The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 62

“That you’ll be managing the overall finances of the family from now on. He’ll probably report to you about the family’s financial situation within this week.”

Thud.

Giselle, who was about to scoop some pudding, dropped it on the table and opened her eyes wide.

“Why that expression? It’s not like you’re hearing this for the first time.”

“Ah, of course not. It’s just that…”

She had already heard about being in charge of managing the Taylor family’s finances. But hearing it again the day after the official wedding ceremony felt different.

“…It just made me realize that we’ve really become a married couple.”

“You’re only now feeling that we’ve become a couple?”

Lucas laughed as if he found her words amusing. Then he leaned forward from his position leaning against the sofa’s backrest and beckoned to Giselle with his finger.

“……?”

Thinking he might have something important to say suddenly, Giselle leaned towards him with a serious expression. Then Lucas spoke in a low voice.

“I guess I should have tried harder.”

“Pardon?”

“Last night, I mean. I thought I did my best as a ‘husband’.”

“……!”

“Yet my wife felt we became a couple here at this table, not in bed.”

Is it wealth rather than her husband’s body? Lucas added with a hint of laughter in his tone.

“My pride as a man is seriously hurt… I’ll try harder tonight. You can look forward to it, wife.”

“Wh-what do you mean look forward… Oh, stop teasing me!”

Giselle, hearing his words, stood up with her face bright red. Her tightly clenched fist trembled as if it might hit him at any moment.

Not that it posed any threat to Lucas, of course.

* * *

“Really, how can he say such embarrassing things from the morning…”

“Ahem, ahem.”

As Giselle was muttering to herself while going down the stairs, she heard the butler’s repeated throat-clearing. Only then did she realize that she had spoken aloud what she should have only thought in her mind.

“Ah…”

Giselle’s face turned red as she stopped in her tracks, flustered. Just as the head maid following her was about to change the subject to ease her embarrassment, something small came bouncing up the stairs from below.

“Meow.”

“Elizabeth!”

Giselle’s face brightened at the sight of the cat. She quickly bent down and picked up the cat in her arms.

“Oh my, you’ve become quite heavy. Have you been eating a lot of delicious food and gained weight?”

“Meow.”

The cat meowed discontentedly as if it understood her comment about gaining weight. Yet it seemed to enjoy being in Giselle’s arms and rubbed its face against her arm.

“Madam, let me hold it.”

The maid hurriedly spoke up, seeing cat hair quickly sticking to Giselle’s dress. But Giselle shook her head with a smile.

“No, it’s fine. I was just saying that, it’s not really heavy.”

Moreover, thanks to the cat, she was able to avoid the embarrassing situation from earlier.

She adjusted her hold on the cat and went down the stairs. The employees gathered in the first-floor hall bowed politely when they saw her.

“These are all the employees in the mansion, Madam. This is the underbutler, Fitz Wendel…”

Bushin began introducing the employees one by one, standing next to her. Giselle made eye contact with each person introduced and greeted them, mentioning their names one by one.

With so many employees, it would be impossible to memorize all their names at once, but she intended to remember as many as possible.

“And this is Dr. Albert Fernan, the Taylor family’s physician. His father was also the physician for the previous head of the family.”

“It’s not our first meeting… but I’m formally greeting you again. I’m Fernan, Madam. I’m the family physician in name, but I could say I’m mostly idle. Master Lucas has such a robust constitution, you see.”

Haha. Fernan laughed cheerfully as he joked. His attitude seemed a bit frivolous for addressing the mistress of the house, causing Bushin to swallow hard with an “Ugh.”

But Giselle smiled naturally and spoke to him.

“It’s good to see you again, Dr. Fernan. Thanks to your good treatment last time, the wound healed well without leaving a scar.”

“I’m really glad to hear that. Ah! Still, just in case, may I examine the wound site again? No, why don’t you have a full check-up?”

“Let’s do that.”

She nodded with another smile towards him, then continued to be introduced to the other employees. At the very end, she caught a glimpse of her nanny wiping her wet eyes with a moved expression.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll do well.’

Giselle muttered inwardly towards her nanny, then made another resolution in her heart.

As the mistress of the Taylor family, no, even beyond that, she wanted to live up to the trust Lucas had placed in her.

「I never invest in anything that’s not worth investing in.」

The voice of the man who had completely changed her life echoed in her ears once again.

