A Change of Husband - Chapter 73

The pale, thin woman’s body lay peacefully, completely devoid of color. Surrounded by flowers offered by those who mourned her death.

Some people couldn’t hold back their emotions even though they knew they had to send the deceased off, and they cried out loud. Others held back their sorrow and gave their final goodbyes.

For Esperad, this wasn’t the first time seeing a queen’s tiara placed on a coffin.

“Siena.”

That sorrowful name.

In the world he had lived in before, Siena had also passed away first, leaving behind only Thomas and his son, little Thomas.

Because her health had always been poor, many people around her had been prepared for it. Still, her funeral had been filled with tears.

The only difference was that the Thomas who had lost control and called out her name for days was now already dead.

In this world, Thomas had died while fighting bandits who had attacked his land.

And Esperad had taken in and cared for Siena and her son, who had been cast out due to the cold treatment from the new Count of Artlinger.

But Siena’s health kept getting worse.

Knowing that she didn’t have much time left, Siena asked Esperad to marry her to protect her son—who might be sent back to the Artlinger family and become a victim of the current Count’s greed after her death.

“I know I’m being shameless. But the Count of Artlinger will definitely try to kill Thomas, who could get in the way of his own son.”

“If something happens to Thomas, I won’t just sit by. But you know it too, don’t you? Marrying me is crazy. It’s dangerous.”

“I’m going to die anyway. What matters most is keeping Thomas safe. Please, please…”

In order to protect Thomas, Esperad needed to be his legal guardian.

That’s how their marriage happened. And afterward, he unexpectedly gained the right to the throne.

In the other world, Thomas hadn’t died because Esperad became king earlier and brought Thomas to the capital.

It felt so strange that the Thomas who had been alive until his death was now a dead man in this world, and that Esperad still remembered attending Thomas’s funeral and giving a eulogy.

But he had to adapt. He had to endure this much confusion.

“Siena was a kind and thoughtful person who never stopped showing love and kindness to those around her.”

It was hard to listen to someone other than Thomas give Siena’s eulogy. It brought up so many emotions.

“Now that her body no longer suffers, may she finally find true peace. Let us all pray for Siena.”

Following that request, Esperad brought his hands together and closed his eyes.

He prayed that his dear friend and his friend’s wife would meet again in heaven—or in another new world.

She had asked him to become a righteous king.

She had asked him to rule Astel as a great king.

And she had cruelly told him to forget her and meet someone good.

Asilie understood.

At the very least, she knew he must have worked hard to fulfill her request to become a great king.

Knowing that he had bravely lived on in a world without her, for the sake of her request, she couldn’t just give up and fall apart.

Agua Nale Roja had been right.

If she had gained nothing from that experience, and if all she got was a sense of loss, then it was truly nothing but arrogance and greed.

At the very least, Asilie had to try.

Even if it wasn’t in this world, even if she met her lover again after death, she wanted to say she had lived a life she wasn’t ashamed of.

If her situation was the worst, then she just had to change it.

If someone was driving her into a corner, she had to fight and defeat them.

There was no reason she couldn’t. The old Asilie might have forced herself to accept all the unfairness by believing in her own limits, but now she had clearly changed.

“I thought it was strange to hear you suddenly went missing, but I didn’t expect you to come find our family.”

“Even if only in name, isn’t this still my ‘family home’?”

“That ended with your father, didn’t it?”

“That can’t be true. Officially, Your Grace is my half-brother. So my connection with the Grandier family is still valid.”

Asilie’s answer made Duke Grandier’s face stiffen slightly.

He didn’t like this uninvited guest who had suddenly come to the Grandier house.

He was already irritated because his father, who had left everything to him and gone to the territory, kept sending him letters every day about the matter of an heir.

And now this woman, basically a burden his father had thrown away, had shown up.

To him, Asilie was like a cheap certificate that had been sold to the Count of Bonaparte.

She merely helped extend the fragile relationship between the Count of Bonaparte and the Duke of Grandier, which could break at any time.

In truth, she wasn’t needed at all.

Should I just get rid of her?

The world saw Asilie as a low-born woman with no known background.

And unfortunately, Duke Grandier wasn’t any different from those people, so he didn’t like Asilie calling him her “half-brother.”

“I know what you’re thinking.”

“Oh? Do you have the ability to read minds?”

“I can’t read minds, but I’m smart enough to read the situation. I know you feel uncomfortable that I’ve come here and that you’re worried I’ll get you involved in something troublesome.”

“How amusing. I don’t remember asking you to understand me.”

Asilie’s face hardened for a moment.

Duke Grandier’s attitude was even more negative than she had expected.

Also, unlike the former Duke Grandier, she had never had such a serious, long conversation with the current Duke before, so it was hard to understand his personality.

While nervously looking at him, Asilie finally made up her mind and opened her mouth.

“It seems Your Grace has no intention of showing me any sympathy.”

“There’s no reason to.”

“Then what about making a deal?”

