I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 35

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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 35

My assessment of Ludwig’s drunken nonsense was straightforward.
‘Has he drunk so much that he’s literally become a dog?’
And immediately, I reflected on myself.
‘Ah, I owe another sincere apology to those adorable pups who make the world a better place through their cuteness.’
How could I compare rotting garbage—no, nuclear waste-tier trash—with those lovable, harmless bundles of fur?
Even if my eyes were blinded by rage, I shouldn’t forget the basic decency expected of a person.
Meanwhile, Ludwig descended the stairs in a zigzag, stumbling gait.
Miraculously—and unfortunately—he didn’t tumble or fall down them.
With a flushed face, he grinned widely and stretched both arms to embrace me.
“Hillia! I knew you’d come back!”
Two people reacted to Ludwig’s attempt to embrace me.
First was me, who nimbly dodged to the side.
Second was Arpard, who had been at odds with me just moments before.
He blocked the way faster than I could, and very smoothly swept Ludwig’s legs out from under him.
As a result, Ludwig rolled across the floor in the most drunkard-like fashion imaginable.
A bottle fell and spilled its remaining contents across the ground.
The servants who had come down with Ludwig, as well as the Grand Duke’s servants whom I had ignored earlier as if they didn’t exist, gasped and rushed to help him up.
“Your Grace!”
“Oh my! Come to your senses!”
“Lady Hillia has just—!”
They seemed eager to tattle to their master, as if I had committed some grave injustice against him.
But Ludwig, floundering in the spilled alcohol, was in no state to hear his servants’ words.
Just how much had he drunk?
‘I wish there were some device that could record video. I’d love to capture this and spread it around.’
Ah, come to think of it, while such a device isn’t being created right now, I know a mage who can develop magical artifacts capable of recording audio and video.
I shouldn’t forget to find that person beforehand and make them mine.
It would certainly prove invaluable.
That person wasn’t someone Evangeline had secured through information from the ‘original work,’ but rather someone I learned about through chance information.
‘In that case, it would be very easy for me to snatch them away first. Evangeline won’t know about it yet.’
It was too risky to intercept all the talented individuals Evangeline had acquired through the original work’s information.
‘There’s a high probability that Evangeline would notice something amiss.’
Until I built sufficient power, I had to minimize the risk of Evangeline discovering my regression.
Anyway, that was a matter for much later.
The most pressing matter was the banquet at Artanus Hall.
And before that, the immediate task at hand was reclaiming House Delphin.
In the meantime, Ludwig, who had fallen disgracefully and rolled across the floor, finally managed to get up.
He leaned on the Grand Duke’s servants as if they were canes.
And then he began to pick a quarrel with Arpard, who had tripped him with his own foot.
“You, you! How dare a lowborn wretch! How dare you trip me?! This is treason! Have him executed!”
Ludwig’s slurred speech and stubborn insistence were quite a sight to behold.
I was certain that even Evangeline would think he was picking a baseless fight.
I smiled brightly and spoke to Ludwig.
“It’s unseemly for a noble member of the Imperial Family to harass innocent commoners while intoxicated. If word of this spreads, the prestige of the Imperial Family will be dragged through the mud.”
Ludwig stared at me again, half-dazed.
And he muttered something foolish.
“Hillia, were you always this… beautiful?”
“Of course. Are you only realizing that now? Our dear one—no, Your Highness has always been beautiful!”
Anny, who despised Ludwig more than a fly drowning in a drink, shot back with a sharp, pointed voice.
But Ludwig didn’t even realize he’d been insulted and simply nodded vacantly.
“Well, I suppose that’s true. You were always beautiful. Actually, more than Eva, you Hillia…”
His belated compliments and words of regret only intensified my disgust.
“Stop spouting nonsense and leave.”
Fortunately, he seemed to understand this.
“Leave? Where? This is our home.”
His expression suggested he was sobering up a bit.
I declared coldly and deliberately.
“It’s not our home—it’s my home. And you have no reason to be here anymore.”
Ludwig looked up at me with the expression of someone who’d been drenched with cold water, asking blankly.
“No reason? Why? I’m your husband.”
“I’ve already married Prince Arpard. So we are no longer… actually, I suppose I’m your sister-in-law now.”
“Sister-in-law?”
Ludwig’s expression crumpled pathetically.
And in the next moment, he exploded and lunged toward me.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You’re mine!!!”

