shape.

“You seemed so worried.”

He whispered, then sat beside me again.

“I heard you were looking for them too, Croire.”

“Ah.”

Diello tilted his head as if to ask why.

“……Because I think it's time to deal with them. We have a good excuse now, and Alloje might come after us soon.”

Before, I would have stopped the purge at a reasonable point to reinforce the image of an 'indecisive Diello.'

But things are different now.

The enemy has struck too deeply, too fatally.

To do nothing now wouldn't just be saying 'Please see me as an easy target,' but rather, 'I'm a pushover, so please come and kill me.'

“‘The villainess Croire, having just barely recovered, flew into a rage and ordered the spies to be rooted out completely.’”

I held out my hand. It was the script I had thought up before he arrived.

“If I give the order like this, people won't find it strange.”

“And Diello Argenta, who is madly in love with such a bride.”

Diello picked up where I left off, his voice gentle.

“Wouldn't find it strange if he gave such an order.”

I blinked at his words.

“You're going to give the order… in your name?”

Diello gave a faint smile at my words. Having moved closer without my noticing, he pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.

The warmth of his lips melted the slight goosebumps on my skin as he kissed each of my knuckles.

I felt like I was melting into the warmth.

“Ah.”

Just as I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, I felt the touch of Diello's faint smile against my hand.

“I will order them to be dealt with.”

Because my bride is furious.

My eyes went wide at his words.

Diello wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the tip of my nose.

“Don't worry too much, and get some sleep.”

The way he kissed me was so sweet and natural that I lay down as if enchanted.

It truly felt like I was loved.

So much so that I could believe all of it was real.