For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 163

As the clock tower outside chimed ten, Magnus stood by Eugenie’s window, peering out into the night. He’d thought she might be out for a walk or holed up in the laboratory, but neither seemed to be the case.

‘Something really must have happened…’

Just then, he heard movement by the door behind him.

“Norton, where on earth—?”

“Eugenie Fay isn’t coming.”

But when he spun around, it wasn’t the chestnut-haired, amber-eyed woman he saw. Instead, it was Elaine Sabnac approaching him, and Magnus’s expression soured immediately.

He’d half-suspected Eugenie wouldn’t show. Still, the sight of this lavender-haired woman put him on edge.

“It’s Norton, not Fay.”

“Ah, right.”

Elaine showed little interest in the person she’d been tailing for days, but Magnus had more pressing concerns than her indifference.

“You know where Norton is, don’t you?”

“She’s with that priest right now.”

“…”

Magnus glanced at the clock. With him, at this hour?

“You’d better go, or just forget it altogether.”

“…..”

“They’re probably having a pretty good time, tangled up together as we speak.”

“…Ha.”

Magnus glared, tilting his head as if to scrutinize Elaine.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“…”

“No matter. I’ll ask you later.”

With a noise of disgust, Magnus stormed out of the bedroom. He didn’t want to know what that sly fox was up to now, and yet, his feet carried him quickly toward the priest’s rooms anyway.

Watching him disappear down the corridor, Elaine quietly slipped out as well.

‘Sorry, Eugenie Fay.’

After spending so much time at her side, she’d realized the woman really wasn’t all that bad—just an ordinary researcher with a habit of attracting men wherever she went.

‘Still, Eugenie Fay… as long as your mother is Theodora Fay, I suppose I can stir things up at least once.’

When Cassius had first regained his senses inside the seal and Theodora Norton had come to the rescue—

“Help me! Please!“

Elaine’s own consciousness had briefly returned too, and she’d realized someone was outside, able to help.

“Here! Here, me too…!“

She’d pounded on the barrier, crying out, and just then, her gaze met a pair of amber eyes through the semi-transparent glass.

Theodora Fay had absolutely noticed her. But the woman had only taken Cassius, leaving Elaine behind. Later, the seal’s power dulled her senses again, but she remembered being awake for quite a while—alone in the darkness.

Looking back, maybe Theodora just wanted to conserve her strength for the men she’d chosen for her daughter. Even now, Elaine thought it was the height of maternal selfishness.

In the end, Eugenie Fay had saved her too. And Elaine was grateful, truly. But that face—so much like Theodora Fay’s—still sent chills down her spine.

‘So if I meddle just a little, it can’t hurt much, can it?’

She turned her dry gaze down the now-empty corridor where Magnus had vanished. If a relationship could be undone by this much interference, it was probably nothing worth keeping anyway.

“…Ah, I forgot to mention one thing.”

Elaine clapped her hands in an exaggerated gesture, but her voice was flat.

The one lying to Eugenie Fay had been Carter Livingston. She’d realized it after spending so much time around them.

‘Telling her there’s a contract spell on him? What a joke.’

In other words, Carter Livingston was the only one with no real connection to Theodora Fay, yet here he was, right in the thick of things.

“Utter madness.”

Elaine murmured, savoring a faint sense of triumph as she headed off toward her own room.

* * *

About a month had passed since Tristan’s collapse.

By this point, even the Emperor—who’d been watching the situation like a hawk—was beginning to relax his guard.

‘Maybe Sylvea’s finally lost her edge, too…?’

At first, she’d thrown fits, insisting Tristan would recover. But even she had to face reality eventually. Lately, she’d gone suspiciously quiet.

There was no way Tristan would ever get back up.

‘And if he does, he’ll be left with some serious disabilities. It would have been awkward to put someone like that on the throne anyway—this worked out for the best.’

And no matter how much Sylvea tried to look young, she was well past the age of having another heir.

‘This is the time to quietly introduce my backup plan.’

So when Sylvea finally set foot in his bedchamber again (which she rarely did—he was the one who called for her, never the other way around), the Emperor couldn’t hide his sly delight.

“Your Majesty.”

“Oh, Sylvea. Ahem, to what do I owe this visit tonight?”