* * *

It was Arpard who stopped Ludwig, his face twisted into something monstrous, from lunging at Hillia.
Moments earlier, he had tripped her subtly, but now he stood openly before her like an immovable barrier.
Like a wall of stone.
Ludwig thrashed toward the unreachable Hillia, flailing his hands desperately.
“Get out of the way!!! She’s mine! She belongs to me!”
Arpard took his identity as Gerald, the Mercenary King, quite seriously.
Except in certain special circumstances, when working as a mercenary, he made efforts not to reveal himself as the Prince—precisely for this reason.
If he constantly acted as the Prince, the entire purpose of creating the identity of Gerald the Mercenary would vanish.
But in this moment, he felt an overwhelming urge to cast aside his mask and cut Ludwig down.
The thought was genuinely serious.
‘What if I killed him and then insisted I had challenged him to a duel for my wife’s honor?’
It was an absurd thought.
The usual Arpard would never have entertained such a notion.
Yet lately, Arpard found himself experiencing this feeling quite frequently.
Impulses to commit acts that his normal self would never perform surged up unexpectedly.
It only ever happened with matters concerning one person.
Against all reason, a voice carrying the sweet fragrance of flowers called out his false name.
“Gerald.”
Only then did Arpard realize he had momentarily lost his composure and openly displayed his killing intent.
The surroundings were nearly devastated by that alone.
“H-hieeeek―!”
“Please! Please spare us!”
“Ahhh!!”
Some people foamed at the mouth with eyes rolled back, while others collapsed with legs giving way beneath them.
And Ludwig….
“Oh dear.”
Hillia turned her head away, her delicate brows furrowing.
“The smell….”
Indeed, Ludwig, who had borne the brunt of Arpard’s momentarily uncontrolled killing intent, had lost control of his bladder entirely.
Gasps of shock and whispers echoed from all directions.
“G-good heavens!”
“What on earth!”
“Q-quickly, help him away!”
This applied equally to the employees and mercenaries of both Delphin and Kielrn—the incident was simply too shocking.
The more quick-witted employees of the Grand Duke’s estate covered Ludwig’s lower half with their own coats.
Hillia paid no attention to any of it.
She simply turned coldly and issued orders to the black-clad mercenaries.
“Escort our guest safely on his way.”
No one failed to understand who this “guest” referred to.
It was a command to drive Ludwig out.
Unable to contain himself, one of the Grand Duke’s servants cried out.
“This is too much! How could you do such a thing!”
At those words, Hillia slowly turned her head.
Her sharp violet gaze pierced like a blade toward Ludwig’s servant who had spoken those words of protest.
The servant trembled in sudden fear, and was startled by his own reaction.
‘Why should I be afraid of this woman? No matter what, I’m the Grand Duke’s confidant!’
For the past three years, as one of Ludwig’s inner circle, he had never abandoned the habit of looking down on Hillia and everyone belonging to House Delphin.
He gathered his courage and shouted.
“Still, no person should cast out the Grand Duke, who is so deeply wounded, like a thief! After all the kindness the Grand Duke has shown you!”
The servant’s words were strange.
He spoke as though Ludwig had bestowed some favor upon Hillia.
Hillia tilted her head, then approached the servant who was spouting nonsense.
“What exactly have I done that’s too much?”
“You’re trying to cast out the Grand Duke so coldly…!”
“I have already become husband and wife with Prince Arpard before the heavens and earth. Is there anyone who doesn’t know this fact? So now Ludwig and I are nothing to each other. Isn’t it disrespectful and excessive for Ludwig to sit in my home as though he owns it?”
“That, that is…!”
“The palace attendants I sent to bring my retainers were driven away without even entering the manor because Ludwig threw a tantrum. Isn’t that an act of barbarism?”
The servant was left speechless.
Having gone along with Ludwig and Evangeline’s arbitrary conduct within Kielrn Estate, his sense of common sense and ordinary propriety had vanished.
But hearing Hillia speak so bluntly, he suddenly realized that what had transpired in Kielrn Estate was far from normal.
As the servant stammered without a proper response.
Hillia asked in a cold voice.
“How should one be punished for insulting the Imperial Family?”
“One who insults the noble Imperial Family shall have the offending body part severed as punishment.”
It was Gerald (Arpard) who answered promptly. It was a law that actually functioned in the early days of the empire, but it had become nearly obsolete by now.
However, it was sufficient to drive the servant into terror.
Gerald (Arpard) added in a tone barely suppressing laughter.
“This fellow dared insult Her Highness with his tongue, so it would be fitting to sever his tongue as punishment.”
“Eeeek!”
Fearful reactions rippled through the surroundings.

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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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