My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin
Chapter 14
Irene took a deep breath.
After blinking several times, she looked back inside the wooden box.
But doing so changed nothing.
Inside the wooden box, only the same pebble she had seen before sat there quietly, as if mocking her.
“This can’t be….”
The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them.
A few days ago, Irene had requested the records for every dungeon that had appeared during this subjugation period.
In the past, the officials would have told her to come and transcribe them herself. This time, perhaps having heard that Michael was looking after her, they had personally hand-copied every detail and brought them to her.
Thanks to that, she didn’t have to copy them down one by one; she could compare them at her leisure from the comfort of her room.
Regardless, she had verified the records of every dungeon that had appeared and vanished before her arrival at the fortress.
Because of that, Irene was certain.
The dungeons had not changed from her past life.
‘Everything was definitely the same.’
The numbers, the locations, the attributes of the monsters, and even the rewards.
‘Then why?’
Why was it that only the reward for Dungeon 181, the one she had chosen, had changed?
Perhaps she looked pitiful, standing there trembling while holding the box.
Michael spoke up cautiously.
“Sometimes rewards from low-rank dungeons turn out to be completely worthless like this. The same goes for mid-rank dungeons as well. So, I hope you aren’t too disheartened.”
She knew.
She knew it was harder to obtain useful rewards from such low-rank dungeons.
But it shouldn’t have been this way for this dungeon!
When Irene remained silent, glaring at the pebble, Michael looked even more troubled.
“I understand your disappointment is great. For now, I think it would be best to return to the fortress and rest for the day. I will ask the fortress staff to ensure you have no discomforts, so please, rest easily….”
Michael continued to offer words of comfort, but nothing reached Irene’s ears.
Only one thought swirled through her mind.
I’m ruined.
Irene lay sprawled on a long sofa in her lavish room, staring blankly at the ceiling.
She barely remembered how she had returned to the fortress.
Vague memories remained—of a clerk recording the result with an “I knew it” look upon seeing the box and the pebble when they exited the dungeon, and of her mounting a horse.
“This can’t be right.”
She sat up abruptly and walked over to the large table in the center of the room.
Laid out there was the dungeon information she had previously verified, along with records of the dungeons other pairs had successfully cleared by this evening.
Irene brought over her bag, which she had kept in the corner.
It was the bag she had packed with only the essentials, planning to leave as soon as she returned.
From inside, she pulled out the papers where she had frantically organized everything she remembered as soon as she returned to the past.
“Number 98, number 115….”
In the past, Irene had looked at the dungeon records every single day.
It wasn’t that she had a hobby of memorizing things.
Back then, she would be alone all day, and when she couldn’t bear the boredom and depression, she would wander out to do something, only to hear the mocking whispers of others. Eventually, she had chosen to read the archives.
‘Anyone was allowed to view the records related to dungeons.’
So, in the records room, she watched and re-watched which pairs cleared which dungeons, how they did it, and what they obtained.
She hadn’t just looked at the records of other pairs.
She had also seen Michael’s records in that room.
Unlike the others, seeing the records of him subjugating dungeons alone without a pair made her feel incredibly wretched.
She knew she was useless, but it felt like having it confirmed before her eyes once again.
‘It was a relief he was more resistant to demonic energy because he’s a Holy Knight.’
Since he could purify minor cases of demonic energy poisoning himself, there was never a reason for him to seek Irene out.
To forget that loneliness and misery, she had poured over the records again and again. Not just the dungeons, but every record regarding monsters as well.
As a result, she had naturally accumulated knowledge surpassing that of scholars. Especially regarding the dungeons of this specific period.
After flipping through the papers a few times, she slumped back into her chair.
‘Nothing will change just by staring at these records.’
Only one thing was certain now.
She had failed to obtain the Ring of Invisibility.
In other words, she still couldn’t leave this fortress.
“I have no money….”
In her frustration, she pounded the table with her fists, but no ring fell from the sky.
Burying her face in the table, Irene let out a long sigh. Then, she turned her head to look at the piles of items still in her room.
“At least it’s a relief these are still here….”
Before leaving this morning, she had told them to take everything back since she hadn’t touched a single thing.
