I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 39

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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 39

With confidence, I waited for Arpard’s response.
Standing beside me, overlooking the spectacle unfolding on the path below, Arpard wore a faint smile throughout.
A rather satisfied smile it was.
Ludwig making a fool of himself outside.
The gossip-mongers I’d planted through the mercenary company spreading word of his disgrace far and wide.
‘Once rumors of this incident solidify, everyone will know Ludwig isn’t fit to be Emperor.’
And this was surely what Arpard desired.
Naturally, he should have been pleased.
Yet.
Arpard wore a peculiar expression.
‘What? Why suddenly like this?’
He’d clearly burst into laughter when Ludwig was crawling on all fours earlier.
But now Arpard turned his head to stare directly at me.
One thing was certain—his expression was neither gratified nor satisfied.
‘What’s bothering him now?’
Truly, this man was impossible to read.
He gestured downward with his chin.
“He’s calling quite desperately.”
“Pardon? Calling what?”
At that moment, Ludwig let out another cry, almost a scream.
“Hillia―! Come out! Hillia! Hillia―!”
Straining to listen, I could barely make out the words.
‘Ah, he’s been calling my name.’
I nodded.
“So he is?”
“How does it feel?”
“Feel like what?”
I couldn’t fathom why he’d been spouting such random remarks.
“Your former betrothed is desperately calling only your name—doesn’t it shake you at all?”
At that moment, I finally understood Arpard’s expression.
He was… deeply displeased.
I immediately grasped something.
‘Ah, well. Ludwig’s behavior is rather extreme.’
I hadn’t anticipated he would lose control like that.
But Ludwig’s loss of control was entirely Arpard’s doing.
So who was the one radiating such excessive killing intent yesterday?
No matter how composed, Arpard seemed to possess considerable pride and self-esteem.
Ludwig’s abandonment of bipedal locomotion was shameful even for a member of the Imperial Family.
‘So you want me to preserve the dignity of the entire Imperial Family while casting Ludwig out? How greedy.’
I expressed my displeasure at this fact with a blunt response.
“It is indeed regrettable that the Imperial Family’s dignity has been tarnished.”
Arpard slowly shook his head.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“What more do you need? Do you have a particular answer in mind?”
Arpard let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
Then he donned a mask, assumed Gerald’s appearance, and swept out of the office.
‘What a spectacle, truly!’

* * *

The sun hanging at the zenith of the sky pierced my eyes with sharp rays of light.
Ludwig barely opened his eyes through a splitting headache.
“Ugh, ah, my head…!”
A servant who had been waiting nearby immediately brought Ludwig cool water.
As he gulped down the water and tried to rise, he noticed something strange.
“What? Where am I?”
This was not the familiar bedroom of the Delphin Mansion.
Then came the servant’s trembling voice.
“It is the Grand Duke’s Residence, Your Highness.”
Only then did Ludwig realize it was a place he knew well.
Though he had visited the Grand Duke’s Residence frequently, he did not live there primarily, so recognition came slowly.
Ludwig clutched his splitting head and muttered.
“Why am I here?”
Immediately following the question came a response sharp with anger.
“Finally awake. Did you sleep well?”
The words could have sounded affectionate.
Especially considering the voice belonged to his lover.
But the voice was colder than ice and bristling with irritation.
Ludwig furrowed his brow and asked.
“Eva? Why are you here?”
Evangeline, who had been glaring at Ludwig for a moment, strode forward and brought her palm against Ludwig’s cheek.
Crack―!
A sound rang out as if flesh might tear, and Ludwig looked up at Evangeline in disbelief.
“You, you, how dare you!”
Evangeline, who always resorted to coquetry and changed the subject whenever Ludwig grew truly angry, had done something unthinkable.
Yet now she gazed down at Ludwig as though he were nothing more than an insect.
“Don’t you remember? What you did this morning?”
“What did I even—!”
Ludwig’s face, which had been about to flush with anger, drained of all color.
Along with the bitter taste rising from his throat came fragmented memories surfacing in his mind.
Last night, Hillia had come to Delphin.
And then, and then…

“Hillia—! She’s mine! Hillia!”

