Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 2

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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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2.

⟡Chapter 1⟡

What’s Written as First Meeting but Read as Fan Accident

From the moment Annelize regressed three years into the past, she had only one goal.

‘I absolutely must have an arranged marriage. I’ll live a cold, lifeless existence with a dead-eyed husband who doesn’t even know what color my eyes are.’

She didn’t care if it was a twisted view of marriage.

After all, the married life she had experienced was horrific enough to justify it.

[Annelize. I love you. Marry me and help me lead this nation together.]

Born as the legitimate daughter of the noble Solariccen County, inheriting the bloodline of the first saint, becoming the Crown Princess had been wonderful.

However, the Crown Prince completely changed after marriage.

[Why don’t you love me? Huh? Annelize, what do I have to do for you to love me?]

That damn obsession with love.

The Crown Prince endlessly craved love from her.

‘I just needed to take care of state affairs well as Crown Princess and maintain loyalty as a spouse. What was he always finding lacking?’

It was absurd, but he was still her spouse and the person who would become the next emperor.

Annelize tried to resolve her husband’s tantrums.

She tried soothing him, getting angry at him. She even tried to love her husband as he demanded.

But it was all useless.

Human hearts couldn’t be changed through effort alone.

[There must be another man, right? There’s no way you wouldn’t love me otherwise. I’m doing all this for you!]

He couldn’t accept the fact that Annelize didn’t love him.

The Crown Prince eventually evolved into a severe case of pathological jealousy. Their marriage headed toward ruin.

One day, while suffering from stress-induced hypertension caused by post-marriage trauma.

Annelize returned to the past.

Right before accepting the Crown Prince’s proposal.

To a time when she could change the entire future.

There was no time to be dazed by this unexpected fortune.

If she stayed still, she would end up becoming Crown Princess again, unable to resist the Crown Prince’s pressure.

‘If I get married, the Crown Prince will have no choice. I need to find a husband.’

It wasn’t easy to find someone who met her conditions, but she eventually discovered the most suitable candidate.

Finally, today.

Annelize hid herself in the bushes of the Imperial Palace Gardens, waiting for someone to come.

It was hardly befitting of a count’s daughter’s dignity, but it couldn’t be helped.

The person she was meeting today, Duke Aperhis, was someone even royalty couldn’t summon carelessly.

That’s why she had no choice but to select this rather uncomfortable method instead of requesting a formal meeting.

Shortly after.

As she expected, loud voices and the presence of two people approached.

A father and daughter with identical red hair were arguing.

It was Lord Ramier, the nation’s Kukseo, and Princess Rosellia.

She held her breath and eavesdropped on the father-daughter conversation.

“Rosellia. The Duke is waiting in the Reception Room right now. Do you know how much our Empire would benefit if the Duke became a son-in-law of the Imperial Family! You must sacrifice yourself for the nation.”

The reason Kukseo had invited the Duke today was to propose a marriage discussion with the Princess.

Even though her marriage candidate was discussing marriage with someone else, Annelize remained calm.

‘Today’s marriage discussion absolutely cannot succeed. Because he’s that ‘Duke Aperhis.”

As she expected, the Princess screamed in disgust.

“I said no! It’s always winter there, and not even a blade of grass grows in that barren land. How am I supposed to adapt to such a place when I was raised so delicately? You might as well tell me to die!”

Annelize nodded at Princess Rosellia’s words.

The Empire’s strongest warrior who protected the Empire from the monsters of the Northern Mountain Range, Duke Aperhis.

Though part of the same Empire, the Northern Territories of the Duke of Aperhis were autonomous, practically treated as a different country.

The weather was completely different too. The Empire was blessed by the sun god Ainan and stayed warm year-round, but the north was different.

‘I heard the temperature is always below freezing, so frozen rain falls. They call it ‘snow,’ I think.’

Imperial citizens who could get by wearing light cardigans even in midwinter couldn’t possibly adapt well to the north.

‘It’s natural for the Princess to be disgusted. Sending a daughter to such a land. Even if you’re mad with power, that’s too much. Kukseo has lost his mind too.’

Actually, the Duke’s flaws weren’t limited to that.

“How hideous must he be to go around with his face covered by a mask!”

