The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Chapter 8: The Mermaid and the Soldier

It had been ten days since Raul Balan had begun his intensive surveillance of Cárcel Escalante. Raul’s surveillance network, which had extended even into the headquarters, became more sophisticated by the day, but the results remained meager.

It was, in fact, just as Ines had expected. If you were to make a hasty judgment without thinking long-term, it was a waste of time and resources. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It was like he had peeled back the layers of something that was already obvious.

So, she hadn't been curious from the start, and therefore, she wasn't disappointed by the results. At least, not right now. Maybe someday…

But it was boring, the more she listened.

“……At 4:50 p.m., he left Lieutenant Colonel Mendes’s office, and his work ended at 5:30 p.m. He left the Supply Division’s private office at 5:35 p.m., and went straight to the training ground.”

“…….”

“Evening training ended at exactly 7:00 p.m., just like yesterday. As you know, he returned to the residence around 7:00 p.m., so he went straight home.”

“…….”

“And now he’s showering.”

Even Raul, who was reporting this, looked incredibly bored.

Unless there were unusual circumstances, the places Cárcel Escalante was during the day were narrowed down to two:

Residence. Headquarters. Residence. Headquarters. Residence. Headquarters. Residence. Headquarters…

The routine of a soldier, simple, honest, and incredibly dull.

She could confidently say that even when she had been cooped up in the residence, sleeping all day, she had led a more colorful life. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] People did more things in their dreams, after all.

Someone would call Cárcel Escalante the epitome of a soldier. But Calstera’s naval base was openly full of gambling dens, bars, social clubs, and brothels, just for officers. Frugal living wasn’t a virtue here; it was never the norm.

So, that’s how they lived on weekdays, and then they’d show up in their neatly pressed uniforms for mass, as if repenting for their debauched week.

The people who wore uniforms and walked around in Mendoza were all very proper, respectable types. When they gathered, she’d sometimes think they were peacocks, all show and no substance, but they also had many who were known for their integrity, so it was certainly a decent group.

But before living in Calstera, Ines had to admit that she hadn’t known anything about those ‘decent soldiers.’

Just like she didn’t know about Captain Cárcel Escalante’s incredibly limited sphere of activity.

It turned out that most of the officers frequented gambling dens and bars, and the lowest of the low frequented brothels more often than their own residences.

Thanks to that, most of the rest could live, boasting that their character was impeccable. But even they spent their time at the Redekiya Square café, seducing wealthy commoner girls. Of course, leaving their wives in Mendoza.

And those who weren’t part of either group, the very few who lived like Cárcel Escalante here, training together and sweating it out in the training ground. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Very diligently, and very boringly.

Even if she hadn’t lived in Calstera, she would have continued to believe that Cárcel was very far from the kind of man who would frequent harbor gambling dens and brothels every day.

He was simply a different breed, a higher class, even though he was a womanizer… Thanks to Oscar, she knew that nothing was more fleeting than faith in someone’s inherent goodness. But, for some reason, Ines couldn’t judge Cárcel so cynically. Cárcel had inherent goodness. Sometimes enough to make her feel guilty, prematurely.

But while Ines had a human conviction that Cárcel wasn’t the worst kind of man, she could still easily imagine Cárcel, in the near future, hitting on some woman at the Redekiya Square café, just like before.

And then, the sight of a man and a woman tangled up together.

Actually, he didn’t even need to hit on them. He was a natural womanizer. Just sitting there was enough to ruin the lives of the women who passed by, with that face.

And Cárcel just had to decide on the order. Just like he sometimes did in Mendoza. And since he was fundamentally kind, he wouldn’t actually ruin their lives…

He was, literally, restraining himself. At least, while she was in Calstera. Or at least, for as long as Cárcel had this strange interest in their marriage… Whatever, there was nothing Ines urgently needed to know about Cárcel. He had been a bit crazy since they got married.

Ines thought it was a form of escapism. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] After forcefully accepting a marriage he didn’t want, he found a way to feel superior.

Look at their cozy married life, which kept slipping into a childhood game. He was definitely a bit crazy, and she was occasionally swept up in it.

