I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 82

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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 82

It was merely a handful of fragmented words.
A voice that seemed to be fading away.
Arpard was startled as if burned by fire.
My heart felt as though it were rolling along the ground.
So I asked even more carefully.
“…Hillia?”
She said she hated it.
And she had called out my name while saying so.
Arpard felt as though I had a burning coal in my mouth.
What had I done to deserve hearing such words?
But in the next moment, Arpard realized something.
I had faintly glimpsed a thin scar-like line remaining on Hillia’s pale, slender neck.
‘…Ah, that was from when I cut her at our first meeting.’
It was a scar from the blade I had thrust at her.
I came to recognize it anew.
Tracing over the scar that remained as a pink mark, Arpard thought.
‘Could she be having a nightmare from that time?’
If that were so, if she were suffering like this… then she must be treating that memory as a nightmare.
Most would find the moment the blade entered to be horrifying.
Soon Arpard shook my head.
‘No. This woman is different from ordinary people.’
Wasn’t she the woman who remained unharmed even between myself, who inherited dragon blood, and the Emperor?
Even as I made such excuses, Arpard was critically reviewing my actions from that time.
‘Was it too harsh to put a blade to her neck?’
This was an emotion Arpard was experiencing for the first time.
So I did not fully understand that this emotion was close to ‘regret.’
He was a man who had never once felt regret in his entire life.
Arpard called the woman’s—no, my wife’s—name with utmost care.
“Hillia?”
“…Mm.”
Hillia was still unconscious.
Her body was burning hot, drenched in sweat.
Shallow whimpers like those of a young animal escaped her.
Arpard suddenly recalled Hillia’s weight.
The moment she had collapsed in front of Ivory’s Bedroom.
It was I who had first embraced her, and I who had moved her to this bed.
‘She was far too thin and light.’
And by now, she would have grown even lighter.
For four days straight, I had been trickling water, medicine, and rice porridge into her mouth, yet she could barely consume anything properly.
Weight could only have been lost, never gained.
Still, I had no intention of lifting up someone suffering so grievously just to verify how much lighter she had become.
No—I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
If I held her again, I feared she would simply dissolve into the air and vanish.
My careful fingers smoothed the scattered rose-pink strands of hair across the bed.
Her hair was like cherry blossoms scattered upon water on a spring day.
It possessed such a delicate hue—so fragile it seemed the slightest breeze might carry it away.
‘To think she accomplished all of that with such a frail body.’
Over the past month and more, everything Hillia had endured was far from trivial.
Neither were the things she had achieved.
She was a woman who had seemed to fall from the heavens without warning.

“Please abduct me.”

Those were the first words she spoke upon our meeting.
And she had found her way to a secret location I had never even revealed to my closest confidants.
Whether she was Agrippina’s spawn or possessed some madness that needed soothing, the Arpard of old would have drawn his blade the moment he heard such words.
For I had never trusted those who spoke honeyed words.
And yet.
And yet, I abducted this woman who spouted such unbelievable nonsense and laid her upon this bed.
Only now did I truly comprehend it.
I accepted her because it was her.
In that moment, something pierced my heart with a sharp, sudden pang.
It was a sensation as small and insignificant as a needle’s point.
Yet it was an attack that struck at the most intimate and vulnerable place within me—a place nothing else dared to touch.

* * *

“…ugh.”
My body felt heavy as a water-soaked cotton.
“Ugh…”
I wondered who was making such an unpleasant sound, only to realize a moment later.
It was my voice.
The ringing in my ears was so severe I hadn’t recognized it at first.
My lips, mouth, tongue, and throat felt as parched as cracked earth in a drought.
“…water…”
I was certain I’d said the word, but it came out so hoarse and broken.
At this rate, no one would hear me, and I wouldn’t get any water.
And I would become a withered husk and die of thirst.
In that moment, cool, sweet water touched my lips.
I drank it desperately, and only after draining two full cups did I become aware of it.
The man who was skillfully feeding me water.
“…Arpard?”
He was holding me.
He supported the back of my head securely, letting me lean against his upper body, and made it easy for me to drink.
Arpard’s voice, surprisingly soft, brushed against my ear.
“Did you finish? Should I give you more?”
I nodded.
A gesture that could be interpreted as an answer to either of two contradictory questions.
Arpard understood me as if by instinct.
He brought about half a cup of water to my lips again.
Only after drinking like a small child could I finally take a breath.
“Ah, I’m dying.”
Then I heard Arpard’s voice, somehow displeased.
“You just woke up and already say you’re dying? That’s too much, isn’t it?”
I was somewhat startled.
Because I could sense genuine resentment in his tone.
That’s why I hastened to explain.
“Ah, I don’t mean I’m actually dying—it’s just an exclamation meaning I’m exhausted.”
I had half a Korean soul, after all, but it was natural that Arpard wouldn’t understand.
I looked around with my still-foggy mind.
It was Ivory’s Bedroom.
I remembered the banquet ending and losing consciousness in front of the bedroom.
“What a shame.”
“…What?”
“If you’d collapsed inside the bedroom, it would have been a perfect ending.”
Arpard spoke in a voice that was somehow lower than usual and oddly resonant.
“You’re saying it would have been better if I’d collapsed inside?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I nodded in agreement.
Though few people had witnessed my collapse, I wanted to be thorough.
For now, the risk of the Empress or Evangeline’s spies discovering this was minimal.
But there was no way someone among the palace staff hadn’t seen it.
‘I don’t want to appear weak.’
I could show my vulnerable side to Anny or Count Beltane, but I couldn’t trust the palace staff of the Prince’s Palace.
I didn’t bother voicing this thought aloud.
“….”
An odd and ominous silence hung in the air.
Puzzled, I rolled my eyes to look.
I lacked the strength to turn my head.
Fortunately, Arpard was pressed so close to me that I could see his expression immediately.
“….”
Upon seeing that expression, my spirits sank a little.
‘What? Why does he look so… displeased?’
Had something happened in the meantime?
Like someone guilty, I watched his face carefully and asked.
“How long was I asleep?”
Arpard fell silent for a moment before answering.
“It’s the fifth morning since the banquet ended.”
“…What?”
I’d heard something that made no sense. That couldn’t be right.
“I think I misheard you?”
Arpard delivered the final blow.
“You’ve been ill for five days. Not sleeping.”
Lightning struck inside my mind.
I gathered my strength and bolted upright.
“Oh no! At such a critical time!”
Arpard asked me in a voice that seemed somewhat flustered.
“Hillia? You understand correctly, right? You were ill for five days.”
I whipped my head around and met Arpard’s gaze.
And I spoke with genuine sincerity.
“I’m sorry!”
At the same time, I saw Arpard’s expression turn utterly blank.
‘…Why is he like this?’

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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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