I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 66

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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 66

I had lost count of how many times I doubted my own eyesight today.
‘What is this? Am I dreaming right now?’
The hall, which should have been completely empty, was packed with crowds of people.
Those dressed in exotic and elaborate formal wear and gowns gathered together, conversing with laughter and chuckles, while an excellent orchestra played a pleasant melody.
Tables in the corners of the banquet hall overflowed with appetizing dishes.
A servant passing by my side offered me wine with a teasing air.
“We have Zailangsan Rosé wine and Mouche champagne. Would you care for some?”
“….”
I glared at him with a menacing gaze, and then realized something.
Both types of wine were famous from the Western regions.
And I understood what the sense of incongruity was that I felt upon entering the banquet hall.
‘I recognize almost no one here!’
I was the flower of the capital’s high society.
Naturally, I had become familiar with the nobility who moved within the capital’s social circles.
For me to find them unfamiliar meant they were not from the capital.
And I recognized a woman standing beside Hillia in the distance.
‘The Countess Solenu!’
The woman I had failed to win over and insulted not long ago. She had disappeared after that, but….
Her presence here meant one thing.
‘Could it be that everyone gathered here is from the Western nobility?’
If so, it explained why their faces seemed unfamiliar and their attire felt strange.
The Western and Central social circles had been disconnected for over a decade, developing separately.
It was natural that fashion trends differed between the two.
There was someone inside who confirmed my judgment was correct.
A noblewoman with white-streaked hair neatly pinned up, wearing a blue diamond tiara, her eyes a deep blue.
At a glance, she radiated an authority that marked her as no ordinary person.
The Countess of Kesling, the oldest and highest-ranking among my attendants, gasped upon seeing that woman.
“M, Miss Evangeline! That’s her! That’s her!”
“Her?”
“The Dowager Duchess of Axion!”
“…!”
A decade ago, this powerful figure had confronted the Empress and separated the entire Western social circle, withdrawing from public life. Now she was appearing for the first time.
And at the most crucial banquet for Hillia’s recognition as Crown Princess.
This could only mean one thing.
‘Could it be that the entire West has sided with Hillia?’
No matter how much I dismissed Hillia, this was something I absolutely could not underestimate.
Not only was this threatening in itself, but there was an even greater problem at hand.
How?
‘Neither the Empress nor I detected even a hint of this. Did she use some kind of magic?!’

* * *

I took a sip of Mouche champagne and smiled with satisfaction.
Though we were quite far apart, I could clearly see Evangeline’s shock as she rushed into the banquet hall with such vigor.
Astonishment.
Then bewilderment and frustration. And tension.
Reading her emotions as they shifted moment by moment, I savored the exquisite pleasure of it all.
The bubbles of champagne bursting on my tongue felt refreshingly delightful.
Evangeline’s expression seemed to be saying exactly this.
‘How did she summon all these people from the west? I had no idea!’
And that was precisely the aspect I had labored most over in preparing this banquet.
‘The transport of barley and turnip was the most difficult and time-consuming part.’
The words written on the note I received from the mercenary company just before the banquet—”barley” and “turnip.”
This was a cipher referring to a specific group.
The western nobility.
If it were just Isephin or the Duchess of Axion individually, they could have moved without the Empress and Evangeline’s notice.
But concealing the number of people needed to fill the banquet hall from their intelligence network was no simple task.
First, the very act of transporting them from the west to the Imperial Palace was problematic.
I solved this problem by disguising the nobles as supplies being purchased for the banquet, loading them onto transport ships.
It was possible precisely because barley and turnip were actually specialty products of the west.
Being people of considerable pride, it must have been difficult for them to be loaded onto ships like cargo and then transferred in covered wagons for concealment.
Yet the western nobility’s resentment toward the Empress and Evangeline outweighed their pride and discomfort.
‘After all, people are willing to endure their own inconvenience to spite someone they already despise.’
The western nobility and I shared aligned interests in this single objective.
Thanks to this, I was able to secure their cooperation.
Bringing them to the capital was one problem.
But bringing them into the Imperial Palace and leading them to Artanus Hall was an even greater one.
Naturally, I had made thorough preparations for this.
The Prince’s Palace had a passage connecting to the outside.
And from a month prior until just before the banquet, an enormous number of people had been coming and going between the Prince’s Palace and Artanus Hall.
It was natural, given the banquet preparations.
Under the pretext of allowing these people to move about comfortably, I had undertaken several construction projects.
I planted many tall ornamental trees to shield the area from view, and hung curtains to block the sunlight.
These curtains were equipped with magical devices.
Magical artifacts I had obtained through the “Craftsman” I had secured weeks prior.
‘From a certain distance away, it only shows the caster what they want to see.’
So from the outside, it would have appeared that servants and maids were coming and going as they prepared for the banquet.
But in reality, the western nobles had been streaming in beneath that illusion.
I had the Prince’s Palace knights and the black mercenary company, among other trusted forces, guard the perimeter.
The result was the bustling scene now filling Artanus Hall.
Of course, the influence and persuasive power of the Dowager Duchess of Axion played a role as well.
But that alone wouldn’t have been enough to make such a large number cooperate with us.
I resolved it by stoking regional sentiment.

