I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 26

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

Chapter 26

Arpard traced his sharp jawline with an elegant gesture.
Reading his expression and gauging his emotions was impossible even for his father, the Emperor.
But this time was different. Even he didn’t fully understand his own feelings.
More precisely, he didn’t understand the source of those feelings.
The feeling itself, however, was unmistakably clear.
‘It irritates me.’
Yes—that vague displeasure resembling a fish bone caught in one’s throat.
And though he claimed not to know the reason, he had his suspicions.
The timing of when his mood had soured was perfectly clear.

“The truth is, I’m someone who lived in the future and regressed after dying miserably?”

That woman’s response to Arpard’s attempt to uncover her secret was nothing but nonsense.
Beyond the mocking tone of her words, what truly irritated him was how she hid behind such remarks, refusing to speak the truth.
It grated on him.
‘A woman with far too many secrets.’
In truth, Arpard despised such people.
Anyone would dislike someone who kept much hidden, but in Arpard’s case, the word “despise” was an understatement.
‘Yet strangely, I don’t feel the urge to kill her.’
For Arpard, “despise” or “suspect” often connected directly to “eliminate.”
With so many concerns and precautions already demanding his attention, he resented wasting focus on trivial matters.
‘When I could go mad and die at any moment, why bother with such things?’
So until now, anything that irritated him was simply eliminated.
Of course, this didn’t mean he swung a blade in front of witnesses.
That would only invite rumors of his madness returning.
He simply took advantage of accidents or assassination attempts directed at him to dispose of them appropriately.
Yet remarkably—or perhaps unsurprisingly—the solution of “eliminate the irritation by killing” held no appeal when it came to the woman he’d placed in the Ivory Room.
Even though he felt she had toyed with him through words.
Arpard’s brow furrowed again. Without realizing it, he muttered with genuine frustration.
“She really is irritating…”
At that, Yulken, his secretary who had been reporting the situation to Arpard in his study, raised his voice slightly.
“What troubles you, Your Highness?”
“Who knows.”
Naturally, Arpard offered Yulken no courteous answer. Yulken himself hadn’t expected one.
Yet Yulken was among the sharpest-tongued of those who served Arpard.
“It seems you’re not even listening to my report with half an ear, all because you won’t say what’s bothering you.”
Only then did Arpard turn his head slightly.
“How much have you reported?”
“How much have you heard, Your Highness?”
Watching Arpard’s eyebrows twitch, Yulken released a long sigh.
“So you haven’t heard any of it.”
“Tell me again.”
“As I always say, I would appreciate it if you could be a bit more considerate of my throat’s health.”
And as expected, Arpard paid no attention whatsoever to his subordinate’s complaint.
Yulken had to recite his report from the beginning.
The opening subject was none other than the woman who had been the talk of the town recently.
“As you commanded, Your Highness, I have placed trustworthy individuals around Lady Hillia Delphin. Every movement of hers is being reported.”
At that moment, a servant entered through the door and handed him a small note.
Yulken added the newly received information.
“It appears Lady Hillia Delphin has summoned a noblewoman who was driven out from the Empress Palace to her reception room. And it seems the Empress Palace has also prevented noblewomen from attending the Arctanus Hall banquet a month from now.”
“She’s at her scheming again.”
Dismissing his stepmother’s treachery—no different from that of an enemy—in a single phrase, Arpard turned his gaze to his secretary.
Arpard’s crimson eyes reflected in the silver-rimmed glasses above Yulken’s eyes.
“Wasn’t the title incorrect?”
The secretary understood what his master was pointing out.
And he also knew that those words essentially meant ‘correct it yourself properly.’
But if he were the type to bow his head immediately at such words, he would never have remained in the Prince’s Palace.
Yulken answered boldly.
“The Emperor has not yet issued an official decree appointing her as Crown Princess, Your Highness.”
“Regardless, she is already my wife, having completed the marriage ceremony.”
Yulken’s expression crumpled as if he were witnessing something that could not exist in this world.
“Your Highness, surely you didn’t actually fall head over heels for her on the main street and conduct a bride abduction?”
“What if I truly did?”
Yulken pulled out something he always carried with him.
“Then I would resign immediately. If it’s true, Your Highness’s madness has certainly relapsed!”
Arpard incinerated the resignation letter his secretary offered with a spark of magical flame.
“Ah! My resignation letter!”
“You have another one anyway.”
“That may be true, but still.”
Arpard knew well.
That this ill-tempered yet capable secretary’s hobby was writing resignation letters.
