I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 41

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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 41

I splashed the purple flower tea—more than half a cup—directly onto Madame Fileren’s face and chest.
“W-w-what on earth are you doing?”
“Kyaaah! What is the meaning of this?!”
I laughed with an affected giggle and replied.
“I heard such words that even a dog wouldn’t eat, and I was so startled my hands trembled.”

“…Your Highness?”
“…”
“Are you listening to me, Your Highness?”
The Countess of Fileren was looking at me with an expression that seemed somewhat irritated.
Her face was perfectly dry, and her pale gray dress bore not a single stain.
That’s right.
I hadn’t actually splashed the tea on Madame Fileren. It was merely imagination.
‘In truth, I desperately wish I could do exactly that…’
It would certainly feel refreshing for a moment.
But I had no intention of acting rashly for such satisfaction.
I smiled and drank the rest of the tea in small sips.
To be honest, if I listened to Madame Fileren’s chatter any longer, I feared I might actually throw it in her face.
‘Still, this tea is delicious.’
The tartness of the tea leaves and lemon mingled exquisitely with the sweetness of honey.
This was the Shariga flower petal tea that had recently become fashionable among young ladies in High Society.
When lemon was added to the originally blue tea, it transformed into a deep purple.
The process was so fascinating and beautiful that young ladies and aristocratic women drank it frequently these days.
There were also rumors that it was beneficial for one’s complexion.
But there was one significant drawback.
‘Once it turns purple, if the tea splashes onto fabric, it stains permanently—the marks never come out.’
So if I were to pour this onto the Countess of Fileren, who wore such light-colored clothing, she would be absolutely horrified.
‘But… I must endure this, Hillia.’
The moment I saw this tea, someone vitally important—someone I desperately needed right now—came to mind.
Naturally, it was not the Countess of Fileren.
I casually ignored the Countess of Fileren’s incessant chatter about apologies, as though she were a parrot, and sent her away.

“Ah, I’m afraid I’ve been far too exhausted lately, and further conversation seems impossible, Madame Fileren.”
“Oh, but, Your Highness. You haven’t yet given me a definite answer that you would apologize…!”

I stumbled backward deliberately.
Anny, whose intuition was uncannily sharp, steadied me while muttering under her breath.

“Compose yourself, Your Highness. The Crown Prince is being far too forward. He really ought to exercise some restraint in his affections….”
“Don’t say such things, Anny.”

At my words, Madame Fileren could do nothing but parrot further.
Her face flushed crimson as she had no choice but to turn and leave.
‘I have a feeling rumors about Arpard being excessively passionate at night will spread far more than expected….’
Well, it wouldn’t hurt me in the slightest, so I didn’t mind.
And if Madame Fileren reported everything to Evangeline, she would surely become furious.
‘I would do absolutely anything to provoke Evangeline!’

* * *

And Hillia’s sacrifice (?) bore fruit.
Upon hearing that the Countess of Fileren had visited the Prince’s Palace, Evangeline immediately summoned her to her own manor.
And she received nothing but entirely unexpected answers.
“She’s going to apologize to me officially? But you said that would be advantageous to persuade her! You said that’s the only way people would even show their faces at the Artanus Hall banquet!”
In fact, Madame Fileren had continued persuading Hillia with that very logic.
And naturally, it had no effect whatsoever.
“Well, you see… I was about to agree to apologize, but… last night the Crown Prince was so relentless that he exhausted me and sent me away.”
Madame Fileren didn’t know that Evangeline harbored feelings for Arpard.
She was merely trying to excuse her failure as not being her own fault.
But instead, it struck a nerve with Evangeline.
‘Is she mocking me right now?!’
Evangeline hurled the teacup she had been holding at Madame Fileren.
Splash—!
“Eeek!”
The tea drenched Madame Fileren’s face and upper body. The teacup shattered against the floor with a loud crash.
Clang!
“E-E-Evangeline! How could you do this!”
By coincidence, the tea Evangeline had been drinking was also Sharingas petal tea.
Moreover, since Madame Fileren wore a light-colored dress, a deep violet stain had settled upon it.
“Oh, what am I to do….”
This was the dress she had worn when entering the Imperial Palace, making it her most expensive garment.
Madame Fileren wept profusely as she dabbed away the tea.
This was, quite by chance, a scene remarkably similar to what Hillia had imagined moments before.
Of course, even if Hillia had known that Evangeline was the culprit, she wouldn’t have found much satisfaction in it.
Evangeline glared coldly at the sniffling Madame Fileren and drove her away.
“Don’t you dare show your face again until that girl apologizes to me with her own mouth!”
The Countess of Fileren had no choice but to return home with her shoulders slumped.

