Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 10

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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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10.

“The mask?”

“If you’d rather not, you don’t have to take it off.”

“No. This is the first time I’ve received such a request.”

There was unfamiliarity in his usually emotionless tone.

Annelize had already faced the Duke’s eyes and remained perfectly fine.

The Duke knew this fact as well.

He nodded his head.

“There’s no reason I can’t.”

The Duke kept his hand extended toward her while raising his other hand upward.

His large, long fingers grasped the mask and pulled it down in one motion.

He raised his hand and swept the hair that had fallen over his eyebrows back behind his forehead.

“There. Is this good enough now?”

Annelize unconsciously swallowed.

“Yes?… Yes.”

She was so shocked that she even stammered her words.

He’s not ugly at all.

He’s handsome!

It wasn’t even just an ordinary level of handsome.

‘What exactly is supposed to be terrifyingly ugly?’

If that was the Duke’s ‘real’ face that Sir Isaiah had mentioned.

She felt sorry for the others who couldn’t see that face.

To think they had to live without experiencing even half of the world’s beauty.

His well-defined nose bridge and the lips below it. The gracefully sculpted features were admirable enough to draw gasps. There wasn’t a single part that wasn’t beautiful.

His face, catching the light at an angle, cast shadows beneath his thick eyebrows.

In contrast, his amber eyes shone with remarkable clarity.

Just looking at them felt like having one’s soul pierced through.

The Duke looked at Annelize’s dazed face with apparent interest.

“Truly fascinating.”

“That’s what I should be saying.”

Annelize had become indifferent to beauty and ugliness from constantly seeing her own face in mirrors.

Yet the appearance before her eyes was… should she call it spine-tingling? Or sacred?

‘At this level, maybe people didn’t faint from being too ugly, but from being shocked by such beauty.’

That’s how much she thought so.

“Why are you perfectly fine in front of me?”

It was the same question Annelize had once had. The Duke seemed equally puzzled about this point.

“Am I not frightening and terrible? That’s what other humans say.”

Annelize answered with a confident tone.

“You’re not terrible at all.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure why myself. But according to Your Grace’s escort knight, it’s because I resemble Saint Annellarion.”

“Isaiah said that? Is that so.”

Annelize asked with curiosity.

“Do you agree as well, Your Grace? Do I seem to resemble her?”

He tilted his head.

The distance between their two faces grew closer.

She could feel his gaze carefully examining Annelize’s face.

“Well… I’m not sure.”

The Duke’s long fingers lightly touched Annelize’s curly bangs.

Her forehead felt ticklish.

“I can’t remember well. What she looked like.”

His tone sounded as if he had met Annellarion directly and was trying to recall that memory.

‘So he doesn’t know after all.’

She wanted to ask why he wanted the first saint’s relic, but decided against it.

He’d probably just say he couldn’t remember again. The Duke was a man with many secrets.

‘I heard that soldiers who suffer head injuries in battle often have problems with long-term memory. Maybe the Duke is like that too.’

It wasn’t an important issue right now.

The Duke also seemed to have his attention caught by something else.

“Why is your hair curly? It wasn’t like this before. Did you burn it?”

So that’s why he wasn’t saying anything.

“…I styled it on purpose. Everyone does their hair like this these days.”

“I can’t understand it.”

Never mind. Before he could find fault with her outfit too, Annelize extended her hand.

The Duke grasped Annelize’s hand.

After squeezing and releasing her hand once, the Duke clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

“Tsk.”

What now!

“It seems like it would break if I applied just a little force.”

Annelize was gradually getting used to this man’s random nonsense.

“It won’t break.”

She felt a hand encircling her waist.

He complained again.

“Your waist is too thin too.”

“I’ll tell you if it hurts. Don’t worry and just hold on.”

“Make sure to tell me. I’m not confident about controlling my strength.”

Finally, the Duke’s legs began to move.

While dancing, Annelize was inwardly amazed.

‘He really dances well? I don’t know who his dance teacher was, but they taught him really well.’

His lead was flawlessly perfect.

Following along with the Duke’s movements, Annelize started a conversation.

“Your Grace. You still need Aldeon’s sacred relic, don’t you?”

