How To Win My Husband Over

Episode 35: Who Should I Blame

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"Hey, it's fucking real, really. Does this really work, huh?"

"It's been a long time since we had a good harvest. Let's see. Wow, isn't that Griffin?"

"We're catching Griffin too. But What's that in the front?"

The irritating noise was clearly the voice of a human being.

Harsh and raucous voices that are harsh to the ears.

I didn't feel good.

My heart began to beat fast as my senses, which had been calm, stood on edge.

"What…Wait, isn't that woman in that corner? Human woman?"

"You idiot, the Banshee must have transformed. Oh, but seeing a banshee is unlucky….…."

"That means someone dies when that bitch cries, you idiot. You're pretending to be pretty with the theme of a monster."

The people who came into the cave without any hesitation chattered with excitement.

Two men and one woman. Each of them felt very suspicious, and they were armed with oddly shaped equipment, and instead of being frightened by the appearance of Popo and Griffin, they were excited like a hunter who found a wonderful prey.

I got a sense of what they were. They were probably poachers.

I've heard of poachers who buy sacred relics on the black market, hunt wild animals illegally, collect and sell magic stones.

While wandering around the nearby forest, it seemed that they sensed magic with their belongings and came in this way.

"What a shame. She used to be an ugly old witch, but she turned into such a beautiful woman….…."

"Let's hurry up and go. Looking at it earlier, for some reason, there were paladins all over the place, but if we get caught, we could really be fucked up."

I didn't move a muscle. I hardly breathed a breath. Popo and Griffin were strangely motionless too.

A man holding a light blue shining harpoon came close to Popo as if he were amazed.

Popo was hiding it's teeth with it's mouth closed tightly.

"They won't be here either. Legend has it that a giant lizard is asleep…… Fuck, but what's this? Is it a rabbit or a raccoon? What was the name of this? It looks damn ugly."

"Hey, hold on to him first. The monster bitch dares to imitate humans."

The fiery red-haired woman made a jaw gesture toward me. It was the moment when the man, who was poking his finger into Popo's chubby stomach, turned toward me, smacking his lips.

"Ku, kuku……."

Griffin laughed.

It was exactly a low, grotesque cry, but somehow it sounded ridiculous to me.

And then…..popo opened its mouth.

Its jaws widened openly across its gigantic torso, revealing a throat full of horrifying, large, beautiful teeth and corpses.

I didn't make any noise until the end.

* * *

The sky seemed to be getting darker and darker, and the heavy rain began to pour out.

Even the densely towering frost trees were of little help.

"Sir Isaac."

Someone held out a leaf cigarette.

Isaac shook his head as a sign of refusal and looked at the remains of Durahan lying at his feet.

It was the monster he caught a while ago.

After all, only the remaining magic crystals and the severed head were rolling at their feet.

Why do these things always leave their head everytime?

Silver hair quickly got wet.

He looked around, sweeping his wet hair, which kept obstructing his view.

Everyone seemed tired from the three-day search, but it was a strange phenomenon as no one was moving their mouth.

"It seems that this area is also bad."

It was a heavy murmur of Ivan, who approached Durahan kicking it's head with his foot.

Isaac did not answer back. He had been hearing this for three days.

"You know what, Iz."

Ivan rarely used his nickname to call Isaac.

Except when he's in a very desperate situation or when he's sad about something. He was so sure what he was going to say that Isaac turned his back on him.

Ivan sighed, staring at his friend's big back.

It's already been three days. They had been searching the frost forest for three days.

Usually, it did not make sense to search from this place, which was usually full of monsters in the case of the disappearance of the lady, but after the discovery of lady's shoes near here, Earendil's all power, including the City Guard, the Longinus Knights, and the Round Table Brüderschaft[1], were concentrated here.

It has been a good phenomenon for those who are often crazy about quarrels to cooperate together without any complaints, but no progress has been made so far.

At this point, it was necessary to seriously consider the hypothesis that the madman who kidnapped the lady deliberately threw a shoe over here, causing the whole city to be shoveled.

In a way, it was more hopeful.

If Rudbeckia was really dragged into this area, by now…….

Everyone couldn't bear the courage to say it.

"Iz."

Instead of looking back, Isaac stared at Durahan's head, which flew away.

He didn't know why he kept looking at it. As sinister as a severed head…….

"Iz, it's already been three days……."

"It's the fourth day."

"What?"

"It's been four days."

There was silence.

Ivan dropped his head helplessly in the pouring rain.

Because he suddenly felt miserable.

It was the same for Isaac himself who spoke.

It was around dawn three days ago when the shoes were found, but it was around the morning four days ago that Rudbeckia disappeared.

