“What fishy smell?”

“It smells exactly like fish. Don’t you think so?”

Oh d*mn, what a nose, what the hell.

The trading company didn’t provide separate work clothes, so all our clothes had absorbed the fishy smell of fish within just a few days.

To smell that.

“Carl, since it’s come to this, we need to get the ledger from the deputy director’s hands.”

“Got it. I’ll handle it, so you stay hidden here and don’t move.”

Carl, who earnestly instructed me, walked out alone from behind the boxes with heavy steps.

“What are you?!”

“Why are you crawling out from there? Reveal your identity!”

Since it was night, they didn’t immediately notice Carl’s identity.

But to deal with the unfamiliar intruder, they each pulled out weapons from behind their backs or waists.

No, this is cheating! My bondservant is unarmed!

Carl’s sword that he always carried was hidden tightly under the bed in our dormitory room.

‘If I had known this would happen, I would have brought it……’

No wait. I can bring it now.

After watching Carl start a somewhat disadvantageous fight, I decided to get his sword and crawled on the ground.

It was obvious I wouldn’t be helpful if I jumped in to help.

I went around the outer edge of the deck, got off the ship, and ran frantically to the dormitory.

‘Quickly, quickly!’

I pushed the heavy bed mattress by myself with difficulty and pulled out Carl’s sword hidden underneath.

“Huff, huff……”

I was already exhausted and out of breath just from that, but without resting, I ran back to the ship while clutching the sword to my chest.

In the distance beyond the flickering lights, I could see Carl’s arms being grabbed.

Please let nothing serious happen……!

When I struggled to climb back onto the ship, a man with an axe was approaching the bound Carl.

“It’s the guards! The guards are here!”

I put strength into my voice and shouted loudly. Then the man with the axe hesitated.

“What, what?”

“The guards came?!”

While the deputy director’s group and smugglers’ attention was distracted, I threw the sword toward Carl with all my might.

“Carl, catch it!”

“Sasha!”

Carl called my name with a surprised face and attacked the men who had been holding him, breaking free from his restraints.

Then he quickly picked up the sword I had thrown him. It was a smooth, natural movement.

Shing.

Carl, who had drawn the well-sharpened blade, gave a deadly warning to the men who had been rushing toward me.

“Touch my wife and you die.”

Wi, wife?

Although we had been acting as newlyweds all along, this was the first time such a direct term came from Carl’s mouth.

I was always the one saying husband this and that.

‘Why does it feel embarrassing when Carl calls me that……?’

I could feel my cheeks turning red. Fortunately, it was a dark night so it didn’t show much outwardly.

While he took care of the men close to me first, I crawled on the deck again and hid behind the boxes.

Carl with his sword mercilessly brought down his opponents. Wherever he passed, the men screamed and collapsed one by one.

“Ahhh!”

“Urgh!”

“Kheuk!”

How much time had passed? No more sounds could be heard from beyond the boxes.

Still, just in case, I held my breath and stayed still when I heard heavy footsteps approaching me.

“Sasha.”

Carl, who had moved the boxes above, stuck his head out and looked down at me.

I, who had been crouching, quickly raised my face. The soft moonlight illuminated his sharp features.

“Carl! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, you can come out.”

I approached Carl with legs that were shaking from released tension. I widened my eyes seeing the blood on his shirt.

“What, are you hurt?!”

“It’s not my blood.”

“Ah, then it’s fine.”

I let out a sigh of relief while glancing at the men sprawled on the deck.

“Um…… are they, dead?”

“Do you think I’d want to be arrested for murder?”

“Phew, I worried for nothing.”

Carl, who had been watching me wipe the cold sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, held out the ledger.

“Here, what you mentioned.”

“Ah……! Thanks, Carl.”

As I received the deputy director’s ledger, my eyebrows drooped downward.

“Only you suffered because of me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Carl, who replied nonchalantly, soon pulled up the corner of his mouth in a grin.

“As a husband, it’s natural to fulfill my wife’s wishes.”

