Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 62

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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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62.

“What expression did I make then? I don’t remember.”

She murmured as if confused.

“You didn’t smile because you had to, but because you really wanted to smile. I still think about how you looked then whenever I have time. You were really, really adorable. So much that I wanted to bite you.”

“Ah.”

“I want to see it again. This time I absolutely won’t bite you. That’s why I tried to make you smile again. I even brought you the moon… but you still wouldn’t smile for me.”

The Duke grumbled.

Since coming down to the human realm, he rarely goes to the sky. It’s bothersome.

There’s also the risk of encountering Ainan.

He endured the annoyance and brought the moon because she might like it.

‘Though it was a waste.’

Still, he has no intention of giving up.

“I want to make you smile again. In return, you have to help me too. Cooperating obediently with this is the condition I want.”

Annelize moved her lips after hearing the Duke’s condition.

She looked like she couldn’t figure out what to say.

She let out a sigh.

“Your Grace is really… truly. I’ll never understand your thoughts for as long as I live. There are so many other rewards. Just my smile, really?”

“Right now there’s nothing else I want from you.”

What kind of reaction is this? Annelize was definitely troubled.

He was absolutely not disappointed by her reaction. He just avoided her eyes and added in a less confident voice than before.

“If you can’t handle it, you don’t have to make a contract. Even without a contract, I’m prepared to grant your request.”

“I’ll do it.”

Now it was the Duke’s turn to meet Annelize’s eyes.

“I can do it. I’ll cooperate earnestly with Your Grace. As long as you guarantee the safety of my precious people, I can handle anything.”

Annelize extended her hand to the Duke.

Determination filled her eyes.

“Alright. Your Grace. Then we’re making a contract.”

The Duke took Annelize’s outstretched hand. Annelize put strength into pulling his arm toward herself.

The Duke was unconsciously drawn to her.

It was the moment he bent his waist as she led him.

Annelize approached him and grabbed the hem of his shirt with both hands, pulling him closer.

“You don’t need to explain how to make a contract. I already know how to do it.”

Annelize whispered at a distance so close their noses could touch.

She tilted her head and kissed the Duke.

The soft sensation of lips and the trembling felt from their touching skin.

The Duke admired Annelize kissing him with her eyes closed, not blinking once himself.

‘Contract formation doesn’t necessarily have to be done this way.’

Even the contract with the first Emperor was substituted with a blood signature.

Making contracts by kissing was absolutely not his usual preferred method.

But why did he kiss Annelize Solariccen? Because he wanted to.

Anyway, it’s not unreasonable for Annelize to misunderstand this way.

Nevertheless, the Duke decided not to tell Annelize the truth.

Instead, he reached out to embrace her slender waist while enjoying her rhythmic breathing.

Was it like this when he first kissed Annelize too?

The second time their lips met felt more intense than before.

Perhaps it was the difference in position? Unlike the past when he literally lifted her up, now he was bending down looking down at Annelize.

When he moved his head slightly, Annelize’s closed eyelashes trembled.

“That’s enough now. The contract is established.”

The strength left Annelize’s hands that had been gripping the Duke’s collar.

Annelize’s eyes were dazed. Then as soon as she met the Duke’s eyes, she avoided his gaze with an awkward expression.

She cleared her throat.

“Then I’ll bring Anna Rose and His Highness the Third Prince from the monastery tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

“Please go now, Your Grace.”

The Duke obediently followed Annelize’s words.

* * *

As soon as she received the Duke’s permission, she first moved the Third Prince to the Duke’s castle.

Fortunately or unfortunately, he still hadn’t regained consciousness, so the process went smoothly.

Annelize specifically asked Isaiah to ensure the Third Prince didn’t wake up during transport.

After laying him in the room, she also put on an eye mask to block his vision.

‘Just in case. He might accidentally imprint on the first person he sees when he wakes up.’

The first thing Prince Iskasian saw when he woke up had to be Anna Rose.

It would have been good if Anna Rose came along too, but she had to stay at the monastery for a few more days.

It was to meet the Mother Superior before leaving.

She visited the monastery to pick up Anna Rose, timing it with the day the Mother Superior’s group returned.

“Your Grace the Duchess. It’s been a long time.”

The Mother Superior bowed to Annelize with flawless etiquette.

She was the one who had personally taught etiquette when the Emperor was still a princess.

“It’s just the two of us here. Please call me Annelize like before, Lady Cullen.”

She smiled while looking at Annelize drinking tea in the Mother Superior’s office.

“Hoho. You still use etiquette gracefully, Miss Annelize.”

Though she had lived like a scoundrel at the Duke’s castle after her regression, it seemed the memories from her time as Empress still remained in her body.

“It’s thanks to learning from a good teacher. Thank you for readily taking care of Anna Rose. You don’t know how relieved I was.”

When Anna Rose’s story came up, Mother Cullen’s perfect expression became blurred.

“Miss Anna Rose is… bright and lovely. I have no doubt that in just a few more years she’ll become as graceful a young lady as her sister.”

Annelize held back her laughter.

She could guess the hardships she had endured during this time.

She should give her old teacher some rest.

“I’m planning to have Anna Rose stay at the Duke’s castle for a while. Since she’s in a foreign place, she misses family, and I can protect my sister from dangers that might come soon.”

Mother Cullen nodded.

“I was going to mention that anyway. Recently, the Temple has been making suspicious movements because of the moon’s disappearance.”

This was something she had been worried about since the moon disappeared.

The Mother Superior lowered her voice and whispered.

“Nobles close to Kukseo are bringing up rumors that the missing Third Prince has died, demanding confirmation from Her Majesty. They say the moon’s disappearance is an ominous sign.”

The Emperor tried to hide the Third Prince’s disappearance as much as possible.

Since he went missing in a neighboring country, it could become a pretext for war if handled wrongly.

‘Actually, in my previous life, a real war broke out.’

From her memory, when the nobles made an issue of the Third Prince’s disappearance, it was much later than now.

‘Since the moon conveniently disappeared, they must have judged it good to link it with the Third Prince’s disappearance.’

Annelize thought Kukseo would have had the same idea.

Originally, wars and diplomacy were battles of justification.

‘But I won’t just sit back and take it like in the past.’

The previous life was a mess.

While the Third Prince couldn’t wake up, the Kukseo group made a fake corpse and showed it to the Emperor, and the grief-stricken Emperor was pushed by the war-demanding ministers to enter the battlefield.

And she ended up being killed by mercenaries disguised as kingdom soldiers.

‘At least the Emperor knows the Third Prince is alive.’

After confirming that the Third Prince had safely entered the Northwest Region last time, Annelize immediately informed the Emperor that the Third Prince was alive.

Even if they again insist that some unidentified corpse is the Third Prince, the Emperor won’t fall for it.

“Did Her Majesty say anything else?”

“She did. She said the Temple plans to invite the Duke and Duchess to this year’s Foundation Day festival.”

The annual founding festival is hosted by the Temple.

In other words, it was an event that the Duke, who was disliked by the Temple, had never once been invited to.

“The Temple is going to send an invitation to the Duke’s Castle?”

“Yes. Please be careful. There’s definitely going to be a trap.”

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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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