Chapter 49

Chapter 49

“Huh, Chloe? Why are you silent?”

Elizabeth whispered.

It was better for Chloe to risk being embarrassed than to be caught up in an immoral scandal… Right. As she thought so to herself, she decided to walk ten miles.

“I’m fi—”

“Oh, my goodness! Look over there!”

It was Lily Smith’s cry that cut her words first.

‘Does she still have something to say?’

Chloe glanced at her, slightly offended. It seemed that Lily Smith was pointing to a place, the front door facing the hall.

“Over there, I saw someone! Perhaps, he came to pick up some of the wives?”

At those words, all the wives turned their heads. As Lily Smith said, there was a carriage at the front door, and a man stood tall in the snow.

The man who had been standing in the distance turned his body to face the hall, apparently feeling the gaze pouring on him through the window. It became clear who he was… none other than Eric Aslan!

“Oh, dear God!”

“Oh, my gosh! Mrs. Aslan! The Marquis has arrived!”

Despite the shouts of the crowd, and even seeing with her own eyes, Chloe couldn’t believe it.

Eric was here!

Conceivably, there was another reason? Yes… This was a reasonable conclusion. He only came here to do business with the Royal Family, not to pick up Chloe… If it was Eric, that could be right. Still, as if betraying Chloe’s thoughts, Eric raised his long legs and began to walk.

Before long, the door to the hall opened. After wiping the snow off his coat, Eric stepped into the hall.

“I don’t know if I have disturbed the ladies’ fun. I’m Eric Aslan.”

The wives were delighted with his gracious greeting and welcomed him, and so was Elizabeth. She made a servant add more firewood in the hearth.

“Hurry! Add more firewood. It’s snowing like this, and he had walked all the way here! Marquis, are you cold?”

“I’m fine. However, I think it’s a good idea to make more fire. Looking at it, it seems that the other wives are very cold.”

It was true that several of the wives had their shawls wrapped around them as the cold wind had come in because Lily Smith had previously opened the window. However, they didn’t know that Eric would care for their well-being—even Chloe! Because of that, the wives warmly welcomed his kindness and began to welcome him more fiercely.

“By the way, what’s going on? Did anything happen at the Royal Palace?”

After a long greeting, Elizabeth asked Eric a question. He then glanced at Chloe and nodded his head slowly.

“It snows a lot.”

He made eye contact with her.

“I have come to pick up my wife.”

Everyone was surprised at once. Didn’t they just talk about the Aslan couple’s bad relationship? But now, the husband comes to pick up his wife because it was snowing?! Naturally, this only happened to couples who had good marital relationships.

As everyone was not hiding their surprise, Eric added an excuse.

“She seemed to have borrowed the carriage and went out with it, perhaps of the wife’s consideration of me. On a bad day like this, I can’t even call a separate carriage, so I thought it would make sense for me to come to pick her up.”

“However, the royal family can lend her a carriage!”

Elizabeth said. Eric shook his head.

“As the wife who has always tended to be considerate of others, I thought that she would have yielded the carriage to everyone. How is it, Madam? Am I right?”

He turned to Chloe.

Up until this point, she was showing her embarrassment unfiltered, and she decided that she couldn’t let the light focus on her any longer. She soon agreed with Eric.

“Yes, that’s right. You always know me.”

Perhaps, it was a satisfactory answer, Eric laughed lowly. Chloe was very embarrassed as she did not know how to respond to her husband’s behavior but decided to match his rhythm for the time being. She smiled similarly to Eric.

“Well, if we had known that you two would get along so well, the story like before wouldn’t have come out!”

Lily Smith intervened.

Everyone frowned at her words because it was the unwritten rule not to talk to other men about the conversations between wives. Although he must have been well aware of this, Eric asked her with an innocent face as if he knew nothing.

“The story like before, what are you talking about?”

At this point, Lily Smith should have noticed and shut her mouth, but she responded with a nonchalant face.

“They said that the two of you fight every day. Mrs. Abigail Leon over there. Her maid worked on the two houses or something though I didn’t really listen to it because I wasn’t very interested. By the way, are there any frictionless couples in the world? Everyone has some friction, and I didn’t say anything because I thought it was a kind of quarrel that only married couples know. However, the other wives and the Princess were different, so Mrs. Aslan was quite troubled.”

“…Did you?”

After listening carefully to Lily Smith’s words, Eric turned his gaze to her. Chloe didn’t want to talk anymore on this topic, so she tried to end the conversation with a closing tone in a hurry.

“I’ve already explained that matter, so it’s okay. Because they all found out that wasn’t true. Right?”

The wives said yes, and this resulted in Abigail and Elizabeth’s faces being ripped off.

“But…!”

Elizabeth raised her voice in a scream.

“Isn’t it true that you two are discussing divorce? I know so! Chloe agreed with this, too!”

At those words, he stared at her and Chloe pulled her chin back before stepping back. It was a sign that Elizabeth was right. Seeing that, Eric narrowed his brow and stroked his chin. After a long silence, he slowly opened his mouth.

“I would like to quote Mrs. Lily Smith. There’s not a single couple in the world who has never discussed divorce. Everyone has a certain amount of friction.”

This was an indication that Eric wasn’t going to divorce Chloe, so people came to the conclusion that the Aslans were simply arguing and that the divorce was mentioned, but not a big deal.

At the same time, they thought that Elizabeth and Abigail’s behavior, who had been blaming Chloe the whole time, was not right. On the other hand, many wives have come to the conclusion that Lily Smith, who had not listened to gossip, was truly the right person.

Oh, how easily swayed public opinion is this?

In any case, public opinion changed drastically, and Elizabeth and Abigail were forced to back away without saying a word.

Seeing them, Eric naturally stretched out his hand toward Chloe.

“Wife.”

Chloe stared at his extended hand.

Why, why?

She didn’t know the reason for Eric’s kindness, the act of braving the snow and coming to pick her up. They had just been screaming and fighting a few days ago! He even finalized the divorce, but he was changing his mind again.

Chloe was confused and bewildered, but now, Eric was like a savior when she thought of walking the ten-mile road alone! Chloe grabbed his hand.

“I’m going back now.”

Eric escorted Chloe in a gentlemanly manner, and the wives, except for Elizabeth, Abigail, and Lily Smith, sent them off enthusiastically.

Eric was extremely annoyed.

Suppose he was asked why he would answer dozens of reasons. The most representative of it was that things were not in line with his conscience, and he shuddered at having to flatter the ladies! And, the most annoying was the unexpected situation: Chloe was being humiliated by Elizabeth and Abigail Leon.

…That stupid woman.

She wouldn’t have met them if she hadn’t come here in the first place!

Didn’t Chloe really know that there were a lot of scavenger hunts after her? No, knowingly she came here knowing full well. To provoke him?!

Bad woman… Cunning woman.

Eric really hated Chloe, but at the same time, he couldn’t bear to see her come home with that much snow, so he hated himself, who came to pick her up. As soon as he got into the carriage, he uttered to her.

“Did I not tell you clearly? It will snow.”

The words were mixed with a rebuke. Chloe felt embarrassed and bowed his face.

“Until morning, the sun was so strong so I didn’t expect it to snow.”

It was just an excuse. Eric ruffled his hair and crossed his legs.

“If you had any respect for my words, you would have pulled out the mansion’s carriage instead of borrowing it. But you didn’t.”

Feeling his blaming tone, Chloe bit her lip.

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