“……!”

The hand holding the ledger trembled slightly. My ears grew hot.

I glared at his mischievous handsome face and shot back irritably.

“You, you…… you’re teasing me, right?”

“I’m not though?”

Carl replied cheekily while slightly bending his waist to peer at my face.

“If you really want me to call you wife, I’ll call you wife instead of master when we’re alone from now on.”

“It’s, it’s fine?!”

Flustered by the suddenly shortened distance, I stepped back hesitantly. I turned my body halfway around and said.

“Let’s just hurry back.”

“We should. Your hair color is returning to normal, wife.”

Carl reached out and stroked my hair. The hair flowing through his fingers and falling out was gradually changing from brown to silver.

It seemed more than 12 hours had passed since I drank the magic potion.

“Gasp, really? Since we finished our business anyway, let’s just pack our things and go.”

“Alright.”

We left the fallen men on the deck as they were and escaped.

***

The next day, House Roben was turned upside down. It was because of a report that came up from the trading company based in the east.

“What? Not only were they attacked last night and caught smuggling, but the ledger was stolen too?”

The viscount looked at his aide with a dumbfounded face. The aide, who had received an urgent letter from the trading company, nodded while sweating.

“They say spies disguised as newlyweds infiltrated the trading company. When they checked in the morning, they had already packed and left.”

“D*mn it!”

Viscount Roben roughly slammed the desk. His head was already aching because of his sister who wasn’t keeping her promise, and now the trading company was causing trouble too, so he couldn’t help but be angry.

Another letter arrived for him as he fumed. It was from Gwen Sharofe.

「No matter what you say, brother, I’ve decided to pass the family and territory to Shailyn.

If you have complaints, come down to the county. You’d better come. Otherwise you’ll regret it.」

“Gwen, this ungrateful thing……!”

Thinking his sister had stabbed him in the back, the viscount left for the county in anger.

Of course, he didn’t forget to give orders to find the spies named ‘Carl’ and ‘Sasha’ and recover the ledger first.

‘You shouldn’t look down on me, Gwen. I’m not the same as before.’

Viscount Roben’s eyes flashed.

Since he was going to the county anyway, he planned to thoroughly scold his sister so she could never again say anything about passing everything to her stepdaughter.

But what greeted him when he arrived at House Sharofe was……

“Hello, Viscount Roben. I’m Shailyn Sharofe.”

It was Shailyn, his sister’s stepdaughter who had been making his sister strangely flustered lately.

In fact, the most legitimate heir of House Sharofe.

“Hah…… Gwen, what are you doing right now? What’s your intention in bringing me together with Lady Sharofe?”

“……You’ll understand if you talk with Shailyn, brother.”

To Viscount Roben’s bewildered question, Gwen, who sat next to Shailyn, answered while completely intimidated.

In Viscount Roben’s memory, the relationship between these two wasn’t like this.

He knew his sister had completely held the upper hand, but the situation unfolding before his eyes was the complete opposite.

The hierarchy between Shailyn, who arrogantly drank tea with her legs crossed, and Gwen, who fidgeted restlessly beside her, was clear.

“Viscount Roben, I understand that mother arbitrarily promised to hand over Sharofe to you. I’m sorry, but could you please cancel it?”

Shailyn smiled sweetly and made a polite request. But naturally, Viscount Roben had no intention of accepting her words.

“Why should I? I know you wrote an agreement with my sister, but I also received a temple vow on my side.”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking you like this, isn’t it? Please just give up while I’m asking nicely.”

At her gentle but somewhat intimidating attitude, Viscount Roben frowned.

“Ha! I heard you’ve been living it up in the capital with Duke Diart’s backing, but this isn’t right.”

He glared with wide eyes and snarled like a growling dog.

“I’m also the head of a family! Thinking I’d cower and retreat at the words of a young lady like you……”

“Would this make you cower a bit?”

Shailyn pulled out a ledger from her bosom with a bright face.