112 - The Evil Husband (15th Anniversary Edition) Chapter 112
112
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A chilling aura descended all around. A dry, uncomfortable air, like sand, burrowed into her lungs.
Aileen couldn't even blink anymore. Her breath had stopped long ago. She felt like fainting at the Emperor's words, but Leone continued speaking as if it were nothing of great importance.
"That shouldn't be the case. Isn't it funny?"
Leone pulled the hood of his robe back over his head, which he had briefly lifted. Then, pulling the hood slightly down with his hand so that only Cesare and Aileen could see, he said,
"I apologize if I surprised you today. I hope to see you at the Imperial Palace next time."
After a brief greeting to Aileen, Leone looked at Cesare. He looked at Cesare, who said nothing, for a while, then smiled as usual.
"Come to the Imperial Palace with the Grand Duchess and play a piece on the piano for me."
Then, he slowly moved his feet and passed by Cesare. The Emperor's guards followed Leone and quietly disappeared.
Diego and Michele, who had been keeping a certain distance, rushed over. Their faces, like Aileen's, were pale. Aileen, who had been holding her breath, looked up at Cesare.
His eyes, with long eyelashes lowered, were lost in thought, as if recalling a very distant past. Cesare, sensing Aileen's gaze, soon met her eyes.
"...My brother."
His closed lips moved slowly, to let Aileen know what he was thinking.
"Is someone who can die for me."
A hand in a leather glove ruffled Aileen's bangs. He stared at the eyes hidden behind the glasses and muttered to himself.
"From the beginning… was that the problem?"
The words, like fragments of consciousness, were incomprehensible. But Cesare didn't say anything more. It seemed that he, too, hadn't quite finished his thought.
"Cesare."
Aileen carefully called his name. Cesare put Aileen's bangs back down. The touch of arranging her disheveled hair would have been pleasant and enjoyable under normal circumstances, but not now.
'His Majesty the Emperor seemed upset, is it because of me?'
She didn't know what was going on, but Aileen felt her heart shrink, wondering if she was the cause. She was so anxious that tears seemed to well up in her eyes.
"Aileen."
"Yes..."
"Did you go to the pharmacy?"
"Ah, the pharmacy."
At Cesare's words, Aileen nodded eagerly.
"I didn't go inside, I just watched people lining up from a distance."
"You have to see the inside of the pharmacy too."
"But I have to stand in line."
When she said that she couldn't bring herself to wait, Cesare's eyes crinkled with amusement.
"Let's go together. I was going to go too."
If Cesare went with her, the people who had been crowding like the sea would automatically split in half. But Aileen couldn't readily say yes and mumbled.
"I, in this state?"
Leone's voice from earlier echoed in her ears.
"You don't usually go around like this, do you?"
Even Aileen, who wasn't very perceptive, could tell. The appearance of wearing glasses and having her bangs down was a messy look that didn't suit the position of Grand Duchess.
'Embarrassing.'
She didn't even want to imagine how much like an ugly duckling she would look next to Cesare. Aileen hurriedly tried to push her bangs back and take off her glasses, but Cesare grabbed her frantically moving hand.
"Why? You look cute wearing glasses for once."
Aileen blushed at the casual words, as if it were nothing. Even if it was a look that didn't suit the Grand Duchess, it would be okay to be like this for a while if he liked it.
'Either way, whether I dress up or not, my appearance isn't going to suddenly become amazing.'
No matter how hard she tried to take off her glasses and fix her hair, she was just a dirt-covered potato compared to Cesare. Aileen quietly put her bangs back down.
Then, as if it was so funny, Cesare kept laughing as he looked at Aileen. Diego cautiously approached and added a word.
"I was also happy to see Madam wearing glasses for the first time in a while."
Then he took the lead and said,
"Rohan and Senon will be at the pharmacy. There were a lot of soldiers there. We'll go ahead and explain the situation."
Michele also followed Diego to the main street and looked back at Aileen. She winked one eye, and Aileen couldn't help but smile.
Thanks to them, her heart, which had been complicated and dizzy after meeting Leone, had calmed down a lot. Aileen awkwardly adjusted her glasses.
Cesare put his arm around Aileen's waist and moved his feet. He walked slowly to the pharmacy with her and talked.
"You're not going to ask today?"
"Pardon?"
"If I'm busy."
"Ah..."
Aileen clasped her hands together and wiggled her fingers.
"That's... of course, I think you're busy. But I also want to show you the pharmacy... because you supported everything. So, I'm just being a little greedy..."
As she spoke, she glanced at Cesare. Cesare tilted his head slightly towards Aileen and said,
"Yes. Originally, I was also going to pretend to meet you by chance outside."
He blew out a breath. Aileen's vision cleared for a moment as her bangs, which had been covering her glasses, scattered. Cesare smiled mischievously.
"It didn't go as planned, but this isn't bad either, is it?"
Aileen quickly nodded at the playful, boyish smile. Then, belatedly, she replied softly, "I like it." A low laugh returned like an answer.
As they walked together, they soon returned to the pharmacy. The pharmacy was still overflowing with people. But unlike before, when it was orderly, the atmosphere was chaotic.
The employees who had been shouting and organizing the line, and the people who had been waiting patiently in line, were all murmuring with bewildered faces.
The cause of the commotion was a man holding a medicine bottle. The man who had bought Aspilia from the pharmacy was shouting so loudly that the entire Venue Street echoed.
"How can this be! It's clear that the Grand Duchess intimidated the pharmacist with her power!"
The people in line murmured and looked at the man. He shook the medicine bottle in his hand and raised his voice.
"This is! The medicine that the young pharmacist made!"
He raised his voice and made a fuss as if he was about to faint on the spot. Aileen, who was staring at the scene in amazement, gasped.
He was Luca, the watch merchant who sold watches on Venue Street. He was shouting with his mustache trembling, barely keeping his monocle from slipping off his nose.
Luca was a regular customer who diligently bought Aileen's Headache remedy. It seemed that he had bought it out of curiosity because the Grand Duchess had suddenly opened a pharmacy on Venue Street and started selling it.
But when he bought the medicine, he found that only the packaged glass bottle was slightly different, and that it was the same Headache remedy that Aileen had originally made.
Luca couldn't help but think that the Grand Duchess was extorting the Headache remedy from a powerless and poor pharmacist and selling it as if she had made it herself. Even Aileen had closed her lab and disappeared at the right time.
"Even if Archduke Erzeht is a hero who saved the Empire! To intimidate an innocent person with such a cowardly, despicable, and dirty method, and to promote the Grand Duchess... Heok?"
Luca, who had been shouting so loudly that Venue Street would be torn apart, inhaled. He looked at Aileen with bewildered eyes, and at Cesare, who had his arm affectionately around Aileen's waist.
Luca had never seen Cesare's face properly. He had only glanced at the wedding photos in <The Truth>.
But he couldn't not know who the shockingly handsome man with black hair and crimson eyes, wearing an Imperial Army uniform with numerous medals and ribbons, was.
Luca looked back and forth between Aileen and Cesare with his mouth wide open. Then, as if he couldn't believe it, he called Aileen very carefully.
"...Aileen?"
Aileen nodded awkwardly. She was about to approach Luca, but Cesare didn't let go of the arm around her waist. He said in a rather amusing tone.
"Who dares to speak my wife's name so carelessly?"