* * *

After dismissing Madame Fileren,
I summoned Felix Yulken, the Secretary to the Crown Prince.
I had seen his face once before when I visited Arpard’s office previously, but this was our first proper introduction.
“You called for me.”
“Welcome, Felix Yulken, the Secretary.”
Before my regression, Yulken was not someone directly connected to me.
However, I harbored an internal affinity for him, and the reason was simple.
‘He’s someone who would never side with Ludwig or Evangeline, no matter what!’
That alone was enough to fill my heart with goodwill.
In my previous three lives as well, Yulken’s endings were never favorable.
Each time, he refused to acknowledge Ludwig as Crown Prince.
And the reason for that was not because he was an extraordinary loyalist to Arpard.

“It’s better for the nation to collapse in the hands of a capable madman! I cannot bear to watch an incompetent, greedy fool sit at the top and slowly strangle the country to death!”

…he would cry out, and he even attempted to assassinate Ludwig single-handedly.
Remarkably, he nearly succeeded.
Ultimately, he failed and lost his head for it.
I had heard Yulken’s scathing remarks about Ludwig directly.
From the cell next to mine, to be precise.
Yulken cursed Ludwig and Evangeline creatively every single day.

“The late Emperor showed no signs of madness, but I think that’s not true! Choosing an incompetent fool like Ludwig—that’s madness. What else could be madness!”
“It’s absurd that a bastard born from an affair, whom even his biological father, Grand Duke Kieran, disowned, was recognized as Imperial Family, let alone becoming Emperor!”
“Leaving the legitimate Empress aside to seat a mistress in the Empress Palace—clearly, he inherited the blood of his adulterous parents all too well!”

An endless stream of criticism and curses—some bordering on sheer madness—poured forth without respite.
Listening from the adjacent cell, I could do nothing but nod timidly.
But, but….
‘I’ve already become a fan of that eloquence!’
That’s right.
Too timid to join in with his profanity-laced tirades, I nonetheless found myself secretly exhilarated by his words.
During those days, Yulken truly cursed without ceasing, his voice growing hoarse from the effort.
Naturally, having incurred the displeasure of those above, he was denied even water, let alone proper meals.
When his strength finally gave out and the adjacent cell fell silent, I felt an overwhelming sense of loss.
So I mustered my courage.
The ancient prison was riddled with cracks.
Insects and rats scurried through the gaps.
Waiting for a moment when the guard wasn’t watching, I carefully crumbled my portion of black bread and slipped it through one of the larger cracks.
Tap, tap, tap!
After knocking on the wall a few times, Yulken seemed to finally notice.
A hoarse voice, tinged with surprise, came from beyond the wall.

“I don’t know who you are, but… *cough*, are you… giving this to me…?”
“…Yes. I’ve been listening from next door, and it was so refreshing.”

Yulken let out a laugh like air escaping from a punctured bladder.
I spoke with sincerity.

“It felt like my chest was finally opening up… so, I wanted to cheer you on.”

Yulken laughed as though he might choke, and asked playfully.

“Could it be, *cough*! that you’ve… become my fan?”
“Yes, that’s right! I’m rooting for you!”

