Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1.

⟡Prologue⟡

The Melancholy of the Grand Duchess of Aperhis

【Annelize-like】

[Adjective] A term referring to the most adorable, beautiful, and lovely subject in the world, so dazzling that one’s eyes hurt just from looking at them.

[Noun form] Annelize

The above new word has been registered by imperial decree and should be widely disseminated.

※Warning※

Contrary to its dictionary meaning, if used with derogatory or mocking intent, immediate punishment may be imposed, so local elders must exercise caution in managing residents.

“What on earth is this.”

Silence.

Annelize stared at the paper clutched in her hands as if trying to bore holes through it.

She couldn’t believe it even seeing it with her own eyes.

“…This is the official document announced throughout the entire Grand Duchy today?”

“Yes.”

The blonde handsome man standing beside her answered, his silver eyes gleaming.

He was Sir Isaiah, the Duke’s right-hand man and Annelize’s assigned guard.

Annelize asked again, still not giving up hope.

Her hand gripping the paper trembled with shame.

“It would be difficult to retract, wouldn’t it?”

“That would be correct. How do you feel about it?”

“What do you think I would feel?”

“I thought you would be pleased.”

“Are you joking? Who would like something like this!”

At her indignant outburst, Isaiah raised both hands above his shoulders.

His attitude, like a trainer calming an angry beast, made her even more furious.

“Please calm down. Frequent anger shortens one’s lifespan.”

“Hah… Where is His Grace the Duke right now?”

“He went out with his great sword, saying he would personally catch anyone not properly following the decree.”

“Ha!”

I knew it.

Annelize slumped into her chair.

The Duke’s behavior was exactly as she had expected. A sigh escaped her naturally.

As she sat in silence for a while, the servants waiting nearby began to murmur.

They were all personal attendants the Duke had stationed by Annelize’s side after she coughed once during the changing season.

They were devoted to ensuring the Grand Duchess safely surpassed eighty, the average lifespan of imperial citizens.

Excessively so.

“My lady. Are you alright? Shall I bring more dessert?”

“Shall I call for a healer?”

Hearing their worried words, Annelize squeezed her eyes shut.

When would these people ever realize?

That Annelize was not a three-day-old newborn but a perfectly healthy adult woman.

‘Well, even if I told them, they probably wouldn’t understand anyway.’

She shook her head weakly and dismissed the murmuring servants.

“I just want to be alone. Please step out for a moment. I’ll call you back later.”

In the now quiet room, Annelize let out a deep sigh.

A handsome husband and enormous wealth that couldn’t be spent even living luxuriously for a lifetime, power that even the Emperor couldn’t treat carelessly.

And what about the honorable position of Grand Duchess?

Plus loyal servants who would face death without hesitation at her command.

A perfect life lacking nothing, perhaps?

But even the protagonist of that perfect life, Grand Duchess Annelize von Aperhis, had her worries.

‘My husband’s crazy obsessive behavior is overwhelming!’

-Though no one would believe her if she said that.

Every time she heard rumors about controlling her lovestruck husband, she felt a surge of frustration.

‘I never once asked my husband to create an adjective based on my name.’

She had never asked him to praise her beauty, nor had she ever demanded hymns about his wife’s appearance.

She had really just stayed still.

‘Actually, those beauties in history who supposedly ruined nations. Maybe they never intended to do that either.’

Those women probably also did nothing but be born and stay still.

Suddenly the people around them went crazy, making a fuss about giving them countries or making them empresses, and destroyed themselves.

She had been thinking that way strongly lately.

Anyone would feel the same if they had a husband who went crazy calling them cute and lovely just for breathing.

“Are you alright, my lady?”

Sir Isaiah was smiling brightly as always.

Annelize looked at his sly face with bleary eyes.

What was always so amusing to that man?

She was here with a headache from the greatest worry of her life.

“Isaiah.”

Sadly, he was the only person in this manor who could somewhat communicate with her.

“Yes, my lady.”

“Tell me honestly.”

“What question are you going to ask now?”

Isaiah’s eyes sparkled with interest.

“Am I that pretty?”

Annelize’s face was more serious than ever.

“Pardon?”

Isaiah blinked.

“Like, looking at me makes you feel like you’re going crazy, unbearably beautiful? From head to toe with no unattractive parts, and just being nearby makes you lose yourself in my fragrance?”

The guard knight who always smiled annoyingly became noticeably quiet.

“Hmm…”

Regardless of his reaction, Annelize poured out the laments she had been holding back.

“You want to grant my every wish, and you don’t mind saying embarrassing things? Are all you people like that?”

“Well, I couldn’t say it’s a common occurrence.”

“Right? It’s not normal, right?”

Bang.

Annelize slammed her fist on the desk.

A glass vase on the corner lost its balance and started to fall.

“Then why on earth does your lord act that way toward me!”

“Hmm.”

“It’s not even a joke! Is he going to torment me like this and then use me as a sacrifice? Did he invent some new ritual!”

Isaiah smoothly caught the vase as naturally as flowing water.

His silver eyes curved gently.

“No, my lady. Though it may be presumptuous of me to say this.”

He paused for a moment and smiled.

He looked like he was dying of amusement.

“My lord believes there is no creature more beautiful than you in this world.”

It was truly an answer that made her sigh involuntarily.

“Haah…”

Isaiah added.

“Sincerely.”

She grabbed her forehead.

That’s exactly the problem!

“Do something about it. He’s your lord.”

“It’s not my fault that my lord believes his wife is the most lovely and adorable in the world, and forces everyone to share that belief, is it?”

Still, this isn’t right. Even favoritism has its limits.

‘Why is he acting like this when he doesn’t even love me?’

Annelize swallowed her words.

“Sir… You know what conditions I married under.”

“Ah, those ‘conditions’? The promise to absolutely never love you?”

Isaiah shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s no problem with that. It’s not love. My lord just finds you adorable to an excessive degree.”

“…”

“He was told not to love you, but you never said he couldn’t find you adorable. Right?”

So why didn’t you specify the contract conditions properly from the beginning?

Annelize could fully understand the words Isaiah deliberately left unsaid.

Speaking through expressions was quite a talent.

‘How annoying, really.’

“Even if my lord goes crazy over his wife and turns the territory upside down, hmm. That’s not my concern, is it?”

“Isaiah.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Shut up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Isaiah pretended to sew his lips shut with a needle.

Watching that detestable act, Annelize buried her forehead on the desk.

The marble touching her forehead was cold.

Her heated head seemed to cool down a little.

She began to carefully retrace her memories.

How did my life become such an impossible situation?

‘That damn contract marriage.’

No matter how much she thought about it, there was only one cause.

‘Was proposing a contract marriage to the Duke really the right thing to do?’

Even though it was to inherit the title. Thanks to it, she could also block the Crown Prince’s persistent proposals…

She never knew a contract based on mutual needs would become so distorted.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have added more specific contract conditions.’

But Annelize felt truly wronged.

‘When was it that he said my very existence was irritating and showed disgust!’

How could she prepare for something she couldn’t even imagine would happen?

He said I was too thin and unsightly.

He said he couldn’t understand why I was called the Empire’s greatest beauty.

Most of all!

He said he would absolutely never like me!

‘At first… At first he wasn’t like this.’

It was true. Annelize clearly remembered her first meeting with the Duke.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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