Madam and the Stable Keeper (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
“Really?”
Edith pressed her lips together to suppress her joy. Otherwise, she was certain she’d let out a strange exclamation.
If this suspicious stablehand helped her, she felt she could escape the mansion as early as tomorrow.
“I’ll make sure you don’t regret your decision, Walter.”
She leaned her face, brimming with delight, slightly closer to him. Like her lavish dress, her delicate violet-hued necklace and earrings trembled lightly. Her clear, shimmering eyes sparkled with unmistakable happiness.
For a moment, Walter felt as if time had slowed—but then snapped back to reality.
“Please get on the horse first.”
Edith, who had previously ignored Hans’s suggestion to mount a horse, felt no resistance when Walter made the same request. He was an ally.
Following the habits from her childhood, she attempted to mount the horse but paused briefly. She’d never worn a dress with such a voluminous hem before and couldn’t quite figure out how to place her foot.
“Just a moment.”
“…!”
Walter quickly double-checked that no one was around, then gently lifted Edith onto the saddle.
Feeling his firm arms and chest lift her effortlessly, and sensing his warm body heat, Edith momentarily held her breath.
A scent like a rain-drenched deep forest emanated from Walter—a fragrance she was certain she’d smelled before.
‘Whenever Isaac held me, it always smelled exactly like this.’
Whether it was an extension of her mistaken belief that they resembled each other, or simply because they’d both just walked through a rain-soaked garden, Walter carried the same scent.
“We have somewhere to stop by today, so I’ll explain while we’re moving.”
Walter grasped the reins and began walking ahead toward the western garden of the mansion. Edith, seated sideways on the saddle, felt the horse’s gentle gait and asked,
“Walter, is there anything I should know to help you?”
“Something you should know…”
It was a distant sort of question. Walter hesitated briefly, weighing how much to reveal and how much to conceal, then answered.
“The viscount holds two weaknesses of mine. One is my memory, the other is a damn binding spell.”
“Memory and a binding spell?”
Walter explained that the viscount had brought him to the estate as a stablehand when he was around fifteen, and that when he’d awakened in a cottage on the viscount’s grounds, all his prior memories had vanished.
“I remembered nothing at all, and my clothes had already been changed by the viscount—so there was no chance I had any belongings on me.”
“So you have amnesia?”
“Officially, yes. But the viscount always claimed he could restore my memories.”
Edith listened intently. If someone claimed they could restore lost memories, it probably wasn’t mere amnesia—it sounded more like magic.
“Nicholas said he needed something specific to do it, and that I should just wait until he found it…”
“And instead, he came back and found you in a coma.”
Walter gave a grim nod, as if chewing something bitter.
“The binding spell, as the name suggests, confines its target to a specific area. When I was first brought here, some kind of spell was cast on me, and I’ve been unable to leave the estate grounds ever since.”
“…Since you were a child?”
“It’s been about seven years now.”
“Good heavens.”
Edith couldn’t help but let her sympathy show.
She herself had only been kidnapped for less than a week and already felt like going mad—seven years was unimaginable.
“Well, I’ve done my best to serve faithfully as an employee, pleasing my master and the ladies. So even though I’m like a colt with a tight tether, I’d say it’s been somewhat fulfilling.”
“…”
Pleasing them? Knowing that Walter had thrown himself into sword training and even lunged at the viscount, Edith was utterly baffled. She gave a hollow, spiritless nod of agreement.
“That’s right. I suppose you did find a kind of fulfillment.”
Walter let out a short laugh at her expression.
“I didn’t expect you’d sympathize with me this much.”
“Well…”
“I made the choice to protect my memories, so it doesn’t matter. Even if you think it’s a terrible decision.”
Walter replied dismissively. He’d heard the exact same question countless times from other servants at the viscount’s estate, including Cassius.
“Walter, if you focus solely on breaking through the barrier, you’ll accomplish far more than if you keep worrying about your memories. Wouldn’t it be better to escape this place, forget everything, and start a new life?”
It was all perfectly reasonable advice. Walter himself sometimes found it absurd that he clung so stubbornly to his memories while sparing the very man who’d ruined his life.
But Edith’s response was slightly different from what he’d expected.
“I don’t think it’s a terrible decision. Memories—especially childhood ones—can be the very force that keeps a person going.”
She’d drawn strength from her own childhood memories when she’d lost her parents, when she’d had to stay up late working at the clinic and then open a book to study, and even after being sold off to the viscount’s estate without understanding why, only to be dragged into Sophia’s sordid pregnancy scheme.
