Chapter 141: Evil Wife

Jessica arrived at the mansion with an entourage of maids, at least ten in number, throwing open the iron gates as if she owned the place.

The maids following her were filled with luggage, lined up on either side like knights rather than servants.

‘What could she be up to, bringing all these maids?’

This question could be easily answered by going downstairs and exchanging a few words with Jessica, but I hesitated, unsure of what she might say.

Hori, oblivious to my hesitation, urged me to go down and see what was happening.

Well, I couldn’t just stand there watching while Jessica was outside.

I opened the window and called out Jessica’s name as I leapt out, watching her approach elegantly from afar.

“Jessica!!”

Jessica and the maids’ faces momentarily filled with shock at the sight of me jumping from the window, but they quickly regained their composure.

Landing gracefully, I immediately ran towards Jessica.

She stood still, watching the scene unfold without a hint of surprise or alarm.

“Um… It’s been a while, Jessica.”

“Indeed. It’s been six days since you boldly declared you’d be cheating and stopped visiting me.”

At Jessica’s words, the maids behind her shot me sharp glares.

Feeling similar stares from behind, I turned to see Hori and the mansion’s maids glaring at me too, as if showing solidarity with another woman.

‘Those ungrateful wretches… Don’t they know who puts food on their table?!’

Though deeply displeased with the maids’ disloyalty, reprimanding them could wait. Right now, I needed to deal with the situation at hand.

“Jessica… When you put it that way, it makes me sound like trash who hurt you and then abandoned you for nearly a week.”

“Oh? How was it any different?”

“Ah, it’s completely different. I was just waiting for your anger to subside. I was planning to come to you in a few days.”

This wasn’t just a lie to appease Jessica; I had actually been planning to visit her in a few days as things were starting to pile up.

“…We’ll discuss that later in private. For now, let’s go inside.”

“Go inside? What exactly brings you here today…?”

“As you can see, I’ve come to move in.”

What do you mean, ‘as you can see’? Sure, the maids were carrying luggage, but who would think someone would just up and move into someone else’s house out of the blue?

“Move in? What nonsense is this? Why would you suddenly leave your perfectly good mansion…?”

“I’ve rented it out to another noble.”

“What?! Rented… But why…?”

“The royal family and other connections we’ve built over time have been sending support funds to rebuild our main estate, but it’s still far from full recovery. With all the family elders working so hard, how could I just sit idly by?”

“But still, you could’ve stayed at the dormitory…”

“Oh my, surely you’re not…”

Jessica cut me off, smiling sweetly as she spoke.

“You’re not going to say you can’t accept your fiancée whose purity you’ve taken, while living with two unmarried girls of marriageable age, are you?”

“……”

True, I had taken her purity, but we weren’t officially engaged yet. Somehow, Jessica had already become my fiancée.

Of course, I had intended to take responsibility and marry her after taking her purity, but hearing the word ‘fiancée’ made me speechless.

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“Then there’s no problem. The mansion has plenty of spare rooms, right? These people will stay with me and help with the housework.”

As Jessica said this, gesturing to the maids behind her, they bowed in perfect unison, as if they had rehearsed it.

Then, without waiting for my permission, they followed Jessica towards the mansion with precise steps.

However, their unstoppable march was stopped by someone who flung open the door.

“I came out because of the noise… What’s going on?”

As Elaine, who matched Jessica in both status and feminine charm, appeared, Jessica’s confident stride came to a stop.

“……”

Jessica froze momentarily, face-to-face with the root cause of her decision to move in. But she quickly regained her composure, lifting her head to stare directly at Elaine.

In stark contrast to Jessica’s obvious hostility, Elaine responded with her usual unreadable expression.

The two stared at each other for a long moment, but when Elaine tilted her head in confusion, Jessica sighed and brushed past her into the mansion.

“This is insane…”

——

My daily life began to change gradually from the day Jessica moved into the mansion.

The first thing Jessica did upon entering was to win over the hearts of the resident servants.

Perhaps due to her position as the future mistress of the house, this happened swiftly. Before long, the maids and butlers showed Jessica loyalty equal to, if not greater than, what they showed me.

Even the maids Jessica brought with her got along with the existing maids like sisters, without any conflict.

As Jessica and the servants became one, I felt oddly lonely, as if I were the only one left out in this vast mansion.

Moreover, when a letter arrived from my family announcing that my engagement to Jessica had been decided – apparently, she had somehow contacted my mother – I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

After securing our marriage, Jessica gradually began to infiltrate my daily life.

For instance, during meals…

“Wait a minute!! I’ve been watching, and what kind of knife technique is that?! It’s beyond just lacking manners!!”

When using a knife during meals, I would draw it from a custom leather sheath I had commissioned, then unsheathe it to cut the meat. Jessica, however, took issue with this.

She went on about how it lacked manners, asking what kind of lunatic would do such a thing while eating, as if I were the abnormal one.

‘Isn’t this gaslighting?’

I looked to Hori and Elaine for support, but Elaine maintained her usual expressionless face, while Hori just gave an awkward smile.

Those traitors…

Jessica didn’t stop at table manners; she started criticizing the meals themselves, complaining that there was too much meat or that the seasoning was too strong, cursing that I’d die young if I kept eating like this.

As a result, my plate, once piled high with meat, was now overflowing with bland salad, and I was forbidden from drawing my knife.

Moreover, with Jessica engaging in meaningless staring contests with Elaine, who sat across from her at every meal, it felt like the food was going down my nose instead of my throat.

“Come to think of it, your walk doesn’t exude any dignity.”

“What are you nitpicking about now?”

“I’m not nitpicking. As a high-ranking noble who’s risen to the rank of count, you need to be careful about every aspect of your behavior.”

When she started criticizing even my way of walking, as if she had run out of other things to complain about, I found myself staring blankly at the ceiling, at a loss for words.

Disapproving of my gait, Jessica eventually tried to correct my walking style.

When she told me to walk straight with a book on my head, I couldn’t help but snap at her. To my surprise, she turned away with tears in her eyes.

“Haah…”

Unable to ignore her reaction, I reluctantly agreed to learn what she called ‘manners’.

Well, learning wasn’t too difficult since it was mostly about imitating body movements.

Starting from walking to how to pick up a napkin, I learned various things, but I could perfectly mimic them after seeing them once or twice.

“Why am I doing all this useless stuff…?”

“It’s not useless. As a noble, you’ll often attend social gatherings, so you need to learn these skills to avoid being ridiculed. By the way, you have a strange habit of looking down on others. Can’t you do something about that?”

“Well… I can’t help but think, ‘Why is this person who can’t even use Baldo techniques acting so high and mighty?’ It keeps popping into my head.”

“You’re in serious condition…”

No matter what Jessica said, I had no intention of changing this, nor did I feel the need to.

The most horrifying of Jessica’s interventions was in the bedroom. Unable to bear the sight of me sleeping comfortably, she even invaded my bedroom.

“Jessica…”

“Don’t touch me.”

Jessica lay down beside me in a see-through negligee, but she fiercely swatted my hand away whenever I tried to touch her chest.

Even if I managed to coax and cajole her into letting me touch her breasts, she absolutely wouldn’t allow anything beyond that.

All I could do was grip Jessica’s soft breasts as if holding a sword hilt; nothing more was permitted.

This paradox of having a hole that was producer-certified as mine, yet unable to use it – this was hell.

No other words could describe it but hell.

‘I need to resolve this quickly somehow…’

—