The Strongest Man’s Fake Wife Wants to Live Chapter 22

After dismounting, Owen handed the reins he had been holding to the stableman.

During the week he had spent on inspection, he had lived more or less like a man sleeping rough in the borderlands, checking the fortresses and ramparts and reducing the increased number of monsters.

Since it was a place where a battle could break out at any moment, he had no choice but to remain constantly on edge, day and night.

After staying on guard continuously and finally arriving back at the castle, he felt as though he could finally breathe.

As he rubbed his shoulders and entered the castle, the first person who came to mind was his wife.

The last time he had seen her, a week ago. She had been busily darting around the castle with her small frame, but her busy schedule had not been enough to hide the worry cast over her face.

She had clearly been lost in thought or troubled by something, and that dark expression had lingered in Owen’s mind throughout the entire inspection.

In the end, he decided to shorten his schedule, which he had originally expected to last another three or four days, and return early.

“Whew, our lord really has stamina. After practically staying up all night for a whole week, you could at least take your time coming home.”

His adjutant, Rebecca Bates, who had followed behind him, joked around, but he didn’t hear her.

Ignoring even the servant who approached to take his cloak, Owen headed straight for the second floor, where Pesha was staying.

He couldn’t help it.

That was what his wife had always been to him.

Because she had so blatantly disliked the idea of marrying a count who had come from the lowly ranks of mercenaries, he had tried to refrain from approaching her or speaking with her more than necessary.

He didn’t want to place an even greater burden on a wife who had been forced into marriage by an imperial order.

However, once anxiety opened a floodgate in his mind like this, it was difficult to control.

He felt that he wouldn’t be able to relax until he saw Pesha’s face and knew she was all right.

Without even thinking of an excuse or a reason for coming, he hurried upstairs, only to find Jane standing restlessly in the middle of the second-floor corridor.

It was in front of the laboratory Pesha had recently said she was turning into a study and multipurpose room.

“Jane.”

As Owen watched him suspiciously while he busily paced back and forth in front of Pesha’s laboratory, Jane belatedly noticed Owen as well.

“L-Lord.”

“What are you doing there?”

“Have you just returned? You must be exhausted. I’ll take you to your room……”

“Is something wrong with Pesha?”

“W-What?”

Jane swallowed dryly and shifted his eyes uneasily. Unable to withstand Owen’s sharp gaze, he finally opened his mouth.

“Actually, my lady said she was researching something and shut herself in there. She hasn’t come out.”

“What?”

“I even tried getting the maids she brought from House Rydell to help me get her out, but she didn’t respond at all……. I heard she’s already skipped several meals, too.”

Leaving the troubled Jane behind, Owen stood in front of the laboratory door and knocked.

“Wife.”

“…….”

“Let me see you for a moment. Are you all right?”

“…….”

“You can just show me your face. You need to eat, don’t you?”

Still, there was no answer from Pesha.

Sensing something was wrong, Owen lowered his voice even further.

“Wife, I’m coming in.”

The moment he turned the doorknob, the laboratory door suddenly flew open at the same time.

At once, a rabbit and a chicken came flapping out, startling the life out of everyone before quickly scampering away.

Pesha appeared right behind them.

Dark circles had sunk all the way down to her jaw.

“I did it.”

With her haggard face, she spoke such a nonsensical statement that she genuinely looked like a mad scientist.

“Wife.”

“I really succeeded…….”

Even when he tried to properly grasp the situation, it was difficult to understand what was happening.

“You said you succeeded. What do you mean?”

Pesha, who had been staring down at her own hands, suddenly whipped her head up and explained to Owen with wild, gleaming eyes.

“A potion that can treat wounds and purify them at the same time!”

There were already aura purification potions and wound-healing potions on the market, but the two types of medicine were rarely used together.

That was because once wound-healing ingredients were added, the purification power weakened drastically.

But a medicine that preserved both effects at once?

It was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.

“There’s no way something like that is possible……”

“IcrossbredapurificationplantthatdoesntrequireaspecialgrowingenvironmentwithahealingplantbecausethepurificationplantwasanorchidIsoughttheorchidspeciesamongthehealingherbsandcrossbredthemartificiallythenextractedonlytheadvantagesofeachandturnedthemintoapotionIexperimentedonrabbitsandchickenswhoseliveshadbeenscheduledtobeendedbecauseofaura contaminationAndas you can see from them just running out, it was a success.”

Even after Pesha finished explaining, Owen still wore a blank expression, unable to return to his senses, so she drove the point home.

“So, with this medicine, the people of the territory don’t have to die anymore.”

“…….”

Owen slowly looked Pesha up and down with bewildered eyes.

She looked much more haggard and thinner than she had only a week ago.

Even putting the medicine aside, she looked as though she might collapse before she could finish making it, so Owen couldn’t bring himself to rejoice even though an alternative to the aura contamination problem had appeared.

At that moment, Adjutant Rebecca Bates, who had been watching the situation from behind, joined the conversation.

“My lady, what are you planning to do with that medicine now?”

“Obviously, I’m going to distribute it throughout the territory and commercialize it for sale. But there’s a problem.”

“A problem?”

“There’s nowhere in the territory to plant the herbs that are ingredients for this medicine.”

“What?”

“The castle garden is already saturated with Iceberg, and since varying degrees of contamination have spread throughout the territory, cultivating purification plants that are already weak in their ability to reproduce will be difficult.”

Owen, who had been seriously looking at Pesha’s gaunt, half-emaciated face, let out a short sigh.

If he wanted to make her rest, he felt he had to at least pretend to solve this problem first.

“If what we need to plant is a purification plant, there should be a way to purify the land by planting it.”

“Unfortunately, this one only has the ability to purify wounds. There are plants that can purify the land when planted, but their power is weak, and the land has already been devastated for far too long, so it won’t be easy.”

It was another dead end.

Then Owen came up with a simple answer.

“Then let’s buy it.”

“Buy it?”

“If we’re going to commercialize it anyway, we can leave the procurement of the ingredients to a merchant guild from the very beginning.”

“But will there be a merchant guild willing to take that on? It would have to be fairly large, wouldn’t it……. It would need to be at least as large as the Pontroy Merchant Guild.”

“Pontroy? Wouldn’t the Woods Merchant Guild be larger than that?”

“W-Woods……”

Pesha’s eyes widened.

The Woods Merchant Guild was by far the largest merchant guild in the country in terms of sales, and it was operated by House Clark, Io’s family.

Although Marquis Clark was the villain who tormented Io in the original story, there was no denying the sheer scale of his merchant guild.

“You’re going to send someone to the Woods Merchant Guild in the capital?”

“I’m going myself.”

At Owen’s words that he would go himself, Pesha unconsciously rose onto her toes and brought her face close to his.

“You’re going to see Io?”

“……Io?”

“Ah, ah. The Woods Merchant Guild. If you go to the Woods Merchant Guild, you’re saying you’ll negotiate with Marquis Clark. Right?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

Owen answered somewhat awkwardly, seemingly puzzled by Pesha’s expectant expression.

But whether he did or not, Pesha’s mind had already been dyed pink.

‘The Woods Merchant Guild belongs to Io’s House Clark, so if we go there to negotiate, Owen and Io will run into each other. If the two of them meet and one of them falls for the other, my divorce will become much easier. This is an opportunity. I just have to watch and see if the two of them work out and help keep things from going wrong!’

For the sake of her comfortable future, Pesha was more than willing to become the Cupid between the two of them.

“Then I’m going too!”