# 49
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"Huh, Chloe? Why are you silent?"
Elizabeth whispered.
It would have been better for Chloe to risk embarrassment than to be involved in an immoral scandal... Right. While she was thinking about this, she decided to walk ten miles.
“I'm fine—”
"Oh my God! Look over there!"
It was Lily Smith's scream that cut through her words first.
Does she still have anything to say?
Chloe looked at her with a look of slight displeasure. Lily Smith seemed to be pointing somewhere, the front door facing the hall.
“There I saw someone! Maybe he came to pick up some wives?”
Upon hearing those words, all the wives turned around. As Lily Smith said, there was a wagon at the front door, and a man standing tall in the snow.
The man who was standing in the distance turned towards the hall, and apparently felt the gazes of the audience directed at him from the window. His identity became clear... he was Erik Aslan!
Oh, my God!
"Oh my God! Lady Aslan! The Marquis has arrived!"
Despite the shouts of the crowd, and even seeing it with her own eyes, Chloe couldn't believe it.
Eric was here!
Maybe there was another reason? Yes...that was a logical conclusion. He only came here to make deals with the royal family, not to pick up Chloe… If Eric was the one meant, then that might be true. However, as if to betray Chloe's thoughts, Eric raised his long legs and began walking.
Shortly after, the hall door opened. After Eric wiped the snow off his coat, he entered the hall.
"I don't know if I've disturbed the ladies' pleasure. I'm Erik Aslan."
The wives were impressed by his warm reception and welcomed him, as did Elizabeth. She ordered a maid to add more firewood to the stove.
"Hurry up! Add more firewood. It's raining like this, and he's walked all the way here! Marquis, are you cold?"
“I'm fine. However, I think it's a good idea to light more fire. By the looks of it, the other wives seem to be pretty cold.”
It is true that many of the wives were wearing their shawls to protect themves from the cold wind that entered the house after Lily Smith opened the window. But they didn't know that Eric would care about them, even Chloe! Therefore, the wives warmly welcomed his kindness, and even began to welcome him with greater enthusiasm.
"By the way, what's going on? Did anything happen at the royal palace?"
After a long greeting, Elizabeth asked Eric a question. Then he looked at Chloe and nodded slowly.
“It's snowing a lot.”
He looked directly at her.
“I came to take my wife.”
Everyone was surprised at once. Didn't they just talk about the Aslan couple's bad relationship? And now, the husband comes to pick up his wife because it was snowing?! Naturally, this only happens to couples who have good marital relations.
Since everyone did not hide their surprise, Eric added an excuse.
“She apparently borrowed the cart and took it out, perhaps out of consideration for me as a husband. On a bad day like this, I can't even ask for a separate cart, so I thought it would make sense to come get it.”
“But the royal family can lend her a carriage!”
Elizabeth said. Eric shook his head.
“As a husband who has always been so considerate of others, I thought she would give up the cart to everyone. What do you think, ma’am? Am I right?”
He turned to Chloe.
Up until that moment, she had been showing her shyness so clearly, she decided she couldn't let the spotlight focus on her any longer. Eric quickly agreed.
“Yes, that's right. You always knew me.”
Perhaps that was a satisfactory answer, Eric laughed softly. Chloe felt very embarrassed because she did not know how to respond to her husband's behavior, but she decided to go along with it for a while. She smiled a smile similar to Eric's.
“Well, if we knew you two would get along so well, a story like this wouldn't have come up before!”
Lily Smith interjected.
Everyone frowned upon hearing her words, as it was customary not to talk to other men about wives' conversations. Although he was fully aware of this matter, Eric asked her with an innocent face as if he knew nothing.
“The story is as it was before, what are you talking about?”
At this point, Lily Smith should have noticed and shut up, but she responded with an indifferent face.
“They said you two quarreled every day. Mrs. Abigail Lyon is there. Her maid was working in both houses or something, though I didn't pay much attention to it. By the way, are there couples without quarrels in the world? Everyone has quarrels, and I didn't say anything because I thought it was something only married people knew about. But the situation of the other wives and the princess was different, so Mrs. Aslan was very upset.”
“...Did you do that?”
After listening carefully to Lily Smith's words, Eric turned his gaze to her. Chloe didn't want to continue talking about this topic, so she tried to end the conversation quickly with a decisive tone.
“I already explained this, so it's okay. Because they all figured out that wasn't true. Right?”
The wives agreed, resulting in Abigail and Elizabeth having their faces ripped off.
"but…!"
Elizabeth raised her voice in a scream.
"Isn't it true that you two are discussing divorce? I'm sure of it! Chloe agreed to this too!"
Hearing those words, he stared at her, and Chloe pulled her chin back before taking a step back. That was a sign that Elizabeth was right. Seeing this, Eric frowned and rubbed his chin. After a long silence, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I would like to quote Mrs. Lily Smith: “There is not a couple in the world who has never discussed divorce. “Everyone experiences a certain amount of disagreements.”
This was an indication that Eric would not divorce Chloe, so people came to the conclusion that the Aslans were simply arguing and divorce had been mentioned, but it was no big deal.
At the same time, they believed that the behavior of Elizabeth and Abigail, who were blaming Chloe all the time, was not right. On the other hand, many wives came to the conclusion that Lily Smith, who did not listen to the rumors, was really the one.
What easy public opinion to influence!
In any case, public opinion changed radically, and Elizabeth and Abigail were forced to retreat without uttering a word.
When he saw them, Eric naturally extended his hand towards Chloe.
"my wife."
Chloe stared at his outstretched hand.
Why, why?
She didn't know why Eric was so kind, braving the snow and coming to pick her up. They were fighting and screaming a few days ago! He even finalized the divorce, but he was changing his mind again.
Chloe was confused and distraught, but now, Eric was a savior when she thought of walking the ten-mile trail alone! Chloe took his hand.
“I'll be back now.”
Eric accompanied Chloe in a courteous manner, and the wives, with the exception of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Lily Smith, bid them an enthusiastic farewell.
* * *
Eric was very upset.
Suppose he is asked why, he will answer with dozens of reasons. The most prominent of which was that things did not agree with his conscience, and that he was trembling at having to compliment the ladies! Even more disturbing was an unexpected situation: Elizabeth and Abigail Lyon were insulting Chloe.
...that foolish woman.
She wouldn't have met them if she hadn't come here in the first place!
Didn't Chloe really know that there were many treasure hunt competitions after her? No, she came here knowingly. To provoke him?!
A bad woman...a cunning woman.
Eric hated Chloe so much, but at the same time, he couldn't bear to see her coming home in all that snow, so he hated himf for coming to pick her up. As soon as he got into the carriage, he whispered to her.
“Didn't I tell you clearly? It's going to snow.”
The words were mixed with a scolding tone. Chloe felt embarrassed and lowered her face.
“Until the morning, the sun was very bright, so I did not expect snow.”
That was just an excuse. Eric ruffled his hair and crossed one leg over the other.
“If you had respected my words, you would have brought the palace carriage instead of borrowing it. But you didn’t.”
Chloe felt the tone of blame in his words, so she bit her lip.