The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Yeah, it was weird. No matter how longer she looked at him that day, he was strange.

“…Ines, but shouldn’t you talk about this with more formal friends? Not a maid like me.”

“I don’t have any friends.”

Ines answered simply and clearly, writhing as if her legs covered in perfume were tickling. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] When it comes to her marriage, she is always pessimistic, but how can she be so clear and bright?

Juana sighed again, looking at the back of her lady's head as if she were looking at her worried younger sister.

“What about the people who listened to the lecture together last time?”

“They are my mother’s guests. Senoritas who might become Luciano’s wife.”

“Then shouldn’t you make friends soon?”

“No, I won’t do anything troublesome.”

“You will be lonely once you get married. Everyone says so. And just in case, Captain Escalante wouldn't carelessly break a promise he made with his own mouth, but still.……”

“You want to create a surveillance network?”

When Inés asked directly, Juana nodded cautiously.

After all, no one believes that a dog will become a human. Cárcel Escalante's suspicious expression was forgotten for a moment. Ines laughed happily.

"It's okay. I trust Escalante.”

“You once asked how a dog suddenly becomes a human…….”

“And as for a friend, just you is enough.”

“…….”

"It's okay. Because you are here.”

“…….”

“Are you really moved? So much so that you can't even put it into words....”

“…I hope my lady will have some friends.”

“Because it’s annoying?”

"No. I want others to know how unique our lady is.... Because you don’t believe just what I say.”

It is clear that she tried to turn the word 'strange' as much as possible. Instead of taking offense at Juana, Inés turned around and lay down as if she had been waiting when the perfume was all over her back after those words.

Regardless of whether she considered herself peculiar or not, Ines, with an indifferent gaze, nonchalantly caught the attention of the ten-year-old Escalante once again.

'I'm sorry, but you can't live without me. Ines Valeztena.’

Following, as if mocking, was the voice of the twenty-three-year-old Escalante from a few days ago. Ines opened her eyes narrowly and eventually spat out words to the young one with a sense of unnecessary frustration.

"…Just get rid of that thing please.”

From Chapter 29, one-third onwards.

***

Jose Almenara glanced here and there suspiciously from the doorway before entering the room. Cárcel raised his head only after hearing the sound of the door closing and frowned.

“…What?”

Even after closing the door, Jose's face had exactly the look of a thief's numbness. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] An expression like, ‘I am guilty, so please let anyone doubt me.’

“I figured it out.”

Instead of sitting across from Cárcel, Jose crept up behind the chair he was sitting on, bowed his large body, and spoke very privately.

Cárcel raised his head diagonally with a frown on his face.

“…….Why are you so anxious not to look like a suspicious person?”

“No, because the matter is a matter.”

“Whatever the matter…….”

Cárcel clicked his tongue and gestured with his hand as if to ask him to do more. Jose said, dutifully leaning closer.

“There is none.”

"What?"

“There really isn’t any.”

It was an unexpected report, but Cárcel seemed to fully understand, and the corner of his mouth slightly twisted. Jose, who didn't know that part, whispered in Cárcel’s ear in the softest voice.

“Senorita Valeztena has a reputation for being very well-behaved and chaste even in Pérez Castle, so the cat's opinion is that it can't be like that, and since she spends most of her days alone in the library, there is no way she would have a lover unless she were a ghost. The opinion of the owl guarding the hallway was that there were no gaps, and the rat said, as for this rat, he is the one who can watch everyone who comes in and out of the back door of Valeztena estate….”

“…Cat? Rat?”

“Code is the lifeblood of intelligence.”

It was an incredibly grandiose answer to a topic that was just a matter of returning from a clumsy investigation of a superior's fiancée. Cárcel shook his head and touched his forehead as if there was no answer.

“… So.”

The reason he was holding his forehead and not being able to raise his head was probably because he was feeling ashamed of himself for continuing to ask questions out of curiosity. Maybe it's because of his own miserable current situation while tracking down his fiancée's past.

However, after the thought that ‘there must be someone’ came to him like an instinct, it did not go away. It's not that he doesn't like it or that it's annoying. It's not sudden suspicion, or jealousy... He just wanted to check. With his eyes, if possible.

Would that someone with a face so expressionless that it seemed no blood would come out even if pricked, have smiled beautifully for someone? Who could that someone be? What on the earth did it take to persuade that cold-hearted person, to make her understand and experience love between a man and a woman… The thought that seemed like simple curiosity turned into a dry thirst.

“Anyway, he says he has never once seen the Senorita go out in a suspicious way or invite someone in for a secret meeting. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It is said that she was reluctant to be with her family in the castle, let alone with men...Now, why would that be?”

Jose asked fiercely, as if he had a question before speaking on his own.

“Did you really ask me? Aren't you the one doing the investigation?”

Cárcel asked back fiercely, as if he would hit the adjutant's head at any moment. Jose spoke hurriedly with a dazed expression on his face.