It was all because of this squirrel’s nest.

Two days after the wine party, Señora Salvatore came to see Ines and apologized. And as she apologized, she chattered on and on.

Stories about Lieutenant Elba and his wife, who had lived here for several years, about how they had suddenly found a small house on the hillside of Logroño, about how the wife had fallen in love with the scenery and settled in, leading to them getting along incredibly well, almost sickeningly.

Señora Salvatore had said that, in Mendoza, they had been like enemies. But after the wife had visited this residence in Calstera and fallen in love with the scenery, they had become so close that it made everyone sick.

According to Señora Salvatore, that’s what she had said. That they were about to go insane, because they couldn't stand each other. That they thought the couple were possessed by demons.

Even if Señora Salvatore was a little negative, and that needed to be taken into account, it was clearly a dramatic change.

Perhaps, as she had said, this beautiful house on the cliff held some kind of strange energy… It was unlikely, but she didn’t know if Cárcel had known about Lieutenant Elba and his wife’s sickeningly sweet story and had chosen this residence, or if he’d chosen this residence because the house was small, thinking it would make them close and strengthen their bond, even if it meant having the best view.

However, if he thought that a couple seeing each other often was the key to a happy home, he was greatly mistaken. The nobles in Ortega tended to think more favorably of each other if they lived far apart and didn’t see each other often.

For a couple to say, ‘Let’s live close together,’ is the same as saying, ‘We want to have a serious conflict in the near future.’ Cárcel probably didn’t make any complex calculations, but by the time facing her face morning and night started to feel like a torment, he would realize the result of his choices.

Whatever happened, Ines had nothing to lose.

“…He’ll come to his senses soon.”

“Excuse me?”

“No. Continue with Lieutenant Muñoz’s story.”

“Right. That trash…”

Raul’s ever-improving surveillance network, even if its immediate results were lacking, was steadily giving its mistress what she wanted. For instance, he hadn’t found any weaknesses in Cárcel, but he was constantly finding little bits of information about Cárcel’s colleagues, his former superiors, and his academy classmates.

It was all thanks to Raul’s shining enthusiasm, because Cárcel had so little going on, he was telling her about the people around him to show how hard he was working. His intent was pure, just wanting to say, ‘There are people like this around the Captain… It seems he doesn’t get along with the Captain… Why? Because that’s the way it is…’ And labeling his actions as ‘investigations,’ he could broaden the scope, making his reports credible.

But the listener wasn’t innocent.

Weaknesses are usually the power that makes people move. On the surface, people are swayed by goodwill and admiration, but underneath, people are controlled by fear. Depending on the severity, it can range from granting a small request to someone willingly turning themselves into an object. Weaknesses have various uses, that is what usually happens if they have something to lose.

According to the report, nearly half of the people at her wine party were that kind of person. They were the kind who frequented gambling dens every day, obsessed with drinking, who had decent wives in Mendoza, but here they would occasionally bu*y pr*ostitutes or take local wives. Most soldiers here were that way, after all.

Ines no longer felt much excitement about the adultery rampant in Ortega. Mendoza was disgustingly chaotic, and it was something everyone did, regardless of age or gender, so as long as the couple understood each other or kept things within the reasonable limits…

But b*uying w*omen like objects, or using wicked tactics to seduce innocent h*arbor g*irls, pretending to marry them, and then turning them into c*oncubines, was another story. Insulting his real wife in Mendoza, calling them ‘wives in Calstera,’ was the same. Everyone knew his real wife.

Ortega didn’t allow p*olygamy, so having different ‘wives’ in different places just meant that he treated the word ‘wife’ like dirt. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] They would shamelessly insult two women at once, and then when they got tired or were in trouble, they would just leave their post and abandon the c*oncubines they called their wives.

The c*oncubines only found out they were c*oncubines then, and that they had been insulted as pr*ostitutes behind their backs. Most of the officers were only nobles in name, they didn’t get any real compensation, but the world always believed the worst. Even if they hadn’t been pr*ostitutes, or had never been paid, that was their end. Living as someone’s wife, and then suddenly… like that.