I Think My Husband Might Be a Murderer - Chapter 2

***

Looking back now, it didn’t take an unusually long time from the moment I met my husband to when we got married.

Dochilia had lost the war.

It was a devastating piece of news. On an early winter morning, I had barely fallen asleep after worrying about my father, who had gone off to war.

Knock knock.

I woke to the sound of knocking. Still groggy, I greeted the unexpected visitor.

“Who…”

A snow-white uniform, gold buttons, and a stiff collar fastened up to the neck.

It was a naval uniform.

As soon as I saw the figure filling my doorway, I smiled brightly.

“Father?”

I quickly raised my head. But before I could embrace the joy, my face fell in an instant.

The man blocking my view was not my father.

Beneath the naval cap was a hardened face and stiff posture.

A bad feeling swept over me. Sleep vanished instantly, and I instinctively understood.

This soldier in front of me had come to deliver bad news.

The man soon removed his cap. The features hidden in shadow were gradually revealed. Blue eyes, reflecting the breaking sunlight, sparkled like the sea.

His tightly sealed lips slowly parted. “Are you Edith Prim, only daughter of Isaac Prim?”

“…Yes.”

My eyelids trembled. I unconsciously pulled my clothes tight, trying not to show any emotion.

After confirming my identity, the man continued speaking as if it were nothing.

“I’m here to deliver a death notice. Naval Petty Officer Isaac Prim of Dochilia passed away on December 18, 1824, at approximately 2:15 p.m., after battling illness on the battlefield.”

It was a cruel announcement, fitting the man’s dry and indifferent tone.

I slowly blinked.

What exactly had I just heard?

Everything except for the man in front of me faded to black, and the once noisy street grew silent.

“What did you just say…”

It had to be a mistake. It had to be. Maybe I was just hearing things in my sleep.

I steadied my breath and asked again, “I think I misheard. Could you repeat that one more time?”

“I regret to inform you of this news.”

Hope did not return.

“Th-that can’t be. How could Father…”

He was the father who always sent me letters.

Telling me he was safe. That while Dochilia might lose, he thought he could come see me soon.

And yet, how could this be…

My vision turned white. My legs gave out, and I was about to collapse.

“Careful.”

The man grabbed my arm with strong hands and held me up.

Only after I could support myself again did he release his grip.

“…Thank you.”

I didn’t even know what I was saying. It just came out by habit.

When I slowly lifted my head, the man was gazing quietly at my face. He said flatly, “The body is at the naval headquarters. You’ll need to identify the remains and apply for the death benefit, so you must report to the naval headquarters at Musen Port within a week.”

I barely forced myself to nod. It was the best I could manage.

Everything went dark. I closed the door in a daze.

“This can’t be…”

Left alone, I finally sank slowly to the floor.

That was my unforgettable first meeting with my husband, Johannes Schultz.

***

Ever since I received the news of my father’s death, I hadn’t been in my right mind.

Half of me felt I had to go identify the body. The other half dreaded it—because doing so meant accepting he was really gone.

So I holed up in the house and endured as long as I could.

But the week the man had mentioned came cruelly fast.

It had been both long and short.

I didn’t even have the energy to check how I looked. I barely gathered myself, got dressed quickly, and left the house.

The streets were quieter than usual. I might have found that strange, but I was too out of it to notice.

“Naval headquarters…”

Following the directions the man had given me, I walked along. As I neared my destination, loud chatter began to sting my ears.

“Disgraceful. In this day and age…”

“They had it coming.”

People mumbled things I couldn’t make sense of.

A bit farther ahead, I saw a dense crowd gathered at the port.

Surely not all of them were here for death confirmations…

It was only natural that there’d be many fallen soldiers—we had lost the war.

I glanced around and spotted navy personnel lined up along the roadside. My gaze stopped on one man who stood out.

He stared straight ahead with an indifferent expression. As I was quietly watching him, he turned his head.

The gold naval insignia on his cap flashed in the breaking sunlight.

As I squinted and lowered my gaze, my eyes met his icy blue ones.

It was him.

The naval officer who had come to tell me of my father’s death.

Now that I’d found him, there was no need to hesitate. I quickly made my way toward him.

