Chapter 6:
“I love you!”
Clarissa shouted it almost the same way one would yell, “Get lost!”
At that, Damon felt as though he had suddenly become some kind of filthy pervert.
‘Something’s definitely suspicious.’
Damon frowned deeply. The Clarissa who had been begging him for marriage not long ago had completely changed.
Even now it was the same. The original Clarissa would have blushed bright red and fidgeted nervously. But this woman was cursing him with her eyes—telling him to hurry up and leave.
The woman in front of him was clearly Clarissa, yet somehow she felt like an entirely different person.
Feeling a chill, Damon grabbed the back of her head. It was to read her memories.
Damon had the ability to read the memories of objects and people through touch.
At his sudden action, Clarissa’s eyes widened. Her trembling eyelashes and restless purple eyes looked dangerously unstable.
She seemed as though she were desperately trying to hide something.
“I love you, Damon. Even when you’re right in front of me, I miss you. I said I would never ask for affection, but I can’t anymore. I want you unbearably, Damon.”
Unlike her frantic eyes, Clarissa’s voice was unbearably desperate.
But Damon had never trusted people’s words to begin with, so he let them go in one ear and out the other.
Instead, he focused on the memories flowing through his hand from the back of her head.
【Where on earth has my husband gone?】
【Your Highness the Crown Prince, it is because I am lacking as a wife that I am not loved. So please, do not blame my husband.】
【There are no maidservants here—only male servants, right?】
After finishing his reading, Damon twisted his lips into a crooked smile.
‘Changed? What changed?’
Looking down at her arrogantly, Damon warned her.
“To think you still love me after being treated so coldly. How pitiful, Clarissa.”
Stepping back, he continued in a cold voice.
“I’ll say this one more time. You’ll be less unhappy if you don’t expect any affection from me. And if you continue to interfere with my work or suddenly show up here again like today, I won’t tolerate it. If you cross the line, you’ll die before Duke Rackton does. Do you understand?”
“……you ba—”
Damon glared at Clarissa as she muttered something unintelligible.
“What did you just say?”
“I said ‘four-leaf clover.’ I meant I want to offer you a lucky clover with four leaves. To wish for the success of your revenge.”
“Then go pick some grass.”
“Yes, dear,” Clarissa answered lightly with a bright smile.
‘Married to a lunatic who threatens to kill even his own wife… Clarissa, why on earth did you do that?’
The next day, after returning home, I headed straight to the marketplace behind the town square.
The long alley was filled with shops selling goods from Damon’s trade company.
“Milady, is there something in particular you’re looking for?”
When my steps led toward the back alleys instead of the fancy stores, Miranda asked anxiously.
“I just came out for some fresh air.”
I also needed to grasp the situation in the market and figure out what Damon and the Crown Prince were plotting.
‘The original story didn’t mention the exact timing, but I have a feeling it starts now.’
The trust between Damon and Duke Rackton would slowly begin to shake, and cracks would gradually form.
If things were left alone, Damon would eventually press the switch on his runaway train of revenge without hesitation.
And in the middle of it all, the Crown Prince would fall ill, tangling everything beyond repair.
I had no intention of helping Damon with his revenge. Nor did I want to earn favor from a husband crazy enough to threaten to kill me.
But right now, I was stuck in the same boat as Damon.
‘For my own safety, I have to intervene.’
There was no time. If the magic stones hidden in the basement of Damon’s secret office were already circulating, I had to act immediately.
“Then how about we go to that alley over there? I hear magic dolls are popular these days.”
At Miranda’s words, my eyes shot up.
“Magic dolls?”
“Yes, Milady. There are dolls that can replace candles, and others that cool you down.”
“Let’s go. Which way are they sold?”
“Probably over there. They’re imported, not made in the Empire.”
Impossible. There were magic stones in the secret basement in the forest.
In the original story, Damon discovered a magic stone mine and used them to craft various items.
Occasionally, dangerous magic stones were found, and those were kept safely in the research lab instead of being sold.
Damon wanted revenge against Duke Rackton, the Emperor, and the temple—not to harm ordinary citizens.
‘Isn’t he too much of a humanist for a villain?’
That was exactly why I had loved his character.
But now that I experienced him firsthand… he was just a bad man. A bad husband.
With a sour expression, I followed Miranda into the import goods alley.
“Milady, look at this. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Miranda pointed to dolls on display—fairy dolls, princess dolls, farmers, puppies, cats. All kinds.
Some were soft like regular dolls, others carved from wood or marble, all painted with magic stone powder to give them magical effects.
They glowed softly without candles or blew cool air without ice.
“Miranda, do you find them pretty? To me, they’re boring. Too familiar.”
I frowned while putting down a farmer doll.
“Familiar? I don’t recognize them at all.”
“You can’t tell even from the proportions?”
They were identical to the proportions of the naked statue of Damon in the mansion fountain.
Just dressed differently, but clearly modeled after him.
‘So the same sculptor designed these magic dolls.’
But why lie that they were imported when Damon was clearly making them himself?
My questions were answered as soon as I arrived at the trading office.
“M-Milady! Are you here to see the master? He is—”
“Not here, right?”
Cutting off accountant Huan, I plopped into a chair.
I had come hoping to find what I needed where the magic dolls were being produced.
And I absolutely had to get my hands on it.
“You knew he was at the warehouse?”
“Warehouse?”
“Yes. We imported salt in bulk, and the master is troubled over it. If Duke Rackton finds out…”
Huan spilled secrets easily after selling his loyalty to me for three gold coins.
My hair stood on end.
‘Importing foreign salt? What if Duke Rackton discovers it?’
Seeing my reaction, Huan explained nervously.
“The master ordered only what could be stored, but the merchant brought far too much, expecting storms to melt some of it during shipping.”
“But the weather stayed clear, so more arrived than expected?”
“Exactly.”
‘So that’s why he disguised magic dolls as imports.’
To hide the salt imports.
The warehouse was filled not with dolls, but with salt.
‘Just as I thought.’
Soon, the conflict between Damon and Duke Rackton would begin.
Duke Rackton would order Damon to sell his territory’s salt, betraying Damon who worked hard to import foreign salt.
And later he would discover Damon’s secret imports.
“Salt is piled like mountains,” Huan said.
Just then, the door burst open and Damon entered.
Seeing me lounging in a chair, he scowled immediately.
“Clarissa. I warned you.”
You said I’d die if I meddled. But things don’t look great for you either.
I sighed dramatically.
“I missed you too much to stay away.”
“Now you’ve seen me. Go home.”
Damon brushed past me.
“It’s too hot to sit in the carriage. Can’t I stay until evening?”
“No.”
Heartless as ever.
Part of me wanted to ignore everything and let his revenge fail.
But my safety depended on it.
“Miranda, we should leave. Before we go, perhaps we should buy dinner ingredients. I’m craving something salty.”
Damon looked impatient for me to leave.
‘If he can’t understand even when spoon-fed…’
I stood and walked toward him.
“In the market, food is spoiling because salt is too expensive.”
“In our kitchen salt is plentiful, yet you brought me rotten food.”
He glared.
“If salted foods were sold cheaply, kitchens wouldn’t struggle so much.”
I was talking about mass-produced preserved foods.
“Pickled meat, vegetables, fish. Even thin potato slices fried with lots of salt…”
Damon’s eyes sharpened.
“Sell preserved foods in bulk?”
“Yes. More profit than selling salt raw. And if Duke Rackton asks, say it was preserved with seawater.”
It would consume the excess salt and slowly weaken Duke Rackton’s finances.
And delay the rift between him and Damon.
‘In the meantime, I can plan a safe divorce.’
