I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104

Others would be astonished to learn it, but Prince Arpard harbored no great dissatisfaction with his life.
He lost his mother in childhood, was regarded with suspicion by his father, and his stepmother constantly sought opportunities to end his life.
Add to that the uncertainty of when madness might claim him, and anyone would feel pity.
It was a life that could rightly be called tragic.
Perhaps for this reason, there were quite a few women who approached him offering to soothe his wounds.

“Only I understand your pain, Your Highness. You can confide in me.”
“…I will embrace and accept everything about you.”
“You need not be strong before me. Brother.”

Among those women who left little impression—though he would be ashamed and angered to know it—was Evangeline.
Yet contrary to their assumptions, Arpard was not truly a wounded soul.
His life was fraught with obstacles, but he had been born with much—perhaps even more—to hold onto. So he harbored no real discontent.
What troubled him was pity itself. Pity was an emotion far more terrible than fear.
That was why Hillia intrigued him, why she captured his interest.

“Everyone will come to know that the Mercenary King Gerald is actually Prince Arpard.”

Among those who approached him knowing his true identity, she was the first of her kind.
She did not feign tenderness and affection, offering to soothe his wounds.
‘Rather, she threatened me.’
She said she would reveal his secret unless he agreed to an abduction marriage.
She did not pity him.
He had not realized it then, but he was quite satisfied by this fact.
She was truly a peculiar woman.
Being with her, he experienced emotions he had never known before.
Yet even now, Arpard could not name what he felt.
Not when he abducted her.
Not when he kissed her and consummated the marriage.
Not when they performed that absurd charade together, nor when they fell asleep in the same bed and awoke.
Not even when his chest burned at the sight of the knight standing beside her.
Not even when his grandmother criticized him about the betrothal gifts and he impulsively stormed out.
In truth, it had been unnecessary.
Though he had prepared no separate wedding ring or betrothal gifts, the palace servants had arranged jewels in the palace where they held their marriage ceremony.
He selected an appropriate ring from among them and placed it on Hillia’s finger.
Now he did not wish to call it a “wedding ring.”
Arpard did not yet perceive what this meant.
What force had driven me to act this way?
Pushing my subordinates to conquer the ruin in a mere week, committing the madness of rushing here without a moment’s rest, and returning to her—even now, in this very moment.
I was undoubtedly the most foolish man in the world.
Only when I saw ‘that ring’ in Hillia’s hand did I finally understand.

That precious season, the spring that had first bloomed, had been violated.

I was unmistakably experiencing ‘jealousy’.
Jealousy was an emotion that could not exist without one fundamental feeling at its core.

* * *

Before, I had never paid much attention to pink or purple hues.
But after meeting Hillia, whenever I saw pink, I yearned to touch her hair.
And whenever I saw purple, I wished to kiss her eyelids.
All these realizations were branded into my soul as if seared by a branding iron.
The moment I saw the wedding ring that Ludwig had given in Hillia’s hand.
Without thinking, I clenched my teeth as if biting ice.
“You still had that?”
“Ah!”
Before Hillia could even respond, my hand moved first.
I snatched Ludwig’s ring (as I called it) from Hillia’s hand.
Then I slipped the one I had retrieved onto her left ring finger.
As if it had been crafted from the beginning to fit these slender, delicate fingers, the ring settled smoothly against her hand.
Only then did I smile.
It was the satisfaction of something that should have been there finally finding its rightful place.
Only then did I acknowledge it.
The emotion that lay beneath ‘jealousy’.
My realization came late because I was experiencing it for the first time in my life.
For Arpard, who had always passed through the four seasons without feeling, spring would now become the only season that held true meaning.
Because there was a woman I had first met in this spring.
Because the woman who reminded me of spring blossoms now stood before my eyes.
My belated realization of love shone brilliantly in her hand.
I finally acknowledged my love and bowed my head before it.
And I kissed the back of her hand.

