Grand Duke, Please Stop Obsessing Over Your Wife! - Chapter 90
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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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90.
“What, what did you say?”
Annelize was shocked.
‘Who else did he do it with besides me? When on earth!’
“When? With whom?”
The Duke shook his head.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
‘If I hit that round head of his really hard, wouldn’t his memory come back?’
The corner of her mouth twitched.
“If you can’t remember, how do you know it wasn’t your first kiss?”
The Duke touched his own lips and fell into thought.
“When I pressed my lips against yours, it didn’t feel unfamiliar. It seemed like I’d done it before. I naturally knew where to put my hands, when to pull my lips away.”
Ah.
‘So you’re experienced enough that your body moves on its own?’
“You said you lived alone for so long that you couldn’t even learn social skills, yet you kiss so well?”
At her sharp voice, the Duke looked puzzled.
“Do you dislike that I have experience? Would you prefer if you were my first?”
“…”
Annelize was left speechless by the Duke’s words.
Answering ‘Yes’ would make her feel too pathetic.
“You’re biting your lips again.”
His finger carefully separated Annelize’s upper and lower lips.
Annelize bit the Duke’s index finger instead of her lips.
“Your Grace, I’m really annoyed.”
“Are you scolding me because I have experience?”
“No. I just bit you because I was annoyed.”
The Duke pulled his finger from her mouth with an incredulous expression.
He examined Annelize’s teeth marks left on his finger closely, then put it in his own mouth.
Annelize was greatly flustered.
“What, what are you doing?”
The Duke showed her his index finger. Just below her teeth marks were the marks he had just made, side by side.
He chuckled softly.
“Look at the difference in front tooth size. There’s not a single part of you that isn’t delicate.”
Even at a time like this, really…
Annelize looked into the air and quietly pressed her forehead. She absolutely didn’t want to admit that her face had turned red.
“I think we’ve rested enough, so let’s go back to the ballroom.”
“Let’s do that.”
The Duke lifted Annelize into his arms again.
The people gathered in the ballroom whispered as they watched the two who had been absent for a subtly long time.
People’s gazes lingered on Annelize’s pink cheeks. The whispering grew louder.
‘Think whatever you want.’
The Duke insisted on having the nobles invite portrait painters to the Solariccen Estate in the Capital.
Annelize broke out in a cold sweat trying to stop the Duke, who wanted to hire three painters to simultaneously paint her front, side, and back views.
When it was finally time to go home, Annelize could finally breathe.
She lay down in the carriage and glanced sideways at the Duke sitting across from her.
“You’re really shameless and composed about it.”
The Duke looked at her as if her question was strange.
“Of course. Do you feel shame when you say water flows from top to bottom?”
Just as the sun rises in the east and people are born to return to dust.
Annelize Solariccen is the most beautiful in the world.
In the Duke’s worldview, this was a more solid truth than anything else.
Annelize was somewhat skeptical of that truth.
But even if she tried to argue, the Duke wouldn’t listen at all. She should just stay quiet.
“Your time has come too. Stop resisting and accept the supreme truth of the world.”
“Yes, whatever you say.”
Annelize answered halfheartedly.
From experience, fighting with the Duke in this area was always a loss for her.
“Is Isaiah still at the Imperial Palace?”
She decided to avoid the unsolvable problem and change the subject.
* * *
Isaiah was walking down the Imperial Palace corridor with an accusation letter in his arms.
A few steps behind, Pamine was dragging a prisoner from the Duke’s Castle dungeon with a deathly pale face.
“Ugh. So filthy!”
“Pamine. Stop complaining and drag him properly. You said you’d do it.”
“But this prisoner is really dirty.”
“You said you wanted to see Lady Annelize. You were whining like a dog whose owner went on a long trip, so I kindly brought you along, and now you repay kindness with ingratitude? Say one more word and I’ll leave you behind.”
Pamine looked up at the moon beyond the window wistfully.
“Lady Annelize. To meet you, I would gladly endure even this humiliation…”
“Here comes the martyr. Isn’t that too blind?”
“You humans don’t understand. She gives me the same feeling as the first human who petted and hugged me.”
Pamine said shyly.
“Being separated from Lady Annelize for so long made me realize. My true home isn’t the Duke’s Castle, but Lady Annelize herself.”
“Strictly speaking, the Duke’s Castle is your home, and your official master is His Grace.”
“No. His Grace is just temporary protection. A meaningless, light relationship.”
What crazy person does temporary protection for hundreds of years.
The prisoner who had been standing throughout Pamine’s monologue cautiously asked.
“Excuse me, but how long do I need to stand here?”
Isaiah pushed Pamine’s shoulder forward and answered.