“As I was talking, I was just curious……”

"Also?”

"If Senorita shakes it off, there would not be a single speck of dust. There's nothing to hide. Although her temperament is cold, and occasionally lacks refinement, well, from appearance to behavior, it's all perfect…...”

"...It's all about the lower-class folks gossiping about her. Just trying to grab some money and spread rumors like 'Her personality is sometimes lacking refinement...' or something like that. Just pretending to gossip like that... But our young lady is perfect? You’re paying to hear such nonsense?"

"No, it's not like that..”

“Where are the employees who will speak against their owners? If you want to investigate a person, you need to have a variety of investigation groups first. Have you never done anything like this before?"

”…Is this your first time? Captain, this is your first time too, isn’t it?”

Cárcel's bear-like subordinate, without his awareness, spoke the truth that had been pushed aside. Cárcel, staring silently at that foolish yet honest face for a while, sighed as if the ground beneath him was giving way.

The self-reproach is utterly overwhelming. To end up in such a damn predicament…

Despite the grandiose talk about background checks and the past, the words Jose was reciting were words that anyone in Mendoza could roughly guess. There was nothing new, just predictable stories that anyone could anticipate.

Moreover, the testimonies of the maid who did the laundry and the servant who guarded the back door.…... If it were an ordinary Ortega noble, the stories that could be extracted from them would have been endless, but there could be at least one great story hidden in Ines Valeztena's mansion.

And even if it were there, how could such an inexperienced investigator catch anything?

He was also foolishly manipulating his subordinates. This was his first time investigating a woman's background, and since it was his first time, he didn't even know what to do and how to do it, and for three days he just kept bugging his bear-like subordinate. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Unusually for Jose Almenara, results came sooner than expected, but as expected, there was nothing special about them.

However, Cárcel, who had never felt even the slightest curiosity about a woman's past in his life, felt like he had committed a very serious crime by using such a foolish spy just once.

If he was going to suffer from guilt like this, there must be some kind of harvest... Thinking like that, Cárcel looked at Jose with narrowed eyes. Jose responded calmly, as if he had misunderstood the message.

“I… And although you are not my owner, of course, it would be a great honor to have you as my owner. In that sense, when you assume that you are my owner and I am your employee, I am fully.…….”

“What?”

“…….”

“Fully what?”

"I thought maybe I could offer some opinions on the owner's perplexing behavior in places Captain hasn't seen.”

Look at this little…? Cárcel's eyes narrowed further and took on a murderous look.

“So you are ready to betray your superiors at any time?”

“So, the testimony of the employees of Valeztena estate is very objective.….. What betrayal! I'm just saying that if those servants had anything bad to say about Senorita Valeztena, they would have said it for a few silver pieces. But the Senorita has nothing to talk about. Ah, how should I say this? Unlike the captain who has a lot to talk about.…...”

“…….”

“Are you going to hit me?”

Almenara.”

"Yes?"

“It would be better for you to learn how to talk to your mother again and enlist.”

Even though Cárcel said that, he implicitly accepted Jose's objectivity. Yes, if I brushed it off and there was dust, someone would have spilled the beans and taken some more silver coins.

It's not surprising that no matter how much Ines Valeztena shakes, not a speck of dust falls off. That's why she was born that way, and she's also the type of person who won't carelessly reveal his weaknesses even if she dies.

He somehow felt both disappointed and relieved. The fact that there was no one for Ines...

'…Relieved?’

What relief? Why, as if there was something else his heart.….. As soon as the word ‘heart’ came into his mind, he felt like he had hives all over his body. Cárcel shook his head as if there was some negativity in it.

"...Is there a possibility that my fiancée is overly meticulous?"

"The maids all burst into laughter, saying that she looks at men as if they're bugs.”

It was a possible story. Even such an accomplished fiancé has sometimes seen as insignificant by her. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Since he accomplished that difficult task... As Cárcel nodded his head and rested his chin as if deep in thought, Jose bent down his bulky body again and whispered secretly, as if trying to make up for his mistake in speech earlier.

“Even though I was asking questions like this, I didn’t have to worry about arousing people’s suspicion. It seems like some of the women the captain met briefly sometimes do background checks on the Senorita to find out her weaknesses—”

"—What?”

“The maids' reactions seemed oddly familiar. They say there are often curious young ones who come to investigate once in a while. But, Captain, do I appear as someone like that? I mean, with this sophisticated appearance, it's unlikely...”

Jose, who seemed to have gone down a side road for a moment, regained his proud expression.

"Anyway, when asked if they were sent by Escalante's followers, they immediately confirm it, saying yes, that's it… It's hard to tell how many times that has happened; they're adept at concealing it.”

“…….”

“Captain?”

Cárcel, who was looking at the adjutant's face as if asking, 'Didn't you really handle it well?' slowly cupped his face.

'How many such cases.…..' She probably knows everything. There's no way she wouldn't know.

Now he understood. Ines Valeztena just lost her affection.