My Husband Lives Inside a Painting – Chapter 32

Author: isuzuuy

As our conversation dragged on, I glanced around, looking for a moment to catch my breath.

“Did you deliberately pretend not to know Young Master Noah Pistachio at the banquet?”

“Pardon?”

Rather than answering, I nodded toward the newspaper beside him.

The front page was dominated by a huge headline about Gail’s embezzlement of supplies.

Instead of focusing on his disappearance, the article centered on the embezzlement, suggesting that he had deliberately fled under cover of darkness.

“……Ah, Gail Pistachio.”

His subdued voice made it sound as though he would rather not have another man brought up in our conversation.

That, too, irritated me. The man was already dead.

“Weren’t the two of you close friends?”

“Well, we were on fairly good terms. But we weren’t close enough to share every last detail of our family affairs.”

“I see.”

A lie. He was the very man who had taken Anne-Marie away the last time.

However, since the illegal adoptions were a secret to the public, I calmly pretended to know nothing and dangled the bait.

“Still, I can’t help feeling that everyone is judging Count Pistachio too harshly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not everyone can live like a saint, can they?”

“……”

“Doesn’t everyone have at least one little secret they can’t tell anyone about?”

I was fairly confident in my acting, but just in case my nerves showed, I lowered my gaze to my teacup.

“……I never expected you to say something like that, Madam.”

As a result, I failed to notice the gleam of interest in the marquess’s eyes.

“Are you disappointed because I’m different from what you imagined?”

“You are different. But I find that all the more appealing.”

When I slowly raised my head, Pagoda’s upper body was leaning a little farther forward than before.

He grinned and muttered to himself.

“I think I’m beginning to understand why Belladonna chose you.”

“……Pardon?”

Belladonna?

Why was he bringing her up here?

After a long pause, the marquess abruptly skipped ahead in the conversation as he pleased.

“Young Count Gail Pistachio was actually involved in illegal adoptions as well. Did you know that?”

At his sudden confession, I nearly let my guard down.

I barely managed to regain my composure, then asked with an innocent expression,

“I didn’t know. He did that?”

“Yes. Apparently, he arranged adoptions for over two hundred children.”

“Adoptions.”

“That’s what they called them, but in reality, it was no different from buying and selling children.”

“……”

My expression gradually hardened.

Aside from the Imperial Investigation Bureau, I was also tracking down those involved in the illegal adoptions. Yet there were no records anywhere of the missing children.

……Had I overlooked something?

How did the marquess know about this?

“That’s certainly unexpected.”

I finally managed to part my dry lips.

I kept the emotions surging inside me firmly buried, making sure that neither my tension nor my shock showed on the surface.

Then I found the most appropriate question I could think of.

“I had no idea there were so many people in the Empire looking to adopt children illegally.”

“Hahahaha!”

That was when he suddenly burst into laughter.

Throwing his head back, Pagoda shook with laughter, as though I had just told the funniest joke imaginable.

My lips had stiffened into an awkward smile, while he alone laughed as if he were about to choke. A strange, disconcerting atmosphere filled the room.

“Ah…… You really are so naive, Madam.”

“Pardon?”

“Why would you assume that two hundred children meant there had to be two hundred customers?”

After laughing for a long while, he spoke again, pouring cold water over the already oppressive atmosphere.

“Half of them were adopted by a single person, Madam.”

“……What does that—”

“Would you like me to tell you who it was?”

I wanted to know.

But there was something terribly strange about his gaze. It was like looking into the eyes of a murderer just before he drew his knife.

“……It was—”

It felt as though a heavy lump of lead had been placed on my chest, squeezing the breath from my lungs. I had the urge to cover my ears before I could hear his answer.

But before I could make that decision, Pagoda released the taut string himself.

“I’m joking, Madam.”

“……”

“Rather than such a tedious topic, I’d much rather focus on our conversation right now.”

***

Pagoda talked endlessly about trivial matters, from his hobbies to nearby attractions and fine dining.

It was less a conversation than a one-man performance in which I occasionally played along.

He certainly puts a lot of effort into talking about things I don’t even care about.

As I endured the meaningless noise, time passed against my will. Before I knew it, the sunset had spread across the sky outside the window.

“Oh, that reminds me. You said you wanted to see the mansion, didn’t you?”

At Pagoda’s words, I finally perked up.

Seizing the opportunity, I answered as though I had been waiting for him to bring it up.

“Yes. Your mansion is truly beautiful. I’ve also noticed precious collectibles here and there.”

“I’m glad it suits your taste, Madam. Unlike ignorant people like Gail, I have a deep appreciation for art.”

“……I see.”

“Shall we get up, then?”

With Pagoda, who spoke so casually of the dead, acting as my guide, I toured his mansion.

It was filled with expensive crafts and famous paintings, but none of the evidence I was looking for could be found.

Even so, I needed to buy more time, so I continued pretending to take an interest in the collections he showed me.

“Is there a particular field you’re especially knowledgeable about?”

“If I had to choose, I’d say music.”

“Music? That’s unexpected. I didn’t see any instruments among the things you showed me……”

“Ah, I have a separate room where I keep them.”

That final remark in our otherwise dry conversation piqued my curiosity.

He’s that serious about music? Enough to have an entire room dedicated to it?

As though he had been waiting for the faint curiosity in my eyes, Pagoda let a crooked smile spread across his lips.

“Would you like to see it?”

“……Me?”

“Yes. Camille has been there before, too. Though it seems it wasn’t to his taste.”

At last, the name I had been searching for came from his mouth.

But there was no way to know whether he was telling the truth or simply trying to lure me in.

“I’ve prepared a listening room. Shall we head there?”

“……You must really enjoy listening to music.”

“Haha! Of course. You could say it’s the only pleasure in my life.”

The moment he opened the door, an unnaturally cluttered scene unfolded before me.

……A gramophone?

There were none of the instruments one would expect to find, such as violins or pianos. Instead, gramophones of all shapes and sizes had taken over the room in a bizarre display.

But something else was even stranger: the uneasy, restless reactions of the servants who had silently followed us inside.

“I have a hobby of collecting beautiful sounds. And as you know, I’m also quite partial to beautiful women.”

“……”

“Then can you guess what these two things have in common, Madam?”

Pagoda picked up a palm-sized orb resting beside a gramophone.

It was a magic-powered orb used with gramophones, and it seemed that ‘something’ had been recorded inside it.

Deliberately avoiding his question, I asked another.

“……Is that the only orb you’ve recorded yourself?”

“Of course not. My ‘collection’ is much larger. There are plenty more inside.”

“……”

Even as my heart pounded as though it might burst, I scanned the room for somewhere Anne-Marie might have been kept captive.

But I couldn’t find her.