The Detective Agency for Regretful Male Leads Is Open for Business!

Chapter 5

“She always insisted on eating the fruit her family sent her. I know she couldn’t have been treated well by the people of House Larmin. She must have loved them a great deal,” the marquess muttered, his voice full of affection and regret.

I’m sorry to inform you, but you couldn’t be more wrong. But why did she eat the fruit they sent every day if she didn’t like it? And they came from the House of Larmin, no less. One of the letters had even said that she should ask for more fruit if needed.

The family had refused to give her anything other than the dowry required by law. But Chelsea had apparently forced herself to eat the fruit they sent, even though she—despite what the marquess believed—didn’t actually like them.

Suspicious. Very suspicious.

“Did you eat the fruit with her?” I asked.

“Usually. But after a certain point, she told me not to touch them.”

“Why?”

“No doubt because she liked them, of course. I’m not the sort of man who’d steal his wife’s food,” he said, looking at me contemptuously.

I guessed he was thinking something along the lines of, “You’re an idiot who doesn’t know a thing about women, despite being one yourself.”

Excuse me, but I know very well how women think! And the marchioness did not, in fact, like fruit.

“I made sure to tell even the servants not to touch the fruit. Her fruit was always stored separately and was only for her consumption.”

“Hmm…”

I was onto something here.

If I combine that with everything I’ve seen so far…

“Did she do anything else out of the ordinary when it came to the fruit she ate? Like storing the seeds, for instance.”

“How did you know?” he asked.

So I was right. The seeds with the C+ danger rating in the marchioness’s room had come from the fruit sent by House Larmin.

“Don’t ask me about how I do my work,” I said.

“All right… You’ve been investigating all day. You better have found something like that by now.”

Marquess Graydon’s trust in you has increased slightly.

This change has been reflected in the location’s danger rating.

Danger rating after change: C

Perhaps by making an accurate guess about her erratic behavior, the marquess seemed to trust me more, and that in turn had lowered the danger rating.

That means I can be a little less cautious, I guess. Though of course, I still couldn’t look through the documents and what not. I relaxed a little, giving the study a thorough investigation.

You discovered 100 Cash in [Book He Read All Day Without Even A Glance to Spare for Her].

You discovered 200 Cash on [Chair From Which He Liked to Look Down Upon Her].

You discovered 200 Cash under [Pen That He Liked to Use to Write Tyrannical Commands].

You discovered 200 Cash in [Cookie That She Gave Him Some Time Ago, Which He Still Hasn’t Eaten for Some Reason].

You discovered 600 Cash in [Husband’s Ring, Removed and Placed on a Desk Corner].

I glanced back at him in silence.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“It’s nothing,” I replied.

Forget what I said about the two not seeming like a contractual couple. I wasn’t expecting him to be a perfect gentleman, but he really had it coming, didn’t he? There was something in particular that bothered me.

“Why did you remove your wedding ring?” I asked.

“Must I answer that question?”

“I’m wondering if it had something to do with her change of heart. You do not need to answer me if the question makes you uncomfortable.”

The other things could be written off as the mistakes of a gruff man, but what was with the wedding ring? That was something very easy to misconstrue.

“I wanted… to give her a better ring,” the marquess suddenly said, sounding rather sullen. “A pink diamond was found recently in a mine I own. I’ve been having it made into a new set of wedding rings for her. I thought it would suit her.”

“You could’ve just given the diamond to her as a gift, instead of having it turned into rings,” I suggested.

“The previous rings were too inexpensive,” the marquess said, frowning.

I see… He hadn’t bothered to spend much money on the rings, since the marriage hadn’t been founded on love. Apparently, that had been bothering him, and he’d been taking steps to rectify the matter.

You should have kept the old ring on, at least, until the new pair was ready! I knew it. The male protagonists of this genre always have to cause misunderstandings like this with their partners. No doubt he’d been saving that cookie, too, because he didn’t want to part with it so soon, or something like that.

Chances are, Chelsea thought the marquess didn’t love her. That must have been one of the reasons she ran away. Well, finding the ring had been worth 600 Cash. That was as good an affirmation as any. So the seeds from House Larmin and the ring the marquess refused to wear had been the two reasons that Chelsea had left.

Hmm… But that means… As long as these two factors were at play, it would be no use trying to bring Chelsea back. She would just end up being forced back here or kept under lock and key. If the root cause wasn’t dealt with, the problem would repeat itself.