The sight of himself crawling on all fours through the streets like a beast.
Crowds of people gathering like clouds to witness his degradation.
Even the memory of common mercenaries—not even proper knights—blocking his path.
Ludwig muttered like a madman.
“No. It can’t be. It must not be real. Right? Right?”
Forgetting even the sting of the slap, Ludwig clung to Evangeline desperately.
But Evangeline delivered her verdict with a contemptuous gaze, words as final as a death sentence.
“No, it’s all true. Your drunken disgrace has already spread throughout the entire Capital and beyond.”
“No, it can’t be! It can’t! No!”
Ludwig screamed like a dying animal.

And the humiliation of these two had not yet truly begun.
While Evangeline seethed with fury, I was racking my brain over how to contain this situation.
‘Should I just cut ties with Ludwig? This is far too catastrophic.’
Ludwig was already a collateral branch of the Imperial Family with questionable legitimacy.
Inspiring fear was acceptable—even preferable from a ruler’s perspective. Arpard operated that way, after all.
But to have rumors attached that would inevitably make him a subject of contempt and mockery? It was the worst possible outcome.
Erasing this stain and placing him on the throne would be genuinely difficult.
Even if I am a Possessed.
My heart had already been aching ever since I saw Hillia standing beside Arpard.
And now, with this incident unfolding, I truly wanted nothing to do with any of it.
As before, I found myself unable to help but compare Ludwig to Arpard’s beautiful and commanding presence.
‘Arpard would never commit such shameful acts while intoxicated!’
Yet the reason Evangeline still hadn’t made her decision was simple.
‘But Ludwig is the original novel’s male lead.’
I had planned to replace the female lead’s position with myself.
That alone created countless variables and unpredictable situations.
Just like now.
‘But is it even possible to replace both the male and female leads?’
Considering that, completely abandoning Ludwig might be far too dangerous.
“Do you know what rumors are spreading about you?”
“W-what rumors?”
“That you’ve been clinging persistently to your ex-fiancée’s residence, and while drunk, you’ve become a pathetic wretch, losing control of yourself and desperately calling out her name!”
Even as Evangeline condemned and cornered Ludwig, the reason she couldn’t completely abandon him was this.
Simply because Ludwig was the original novel’s male protagonist.
Ludwig clung to Evangeline in an almost vacant state.
“P-please save me. Eva!”
He begged pathetically and shamefully.
“If the Emperor and Empress learn of this, I’m finished!”
Ludwig, who had been screaming while clutching his head, staggered, still not fully recovered from his drunkenness.
Then he grabbed Evangeline’s dress and began to retch.
“Please! Bleeegh!”
“Kyaaaaa!!!”
The screams of the two shook the Kielrn Manor.
The two would soon realize that this dreadful day was only the beginning.
That afternoon, an enormous cargo wagon sent from Delphin arrived and completely filled the front of the Kielrn Manor.
A servant of the House of the Grand Duke asked in confusion.
“What is all this?”
“These are the Grand Duke’s belongings that remained at the Delphin Mansion.”
“What?”
“Since the engagement has been broken, the Protagonist has graciously arranged for them to be returned to you.”
And from the third-floor window of the Grand Duke’s Residence, Evangeline suddenly recalled a crucial fact.
‘Wait. I have plenty of belongings at Delphin too. Could it be…?’
She slipped out through the back entrance as she had when arriving at the Grand Duke’s Residence and rushed to her own home, the Roux Mansion.
And she nearly stumbled upon a scene remarkably similar to what she’d witnessed before the Kielrn Manor.
“Ah, how fortunate that the young lady of the Roux household has arrived. We have sent every last piece of your belongings that you left at Delphin without exception. Here, please sign the receipt.”
Evangeline’s face drained of color as she looked around.
Curious eyes surrounded her from all directions, witnessing this spectacle. Ears perked up, eavesdropping on every word of the conversation.
By nightfall, this situation would undoubtedly spread throughout not only the Imperial Court Society but among the common folk as well.
‘This is absurd! How could I suffer such humiliation…!’
The world spun before her eyes.

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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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