Chapter 90

“Wait, sir!”

“Move.”

Linus growled. His deputy, Gerard, froze at the murderous glare but soon gritted his teeth and steadied himself. He had a reason he could not back down here.

“You can’t. You know the situation! I understand you’ve been desperate to find your wife, but right now—ugh!”

Gerard’s ear was torn, and blood flowed. While Gerard held his ear in pain, Linus walked past him. Gerard threw himself forward and grabbed Linus’s ankle.

“You can’t! You really can’t, sir!”

“Gerard. Don’t think I won’t kill you.”

Linus’s voice and eyes were cold and deadly serious. Gerard swallowed hard and shouted,

“But you know this as well! The Lindquist matriarch will never allow this to go any further!”

“This is my family’s business. Lindquist has nothing to do with it.”

“You know that’s not true! Honestly, sir, if you had wanted, you could’ve found your wife a long time ago!”

“…”

“You waited for three months because you wanted her to return to you on her own, didn’t you?”

Linus didn’t answer.

As Gerard suspected, Linus hadn’t been very aggressive in finding Florence. Hyunji had asked him through the spirit to wait, but even without that, he wouldn’t have used harsher measures. If Florence were hurt or damaged, it would be unbearable.

Florence would crawl through fire just to escape him. Even knowing Hyunji wasn’t in her anymore, Linus couldn’t bear to see that. He couldn’t control his anger. If it were Hyunji, maybe he could, but with Florence, he feared she might die. Her body and soul were both his, and he had to treasure her.

Because he loved her.

If Florence were hurt again because he was too forceful, Linus’s heart would shatter.

Even though every night without Hyunji was agony, even though he missed the warmth of her embrace and her mysterious blue eyes so much he thought he would die, Linus endured it because it was the best way to protect Florence.

Laila’s curse still lingers.

The curse was stubborn and pervasive. While waiting for Florence, Linus had tried to completely remove it, but finding a stronger curse-breaker than Laila—or even a skilled curse remover—wasn’t easy.

Then the news came: Florence had been hidden by the Seymour family and was now claiming her husband had abused her. She was staying with the Haynes Trading Company—with Enoch Haynes.

How dare he. That man… with my woman.

The man who had always looked at Florence with such tender eyes.

Linus should have killed Enoch Haynes earlier. It had been a mistake to let him live simply because he showed no interest in Hyunji. Jealousy twisted his insides.

Linus.

A grotesque shadow flickered by the window. Linus frowned, and Gerard cautiously spoke.

“Of course, I don’t believe you would ever harm your wife, but…”

“That’s insulting. Do you see me as someone who would do something so petty?”

“Of course not! We all know how much you love her—we’ve seen it up close!”

They had watched his public displays of affection and cleaned up the messes caused by his love and jealousy. Gerard had always thought of Florence as a spoiled little sister—always teasing Linus to make him jealous, but innocent and cheerful.

Gerard believed Linus would never hit Florence—not because Linus was against violence towards women, but because Florence was the only person who mattered to him. To Linus, there were only two kinds of people: Florence and everyone else.

“But for some reason, she’s claiming that now…”

“She’s been brainwashed by the pests around her.”

“Yes, of course…”

“Let go. I don’t want to have to kill a deputy who’s served me for over ten years.”

It would be inconvenient if Gerard disappeared. But Gerard, overwhelmed by his loyalty to Linus, cried out.

“But sir, if she’s saying that now, even if you go to her, she won’t come back willingly!”

“I don’t care. As long as I bring her back.”

“You’re going to kidnap her and lock her up?”

Linus looked down at Gerard as if to say, What’s wrong with that? Gerard jumped to his feet and blocked Linus’s path.

“If you do that, the situation will only get worse. You know this! The crown prince himself doesn’t want your reputation to fall any further. And the Lindquist family…”

“I don’t care about any of that.”

Linus had been independent from his family for a long time. He had earned the title of marquis himself and had no inherited wealth left. That didn’t matter. It would be annoying to clean up if he killed Gerard here, but if Gerard kept blocking him, there was no other choice.

“Florence is my woman. I am her man. Bringing her back is only natural and right. No one can stop me.”

“Yes, of course, but…”

“That’s enough, Gerard.”

A deep, commanding voice cut through Gerard’s plea. Gerard stepped back in shock. Linus frowned and looked at the owner of the voice.

“Don’t you even greet your elder brother when you see him?”

“Brother. What are you doing here? This is the Baldwin estate. I don’t recall receiving notice of your visit.”

It was Lucas, the Lindquist viscount. He resembled Linus but was broader and more solidly built. He was ten years older and currently stationed at the border of the duchy, leading a small war. Gerard couldn’t imagine Lucas being any weaker than Linus.

“Grandmother sent me to stop you. She knew you’d act recklessly, so she told me to bring you back.”

“I’ll say it again: no one can stop me. A husband bringing back his wife is natural.”

“Yes, but the problem is that she’s your wife, Linus.”

“Brother, don’t call her that woman. Her name is Florence.”

“She’s smearing our family’s name by claiming you hit her. That’s the problem, Linus.”

“Lindquist has nothing to do with this…”

“Do you really want to test that?”

“Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

“Come quietly. If you don’t, Lindquist won’t leave her alone.”

“Damn it, brother!”

“So you still see me as your elder brother. Hold him.”

At Lucas’s command, two burly knights grabbed Linus by the arms. Furious and humiliated, Linus shoved them away.

“I’ll go on my own. You don’t need to do this.”

“I thought you were too much of an idiot to even walk by yourself.”

“…”

“Pathetic. If you want to call this your family’s business, then stop causing trouble. You couldn’t even take care of your own wife—what independence are you talking about? We allowed that unbalanced marriage because you insisted, and look where it got us.”

“Grandmother was the one who gave me Florence as a fiancée,” Linus snapped.

“Yes, and it was better then. At least we thought she would quietly support you while you attracted attention. If we’d known she’d cause this much trouble, we would’ve broken the engagement long ago.”

“You used to mock me for being incompetent.”

“Me? I never did. That was you mocking yourself. Until then, you treated your fiancée like a fly buzzing around a cow’s tail, didn’t you?”

“That’s because…”

Because Florence and Hyunji were different people. But he couldn’t say that out loud. Claiming Florence’s body housed someone from another world would sound ridiculous.

Besides, he now loved both Florence’s body and Hyunji’s soul. He couldn’t separate them anymore.

Linus glared at Lucas.

“At least she was cute back then, cuter than you. Tsk, even when you two caused scandal after scandal, I still managed to clean up the mess…”

“I can take responsibility. Stay out of it,” Linus said coldly.

Lucas remembered when his younger brother had been just a skilled but narrow-minded swordsman. He had thought Linus could become a great man with proper guidance. But after falling in love with his wife, Linus had gone too far.

“Gerard, Kenneth is dead.”

“What?!”

“He was found dead this morning.”

“Who would do such a thing? Who’s the killer?”

“Colin.”

“…What?”

“Actually, Colin’s younger brother did it. He said it was revenge for his brother. He’s currently detained, but if it was a just duel for revenge, he’ll likely be acquitted.”

“W-wait, Kenneth is dead?”

Gerard looked at Linus in shock. Kenneth had been a former knight—handsome and kind, someone Gerard had been quite fond of. He had heard Kenneth had retired to his hometown after an injury.

“Did you think no one knew what you were doing out of petty jealousy?” Lucas sneered.

“Take responsibility, Linus.”