I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 5

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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 5

Count Beltane and I held our breath, concealing ourselves beneath the trees.
We tilted our heads upward toward the terrace, straining to listen.
Soon, the sound of an angry quarrel between a man and woman drifted down to us.
“This is exactly why you shouldn’t have embroidered your name into Hillia’s dress!”
“…You should speak truthfully. Wasn’t it you who suggested this first? That woman is merely a scarecrow, and we are the true bride and groom, so we should engrave proof of that!”
It was undoubtedly Ludwig and Evangeline.
The two of them were quarreling on the terrace, hidden from the eyes of others.
Thanks to this, I found myself enjoying their argument from the front row of the garden. It felt as though something crispy was needed to complete the scene.
The way they were crumbling apart like flour—far faster than I’d anticipated—was somewhat amusing.
I had to restrain myself from laughing aloud.
‘This is not the time to rejoice over such trivial matters.’
Creating a rift between those two was naturally something I desired.
But it was not my ultimate goal.
Ludwig spoke as though he were the wronged party.
“At that time, you cried, saying how sad it was that I was marrying without you! I was only trying to console you…!”
“So you were speaking without sincerity, and I simply acted on what you said? Was I the one lacking perception?”
Evangeline’s voice was thoroughly inflamed.
I leaned in with keen interest.
“That’s not what I meant…!”
“Then what is it?”
Ludwig suddenly shifted his logic and made excuses. It seemed he had tried to pin the blame for their shared transgression solely on Evangeline, but it wasn’t working.
“There’s no choice. You know the wedding must take place tomorrow, don’t you?”
…
“You know I need the power of House Delphin to stand against that mad prince, don’t you?”
“I know! In the first place, what did my mother and I invest so much effort in this marriage for? Because House Delphin was necessary in the end. That’s why I endured it all.”
Ludwig and Evangeline were speaking of my household as though it were their personal possession.
And their conversation was also the future that would soon unfold.
It had been so in all three of my previous lives.
‘Not this time. Never again.’
As I steeled my resolve, gripping the hem of my skirt tightly, Count Beltane beside me seemed to interpret it in a different light.
He looked at me with sympathetic eyes, then carefully placed his hand over the back of mine.
A warm, large hand.
I suddenly realized something.
‘When he fled with me last time, he never even touched my hand.’
He was a knight of almost excessive propriety.
This was the first time he had reached out to me so personally, and it startled me somewhat, feeling awkward as well.
Noticing my reaction, Count Beltane quickly withdrew his hand, silently mouthing an apology with only his lips.
And I had no time to dwell on that warmth.
The quarrel between the two on the terrace was beginning to take a peculiar turn.
Ludwig burst out in anger.
“You know full well, so why are you being so troublesome over just one dress…!”
That was when a sharp sound rang out between the bickering pair.
Crack!
I looked up in shock and saw Evangeline with her hand raised, her eyes wide with surprise.
And Ludwig’s face, turned to the side.
Evangeline gasped in horror and changed her stance, clinging to Ludwig.
“I-I’m sorry. I got too emotional and made a mistake…!”
“Enough.”
“Ludwig!”
Ludwig spoke coldly and left the room.
“Return to the Imperial Palace, and don’t come to the wedding tomorrow. If you try to ruin it again, I won’t let it slide.”
“Ludwig!!”
But Ludwig shook off Evangeline’s desperate grasp and left.
I heard Evangeline collapse in despair.

* * *

Having become an unwilling spectator to this melodrama, we left the Delphin Estate a bit later than expected, but we escaped safely.
Count Beltane seemed somewhat worried.
“Do you think Grand Duke Ludwig might return to you again?”
“That won’t happen.”
I knew Ludwig well.
He had gone to see Evangeline because he didn’t want to comfort me while I was crying profusely, and they had fought.
If he came back to me only to see me crying again, he would surely hate it.
‘That’s why I even asked Anny to keep watch outside my door, just in case.’
I had asked her to say I was too heartbroken and crying if anyone came.
Then Ludwig would leave on his own.
But that wasn’t what mattered now.
I looked up at the sky. A perfectly round full moon was glowing an almost crimson hue.
‘The Crimson Moon.’
It was a strange coincidence that today was the night the red moon rose.
It had been the same across all four lives, but walking beneath this moonlight to see ‘that man’ tonight feels oddly novel.

“I was always afraid of when I might lose my mind. Especially on the Crimson Moon, the night my mother passed away.”