The Duke, who had been keeping his gaze fixed on Annelize since they started dancing, answered.

“Yes. Did you bring it?”

“Of course.”

Aldeon’s sacred relic was carefully tucked in a pouch hanging from Annelize’s waist.

“Shall I show it to you?”

“No, that’s fine. It doesn’t seem like you’re lying. Keep it with you for now.”

His attitude was so indifferent that he hardly seemed like someone who had come all the way from the North to the Capital for this one item.

‘He really is strange.’

The Duke nodded slightly.

“As you said, I rejected the Imperial Family’s proposal. You must also want to demand something from me in exchange for that small box.”

Annelize nodded her head.

“That’s right.”

“What do you want?”

“Marriage.”

She spun in a circle.

Extending her arm fully, she moved away from the Duke, then returned to him and was embraced again.

“Please marry me, Your Grace.”

As soon as Annelize finished speaking, his legs stopped.

What expression was the Duke making right now? Unfortunately, they were too far from the lights to see clearly.

What if he refuses outright.

Annelize didn’t give the Duke a chance to speak and immediately continued.

“Don’t misunderstand. I simply wish to be bound as legal spouses. I won’t demand anything more than that. We only need to maintain it until I inherit the Count title.”

The Duke still stood frozen in the middle of the corridor.

“You must be flustered. I’m not coveting the North or the Duke’s house. I simply need this marriage to avoid marrying His Highness the Crown Prince.”

The moment she mentioned the Crown Prince, the hand holding Annelize tightened with force.

The Duke’s mouth opened quickly.

“Robert Hildegard. That fool wants to marry you?”

At the same time as his question, all the candles illuminating the corridor went out at once.

‘Did wind blow? All the windows should be closed though.’

In the corridor where darkness had suddenly descended, Annelize answered in bewilderment.

“Yes? Yes.”

“…Ha.”

This was a more intense reaction than when talking about Aldeon’s sacred relics.

‘This guy. He must hate Crown Prince Robert.’

Perfect. I hate him too, so we’re on the same page.

“Not even funny.”

Should I bring up the Crown Prince more?

Somehow it felt like the Duke would accept the marriage proposal if I did.

“Were you planning to marry that bastard.”

I just said I didn’t want to marry him.

Swallowing her inner thoughts, Annelize spoke in a sad voice.

“Absolutely not. But he is the Crown Prince of this Empire. If not marriage with Your Grace the Duke, I might not be able to escape.”

“…This has become troublesome.”

He frowned as if lost in thought.

“I just need to take you as my partner?”

He was already being cooperative after just a few words.

‘He must really, terribly hate the Crown Prince.’

The backup plans B, C, and D I had prepared just in case were no longer needed.

‘If I knew it would be this easy, I wouldn’t have made that marriage proposal yesterday and just slept more instead.’

I had struggled to scrape together the few northern ecological materials available.

Anyway, this worked out well. Annelize quickly continued speaking.

“However, I have one request. It probably won’t be difficult for Your Grace the Duke.”

“This really will be just one thing, right.”

That’s what I’m saying. He’s a bit petty.

“Yes. You just need to keep one thing… but before that, could you relight the lamps? It’s too dark.”

The candles attached to the walls were still extinguished.

The only light source in the corridor was moonlight from beyond the windows. Even that was barely visible, obscured by clouds.

She said this because it seemed like there would be an accident if they danced like this.

“Ah.”

The Duke made a small sound as if he just realized.

His tone suggested he had no problem seeing even without light.

The Duke’s hand moved in the air.

Annelize, who had been looking out the window, opened her eyes wide.

‘Did the clouds just move following the Duke’s hand?’

When he gestured, the clouds covering the moon cleared away.

Bright moonlight illuminated the corridor.

Under the moonlight, the shadow created by his nose bridge rippled.

Even a handsome man’s shadow was beautiful.

He clicked his tongue and withdrew his hand.

“This is the limit for now.”

Even after doing something ordinary people couldn’t imagine, the Duke remained calm.

Annelize stared at the Duke’s profile with an unfamiliar expression.

‘As expected, he’s not an ordinary person. He’s different somehow. As I thought, this person is….’

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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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