* * *

“Wow…”

Giselle hurriedly suppressed the exclamation that was about to escape involuntarily. She thought she couldn’t show an undignified appearance in front of the employees.

Of course, the exclamation she had let out as soon as she opened the door and entered had already been fully heard by Bushin.

He didn’t want to embarrass the lovely ‘Madam’ by pointing out that fact.

“How do you find it, Madam? If there’s anything you don’t like or if there’s anything you’d like to add to the study, please let me know anytime.”

Therefore, what he chose was to ‘pretend not to have heard.’

“No, it’s sufficient. It’s truly a wonderful library.”

Fortunately, Giselle didn’t notice the butler’s skilled handling. Thinking she hadn’t been caught showing an undignified appearance to the butler, she let out a sigh of relief and looked around the library with a more relaxed expression.

To be more precise, it should be called a library-slash-study.

‘My own private library.’

It was her own space that she had never had before. Giselle, thinking she shouldn’t lose her dignity, started looking around the room with what she thought was a dignified expression, but soon became excited and began examining various parts of the bookshelves.

Bushin stood to one side with his hands behind his back, watching her with a pleased smile.

‘What a lovely and pure person she is.’

A hint of sadness suddenly spread across his wrinkled lips.

The one who should have seen this sight was trapped in a hospital room no different from a prison, unable to see anything.

“Ah! These books here…”

Just as he was about to sink into thought, Giselle’s voice was heard again. Bushin tried to bury the heavy guilt in a corner of his heart and looked at her.

Her expression brightened as she pulled out one of the books shelved on one side of the bookcase.

She opened the book and read the preface as if she couldn’t believe it, then muttered in a moved voice.

“Goodness. I never thought I’d see Rutberd Enisel’s ‘History’ here. This book has been out of print for a long time, it must not have been easy to obtain.”

“It was a book that Master Lucas specifically mentioned.”

“…Lucas did?”

“Yes, Madam. He specifically asked me to obtain it, and I’m truly glad that you’re so pleased with it.”

Bushin smiled broadly with a satisfied expression. Giselle felt a bit embarrassed and slightly pursed her lips, fiddling with the corner of the book.

「Do you like Rutberd Enisel’s books? They might be difficult for a freshman to read.」

‘When was that?’

It must have been shortly after she had enrolled. When everything was still unfamiliar, yet fascinating.

She had rushed to the library after overhearing that Rutberd Enisel’s ‘History’ was in the academy’s collection.

…And there, she encountered Lucas.

The man who had reached over her head to retrieve a book from the upper shelf while she was struggling to reach it.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t that the first time I saw him?’

Although she had known of Lucas’s existence as he was a famous figure, it seemed that was the first time they had directly faced each other and conversed.

‘But back then, he probably didn’t even know my name.’

He only knew that she was a freshman.

“…But he remembered this book? He’s remembered our conversation from that day all this time?”

Giselle inadvertently thought aloud. Then, belatedly realizing the butler’s presence, she flinched and turned to look at him.

“……”

Bushin, who had been smiling gently, cleared his throat and changed the subject when their eyes met.

“By the way, would it be alright if I prepare a report on the overall financial situation of the family for you?”

“Hmm… No, there’s no need to do the work twice. I’ll look into it directly myself.”

“But that would mean you’d have to review a large amount, Madam. There are many businesses under the family name as well.”

“It’s fine. Despite appearances, I’ve been working under that man, Lucas, without getting fired for quite some time.”

Giselle, touched by the butler’s concern, unconsciously relaxed and added a joke. Bushin’s eyes widened, and he burst into laughter.

“I hadn’t considered that, Madam. Then, I’ll bring the financial ledgers right away. Shall I bring the most recent records first?”

“That would be best. Thank you, Bushin.”

At Giselle’s words, Bushin bowed his head and turned around. She watched him leave for a moment, and when the door closed, she let out a big sigh.

“Whew…”

Giselle lightly brushed her flushed cheeks with her hand, then approached a nearby sofa and sat down, fiddling with the book she was holding again.

“He’s such an unpredictable man, really.”

He looked like someone who wouldn’t bleed even if pricked with a needle — and indeed, he was an employer known for his cold rationality — but since deciding to marry, he often showed unexpected behavior like this.

…In ways that subtly touched her heart.

“Meow.”

At that moment, the cat that had followed her into the study meowed. Giselle’s gaze shifted from the book in her hand to the cat.