“Oh right. Let’s go now. Idiot, hold the prisoner properly. If you lose the prisoner, you won’t get to meet your Lady Annelize.”
“Got it! I got it.”
Pamine grumbled as he followed.
They passed through the splendid corridor and stood before the Emperor’s Audience Chamber.
Special audience time allowed only during the Founding Festival period.
“You’re here. You said you had something urgent to report to me.”
The Emperor sitting on the throne on the platform rubbed her eyes tiredly and began reading the document an attendant had received from Isaiah.
Meanwhile, Isaiah observed Kukseo sitting beside the Emperor.
Kukseo Ramiere hadn’t taken his eyes off the prisoner since he entered.
Kukseo’s face was pale white enough to notice from afar.
As if witnessing a dead person’s return.
Isaiah smiled broadly.
‘I listened to the Duchess’s words and searched the underground prison just in case, but I never thought there would really be one.’
Normally, even a Duke couldn’t interfere with other souls.
But the evil souls trapped in the underground prison were literally prisoners. So they could be used effectively like this.
He brought out the assassin who killed Ramiere’s illegitimate child and his mother on Ramiere’s orders from the prison.
He also gave him a body that could move temporarily.
“Tell His Majesty the Emperor what you know.”
“You promised to exempt me from wheat farming for two days if I testify properly, right?”
At Isaiah’s words, the prisoner smiled obsequiously.
“That’s right. You just need to properly tell what you saw and heard.”
The brief recollection ended. Isaiah pushed the prisoner before the Emperor.
“Here is a witness. This is the man who directly handled the work under Kukseo’s orders.”
The Emperor’s gaze instantly turned cold.
“…An explanation will be necessary.”
“I can explain very precisely!”
The prisoner’s eyes flashed. He was prepared to give up his soul if it meant he could rest from wheat farming for two days.
“That person there came to me and requested that I kill a woman and a child. I remember clearly. The child had the same bright red hair as him.”
The prisoner’s vivid testimony continued.
The Emperor listened to the testimony while quietly examining the accusation letter and evidence contained in the box.
“Since we were already acquainted, I gladly accepted the request. When he previously asked me to assassinate a knight, he paid quite generously-“
Suddenly the Emperor’s head turned quickly.
“What was that knight’s name?”
“Ah, what was the name. That… Kier? Keis?”
The Emperor mentioned a name.
“Kair. Is it Kair?”
“Oh! That’s right!”
That was the name of the man who had been the Third Prince’s biological father.
“The method I used back then was-“
The prisoner smoothly revealed the murder weapon, accomplices, and even how Kukseo had covered up the incident.
That was as far as it went.
‘Ho. I didn’t expect it to go this far.’
Isaiah watched them with an interested gaze.
“Ramiere Valiem.”
The Emperor issued a house arrest order to Kukseo with the coldest look she had ever shown.
“All the authority you have enjoyed until now is hereby stripped from this moment. Do not leave your room until I give permission.”
Kukseo stood up from his seat as if wronged.
“This is a misunderstanding, Your Majesty! Aren’t these pieces of evidence that can be fabricated at will! You should trust me, who has been by Your Majesty’s side for decades, rather than that man of no standing!”
“Ramiere Valiem. Do you truly think I was unaware?”
Before Kukseo could say more, his arms were seized by the Imperial Palace knights.
“This is the last mercy I can show you as the father of my children. Please do not act foolishly.”
With those words, Ramiere Valiem was confined to his room.
* * *
“Damn it, damn it! I have to show the Third Prince’s corpse tomorrow!”
Ramiere paced his room anxiously.
He decided to contact his younger brother, the Duke.
‘By now my brother must be thinking it strange that my contact hasn’t come.’
The security was very tight. He couldn’t make contact with anyone.
It was difficult to grasp how the outside situation was unfolding.
“They wouldn’t have detained Robert too. They won’t cause unnecessary trouble at the Founding Festival event.”
The Emperor would hide the matter with Kukseo. It was too sordid an incident to display before foreign envoys.
So for now, it would end with house arrest.
It was fortunate amid the misfortune.
‘Robert! Quickly notice something is wrong and save your father!’
Right now, the only thing he could trust was his own flesh and blood.
Although even from a parent’s perspective, he was not clever and lacking in many ways.
Right now he was the only lifeline he could cling to.
“Robert!”
A cry that wouldn’t reach his son echoed through Kukseo’s room.
Meanwhile, in the Crown Prince’s room.
Robert Hildegard was sleeping soundly, completely unaware that his father was desperately searching for him.
“Mmm, Annelize…”
He was so excited about reuniting with Annelize at the Founding Festival that his father was the last thing on his mind.
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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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