Maybe the reason that the system placed so much emphasis on her reasons for running away—to the point that it created a quiz for me—was so that I could deal with the underlying causes and persuade Chelsea to come back.

The goal of the job was simply to find the missing wife, but I had a feeling that this wasn’t as simple as physically bringing her back to the manor. Chelsea would not feel at ease returning as long as the fundamental issues remained unsolved. After thinking for a while, I turned toward the marquess.

“She was probably saddened by it,” I said suddenly.

He raised an eyebrow. “By what?”

“The fact that you refused to wear the ring,” I said.

“I simply set it aside because I won’t be needing it anymore. What does it matter?” he asked.

“But she didn’t know that, did she?”

Don’t make yourself sound all innocent! It’s terribly frustrating! I felt an urge to punch him.

“While it is my role to bring your missing wife back, it falls to you to make her feel that she no longer needs to run away, does it not?”

He was silent.

“I would advise that you have a frank conversation with her when she gets back,” I said.

Couples really need to communicate more. I had given him that advice as politely as possible, and it seemed to make him think for a moment. I’d been worried that he might grow angry and think I was just meddling, but apparently he wasn’t as bad as all that.

Though I’ll bet that only applies to matters relating to Chelsea.

Marquess Graydon’s quarters cleared!

The marquess believed that he had a loving marriage with his wife, but did not fully understand Chelsea’s feelings. It appears she was hurt from time to time by his gruff behavior.

You gained occupational experience points.

Congratulations! Your occupational rank has increased.

Your current rank: D

New features of the system will become available to you as your rank increases.

Along with the notification that I’d cleared the location, I’d also gained enough occupational experience points to increase my rank to D. I was curious about the new features the system had just mentioned and wondered what I’d get for my new rank. I took a moment and peered through the messages, evading the marquess’s hawk-like glare.

Well, that sounds pretty useful. I would have to take a proper look later when I had the time. I quickly closed the system window and spoke casually to the marquess.

“It looks like I’m done here.”

“You’ve discovered where my wife is?” he asked.

“Not yet. I think I will have a better idea once I go home and organize my findings.”

I had already saved up 9,500 Cash. A single episode was 100 Cash, which meant I might be able to read the entire novel. But first, there was something I had to check.

The fruit sent by the House of Larmin, the box containing their seeds, the greenhouse the dowager marchioness had left Chelsea, and the books that seemed strangely focused on only one topic—all these clues had a single thing in common. They all had to do with plants. So far, there was only one location in this novel where I could find a bunch of plants.

“Where is the greenhouse that your wife tended to?” I asked.

“The greenhouse? It’s probably too late to go see it now,” he said, glancing out the window.

“It’s outside the manor. It’ll take too long to get there.”

“I see. Then I’ll come by some other time.”

Yeah, I don’t think there’s enough time today. It was disappointing since so many clues pointed to the greenhouse, and I was sure that there must be something there. But it was already getting late in the evening, so I concluded my long investigation and left the marquess’s manor.

Now it was time to go back to the office and use all the Cash I’d gathered to read up on the novel.

***

I have to run away. Chelsea made a silent resolution as she felt the muscular arm that had wrapped around her waist. She couldn’t delay any longer. This marriage was harmful to everyone involved.

The marquess would want it too. She gazed at his left hand, where his ring should have been. At some point the marquess had stopped wearing the ring, probably not too many months after his mother passed away. Chelsea had felt her heart sink when she noticed for the first time.

She’d always known that she could never become a real Graydon, even if her mother-in-law loved her, and she did her very best to tend to the greenhouse she’d left behind. She was not someone who could be forgiven. It was only natural that her husband treated her like some inconsequential mistress.

I knew that… I really did. But… It seemed she had actually started to hope like an idiot. The affection that he sometimes tossed her as an afterthought, his gentle, warm embrace, and his loving touch—everything that seemed to indicate he truly cared for her—she had genuinely wanted all of it to be real.

Enough of this farce. The more she ignored her reality, the more miserable she would feel. She felt like a fool for always falling into the trap of wanting more. And what’s more, now that I’m…

“Ngh!”

She quickly slipped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom, the urge to vomit welling up from deep inside her. Dark red blood poured onto the floor. She quickly splashed some water to wash it away, afraid she might leave a stain on her clothing. Her hand trembled as she pressed it against the floor.

It had been a month now since she’d stopped eating the fruit being sent by House Larmin. It seemed her body was at its limit. It was failing her, and failing fast.