The Strongest Man’s Fake Wife Wants to Live Chapter 19

Until she had solid evidence, she couldn’t confront Count Tompkins.

“For now, please inform the Merchants’ Union before any greater damage occurs. I think it would be better to proceed with the wheat purchases once most of the triticale circulating in the market has been collected.”

“Let’s do that.”

Owen had finished his answer and was about to leave, or so Pesha thought. But for some reason, he remained where he was, quietly looking at Pesha.

“Is something wrong?”

“Just as with the roses, you seem to have extensive knowledge of plants. Why didn’t you make use of that ability?”

“Make use of it?”

“I thought you could have studied it more deeply, or even made a name for yourself.”

“……”

Make a name for herself.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t wanted to study herbalism to her heart’s content, earn a degree, and have her abilities recognized.

But what good would it do to pour out her grievances to this man who was nothing more than her husband in name?

She gave a feeble smile and brushed it off with an appropriate answer.

“I just…… didn’t like it enough to go that far.”

She hadn’t loved it desperately enough to rebel against her father and leave home.

She had to tell herself that, at least, to lessen the bitterness.

Yet even after seeing Pesha’s smile, Owen didn’t smile back.

If anything, his expression merely hardened.

 

***

 

Owen immediately passed the information on to the Merchants’ Union. At first, the Union was only half-convinced, but after beginning an investigation, they discovered that fake wheat really had been circulating on the market, and that the sellers distributing it were a phantom merchant guild that existed only on paper.

By the time they raided the guild’s headquarters, everyone had already fled.

‘They’ve cut off the tail, so it’ll be difficult to track them any further, but Count Tompkins must be feeling considerable pressure from the search as well.’

She had succeeded in ruining his plan, so he must be absolutely furious.

If he had a mole within the Union, he would soon find out that it was Count Owen Namoi who had warned them about the triticale.

By now, Tompkins might be grinding his teeth in frustration, or perhaps plotting some other scheme.

“Still, I have to do what I need to do.”

Pesha slapped both her cheeks and stood up.

“Cheap, cheap! Fresh green beans brought in from the Challeom Territory!”

“Try some oat bread! Freshly baked, warm oat bread!”

Swapro’s commercial district was bustling.

Standing in the middle of it, Pesha kept looking around as she walked down the main street, looking suspicious enough that anyone could tell something was up.

Her maid Brie followed closely behind her, panting for breath.

“M-My lady! You can’t go so far ahead like that!”

Recently, Pesha had often become lost in thought on her own, and her personal maids were deeply worried about her.

Among them, Brie had been preparing to go out, intending to find some of the sweets her lady used to enjoy, when she was caught by Pesha, whose eyes had suddenly lit up.

“You’re going out? Perfect. Lend me some of your clothes, too.”

Brie, who had been about to prepare a carriage accompanied by guards, was horrified by the words she never could have imagined hearing.

However, there was no way to stop her lady, who was determined to see the market for herself.

While Brie caught her breath, Pesha spotted something and began looking over the stalls.

“Oh my, Brie. Look at this.”

Passing the vegetable seller’s booming cries and the savory smell of freshly baked bread, Pesha stopped in front of a stall covered in all sorts of miscellaneous goods.

Perhaps it was an accessory stall. Bracelets made by threading rough gemstones onto string, necklaces with beads held in place by leather cords, and various other things were lined up.

What caught her eye the most was a pair of silver earrings set with amber-brown glass.

“For glass, that color really does look just like brandy.”

Pesha picked up the earrings and admired them softly.

The cut was a little crude, but they had a surprisingly convincing appearance as jewelry.

And that was what made them so strange. In a poor market where vegetable carts sold green beans and celery and bakeries baked cheap oat bread, these glass accessories looked remarkably well-made for something being sold at a street stall.

But the moment the merchant heard Pesha’s muttering, he flew into a rage.

“Glass?! Miss, those are fighting words if anyone hears you!”

“Huh?”

“What glassworker could possibly make colored glass this intricate? These earrings are real. They’re set with genuine topaz.”

“Genuine topaz?”

At that, Pesha’s eyes widened.

Most topaz available on the market had a colorless, transparent appearance.

With its clarity and brilliance looking quite similar to those of a diamond to the naked eye, topaz was a gemstone often used as a substitute for diamonds.

As such, colored topaz was comparatively rare.

And rarity meant a higher price, which……

Pesha found it strange.

There was no reason for colored topaz to be lying around on a street stall in this remote, quiet eastern territory, especially in a place where the financial state of the Count’s castle was common knowledge.

As she examined the earrings in her hand again, tilting her head in puzzlement, the merchant added, as though he had been wronged,

“Ah, I’m telling you, they’re real! A miner I know dug them up along with emeralds while mining near the Abyss! Miss, you must be from another territory, but Swapro makes its living off minerals. Why would I lie about it?”

“Hmm.”

“If you’re not going to buy it, don’t take up space. Move along!”

Pesha pondered with an uncertain expression before calling for Brie.

“Brie, pay for these earrings.”

“You’re buying them?”

Brie looked thoroughly distrustful, as though she didn’t believe the merchant’s story either, but she took out her money pouch at Pesha’s command.

“Oh, thank you! Thank you, my lady!”

Pesha’s face immediately brightened. She left the merchant, who was bowing politely behind her, and walked on, rolling the earrings around in her hand.

If these really were topaz, it was even more surprising that they weren’t as expensive as she had expected.

“Gemstones……”

There was a reason people didn’t abandon a place where most of the land was polluted and farming was impossible.

Surprisingly, Swapro’s specialty was gemstones.

‘The problem was that the polluted land meant the production volume wasn’t all that high.’

Things improved considerably once Io purified the mining areas.

She vaguely remembered that they had done some kind of business with the gemstones whose production had increased that way, but she couldn’t quite remember what it was.

That was only natural. In the original story, most of the focus had been on the abuse Io suffered, her abilities, and the process of purifying the polluted land, so Swapro’s sources of funding and business ventures hadn’t played a particularly large role.

‘Besides, increasing mineral production without a purification mage is impossible.’

It was something only Io, who had received the protagonist’s full blessing, could accomplish. With the information she had now, it was completely unusable to her—a true case of something being tantalizingly within sight yet out of reach.

Brie, who had paid for the earrings and caught up with Pesha, glanced at the topaz earrings several times before speaking.

“Are those earrings really topaz?”

“Who knows? Even if that merchant was lying, the technique used to color the glass so delicately is worth preserving.”

Pesha slipped the earrings into the pouch Brie was carrying and continued,

“More importantly, I can’t believe the ‘Emeralds of the Abyss’ are actually real.”