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 8

“Hah? Are you insane?”

“That’s a bit harsh…”

The woman sitting across from me was Viscountess Merine Chereni, one of my old friends.

We had attended the academy together, and because we were quite close back then, she still visits me occasionally.

She is originally from House Finerel, but she married Lude Chereni, a decent-looking young man we both knew from school. Since the Chereni Viscounty lies beyond the Crusroden territory, she often stops by when traveling between her estate and the royal capital.

Because I know both her and her husband, I occasionally listen to her complaints about married life.

Today, as she visited for a bit of a break, she began discussing a recent argument she had with Lude.

Apparently, they had a big fight, and ever since, things had been awkward between them. As we talked, the conversation took an unexpected turn—she suddenly asked if my husband could mediate their dispute.

“Merine, I apologize for my rudeness. But I meant it sincerely.”

“Isn’t your husband a wonderful man?”

“Are your eyes rotten?”

“That’s still harsh…”

How in the world could she believe that my husband was capable of mediating a marital dispute? We’re talking about Erald here. Is she confusing him with someone else?

The same Erald who flirts with every attractive woman he sees, casually touching them without a second thought. The same man who creates a noble and dignified air only when he finds someone beautiful, promptly pulling them into his arms. He has no actual achievements or career, relying solely on the Crusroden and Arzenberg names to get by.

To this day, I still don’t understand how any woman could fall for him.

Does Merine not know what kind of person he is?

She doesn’t attend social gatherings very often, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t.

“It’s about your husband’s past with other women, isn’t it? He seems like a calm person, so perhaps—”

“Absolutely not.”

“Just a little—”

“Impossible. The moment my husband enters the conversation, Lude will suspect you’re having an affair with him.”

“What?!”

Why does she sound so shocked?

Erald is that kind of man. To the public, his reputation is nothing more than that of a womanizing fool.

Yet, she refuses to back down.

This is troublesome.

Still, she seems genuinely troubled. As her friend, I should probably listen to her properly.

“Alright. What was the argument about?”

“Well… you see, I love pasta.”

“…Okay.”

What?

I already know that.

Back in the academy, she ate pasta almost every single day. In fact, I doubt there’s a single classmate who doesn’t know about her love for pasta.

Including her husband, Lude.

“But the other day, he took me to a restaurant that specializes in meat dishes. And the pasta was terrible! And this was right before my birthday!”

“…Hah.”

Can someone please explain to this woman why she’s making a mistake by telling me about this?

Because my husband doesn’t even take me to restaurants.

If it’s a woman he’s infatuated with, he takes her everywhere, every day. Meanwhile, I have to drag him by force just to get him to sit in a dining establishment with me.

And she’s upset because she didn’t like the menu?

“Right…?”

“Huh? That’s it? That’s the whole story? That’s why you two fought?”

“Yuffie… were you even listening? Don’t you think this is awful?!”

“…What?”

Let me get this straight. A fully grown noblewoman rode all the way here in a carriage to complain to her best friend of ten years… because her husband took her to a restaurant she didn’t like?

If such an adorable complaint is acceptable, then surely I wouldn’t be punished for shouting, “You can’t be a knight, a civil servant, or a priest, you idiot!” while delivering a devastating magical kick to my husband’s head, right?

Right?

“Aaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha! This is hilarious! He actually thought he was exposing his own family’s corruption, only to end up sabotaging the household of the woman he was obsessed with? And then she got sent to the temple? What kind of domino effect is that?! Ahahaha!”

“…”

The moment I started recounting a few of my husband’s glorious failures to show her how ridiculous her concerns were, this woman burst into uncontrollable laughter.

She was laughing so hard that she could barely breathe.

We may be adults now, but all dignity from our academy days had long since disappeared.

This was certainly not a sight we could allow Lude to witness.

In the end, my husband didn’t return home that night.

I let Merine stay in one of the guest rooms.

After laughing herself to exhaustion, she abandoned the idea of having my husband mediate the dispute.

More than that, she even gave up on her planned shopping spree in the capital and returned straight to her own territory.

It seemed she had realized that a minor disagreement over personal preferences wasn’t worth making such a fuss over.

Still, I had to wonder—how was the meat restaurant?

If it was a spectacular establishment, then perhaps she should have tried matching her husband’s tastes for once.

Regardless, I decided to quietly help things along.

I sent a recipe for the kind of unrefined, non-aristocratic pasta Merine truly loved to the head chef of House Chereni.

Hopefully, my friends would reconcile before another ridiculous argument erupted.