The Duchess and the Devil - Chapter 30.2

Chapter 30.2

TRANSLATOR: Matindi
PROOFREADER: Diana
QUALITY CHECKER: Akane

“My wife. You have to help me a bit.”

“Me?”

“We need to find the human Hannibal possessed. And that human, they might be the culprit that cursed your husband.”

Judith’s mind was instantly filled with questions. A human Hannibal possessed, he said, was also the culprit who cursed her husband. The conversation progressed so suddenly, it somewhat felt too much for her to comprehend. Derrick explained it carefully in order for Judith to understand it easily.

In the past, the priest explained that Derrick Vaisil was in a state of being under a curse. Derrick Vaisil, who had suffered from persistent deterioration of health from the malicious curse, died and in place of where only flesh remained, what ended inside it was the soul of a devil who was bound with a curse, Derrick.

The method of how the devil, who wasn’t able to directly manifest itself with a body in the human world, placed a curse onto humans was as complicated as it was simple. They needed to make contact with the humans, and in order to do that, they naturally needed a medium. Various methods to accomplish that seemed to exist, but among them, the method of using a ‘human’ as the subject-like medium was the simplest one. For instance, a method is when the contact was established and the devil possessing a body of another human came across the subject they would hex.

If Hannibal escaped from the human body after that and went back to the devil world, his whereabouts would have been revealed by now. However, seeing that they were unable to find him, there was a high possibility that he was still in the human body all this time.

“How am I going to locate the person that devil went into? Can you recognize him?”

“Hannibal would be hiding his mana right now, so it will be difficult to detect him with my eyes alone.”

Derrick, who responded calmly, was lost in his thoughts. The unexpected response came from Carmen, who had been standing absent-mindedly on one side of the bedroom.

“Will you not be able to look into the day where the owner of the body that Chief is staying in was cursed?”

Derrick, who deeply brooded over the words Carmen remarked, had a hunch that it could be a crucial lead.

“Wife, by any chance, was there a day when signs of a curse were seen on your husband?”

“Signs of a curse?”

“When a human body is exposed to corrupted power, they could never withstand it, hence ending up being cursed. So, they end up suffering in agony, such as catching a disease or something right after. Before that happens, you would see symptoms that are a little more different than usual. We call it ‘signs of a curse.’ These signs would clearly show on the day the human is cursed, and so if we find out anything on that day, we can sort out who he met.”

In order to find that lead, Judith’s memory was vital. Carmen and Derrick wouldn’t be able to know matters before Derrick came into his body. The only one who had the memories of the past in this place was Judith alone.

However, trying to contemplate about that time was never an easy matter. With the power of the human memory, wouldn’t it be a toil to immediately look back on the events from over a week ago as there was a limit to it? Judith ruminated on each day that went by, to the point she had a throbbing headache.

Derrick’s funeral elapsed, then the scenes where her husband was in pain and sick all the time quickly crossed her mind and passed.

And then, and then…

“Ah.”

Finally, she unexpectedly recalled the memory from that day.

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In the evening of that day, Judith wasn’t really in a good mood. She had been invited to a tea party during that day where she was terrifically reduced into a laughing stock before the noblewomen.

It hadn’t been long since Derrick fell for Silvia Wirell, and the news of their affair spread in high society through acquaintances and friends of the nobility. As she smiled while putting up a pretense, the corners of Judith’s mouth trembled in contempt in front of the noblewomen who were asking the authenticity of the rumor.

Making a great fuss of it there would have made her look even more ridiculous than her husband’s affair, and so she clenched her teeth, barely restraining herself. The only thing she could do on that occasion was to calmly deny the rumor while smiling like a benevolent wife.

Scarred as they deeply provoked her instead of her husband like that, Judith couldn’t calm her anger down for a long while even after she came back to the mansion.

Why did she remember the words they replied to her very well only after coming back to the residence? She regretted not snapping at them, asking the noble ladies with things like if they heard their husbands roaming around the capital, or if they were actually taking care of their husbands properly.

…Truth to be told, it was a regret that was better not to be done, as she knew the rebuttals could have never been carried out, even if she remembered those during the tea party. Usually, the Duchess would have to assume a virtuous appearance, as she was one who could not be there to rebuke people off so fiercely in a place where many gathered. Because that would be an emotional act in which she would lose her aristocratic dignity.

She urgently came to the conclusion where there was no suitable response besides smiling. Whenever Judith did this, she felt like she wasn’t human, but a beautifully decorated doll. A doll, who could never immediately manage to express the emotions harbored within her properly.