Her gentle father, always confined to his sickbed, and her strong-willed mother. Isaac and Madam Leah, who had appeared like a sudden summer shower one day and then vanished just as quickly…
“…”
When she finished speaking, she sensed Walter’s gaze fixed intently on her face. Worried she might have offended him, she quickly added,
“I don’t mean it’s a flaw not to have childhood memories. But enduring pain to protect precious memories—that’s not a choice just anyone could make.”
“…”
Instead of replying, Walter merely raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem inclined to contradict her generous assessment that it wasn’t a choice anyone could easily make.
“In any case, there are two things I need you to do, my lady. First, retrieve the binding spell’s release incantation scroll, which the viscount has hidden somewhere.”
“If I get that, you can leave the estate?”
“Binding spells always come paired with a release scroll—like a lock and its key. Second, tell me who you are—the person the viscount kidnapped.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Given that the viscount had gone out claiming he’d retrieve something to restore Walter’s memories and had returned with Edith, it made sense he’d want to learn something about her.
But as she listened, a nagging thought struck her.
‘The timing of Walter’s capture lines up almost exactly with when Isaac left for his hometown.’
The trail of the boy she’d secretly admired and Walter’s past fit together with uncanny precision.
If only their eye colors weren’t so distinctly different, she might have been convinced Isaac himself had been captured by the viscount.
“We’ll stop here for a moment.”
Walter tied the horse briefly to a tree and helped Edith dismount.
She scanned her surroundings, but aside from a small cottage, there was nothing remarkable enough to halt their journey.
“Is this the place you mentioned we needed to stop by?”
Walter gave a small nod and asked,
“Hans’s task today was to bring you to that cottage. You must already know that Sophia considers him her loyal servant.”
“Yeah. Last time, Hans tried to follow Sophia’s orders too.”
Of course, after you mercilessly crushed his hand, Hans only pretends to obey Sophia while actually listening to you now. Edith kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.
“He apparently heard it from another stablehand: Our ever-busy Butler Whitman borrowed a horse earlier today, supposedly to inspect the western garden around this time.”
Though Edith couldn’t grasp the full meaning of his words, she could plainly sense how deeply Walter despised the butler.
“For your information, our esteemed Butler Whitman is secretly colluding with Madam Sophia behind the master’s back.”
“…?!”
“Whitman is, in fact, the only person in this mansion willing to risk his life to protect Sophia—so he’s probably coming here personally to keep an eye on you.”
Edith’s mouth fell slightly open. Her head spun from the shocking revelation she’d just heard.
“Sophia is having an affair with the butler…?”
“Her greed and drive are certainly impressive, but unfortunately, she’s not quite smart enough to manage both the Portrion estate and the merchant guild entirely on her own.”
“…”
“Whitman never truly recognized the foolish Nicholas Portrion as his master from the beginning, so the two of them decided to join forces and swallow the entire Portrion house whole.”
“…Good lord.”
“Sophia has to play the part of a virtuous wife to avoid suspicion from the other ladies, so they meet in secret—but still.”
“Walter, stop.”
Edith cut him off. This man seemed to quietly enjoy her shock; if she didn’t interrupt, he’d likely go on reciting exactly where and how the two committed their affair.
‘How on earth does he know all this?’
She knew Walter’s information network far surpassed that of an ordinary servant—but this was genuinely shocking.
If she could expose the fact that Sophia was sleeping with another man, especially the butler who had sworn loyalty to the viscount, it would surely derail Sophia’s inheritance plans. But right now, she felt more disgust than anything else.
“…That’s useful information. Anyway, what do you mean the butler’s coming here to watch over me?”
Walter glanced toward the horizon and led Edith into the cottage. It didn’t take him long to lock the door and shut the wooden shutter.
“Every day, Sophia gives the men she sends to you the same order.”
“…”
“Whitman is coming to check whether those men are faithfully carrying out their… duties with you.”
Edith swallowed hard. Fear stiffened her expression—hiding suspiciously like this might expose them completely.
“Walter, first things first—we need to make sure the butler doesn’t see your face… No, if we hide, he’ll just find it suspicious and force his way in.”
What should they do? Edith felt like biting her nails in frustration. Just as Walter had said, someone was rapidly approaching from beyond the horizon.
Walter watched Edith’s panicked, darting eyes for a moment, then made a suggestion.
“If we’re going to deceive him, we’ll have to act so convincingly that the butler won’t even dare open the door.”
“What kind of act…?”
Surely not. Edith’s face flushed crimson as Walter calmly said,
“Well, perhaps the stablehand should pretend—out of pure foolishness—to be coveting his lady.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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