“The central nobles would never expect the western nobles to strike at their weakness in this manner.”
“Aren’t you curious to see the twisted expressions on the Empress and Evangeline’s faces at the banquet?”

Thanks to that, not just I, but the Dowager Duchess of Axion and the prominent western nobles including House Sollenus were observing Evangeline with keen interest.
How shocked she would be.
And how angry and furious she would become.
And Evangeline lived up to all our expectations.
With her face turning ashen, she couldn’t compose her expression for a long while.
It was a sight I hadn’t seen once during the three previous regressions.
It felt as refreshing as a heavy stone lifting from my chest.
Those standing behind Evangeline were equally dismayed.
They confirmed the identities of the western nobles gathered in Artanus Hall and were horrified.
“The Dowager Duchess of Axion herself…!”
“Count Sollenus and his wife, the Countess!”
“Those people there are definitely House Muter!”
Nearly all the major houses of the west had gathered.
I looked at Evangeline with a gentle smile.
‘How does the fruit of my labor taste?’
Naturally, Evangeline’s expression was thoroughly twisted.
But she wasn’t the type to crumble at this level.
She soon began shooting me a glare filled with hostility many times greater than her shock and dismay.
‘If she gave in this easily, she wouldn’t be Evangeline.’
Of course, I had already prepared countermeasures from Plan A through Plan Z for whatever Evangeline might attempt against me.

* * *

Hillia, radiant with laughter among the Western nobility, was undeniably beautiful.
Not the green dress tailored for Evangeline that ill-suited her, but a blue-violet gown of a hue I had never seen before—it shimmered with luminous grace.
Her pale pink hair and mysterious violet eyes.
The color perfectly complemented her delicate, nearly translucent skin.
Upon Hillia’s head rested an extraordinary and exquisite tiara.
At its center sat a magnificent rainbow moonstone carved into a crescent moon, surrounded by hundreds of small diamonds cut into star shapes, densely set throughout.
Evangeline knew exactly what it was.
‘The Tiara of the Moon and Stars!’
It was one of the tiaras worn by Istrid, the mother of the first Emperor.
She had bequeathed her tiaras to her daughter-in-law, the first Empress.
All of them were considered imperial treasures.
Among them, the very tiara Istrid wore when she was abducted in marriage by Artanus was this one.
Because of this, only an Empress or Crown Princess could wear this tiara at a wedding or state banquet.
The tiara’s last owner was Roxellin, the Former Empress and Arpard’s mother.
After her death, when Arpard’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Axion, removed Roxellin’s belongings from the Empress’s Palace, this tiara was among them.
Arpard had never surrendered it to his stepmother.
Thus it remained one of the symbols of the Empress that she harbored particular resentment over.
Yet now… it gleamed upon Hillia’s head.
‘This is impossible, absolutely impossible!’
Evangeline’s green eyes began to burn with rage and jealousy.
At that moment, the maid in the green dress—her target—was also at Hillia’s side.
She rushed forward and cried out, employing the very logic from moments before.
“How could you deliberately extract information about my dress design and have your maid wear an identical one?!”
Waaah!
A pitiful wail suddenly echoed through the hall.

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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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