That, too, was discovered a long time later.

When Ellenia sent a message to Isaac, it was already half a day later.

In other words, no one knew what had happened to Rudbeckia until then.

It didn't make sense.

It was impossible in common sense that no one knew for nearly half a day about the disappearance of a noblewoman who required a lot of people even for moving.

Nevertheless, it happened.

Who should I blame? Who should I kill?

The temple who invited her in the first place? They've been playing hard to get all day. Just a coachman and the escort knight who came back on their own?

The escort knights and servants who stood still, knowing that she hadn't returned to her house? The duke in the mansion all day?

Ellenia, who visited Freya all day and returned home in the evening and didn't receive any reports until she went to bed?

Or myself?

Isaac rubbed his rough face in the rain with the palm of his hand.

In the end, he was the only one to blame.

Ellenia burst into tears, saying that she was to blame for everything, but it was never her fault.

The foolishness of not knowing what Rudbeckia was being treated in the house while he was away came back like a stabbing sword.

Most of Omerta's employees were old and loyal.

In particular, the maid showed blindness close to motherhood to Ellenia.

He hadn't really thought about how harsh they could be to the target they picked as an intruder.

When the inside story of what happened on his birthday banquet was revealed, the maid was spared, and Ellenia covered the maid.

At that time he thought he was the root of it all anyway, so he let it slide.

He shouldn't have done that.

From the beginning, if he hadn't made it clear from the first day Rudbeckia came here, he should have set the discipline again, even if it was too late.

Both brother and sister foolishly thought they'd just get better.

It felt like the severed head of Durahan was laughing at him.

He was in a situation where he had nothing to say even if he was ridiculed by the dead monsters.

He has nothing to say when it laugh at him for being just like his father.

It's just a funny self-deception to say that he refused to get married because he thought this would happen.

Dark eyes gleamed again.

To be exact, the last image of his wife.

Her dark eyes and his pale face.

Rudbeckia, who had never had such eyes.

Even when she was abandoned in the banquet hall, when her body was so hot that she didn't faint right away, when she cried and begged not to let her go home, on the first night when she quit after a vigil…….

The mouth of the severed head moved and created a bizarre smile. Of course it was just an illusion.

Isaac chuckled.

Am I having hallucinations now? It was possible because he hadn't slept for nearly seven days.

He knew what Ivan was trying to say and what his colleagues couldn't say aloud.

The possibility that Rudbeckia was alive somewhere in this forest area was slim.

Nevertheless, Isaac could not ask to stop shovelling.

Even though it was a small possibility, he had no choice but to cling desperately.

Spector who broke into the bedroom the first night.

The pesi boat[2] that appeared in the Siloan Pond in the Angvian Palace.

She disappeared while riding a horse at an equestrian meeting.

She came back in such a harmless state.

Sergey's testimony: even if she was the pope's daughter, he said that her own divine core was quite pale compared to the general public.

Things that he had not been able to look into because he was drunk with other emotions were coming together, causing a strange sensation.

He couldn't quite figure out exactly what it was, but he couldn't leave here.

He remembered his mother.

His mother left so early.

It was funny to himself that now he had no choice but to pray to his mother, whose face was even dim.

If I never see her again like this, if I never find her, if the tears, the smile, the shiny hair will disappear forever like this, he will…….

He felt dizzy. Countless afterimages were disturbing his vision.

A skinny body that was always hidden in a rich dress. The scar on the back, blue eyes that are constantly staring at him. Eyes that were as blue as the clear sky…… she always smiled with a face that looked like she was going to break down.

She was a woman who was trembling but always grinned like a fool.

Words that he couldn't ask. Things he couldn't say.

What would have changed if I had told you earlier what it meant that you could do anything?

It was already too late when I realized that all the things I tried not to hurt had already hurt her.

When I realized that I wanted to be so involved that I turned away…….

"Sir Isaac."

The dark red-haired paladin came close to this side.

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[1] Round Table, in Arthurian legend, the table of Arthur, Britain's legendary king, which was first mentioned in Wace of Jersey's Roman de Brut (1155). This told of King Arthur's having a round table made so that none of his barons, when seated at it, could claim precedence over the others. The literary importance of the Round Table, especially in romances of the 13th century and afterward, lies in the fact that it served to provide the knights of Arthur's court with a name and a collective personality. The fellowship of the Round Table, in fact, became comparable to, and in many respects the prototype of, the many great orders of chivalry that were founded in Europe during the later Middle Ages.

Meaning of Brüderschaft: a company of people who regard each other as equals, but the literal meaning is brotherhood, which is sealed by drinking a cup of wine, it is a word from German language.

[2] it's a love monster.

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