So I Married An Abandoned Crown Prince - Chapter 33

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Chapter 33

Late at night,

Joseph couldn’t bring himself to sleep as he watched Rita sleeping so soundly.

But Joseph was a knight who had a keen sense. He jumped to grab his sword at the sound of the window opening.

It took less than a few seconds for him to grab Oscar by the collar and draw his sword quietly.

“I guess putting a sword on someone’s throat is your hobby.”

Oscar smirked and continued to ramble as if the sword didn’t scare him at all.

“What are you doing sneaking in the bedroom at night?”

At Joseph’s quiet warning, Oscar shrugged his shoulders lightly while maintaining eye contact with Joseph.

“Me? I like how your wife sleeps.”

Oscar’s vulgar and brazen attitude rendered him speechless for a moment.

He briefly thought of throwing Oscar out the window, but then at that moment.

“Stop being so hostile. You’re not even her real husband anyway.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Everyone knows that you made a deal with Roscoe Cardinale under the pretext of marriage.”

Oscar brought up Count Cardinale’s name like it was a thorn in his mouth.

Even though he built an assassination guild and reputation using Cardinale as a foundation, Oscar had no loyalty whatsoever toward the count.

‘Why did I stay at the Cardinale all this time?’

Spina was established in Cardinale, but now it had grown into a guild huge enough to operate on the whole continent.

Nevertheless, Oscar did not leave the Cardinale family.

Because Rita was there.

Oscar hoped that Rita would break up with that stupid George one day.

‘I waited for you to break up with George, but now you’re marrying another bastard?’

It didn’t show, but Oscar was actually a little angry with Rita for not telling him when she married Joseph.

“You don’t have to care about that woman.”

Oscar shook off Joseph’s hand and massaged his neck annoyedly. Then he raised the corners of his mouth as if provoking Joseph.

“Marriage is politics, love is romance. Have you never heard of this old saying?

Could this man be my wife’s lover?

Joseph’s lips quivered as he listened to Oscar’s haughty words.

He already completed the background check on Oscar.

He knew that Oscar was not just an ordinary errand boy even though Oscar was known as Cardinale’s top dog.

‘He is probably better than George….’

Joseph began to compare George, known as Rita’s lover, and Oscar in the same league.

George was shameless enough to do everything to slander Carlo, who was ten years younger than him.

He used dirty tricks to imitate Carlo and frequented brothels with pleasure.

However, even Oscar was not a suitable man for his wife, as she didn’t know better about how the world works and only viewed others in a good faith.

‘My wife doesn’t seem to have an eye for men.’

Joseph looked down at Rita’s sleeping face and sighed briefly.

“Back off. After all, she’s my wife now.”

Joseph frowned, making all kinds of excuses why he was so ticked off by Oscar.

It’s because I’m worried.

He was worried, thinking how his wife was like a child as ever.

“Uhm…”

A cold sweat broke out when I saw Joseph and Oscar exchanging a death glare.

It was a battle of nerves in the middle of a bustling auction house.

‘What’s wrong with this atmosphere?’

I knew Oscar and Joseph had been at odds with each other from their first meeting, but there would be no reason to express their antipathy so openly like this.

‘In particular, Joseph isn’t a person who easily shows hostility to people like this.’

My husband was too polite to the point he looked like a pushover. Joseph even showed courtesy to my father, who tried to get rid of Carlo in order to put George on the throne.

‘You aren’t the type to treat Oscar this way just because he’s younger than you either.’

Perhaps because of his experience of being born in the noblest Imperial Family only to be thrown to the bottom later, he was not the type to judge people by their status.

Even now, the people in the estate referred to him as ‘His Highness’ but he actually preferred if people called him ‘lord’.

“Umm, Joseph?”

I was a little bewildered by Joseph’s cold stare at Oscar.

‘That’s right. He just naturally gives off this kind of vibe.’

Now that I know that he was a kind and good man at heart, I wasn’t scared at all.

“Yes. Please say it.”

As I thought, when he was holding a sword like that, I could feel clearly that he was indeed a devil hunter.