“Unfortunately, there’s no reason for that either.”

“May I ask why you think so?”

“A deal only works when both sides have something the other wants. Of course, I could give you what you want—I have the power. But you?”

A sneer appeared on Duke Grandier’s face.

He didn’t intend to mock or toy with a poor woman, but it was still arrogant of her to make such an outrageous offer without even understanding her position.

Sadly, Duke Grandier was the kind of strict and boring noble who didn’t enjoy watching those he saw as beneath him act out.

“Answer me. What can you give me?”

“I don’t understand why Your Grace is so sure that I don’t have anything you want. How do you know what I have and what I’m capable of?”

“Ha. You’re truly bold. Do you not understand your situation? You went missing in the forest and are believed to be dead. A noble house even publicly announced your death. Just letting you in this house is already an act of mercy on my part. And yet…!”

“I know that you were merciful to let me in. That’s exactly why I’m offering you a deal.”

Duke Grandier’s face twisted in annoyance.

He was never the kind of man to kindly overlook a woman cutting into his words, and now he had no intention of being patient.

Of course, she was still a noble and once carried the Grandier name, so he didn’t plan to kill her—but he could scare her.

Just as Duke Grandier raised his hand toward the butler, ready to give a signal—

“I have a gun.”

Asilie said it clearly, looking him straight in the eye.

“…What did you say?”

Duke Grandier looked at her, his face stiffening as he thought over her words.

Saying she had a gun could mean that she was the only one here with a weapon—and that she could Asilie take the lives of both him and the butler.

“Are you threatening me right now?”

If that was the case, it was a dangerous situation.

No one in this parlor—including Duke Grandier and the butler—had learned how to use a sword. If Asilie had a gun, there would be no one who could stop her.

Even if they shouted to call the servants or knights, Asilie would take their lives before help arrived.

Because of that, Duke Grandier had no choice but to be tense.

“This isn’t a threat.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’m just telling you the condition of my deal.”

“Oh, I see. Something like—if I help you, you won’t take my life?”

When confusion showed on Duke Grandier’s face, Asilie quickly shook her head, realizing he had misunderstood her completely.

“That’s not it. I… I’m offering to provide guns to House Grandier.”

“…What did you say?”

Duke Grandier’s eyes widened greatly.

Right now, in Astel, “guns” were very valuable.

Of course, the early models, which didn’t work very well, had become cheap enough that even government-approved commoners could use them. But those weren’t high-performance guns.

“What if it’s just the kind of junk that only commoners use?”

“It has more than twice the range of a normal gun.”

The problem with guns was that they took a long time to fire and had shorter range than bows or crossbows.

But if it was something that fixed one of those flaws, a single gun could be worth as much as a commoner’s house.

“Are you being serious right now?”

Asilie said nothing and simply looked at him.

From her serious face alone, it was clear she wasn’t joking.

But Duke Grandier still couldn’t drop his doubts.

“How could a lady like you offer something like that?”

“I personally know a gunsmith.”

“You personally know someone and they’d give you that kind of help? Then shouldn’t you have gone to them instead of coming to me?”

Asilie couldn’t help but give a bitter smile at that question.

“He’s a craftsman, not a noble who can protect me.”

“…This is so strange and unbelievable that I don’t even know how to respond.”

Duke Grandier thought there was a good chance Asilie was telling the truth.

What she wanted now was protection. If she lied and was caught, protection would be the first thing she’d lose.

And there wasn’t much time to keep up a lie before being exposed. She wouldn’t take such a foolish risk.

Also, after having a proper conversation with her for the first time, he realized Asilie was much more clever than he had expected.

“Then, by when can you provide the weapons?”

“I’ll need to contact the craftsman first, so I can’t say exactly, but it shouldn’t take too long.”

“Tell me how to contact him. I’ll make the arrangements.”

“It’s not hard.”

Asilie tried her best to sound calm as she spoke.

“There’s a young man named Jonathan who runs errands at the workshop of the first person who made guns. You can contact him through that boy.”

“So there’s a separate contact person just to get in touch?”

“The identities of the gunsmiths are kept completely secret. Jonathan is a young man with blue hair, just about twenty years old. It won’t be hard to find him.”

“Alright. Then before the queen’s funeral ends, I’ll find him and bring him to you.”

Asilie was about to nod casually but suddenly paused and looked up, confused.

Duke Grandier had said “the queen’s funeral,” not “the late king’s funeral.”

“…Are you talking about the late king’s funeral?”

When she came to House Grandier, she had learned that King Hort had died and Esperad, the heir to the throne, had been crowned king.

That had happened during the week when Asilie had been attacked in the forest by Joseph and later healed by Agua Nale Roja.

But now he was saying “the queen’s funeral”…

“The late king’s funeral already ended. Ah, come to think of it, maybe you haven’t heard this yet.”

“…”

“This time, the one who died was the queen. The woman who had always been known for her weak health—the one who was originally the widow of Count Artlinger.”

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