Of course, she had also said to return the money to the ambassador of the Kingdom of Tyrrenia, who had paid for it all.
However, upon her return, the fortress staff informed her that returns were fundamentally impossible. She had been so distracted then that the words went in one ear and out the other.
“What a relief.”
Irene muttered as she searched for clothes among the piled-up goods.
She didn’t know what would happen next, but she needed a change of clothes for today.
‘Just one outfit for now…. No, maybe two….’
She thought she was finished after grabbing the clothes, but then—
“Shoes too…. And underwear…. Oh, soap as well!”
Before she knew it, a large pile of items she intended to use grew beside her.
By the grace of the Kingdom of Tyrrenia and Michael, a lavish meal—identical to what she had eaten over the past few days—was set before her.
Now was not the time to be picky or refuse.
After finishing her meal diligently, Irene sat back down at the table.
‘I need to make a new plan.’
Just because she failed to get the Ring of Invisibility didn’t mean she could just sit around like an idiot.
She still had a debt of 100,000 gold, and she had to pay it back within six months.
It wasn’t hopeless.
Though she hadn’t obtained an artifact this time, there were other artifacts yet to appear.
‘What else was useful?’
Flipping through the records she had first written down, Irene soon found her next target.
“The Stone of Silence. There was this.”
A stone that, when squeezed, would block all surrounding sound for about ten seconds.
Its power was mysterious, but because there weren’t many places to use it, it fetched a low price among artifacts.
‘Even so, I think it was auctioned off for about 20,000 gold.’
Every royal, noble, and wealthy person on the continent was desperate to collect artifacts.
Naturally, those with strong and useful powers were so expensive they couldn’t be easily obtained.
However, those who wanted to brag about owning an artifact bought moderately priced ones like the Stone of Silence.
‘Because they could boast about having several of them.’
At least the Stone of Silence had a decent power.
Among the artifacts Irene remembered, the one with the most trivial power was an artifact that boiled eggs. It was useful, but awkward to spend money on.
Compared to those, the Stone of Silence belonged to the category of relatively decent artifacts.
‘The problem is…. Dungeon 482, where the Stone of Silence can be found, appears in about a week.’
Irene thought back to her contract with Michael.
Once a month, he would subjugate a low-rank dungeon of Irene’s choice, and she would keep all the rewards.
‘Once a month.’
That was the problem.
That dungeon would appear in a week; if another pair went in to subjugate it in the meantime, they would get it.
‘It’s a problem even if Michael goes in.’
Any rewards obtained from dungeons other than the one she designated belonged entirely to him.
‘What should I do?’
If she had known this would happen, she would have contracted for once a week.
She regretted it, but it was far too late.
‘Still, maybe I could try asking him.’
In this life, Michael seemed to treat her much more warmly than in the past.
‘He even grabbed me by the waist.’
Though he said it was because he was worried she might get hurt, the Michael of the past would have just let her get injured.
‘It must be because he chose to become a pair this time.’
So, he likely didn’t harbor any resentment toward Irene.
After agonizing over it for a long while, Irene felt her eyelids growing heavy.
‘I should sleep for now and think again.’
Having been on the move since morning and then being dazed by the unexpected outcome, exhaustion washed over her.
Irene organized her papers, put them in a drawer, and then covered the glowstones placed around the room.
Leaving only the one emitting the weakest light on a distant bookshelf, she lay down on the bed.
‘In the past, I couldn’t even dream of glowstones like these.’
Naturally, these were expensive items too. Far from having them in her room, she hadn’t even been able to touch one.
And yet, now they were all over the room.
‘I’m glad it’s not too dark.’
Whenever she lay on a hard bed in a tiny room without a single speck of light, she would feel suffocated by the fear that she might never escape the Count’s grasp and would be sold off just like that.
It felt as if the whispers of people directed at her were starting to echo again.
But now, lying on a plush bed in the cozy light, she heard no such auditory hallucinations.
She was simply filled with worries about how she could change the terms of the contract.
‘First, I’ll have to meet Michael and talk to him.’
It was just as she closed her eyes with that thought.
Knock, knock.
Along with a brief knock, a voice came from outside.
“It is Michael. Are you inside?”