That’s right. Even if his territory was a bit distant and barren, it would be fine if he was at least a good person, but the Duke was a man rumored to be horribly ugly.

He even had the nickname “Monster Duke,” which said it all.

“Tell me! Which insane family’s daughter would want to marry the Duke? Unless she’s stupidly naive or completely mad!”

The Princess’s words were absolutely right.

‘I’m probably the only insane daughter who would dare want to marry such a man. What a relief.’

She was so happy that the women of this country had healthy minds. The nation’s future was bright.

The argument ended quickly.

In the end, Princess Rosellia was dragged away to the Reception Room by Kukseo’s hand.

Shortly after, Annelize confirmed no one was around and stood up from her spot.

‘Stupidly naive or completely mad…’

After briefly mulling over the Princess’s words, Annelize soon shrugged her shoulders.

‘It’s better than marrying the Crown Prince.’

No matter how cold and barren the north was, no matter how scary and ugly the Duke was.

None of that mattered at all.

What mattered was that she could give the Duke the item he was searching for.

The important fact was that she could make a marriage deal in exchange for that item.

‘The Duke’s family is faithful enough to have kept their contract with the first emperor until now. If the contract is properly established, I can live safely until the Crown Prince is dethroned.’

These days, the Crown Prince was pressuring her for an answer to his proposal.

When she finally found families that wouldn’t mind the Imperial Family’s opinion, all her contract marriage proposals were rejected.

‘Not loving your wife during the marriage – is that such a difficult promise?’

It was a difficult promise.

According to the Imperial Statistics Office, the historical arranged marriage rate was less than 5%.

Everyone in this country was crazy about love.

They found Annelize, who demanded marriage without love, strange instead.

Thus, only her last hope, Duke Aperhis, remained.

‘I hope the story from my previous life about him having no interest in the opposite sex and living unmarried his whole life is true. If even the Duke doesn’t work out, the only remaining method is international marriage.’

The foreign travel ticket carefully stored in her manor flashed through her mind.

In front of the VIP Reception Room, Annelize looked around.

‘Where did the servants go? And what’s with this chill?’

The servants who should have been guarding the door were nowhere to be seen.

Moreover, despite it being broad daylight, a dreary atmosphere hung in the corridor.

As she was adjusting the shawl around her shoulders due to the inexplicable cool air.

Suddenly, the Reception Room door burst open.

“Wait just a moment! Duke Aperhis! Oh no, Rosellia! Snap out of it!”

Inside the Reception Room beyond the door were three people.

The Crown Prince with a flustered face, and the Princess collapsed unconscious on the floor.

And a strange man standing hidden behind the door.

She could tell without seeing his face.

‘That’s Duke Aperhis.’

Annelize, who was about to step aside next to the door, hesitated.

“How could I take as a wife someone who can’t even stand properly in front of me?”

The low bass voice seeping out from the room pierced her ears.

“Forget it. There’s no point in discussing this further.”

Though his tone was calm, it carried a strange sense of intimidation.

As the Duke came outside, her vision suddenly darkened.

The Duke’s shadow, standing with his back to the light, was large enough to completely engulf Annelize and more.

Her eyes wandered over the long cloak that wrapped the Duke from head to toe.

When she tilted her chin up higher, she could finally see his face.

‘As expected, his face is covered with a mask. I wonder if I can at least see his eyes.’

She was curious about what kind of gaze the Duke would look at her with.

Fortunately, she was in luck.

Perhaps because he had rushed out and couldn’t put it on properly, his eye shape was revealed through the mask that sat askew on his nose bridge.

If the mask slipped off just a little more, she felt she might be able to see the Duke’s eyes.

‘But why is my body trembling and shivering like this?’

Why was it? Breathing felt as difficult as when climbing a high mountain.

Without realizing it, she trembled and stepped backward.

She didn’t even notice the shawl draped over her arm falling to the floor.

Suddenly, Annelize’s body swayed.

Unfortunately, her foot had landed on the shawl that had fallen to the floor.

Instinctively, she stretched her arms forward to save herself.

In an instant, her wrist was caught and twisted.

And.

Annelize reflexively closed her eyes and then opened them.

“What is this.”

A pair of golden eyes that could only be found in birds of prey were looking down at her.

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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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