On nights when this moon rises, ‘he’ would never be found within the Imperial Palace.
Instead, he burrowed into the deepest underground of the capital.
He would be hiding in his secret hideout, tucked away in a corner of the massive underground catacombs where even starlight could not reach.
I arrived at the entrance of the Catacombs on the Outskirts of the Capital with only Count Beltane, carrying an unlit lantern.
The gravedigger, who looked like a corpse that had just risen from a tomb, tilted his head in confusion.
“I never expected anyone to visit a grave on a night like this. And with an unlit lamp, no less.”
I smiled silently and held out a silver coin.
Not currency in circulation, but a silver coin made as a burial offering to be placed in the mouths of the dead.
Upon seeing it, the gravedigger, whose brow was nothing but bone, finally stepped aside from the entrance.
However, I stopped Count Beltane, who tried to follow me.
“What is this!”
“Only the client may enter. That is the rule here.”
At the word ‘client,’ Count Beltane appeared bewildered.
But I had no time to explain everything in detail.
I gave another command.
“Wait here. I will return safely.”
“…Yes, miss.”
Thus, I succeeded in entering the cemetery alone, holding the empty lantern.
This place was the secret hideout that Gerald, the Mercenary King, had not revealed even to his subordinates.

And so, after going through a complex process, I succeeded in meeting Gerald, the Mercenary King, who was Prince Arpard’s secret identity.
At last, I could speak these words.
“Please abduct me.”

* * *

Upon hearing my excessively radical request, Gerald, the Mercenary King—or rather, Prince Arpard—seemed taken aback.
No, more than that; he was looking at me as though I were the most absurd thing in the world.
“If Your Highness accepts my commission, I can ensure in return that you ascend to the throne safely, without succumbing to madness.”
I was certain of this.
‘There’s no way the Prince could refuse such an offer!’
After all, in my three previous lives, he had gone mad every single time.
Once, he became a mad tyrant and lost his head just a week into his reign; in the other two instances, he died before ever reaching the throne.
And each time, it was his own father who had killed him.
The Emperor did not trust his son. He was wary, fearing Arpard might go mad and destroy the realm at any moment.
And indeed, in all three of my previous lives, Arpard had gone mad and perished, so the Emperor’s suspicion was justified.
That was why he placed his faith in his nephew, Grand Duke Ludwig, rather than his own son.
‘The Prince created the false identity of Gerald, the Mercenary King, precisely for this reason.’
Gerald’s Mercenary Guild was essentially Prince Arpard’s private army—a force to stand against his father.
So the Prince had no choice but to avoid letting the truth about “Gerald” reach the Emperor.
I gazed directly at Arpard with a victorious smile playing on my lips.
His ruby-like crimson eyes gleamed in the darkness. His platinum hair seemed to have been spun from moonlight itself.
His face was extraordinarily beautiful.
Not merely beautiful or pretty in a simple sense, but possessing an almost inhuman, mesmerizing beauty that captivated all who beheld it.
The elegant curve of his lips curled upward, forming a threatening smile.
“Hah….”
He exhaled a languid sigh.
And his crimson eyes, which had gleamed with clarity moments before, were now flooded entirely with madness.
‘What?’
I had no time to be bewildered.
In the next instant, Arpard drew his blade and pressed it against my throat.
The cold, sharp glint of metal clung against the nape of my neck.
“Ugh….”
A refined, icy madness burned in Arpard’s gaze.
“I despise those who attempt to manipulate me.”
I could sense whom he was thinking of.
The Emperor.
The father who had distrusted his son and ultimately killed him.
“I don’t know how you discovered the connection between the Mercenary King and me, nor what confidence possessed you to touch upon my greatest grievance.”
“…Ugh!”
The blade drew closer. The sensation of it touching bare skin sent chills down my spine.
He was handling me as effortlessly as one might lift a wine glass, yet it was an unmistakable threat.
A warning that he could sever my throat at any moment.
But.
I clenched my teeth.
‘I have already died three times!’
Of course, there had been times when I died with my throat slit.
If I remained still like this, I would die again after experiencing something miserable and horrific.
Rather than that, it was better to end it cleanly and quickly here.
‘If you’re going to do it, try me!’
I hardened my gaze and looked at him defiantly.
I bit my lip until I tasted blood, then took a step forward.
I felt the sharp blade cutting into my skin. The smell of blood pricked my nostrils.
But there was no hesitation.
“!!”
It was Arpard who stopped me instead.
As I stepped forward without fear, he pulled his hand back—the hand that had been gripping my head.
So my throat wouldn’t be cut deeply.
Thanks to that, I only suffered a minor wound.
There was only one meaning to this.
‘Done! I won!’

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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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