My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin
Chapter 37
Michael didn't say things like, "What did you just say?" or "Say that again."
Instead, he immediately grabbed the man by the throat and hoisted him into the air.
Though the man was quite large, his bloated body dangled from Michael's hand like a paper doll.
“Keuk! Ke-heuk!”
The man couldn't even beg for his life as he struggled wildly, trying to break free from Michael's grip.
Startled by the sight, Irene rushed over.
“Sir Michael! What are you doing!”
“This man insulted you.”
“I know, I have ears too. But I'm used to this kind of thing, so….”
She was about to say that the auction was starting soon and they should just go inside and focus on that.
“Used to it?”
Michael asked back, his voice dropping even lower.
Startled by the rough voice that sounded like a beast's growl, Irene took a step back.
Even then, the man held aloft continued to choke and flail.
Eventually, reaching his limit, his eyes rolled back and he began to foam at the mouth.
At this rate, they would be clearing away a corpse before the auction even began.
“First, calm down and let him go! He's really going to die!”
Panicking over how to stop him, Irene grabbed Michael's other arm and clung to it.
She knew he was tall and large, but the arm she held in her embrace felt like a mass of muscle forged from cast iron.
It was clearly a human arm just like hers, yet she wondered how it could be so hard.
‘If he ever hit someone with an arm like this….’
They might meet God in a single blow.
“Let him go for now, and then we'll hold him accountable!”
Shouting that, Irene squeezed his arm even tighter.
Then, the moment her chest pressed against his arm, Michael flinched and threw the man he was holding onto the ground.
Fortunately, the man curled up, coughing and wheezing.
‘At least he avoided death by strangulation.’
As Irene breathed a sigh of relief, Michael spoke.
“Please say that again. That you are used to such harassment. Exactly which bastards dared to spout such insolent words? I will personally cut out their tongues to punish their sins.”
He was someone who always used proper and refined language.
Irene doubted her ears at the fact that such chilling words—calling people bastards and threatening to cut out tongues—had come from his mouth.
She couldn't understand why he was so enraged.
“Th-that is….”
Trying to recall who it had been, Irene fell silent, unable to say anything.
Come to think of it, in this life, there had been no one who dared to spout such things to her face, except for the man now rolling on the ground.
‘Besides, this man didn't know the situation inside the fortress, so he must have just been flapping his mouth based on wandering rumors.’
Regardless, she had to calm Michael down for now.
“It's just, I heard it before, not here.”
“Do you mean you heard it at the Count's estate?”
“I heard it there too, but….”
As she answered, Irene looked at him in surprise.
“Did you know I came from the Count's estate?”
He was a man who had never asked her a single thing until now. That hadn't changed in her past life, nor in this one.
Yet now, Michael was speaking like someone who knew her past very well.
Just then, the auction house staff appeared.
“I will go settle this for a moment.”
Michael immediately approached the staff and explained something.
“Sir Michael suddenly ran over and used violence and verbal abuse against my friend! How can a knight who serves God act like such a thug….”
The man who had been pointing his finger at Michael suddenly shut his mouth and averted his gaze.
Wondering why, Irene looked and saw Michael, who had been talking to the staff, glaring at him.
That was not the gaze of a Holy Knight. It was the gaze of a beast, raw with a violence that looked ready to pounce and tear him apart at any second.
In the end, the man tucked his tail, supported his friend, and fled the scene.
Michael watched the man's retreating figure as he scurried away, then finished his conversation with the staff and returned to Irene's side.
“I apologize for not shutting that man's mouth sooner.”
“That's not something you need to apologize for. Anyway, don't worry about it anymore and let's hurry inside. The auction is starting soon.”
Saying so, Irene grabbed his sleeve and pulled him inside.
The body that hadn't wavered even when facing monsters was pulled along by her lead quite easily.
* * *
Irene and Michael sat in the seats prepared for them.
Normally, they should have gone to the good seats reserved for pairs, but there were too many eyes and too much interest focused on Michael.
So, they had requested a box seat against the wall for those who wished to participate in the auction without revealing their identity.
Fortunately, the auction house staff also didn't want any trouble during the proceedings, so they gave them a box seat without a second thought.
“Whew.”
As she sat down, Irene let out a long breath without realizing it.
Seeing her like that, Michael spoke again.
“If anyone else acts insolently, please be sure to tell me.”
As if she could.
‘If I did that, I'd really end up having to clear away a corpse.’
Honestly, those kinds of words were nothing special, but seeing Michael react so strongly made her realize once again that he was a knight of the Temple.
He would surely act the same way not just for her, but if anyone else were to suffer such an insult.
‘It would have been nice if he had done this for me in the past.’
She shook her head at the thought. It was a useless reflection.
Irene gave a bitter smile and looked at the catalog of today's auction items placed on the table next to her chair.
The main item for today's auction was the 'Invisibility Ring.' However, that wasn't the only artifact being sold.
“The Silence Stone we obtained is listed here too.”
Irene looked at the Silence Stone illustrated on one side of the catalog.
It was something they had obtained from a dungeon she had gone to with him after successfully subjugating a high-grade dungeon.
A few days ago, after obtaining the Invisibility Ring in the high-grade dungeon, Irene had hardly been able to sleep.
It was because of the regret that if she had received a share, she could have paid off her debt sooner.
Of course, it wasn't just because of regret.
‘I just don't understand why that came out from there.’
It was an artifact that definitely should have appeared in the dungeon she went to with Michael.
Yet it had appeared in an unexpected place.
‘Only that one was like that.’
The rewards from other dungeons were exactly as she remembered, but the Invisibility Ring had disappeared as if it had no intention of falling into her hands, only to reappear elsewhere.
The biggest problem, above all, was the fact that she was struggling to save money.
‘The few things I did manage to get are bound to me and can't be sold.’
Things as precious as the Invisibility Ring, or even more so, became worthless once she obtained them.
At this point, she was starting to think that someone was intentionally interfering with her ability to collect money.
Regardless, Irene had to move again to earn money.
So this time, she had asked Michael to go to the dungeon where the Silence Stone appears.
All throughout the journey to the dungeon with Michael, Irene was full of worry.
‘What if this doesn't appear either, or if something else comes out?’
Then much of the information she remembered would become useless.
So she had opened the reward chest with a pounding heart, and this time, fortunately, the Silence Stone appeared just as she remembered.
She felt so relieved that things were finally going according to her memory.
That was why she said she would come to the auction house, partly to check if it sold properly.
She wanted to see how much the Invisibility Ring would sell for, and she also wanted to see the Silence Stone being sold.
‘Besides, I never got to come to the auction house before.’
She used to listen to Wilhelmina brag about visiting the auction house and imagine what kind of place it was.
‘In the end, I've come here like this.’
And to think she would be watching the auction from such a comfortable and nice seat.
Before long, an auctioneer stepped onto the stage, gave a greeting, and announced the start of the auction.
The lights in the auction house dimmed, and all the light focused on the auction items on the stage.
“Thank you all for waiting! This year as well, many distinguished guests have graced this occasion….”
Letting the auctioneer's words go in one ear and out the other, Irene looked at the sparkling auction items.
Items that had looked dingy when first found in the dungeon now appeared as precious things, second to none in the world, once they were polished clean and caught the light.
‘Though they really are second to none.’
Seeing that the Silence Stone she had submitted also looked quite expensive, Irene realized why people insisted on selling at the auction house even if they had to pay a commission.
She looked down, waiting for the bidding to begin.
“Hmm?”
Something among the auction items caught Irene's eye.
