My Husband is so carefree and constantly Cheats on me, so I Kept making him Suffer as Payback, but somehow, he’s started to seem Kind of Cute. - Chapter 4

“Yuffie! I’ve decided to become a civil servant! Write me a letter of introduction so I can be assigned to this department!”

“…Excuse me?”

What nonsense is he spouting this morning?

I nearly spit out the coffee I was sipping.

Does this man hold some sort of grudge against my mouth or my coffee cup?

Seriously.

This is the same man who just declared he wanted to become a knight, only to break a bone on the way to training and return home in disgrace.

And now, because he’s given up on being a military officer, he wants to be a civil servant instead?

…No, judging by how he’s specifying a particular department, I suspect this is about a woman.

How predictable.

As always, his utter lack of shame in his philandering is exasperating.

The fact that someone actually entertains his advances is an issue in itself, but I can already imagine how he’s ensnared them—
Dropping the name of the Crusroden family, invoking his Arzenberg heritage, and fabricating nonexistent achievements to impress them.

He’s a smooth talker, I’ll give him that.

Or perhaps the person in question has already seen through his nonsense and is simply using him.

Troubling, indeed.

Now, the truth is—

Our household was already planning to place someone in the very department my husband has chosen.

That department is responsible for overseeing the taxation of noble estates.

Now, don’t misunderstand—this isn’t about tax evasion or anything illegal. Quite the opposite.

A certain marquis, with whom we have a growing friendship, recently confided in me about some suspicious tax irregularities among certain noble families. He’s been struggling to deal with it.

I had been considering sending someone to that department to investigate on his behalf.

Since the Crusroden family has never before produced a civil servant, placing someone in that department wouldn’t raise any suspicions.

And now, as if the heavens themselves had aligned…

My husband is volunteering himself.

“Isn’t that a bit reckless?”

The head butler was now staring at me with an expression of pure disbelief.

I would really appreciate it if he didn’t look at me like that.

“Reckless or not, we don’t have anyone else to send.”

Taxation is a national matter.

As such, that department is filled with relatives of high-ranking nobles. We cannot simply send a commoner or the child of a minor noble.

And while my dear husband has zero involvement in estate management despite being married to the Countess, he is the son of a Duke.

In other words, he’s exactly the kind of person who can slip into that department without raising eyebrows.

He does, of course, come with some minor drawbacks—

A lack of intelligence.
A tendency to chase women.
An inability to stay committed to anything.
A complete inability to do basic math.
A rather peculiar thought process.

…But he can get in.

“That’s far too many drawbacks.”

“I know, Head Butler.”

But we have no other options.

So why not send him in, have him accidentally cause a scene, and use the ensuing chaos to uncover incriminating documents?

Even if he fails, all it means is that we won’t be able to assist the marquis.

No one is expecting too much from this plan to begin with.

“His incompetence will be on full display, you realize?”

The head butler still wasn’t convinced.

That was unusual.

“And? That’s hardly a secret, is it?”

“I just find it concerning that you’re so casual about it.”

That’s old news.

If I really wanted to keep his idiocy hidden, I’d have to lock him away.

And I’d have to assign him a guard—an elderly man, hard of hearing, poor eyesight, deeply paranoid, and impossible to manipulate.

Only then would I be sure that my husband wouldn’t smooth-talk his way out of captivity.

But going through all that effort?

I simply can’t be bothered.

“Besides—this is entirely the previous Duke’s fault. Not ours. And many people understand that by now.”

“…If you insist, my lady.”

And so, we sent my husband off under the pretense that we were simply looking for a job for him within the government.

Naturally, when I informed the current Duke of my plan, his reaction was:

“That idiot?! Is this some kind of attack on my household? Yuffie, are you out of your mind? What kind of self-destructive plan is this? Listen—let’s talk about this. If we work together, we can figure out a better way. There’s still hope for the future, okay?!”

He very nearly put a stop to it.

I had to explain my reasoning, in painstaking detail, before he reluctantly allowed it.

As a consolation, I made a snide remark about how exhausting it must be to babysit such an imbecile.

In response, the Duke gifted me a rather exquisite bottle of wine.

And as for my dear husband?

Every morning, he dresses himself up as if he were preparing for high society.

If I didn’t know better, I’d assume he was attending social gatherings.

But no.

His destination is the Finance Department.

Naturally, with his empty-headed optimism, I assumed he’d be thrown out within days.

But then—

“I’VE FINALLY FOUND IT!!!”

…

Oh dear.

What exactly has he stumbled upon?