* * *

Arpard suddenly slipped a ring onto Hillia’s finger, then pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.
He lifted his head and smiled—
Hillia stared at him in shock.
‘What? Why is he smiling like that?’
Because it was a smile she had never seen before.
Hillia knew Arpard’s smiles came in essentially two varieties.

1) A sneer
2) A smile that appeared when he was contemplating how to kill someone

Of course, there were occasional moments when she sensed he smiled like a boy.
But ‘this expression’—she had never seen it before.
It was as though the armor that had encased his exterior had crumbled away, revealing the true Arpard hidden within—a smile that exposed the genuine human beneath.
For a long moment, I was captivated by that smile.
I forgot about the ring being taken from me, forgot about the brilliant violet ring now adorning my finger.
I came to my senses only when I heard Arpard ask something entirely out of character—his voice uncharacteristically gentle.
“Did anything happen while I was away?”
“Huh? Yes?”
Hillia, entranced by Arpard, barely managed to gather her wits.
And she hastily poured out the words she had rehearsed countless times during his absence.
“Oh! Don’t worry about that. I handled everything perfectly. Your absence hasn’t been discovered at all!”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
“Yes?”
“I’m asking if anything happened to you.”
“…Yes?”
“Whether you ate well, whether you slept well.”
“…Yes?”
At Hillia’s three consecutive dazed “Yes?”s, Arpard answered in a soft whisper.
“I couldn’t stop wondering about your situation while I was gone. Constantly. I was worried.”
Finally, Hillia asked him earnestly.
“Did you eat something bad?”
This time, Arpard nearly answered “What?”
After a moment of confusion, he could recall it.
His usual manner of speaking.
And Yulken’s criticism of it as well.

“I’m not particularly known for my pleasant disposition either, but listening to Your Highness speak makes me mistake myself for a sufficiently affectionate person.”
“I should be careful. If I use Your Highness as my standard, I’ll end up rejected dozens of times by my lover and die an old bachelor.”

And if Hillia were to speak about work, I would have said something like this in the past.

“It would be troublesome if you didn’t do at least that much.”

As the weight of my past karma suddenly crashed down upon me, I pressed my forehead with my hand.
At that, Hillia sprang up and thrust her face forward.
“What’s wrong? Is something actually bothering you?”
Her voice was filled with obvious concern.
With just these simple words, my mood—which had been plummeting—was lifted back up.
I laughed despite myself, finding it absurd.
Because my transformation was so pronounced that even this was strange.
It was no wonder Hillia reacted this way.
“No. Nothing’s wrong.”
“Right. You’re not someone who gets sick easily.”
Hillia examined my appearance this way and that before speaking.
“But where have you been that you’re dressed so elaborately? Did you perhaps go meet a lover?”
“….”
I felt a little—no, very sorrowful.
I had just realized that I loved her, and now I was being asked if I had gone off to cheat on her? Wasn’t that a bit much?
Moreover, there was no jealousy or wariness in her tone.
That fact irritated me deeply.
‘I mustn’t be sarcastic or angry here again. Arpard Istrid.’
I had excellent learning ability.
I needed to give Hillia my trust. That was the priority.
I painted a smile that looked even gentler than before.
And I carefully chose my words. Making them as soft and affectionate as possible.
No sarcasm or biting remarks.
“No. A lover? I’ve said it several times, but I have no lover. Only a wife.”
“…?”
Hillia’s expression became strange.
She circled around me, observing carefully, then asked.
“Are you really Arpard?”
“There couldn’t possibly be another man as artistically handsome as this. It’s your husband Arpard.”
“…Seeing this shameless self-praise, it really does seem like the real Arpard…”
Hillia looked genuinely confused.
“Why are you acting so unsettled? They say when a person does something they don’t normally do, their death is drawing near. It’s frightening.”
I was momentarily bewildered.
Should I grieve that Hillia’s trust in me has hit rock bottom?
Or should I rejoice that she worries I might die?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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