And the fact that Yulken had presented a resignation letter meant this:
‘Are you in your right mind, sir?’
The bride abduction seemed mad enough to warrant such a reaction.
Especially from his subordinate’s perspective.
“Everyone is already in such a state that they want to wager on when you’ll lose your mind, Your Highness. Did you perhaps secretly bet on the ‘going mad’ side?”
“Enough. Before I cut out your tongue.”
“Not the tongue! Just cut off my head instead!”
If Hillia had witnessed this, she would have concluded that when a master loses his mind, his subordinates have no choice but to follow suit.
From the moment Arpard’s abduction began until now, I hadn’t received a single proper explanation or justification.
Yet it was Yulken who had handled all the troublesome aftermath and fulfilled everything Arpard demanded.
So from Yulken’s perspective, his feelings were justified.
‘Surely I have earned the right to complain to this extent!’
Arpard knew this, which is why he’d stopped at mere threats.
Yulken adjusted his glasses and asked.
“But what kind of magic did the Delphin Princess work? To have obtained Artanus Hall from His Majesty the Emperor, no less.”
“I have no idea.”
“Surely you could tell me something?”
Arpard shrugged his shoulders.
“I really don’t know. She set up a barrier with the Emperor and the two of them whispered away in secret, then suddenly Artanus Hall just dropped into my lap.”
“…?”
Yulken’s expression suggested he was once again worried whether Arpard had succumbed to madness.
But as a loyal attendant who had served him for so long, he soon realized it was the truth and was astounded.
It wasn’t from reading his expression, but from knowing Arpard’s manner of speech and habits so well that such a judgment was possible.
“Truly?”
“Yes.”
Yulken fell into contemplation.
“From what Your Highness says, it sounds as though she’s brainwashed His Majesty the Emperor?”
“…It doesn’t seem impossible, which makes it even more amusing.”
To be more precise, it felt as though Arpard himself had been brainwashed.
Otherwise, there was no way he would have carried out an abduction that Yulken would have deemed mad enough to submit his resignation over.
“Well, we can determine the details as we serve and observe going forward.”
Both master and servant understood that ‘serve’ here meant ‘monitor’.
“Are you saying you’ll continue calling her the Delphin Princess until then?”
Yulken smiled wryly.
Just as he had chosen to serve Arpard, whom everyone feared, of his own volition, accepting Hillia as the Crown Princess was something no one could force upon him.
Arpard understood Yulken’s nature well.
Yet he was deliberately making a point of it.
“Don’t use the words ‘Delphin Princess’ in front of me. It irritates me.”
Yes, it irritated him.
A mouth that spouts irritating words can be silenced without hesitation.
Even a close aide like Yulken was no exception. That was Arpard’s nature.
Sensing that his master was serious, Yulken quickly stepped back one pace.
“Then I shall refer to her as the mistress of the Ivory Room. This should be acceptable, yes?”
Yulken thought this unexpected, yet he accommodated what his master desired.
Of course, even while doing so, he deliberately avoided saying ‘Crown Princess’.
“Do as you see fit.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Yulken observed his master’s unusual demeanor with curious eyes.
‘The Prince would never normally do such things. Just like the Emperor.’
And at the center of all these astonishing events stood a single woman.
‘Hillia Delphin.’
Following Arpard’s orders, I used a different title instead of calling her a princess.
But my true thoughts remained unchanged.
The day I called Hillia ‘Your Highness’ would be when I genuinely acknowledged her as the mistress of this palace.
Until then, I intended to suspect, monitor, and test her to the fullest.
That was precisely why Yulken existed within the Prince’s Palace.

* * *

“Sob! That’s why I’ve told you several times that wasn’t what I meant, but it was useless.”
The Countess of Fileren continued to weep and wail before me.
There was nothing pleasant about hearing negative words, especially watching someone else cry and whimper.
However, if that crying contained useful information, it became bearable.
My judgment in luring out the woman who had been cast out from the Empress Palace and was lingering around the Prince’s Palace had been correct.
Thanks to her, I could confirm the Empress and Evangeline’s responses.
And most importantly…
“I… I don’t know what to do now… Sob!”
The Countess of Fileren continued to shed tears like a broken vessel before me.
But I knew that sharp eyes were observing me from between her handkerchief and her long bangs.
Of course they were, for I knew this woman’s face far too well.
She had first approached me wanting to be my friend, then betrayed me at the crucial moment.
Edith Filerne.
The Countess of Fileren.
‘She’s approached me to betray me again. And far more quickly than last time.’
It meant the Empress and Evangeline were already wary of me.
‘And there’s no point in pretending not to know when I already do.’

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