I recalled Joseph’s indifferent expression in winter as he was covered in blood after returning from subjugating the monsters.

“It seems the auction is going to start.”

Only then did Oscar stop glaring at Joseph and walk away from us to look around the auction house.

“Shall we go in?”

Joseph took his eyes off Oscar as well and reached out to me.

“It’s better to stay close to me.”

A large-scale auction was packed with danger.

There were collectors among the wealthy nobles who did not hesitate to abuse their power in order to gain their desired items.

‘We’d better be careful since we came here with our identity hidden.’

I wrapped my arms around Joseph’s arms and nodded.

If I leave a trace here, it would be revealed that it was me who stole the Goddess’ crown, instead of my father.

“We reserved a seat in the left wing.”

The night auction held in Notte was held outdoors, unlike the auction in the capital or other large cities, which were mainly held underground.

Under the brilliant starlight embroidering the night sky, the servants lined up while holding a number.

I nodded to a servant holding number 13 and carefully held Joseph’s hand.

“From now on, we’re a Padrea couple. We’re not noble, but we’re wealthy merchants.”

Joseph agreed that he didn’t want to draw attention and cooperated with me to hide our identity.

He even suggested that we must practice calling each other by name.

Is it because you don’t want to attract others’ attention as much as possible?

He actively participated in becoming the Padreas more than I expected.

“What do you think about that one, Mrs. Padrea? Don’t you want it?”

Although it was a little regrettable that he kept doing something that we didn’t plan out.

‘Are you pretending to be a husband who’s anxious to give a gift to his wife?’

The first segment of the night’s auction opened with an opera performance. It displayed a variety of rare jewels imported from the east and artifacts imported from Odobelli.

‘What I need right now is not jewelry.’

Artifacts were worth paying attention to, but I had to save as much money as possible since I didn’t know how expensive the Neuronia potion would be.

“It’s pretty.”

Despite my lukewarm answer, Joseph raised the number signboard.

‘Huh? Why are you raising it?’

“Then I’ll place a bid.”

“No, it’s alright. Put down the signboard!”

Perhaps he wanted to avoid the servant’s suspicion. He put me in trouble by saying that he would bid whenever jewelry or artifacts that caught my attention came out.

“Your Highness, what’s wrong with you? Do you still have money left?”

It was useless no matter how much I tried to dissuade him.

In the end, Joseph bought a ruby necklace with a magic ability to warm up your body for a large sum of money.

“I don’t even get cold easily.”

I rebuked him with a voice so small that the servant could not hear it.

“It’s not something that I’m going to use.”

“Then, who…..? Ah!”

I inadvertently opened my mouth as I looked at Joseph who stored the coupon handed over by the servant into his pocket.

‘Didn’t I ask him to visit Carlo on our way back?’

Carlo, who injured his leg, was now staying at the Imperial monastery. And Saint Ibelina was also in that monastery.

The woman Joseph loved dearly.

‘I don’t think he knows that Ibelina is in Notte right now.’

I couldn’t possibly rebuke him for wasting away Katan’s budget when he did that to prepare a gift for his loved one.

I glanced furtively at Joseph, who smiled delightedly, and turned away at once.

…I felt bad suddenly.

Now it was time for rare herbs and other commodities to be used as ingredients for potions to be auctioned off, so I felt a little nauseous.

I was nervous for some reason, and when the host climbed up the podium, I quenched my parched throat with wine.

“Coming up next is a medicinal herb and rare ingredients that some of you might find a little trivial!”

At the host’s words, most of the crowd booed loudly.

Most of the people participating in this grand auction want to see more than just a pile of grass.

“Haha, I figured you’d be bored, too. But, worry not! We have an item that might interest you!”

He wouldn’t reveal something like the elixir plants, would he?

But the host moved his smooth tongue and said ‘to gain eternal life’ which is quite absurd.

‘I’m not interested in the slightest.’

I closed my eyes as I was tired of the host’s obvious bluff.

The man dragged a huge case covered with black cloth onto the podium and smiled, revealing his fake teeth.

‘That’s…! That’s the one!’

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