And then I had to worry whether Yulken might die laughing rather than from starvation or the executioner’s blade.
The sound of his genuine, frenzied laughter seemed to echo all the way to the distant cells.
And shortly after, the bread crumbs I’d passed through vanished in an instant.
Yulken, having regained some strength, even managed to ask this:

“Is there… *cough*, any water? My throat is parched.”

We found another suitable gap between the walls.
I poured water through it, and Yulken gratefully drank what I offered.

“Ah, dust and mold… I never knew they could taste better than premium tea.”
“I-I’m sorry. This is all I could…”
“…No, thank you. Because of you, I feel a bit stronger.”

And then Yulken burst into a tirade of curses once more.
Weary guards rushed over to stop him, but Yulken, emboldened beyond measure, refused to cease.
Even as he was dragged to the scaffold two days later.
He continued cursing Ludwig and Evangeline even at the execution grounds.

“They say his mistress is the real power, but Ludwig is just a puppet emperor! How can the nation be in such a state?”
“Just let it all collapse! Let it all fall apart!”

I could hear him from the prison, quite a distance away.
Recalling that moment, my eyes must have sparkled without my realizing it.
“Why… are you doing that?”
It was because Yulken, sitting uncomfortably on the sofa, had shifted his hips backward.
In the meantime, refreshments that Anny had brought were arranged between us.
Due to my special orders, the refreshment table was extraordinarily lavish.
Not stale black bread scraps, but an abundance of sweet and delicate desserts that seemed as though the table legs might break under their weight.
This time, instead of water tasting of mold and dust, I had prepared the finest tea.
When I poured the tea myself and handed it to him, Yulken’s expression became even more uncomfortable.
“Th-thank you…?”
“If the tea doesn’t suit your taste, just say so. I’ve had champagne prepared as well.”
“….”
Yulken drank the tea while visibly suppressing the urge to say something cutting.
I restrained my lips from curving upward of their own accord and broached the main subject.
This was not the time to indulge in my fandom and nostalgia.
“I called you here because I have something to command you.”
Yulken’s expression, which had been anxious about my inexplicable kindness until moments before, hardened instantly.
Where there had been bewilderment and discomfort, now there was displeasure and wariness.
He asked me.
“Did you just say you have something to command?”
His voice seemed to have thorns embedded in every word.
I continued smiling brightly and nodded.
“Yes. Your question just now sounds as though I have no right to give you orders. Is that correct?”
My fandom and affection from before regression were real, but now is now.
Just as it had been when we met in Arpard’s office last time, it was written plainly across Yulken’s face.
‘I don’t trust you! I won’t acknowledge you as the Prince’s wife!’
Exactly like that.
And Yulken was among Arpard’s closest and most important retainers.
I laughed brightly and asked him.
“So it was you who orchestrated the atmosphere behind the scenes to make Eshia behave that way, Felix Yulken, the Secretary.”
“…!”
A flicker of surprise crossed Yulken’s eyes. The kind of look that said, ‘How did you figure it out?’
But he shamelessly shook his head.
“I’m not certain what you’re referring to. If you mean the maid we sent back recently for her rudeness, she’s currently undergoing re-education. To suggest I had a hand in it seems like quite an overinterpretation.”
He smiled smoothly and evaded the accusation.
This was indeed difficult.
‘But then again, that’s exactly like Yulken.’
I almost found it refreshing.
However, I couldn’t afford to waste time on Yulken’s wariness and suspicions.
Just as I had brought order to Delphin, I needed to establish control within the Prince’s Palace as swiftly as possible.
‘I’ll settle this quickly and decisively!’
I crossed my legs and cut straight to the heart of the matter.
“Why don’t you use the title ‘Your Highness’ when addressing me?”
There were many who still didn’t acknowledge me as the Crown Princess.
But those who belonged to the Prince’s Palace were different.
Here, everyone called me ‘Your Highness.’
Everyone except one—Yulken alone.
I smiled faintly and asked.
“You don’t think I’m suited for the position of Crown Princess, do you? That I’ll become an obstacle to Prince Arpard.”
Behind his glasses, Yulken’s eyes gleamed sharply.

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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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