Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 54

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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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54.

The Duke’s Greenhouse.

It was late evening, but unable to sleep, Annelize had come out to the greenhouse.

‘The Duke still finds me adorable, and the servants and the North remain the same. My plans for the future will also remain the same… That’s right. Wheat farming.’

Soon she would need to stack the granary full of wheat sacks.

A certain realization flashed through Annelize’s mind.

She called to Sir Pamine, who was dozing beside her.

“Sir Pamine. Then the prisoners in the underground prison aren’t human either, right? They won’t die even if they work themselves to death, right?”

“That’s correct!”

Oh yes.

“Then I’ll eliminate all the shift rotations we’ve been doing and change to 24-hour full shifts with no breaks. Scrape together all the prisoners and put them into large-scale wheat farming, build several windmills and put one prisoner in each to operate them like human hamster wheels. We’ll also run transportation teams and bagging teams simultaneously to secure production volume.”

“There’s a basin near the mountain – shall we turn that entire area into a wheat field?”

“Good idea.”

How refreshing. Annelize’s expression became relaxed.

Certainly, as Sir Isaiah had said, most things hadn’t changed.

However.

‘Sir Isaiah said that nothing except me had changed, but…’

There was one more thing that had changed.

‘The fact that the Duke absorbed the Frost Monster.’

Nothing was certain for now.

‘For now, let’s observe as Sir Isaiah suggested. How the Duke treats me. Whether something seems to have changed somewhere.’

* * *

The Duke was walking down the corridor as usual when he encountered Annelize.

‘She looks even cuter in the morning.’

After defeating the Frost Monster.

The Duke had become even more affectionate toward Annelize.

‘She told me it didn’t matter what I was.’

Even knowing he wasn’t human, she hadn’t been afraid or run away. Even though he hadn’t been able to protect her properly, she had said it was okay.

‘Now there are no obstacles between us.’

He believed without doubt that Annelize felt exactly the same way he did.

So the Duke voiced what he was thinking. As he always had.

‘She’s blinking at the window, still sleepy – she looks like a baby bird.’

“You’re cute today too.”

At those words, Annelize flinched in surprise and turned her head.

“Your Grace. Good morning.”

The Duke was flustered by her reaction.

Something was strange.

Though he wasn’t particularly good at reading human expressions,

he quickly recognized that the emotions that briefly crossed Annelize’s face were confusion and suspicion.

They were the expressions he encountered most often when standing before humans.

Similar incidents happened repeatedly over several days.

The Duke tilted his head, unable to understand.

“Why are you making that expression?”

Something about Annelize had changed.

‘Did I say something different than before? That can’t be right.’

“I merely said you were cute. Just like always.”

At the Duke’s question, Annelize showed a troubled expression.

“It’s just, I’m curious whether you’re saying that because you really find me cute right now.”

“What?”

It was shocking words.

Annelize Solariccen didn’t trust his feelings?

Ever since he had become aware of his emotions, he had been revealing his feelings to her without any pretense.

‘I thought I was being transparent enough.’

He wasn’t a complicated person like Isaiah, wrapped in dozens of layers of armor like an onion.

“Do you think I’m pretending to find you cute?”

“I mean, without anyone’s suggestion or coercion or necessity, just purely whether Your Grace feels that I’m cute… and I’m curious whether that feeling still hasn’t changed.”

Annelize mumbled her words.

“Suggestion? Coercion, necessity? Do you think I would be influenced by such things?”

Certainly, Annelize had changed somehow.

‘What’s causing this?’

The Duke was still puzzled. But if she wanted another proof, he was willing to provide it.

‘Then what would make her believe me?’

Perhaps his expression had been insufficient?

It was a plausible theory.

‘Or… maybe I need to convey it in a way that’s familiar to humans only?’

A specific method the Duke hadn’t encountered.

It was when he couldn’t easily speak up.

“It’s nothing. It’s cold. Shall we go inside?”

Annelize took his hand and pulled him along.

The Duke moved his steps as her hand led him, gazing at Annelize’s hair swaying with each step she took.

Annelize Solariccen’s strange state continued.

No matter how much he told her she was cute, it was useless.

‘Instead of being embarrassed like before, she makes an expression like she’s observing what my intentions are.’

Tonight was the same. When the Duke was blankly admiring Annelize standing in the corridor.

A voice from behind interrupted his admiration.

It was Annelize’s maid.

“My lady is feeling anxious.”

How long had she been here?

The Duke raised one eyebrow.

“What is she anxious about?”

“About your feelings toward my lady! Master, you must express yourself freely with words and actions. At times like this, you should say you’d do anything for her, that you could even pluck the moon from the sky for her!”

What was this maid talking about?

‘Nothing remarkable except for successfully marrying a human… Hmm.’

The Duke recalled when the maid named Elli was with her human husband.

The two maintained a fairly stable relationship.

‘So at least regarding how to treat a human spouse, her story might be worth listening to.’

“Why do I need to pluck the moon? What meaning does it have?”

“I don’t really know either. But humans seem to really love the moon. When my husband proposed to me, he also said he’d pluck the moon for me.”

“The moon…?”

Wasn’t it just an ugly rock floating around the sky according to predetermined celestial movements?

“You’re saying humans like the moon.”

The Duke didn’t mind acquiring new knowledge about fields he didn’t know.

Having gained new knowledge, it was time to verify it.

The Duke immediately moved his steps carefully to find and approach Annelize.

She sensed his presence and turned her head.

“Your Grace.”

* * *

It was a night when the moon outside the window shone unusually bright.

Annelize couldn’t fall asleep tonight.

Since the moon was bright, she was pacing the corridor under that pretext, thinking about her plans.

Soon, she felt a familiar presence approaching.

Annelize examined the Duke’s face.

‘I looked to see if there were any changes since he merged with the Frost Monster, but I still can’t tell.’

He was just the same as usual.

‘But I can’t let my guard down. I can’t forget the anger and hatred that Frost Monster showed me that day.’

Besides, that monster seemed incredibly intelligent.

‘What if he keeps treating me well like the Duke on the surface, then betrays me?’

Though she had tried to deny it, perhaps Annelize had also grown attached to the Duke.

More than she thought.

‘It would hurt to be betrayed by someone I thought was precious.’

She looked up at the Duke.

The Duke’s sculpted face gleamed bluish in the moonlight.

It was the Duke who broke the silence first.

“Do you like the moon too?”

It was still a random question with no discernible context.

No. Since they were both looking at the moon, should it be considered contextual?

Annelize rolled her eyes.

“The moon? I like it. Look. It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

A round full moon hung in the cloudless night sky.

The Duke asked casually.

“Do you want it? If you wish, I could bring it to you.”

At those words, Annelize couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“What? The moon? You’ll pluck the moon from the sky for me?”

When Annelize laughed, the Duke’s eyes moved. He too twisted the corners of his mouth following her lead.

“If you want it.”

Who in the world would say they’d pluck the moon so seriously like that?

Anyone listening would think he was going to the market to buy a melon or something.

‘But even if the Duke is a transcendent being, how could he bring down that moon from the sky? It’s impossible.’

From a human perspective, it was hard to gauge what level of power that would be.

So Annelize dismissed the Duke’s words as merely a joke.

“There’s a saying like that – ‘I’d pluck the moon for you’ – that kind of joke. You must have heard it somewhere.”

Annelize shrugged her shoulders. It was a gesture that said it didn’t matter either way.

“The moon, it wouldn’t be a bad gift though.”

“Really?”

At her words, the Duke’s eyes lit up.

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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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