“Excuse me, where is the naval headquarters…”

I hadn’t even finished my sentence.

“Ah…!”

I lost my balance in the crowd that surged forward. I was about to be swept away.

The man pulled me back before I fell. I ended up in his arms, flustered, but with so many people pushing me from all sides, I couldn’t move and just spoke up.

“Th-thank you.”

“The naval headquarters is in the opposite direction. But right now, the situation isn’t good, so it would be best to move later.”

“What…?”

As I looked up at him blankly, the man turned his gaze toward the front of the port. My eyes followed—and then widened.

‘Public execution…?’

Beneath a rusted guillotine that hadn’t been used in ages stood a middle-aged man.

He wore a simple yet finely tailored outfit made of expensive fabric, his hair neatly arranged, his skin unmarred.

Public executions, such unethical punishments, had long been abolished as relics of a bygone era.

Then why…?

I was too shocked to even feel the embarrassment of being held by a stranger. I blinked blankly.

And then came a low voice above my head, further deepening my confusion.

“That is Duke Schultz.”

“Huh? Why would the Duke…”

I didn’t even need him to explain. The noisy onlookers provided the rest.

“Ugh, a public execution just for embezzlement? Isn’t that too harsh?”

“Harsh? He ran off with an amount equal to an entire year’s national budget! And no one even knows where it went.”

I instinctively swallowed.

A year’s worth of national budget—an unimaginably huge sum. And now he was missing?

They said Duke Schultz was well-regarded, not just in Musen but even in the capital, Baden.

For such a man to have committed such foul deeds behind the scenes… and with the kingdom having lost the war, the royal family must have chosen a public execution out of sheer resentment.

But…

“There’s no way the Duke could’ve done that…”

“It was announced officially by the royal family. Everyone believes it.”

When I muttered to myself, the man responded flatly. The spectators continued to chatter.

“I only feel bad for the Young Duke. They say he brought in many victories during the war, so maybe they’ll leave him alone. He should be returning from the battlefield soon… Think he’s heard about his father yet?”

“Are you worrying about others right now? War reparations aren’t going to be cheap. If they can’t find the stolen money, they might dump the whole tax burden on us!”

The noisy debate went on. Some defended the Duke, while others shredded him with cutting words.

One thing was clear.

Most of the spectators gathered at the port held ill will toward Duke Schultz.

I stared blankly at the tightly packed crowd.

Beyond the guillotine stretched the deep blue sea. The clear sky was, inconveniently, beautiful.

Too sentimental and picturesque for a place where a life was about to end.

Maybe it was meant to make him regret his sins even more, because he wouldn’t get to see such things again.

Had Duke Schultz really embezzled those funds? If so, what was he feeling as he stood on the edge of death?

Regret that he got caught? A sense of injustice? Or remorse?

But contrary to my expectations, his eyes held no emotion.

There was no resentment, no regret. He simply wore the expression of someone who had accepted everything.

My fingertips went cold, and my face turned pale.

If he had truly committed a crime, there was no way he’d look like that.

I instinctively knew.

‘That man is innocent…’

But no one would have believed it. Or maybe he was a born actor, playing innocent to the end.

But so what?

Even if he was innocent, there was nothing I could do to help. Too many political motives must have been involved.

Still, there was one thing I could do for him right now.

‘Go back.’

I wasn’t thoughtless enough to treat the death of someone possibly innocent as a spectacle.

“I should get going. You said the naval headquarters is in the other direction, right…?”

Just as I turned around in confusion, he gripped my arm even tighter.

“There’s too big a crowd. Leaving now would be dangerous.”

“But—”

At that moment, a loud trumpet drowned out my voice. The crowd also began to quiet down.

Soldiers began climbing the scaffold one by one. The crisp sound of their boots echoed throughout the port.

“Looks like they’re about to carry out the execution.”

Even as someone said that, the man continued to hold me firmly.

He said calmly, “It’s better if you don’t watch.”

When I looked up at him, a large hand blocked my view.

And then—

Crack—

A brutal sound echoed across the port, and sighs erupted from all directions.

Even then, the man never took his eyes off the execution platform.

A public execution, out of nowhere.