I Think My Husband Might Be a Murderer - Chapter 1

“So, was your marriage a love match?”

In a way, it was a rather impolite question.

The ladies invited to the mansion didn’t bother with decorum and began throwing out whatever questions piqued their curiosity.

Johannes Schultz, who had vanished after leaving behind countless rumors, had reappeared—with a commoner woman as his wife.

There was bound to be a lot of curiosity.

The ladies’ gazes, filled with blatant interest as they stared at me, were quite burdensome.

“Of course. We’re completely immersed in our newlywed life.”

I didn’t show any reaction to their excessive interest. Instead, I simply offered an appropriate answer and sipped my tea.

“To be married to the Duke Schultz, the idol of the masses—you must be overjoyed, Duchess.”

“It was my dream to live in Müssen as well. Müssen is such a wonderful place.”

“I’m curious about your first meeting. Just where and how did you two meet?”

At the last question, all eyes focused on me.

I found myself deep in thought among the ladies, their eyes twinkling with anticipation.

How on earth was I supposed to explain this?

“Our first meeting? Well… How did we meet, again…?”

As I hesitated to answer, the ladies lightly waved their hands, urging me on.

“There’s no need to be shy.”

“That’s right. This is how we all became friends.”

“The Duke, who never kept a woman by his side, must have fallen for some special charm of yours.”

They seemed to think I was simply a shy person. But in truth, I was neither timid nor prone to bashfulness.

It was just that I was in an incredibly difficult situation where I couldn’t carelessly open my mouth.

“Haha…”

I answered by taking another sip of tea.

They looked slightly disappointed but let the matter slide with a lighthearted remark, “There will be plenty of opportunities.”

For now, I had managed to get through the situation unscathed. That was a relief.

Hiding my unease, I offered them a small smile, hoping they wouldn’t press me with any more difficult questions.

Then, I turned my faintly veiled gaze outside the window, filled with an emotion even I couldn’t define. Releasing a barely perceptible sigh into the air, I recalled the subject that had turned my perfectly ordered life upside down.

These days, I was living a newlywed life that anyone would envy, married to a flawless husband.

However, I had one concern.

It seemed my husband might be a murderer.

***

This is not the world I once lived in.

It hasn’t been long since I realized this fact.

Just when I was objectively enjoying a perfect married life, something surfaced in my mind—something I would have been better off never knowing.

It happened exactly a week ago while I was conversing with my husband.

“What do you think of ‘Primwood’?”

My husband wanted to name the mansion. As we exchanged various suggestions, the name ‘Primwood’ came up, which became the root of the problem.

“Primwood…?”

“After your name. The mansion is surrounded by forest, after all.”

My husband said it with a smile, but I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. I couldn’t remember exactly, but I was sure I had heard that name somewhere before.

…And in a very, very bad context.

Suppressing my unease, I cautiously tried to dissuade him.

“After my name? But this is the Schultz family’s mansion. And we haven’t even been married that long yet. It’s too soon… We don’t know what might happen.”

“Are you saying we might get divorced?”

What I received in return was my husband’s dry voice. Cutting me off, he asked with a slightly stiff expression.

His extreme example caught me off guard, but since we had to maintain an outward appearance of perfection, I could understand his reaction to some extent.

I quietly tried to soothe him.

“That’s not what I meant. I just think there’s no harm in taking our time to think it over. Besides, naming the mansion after my surname… What would the late Duke think? He would surely be quite startled.”

“The opinions of those who are no longer in this world hold no importance.”

“But…”

“Edith Schultz.”

My husband called my name firmly.

I didn’t know why he was so adamant about using my ‘original’ surname, but it was difficult to change his mind.

“…Alright.”

In the end, the mansion was named ‘Primwood,’ but I still didn’t like the name. Although it was derived from my surname, it carried an eerie feeling that unsettled me.

I wanted to dismiss it as just my imagination, but the sudden anxiety didn’t show any sign of fading, not even when I lay down on my bed that night.

I tossed and turned all night, trying to find the reason for the unease that name gave me.

And when that name had finally settled deeply in my mind, the fog in my memory gradually cleared, pushing forth all the recollections of my past life.

The Kingdom of Dochilia, a modern state at the forefront of the railway industry.

The most beautiful city in that kingdom, Müssen.

The Duke of Schultz, the guardian of Müssen.

And…

Primwood, the mansion of the Duke of Schultz.

“My god. Johannes Schultz.”

My heartbeat, which had been relatively steady, began to race, and I felt as if the ground beneath me was vanishing.

Why hadn’t I realized it sooner?

This was the world of a novel. To be precise, the novel I had read in my past life.

I couldn’t remember the details since it had been so long, but I was certain. And my husband, Johannes Schultz, was the male protagonist of that novel.

‘If he’s the male lead, isn’t that a good thing?’ one might think. But I could stake my entire remaining life on the fact that it absolutely wasn’t.

“Johannes Schultz is…”

Johannes Schultz was a deranged murderer.

No one, except for the female protagonist, ever realized the truth behind his kind and perfect facade, but the number of women he had killed was countless.

Of course, later in the story, he truly fell in love with the female protagonist, and the novel ended in a happy ending. But…

“…That female protagonist isn’t me.”

I scowled.

Had I stopped reading midway through? I wasn’t entirely sure, but I remembered that the ending had been a topic of much debate.

I sprang up from my seat and paced around the room in agitation.

“I must have lost my mind.”

I stopped abruptly, hit my forehead, then resumed walking several times over.

“What was I thinking, walking into this crazy place?”

“He has a good family background, he’s tall, and he’s even handsome. He’s perfect, isn’t he?”

“No. Johannes is kind.”

“No, can you be sure? He might just be acting.”

I even argued with myself, like a madwoman.

But I was truly in distress. My life was at stake.

“I could be the female protagonist.”

At last, I started convincing myself with optimism.

“There’s no way.”

That assumption quickly shattered. There were several reasonable grounds to prove I was not the female protagonist.

First.

My name is Edith Prim. The female protagonist’s name is Joanna Tenet. Not a single letter matches.

Second.

The female protagonist was described as having an extraordinarily delicate appearance. I, however, do not. I’m certainly pretty, but I am far from delicate.

And third, the final reason.

The mansion, Primwood, had existed long before the female protagonist ever appeared.

Since Johannes named it after my surname, that meant it would still be a long time before the female protagonist showed up.

No one knew when his murders began. In other words, he might or might not kill me, but…

“There’s a high chance he will.”

This is insane. I had walked straight into hell of my own accord.

With a blank expression, I moved forward, my trembling hands clutching the frame of the mirror.

The face reflected in the mirror was one destined for death, no matter how I looked at it.

Long brown hair and emerald-green eyes.

These were the common features shared by the women Johannes Schultz had killed.