I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 92

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 92

Yulken, who had been staring at Hillia with momentary bewilderment, turned the question back on her.
“A lover, you say?”
An exclamation mark promptly materialized above Yulken’s head.
His complexion drained of color as he asked.
“Surely… His Highness the Crown Prince isn’t being unfaithful, is he?!”
‘Why are you asking me that? I was the one asking you.’
After his face cycled through red and blue for a moment, Yulken turned purple and cried out.
“You, you scoundrel!”
“…?”
“How long has it been since he married our Empress, and already he’s straying?! I won’t stand for this!”
Hillia found herself having to restrain the indignant Yulken.
Yulken had served Arpard for over a decade.
With Hillia, it had been barely a month since they first met.
Yet Yulken was taking her side. Before feeling moved, Hillia was flustered.
“Infidelity, adultery—I cannot abide such things under any circumstances!”
She belatedly recalled something.
‘Ah, Yulken has an unusual aversion to adultery.’
He had even attacked Ludwig and Evangeline’s character over that very matter.
Hillia worked diligently to prevent Yulken from reaching the worst possible conclusions about Arpard’s character.
“No, no. It’s not that Arpard was unfaithful!”
“Then what is it?”
“…Arpard is of age, and it wouldn’t be strange if he’d had girlfriends before, right? I was just curious and asked.”
At that, Yulken tilted his head.
“Why not ask His Highness the Crown Prince directly?”
“How could I ask him something like that directly?”
Then a significant smile spread across Yulken’s face, where a great question mark had been hovering.
“Ah.”
Hillia felt a pang of embarrassment.
“What, what is it? Why are you suddenly smiling?”
But Yulken merely smirked and offered no clear answer.
“It’s nothing. By the way… a lover of the Crown Prince, you say….”
Yulken seemed to be pondering something intently.
Hillia forgot her previous question and focused entirely on Yulken.
Her concentration was incomparable to when he had been giving his work report earlier.
“A lover of the Crown Prince… If such a pitiful person existed, surely I would have known of it?”
“Pitiful…?”
The question ‘Is that really something a Crown Prince’s lover should be called?’ appeared on Hillia’s face.
Yulken replied as though it were obvious.
“Well, the Crown Prince doesn’t possess the finest of temperaments. Moreover, he’s quite a twisted individual….”
‘Ah, I concede the point.’
Hillia found herself nodding without realizing it.
Yulken was merely stating facts, after all.
“The Crown Prince would likely express even affection in a convoluted and twisted manner, wouldn’t he? In that sense, I called him pitiable.”
“….”
Hillia hesitated for a moment before asking again.
“So what you’re saying is, Yulken doesn’t know?”
“…Yes.”
Yulken began to smirk. Hillia found something oddly uncomfortable about that smile.
Yulken seemed to notice it as well, quickly covering his mouth with his hand.
Then he asked.
Was it her imagination, or did Yulken’s ears suddenly seem to be stretching like a donkey’s?
“But why are you suddenly curious about that? Does it bother you?”
“Uh, what? Ah… No?”
Hillia made excuses while feigning indifference. Yet her flustered state was completely transparent.
“Information about Arpard is important. I simply wanted to verify potential variables beforehand.”
“Ah, yes. Variables. I see.”
Even with his hand covering it, Yulken’s lips curved upward as though they might split.
Yulken recalled with a smirk.
The comedy he’d witnessed yesterday.
Summoning Count Beltane only to say that single phrase—’Hillia’s husband is me.’
But now Hillia was doing this.
‘No matter how you look at it, this is jealousy!’
A wife showing keen interest in her husband’s former lover….
These two were currently pretending not to notice while secretly envying each other.
As a spectator, it was delightfully entertaining.
A sudden realization flashed through his mind.
‘The Crown Prince would be absolutely delighted if he knew about this.’
If he heard that Hillia had grown jealous and questioned him about his former lover.
But Yulken had no intention of kindly informing Arpard of this.
‘This absolutely isn’t because of the resentment that’s been piling up over paperwork, absolutely not!’
It wasn’t because Arpard had been irritating, nitpicking flawless documents while crying “Rejected, rejected” amid the chaos of banquet preparations.
Absolutely not!
Even though he’d been squeezed for one million Castels, he felt sorry for the anxious Hillia.
So he gave her a hint.
“Ahem. By the way… while the Empress was unconscious, the Crown Prince attended to her the entire time.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“Even the Palace Physician was astonished. He dismissed all the attendants and personally saw to every detail with such care… I, and the Palace Physician as well, never expected the Crown Prince to do such a thing.”
So rest assured—Yulken meant no such thing.
But Hillia, whose mind had been so scattered, suddenly recalled a fact she’d forgotten.
“Arpard did it every single day for five days?”
“Yes.”
“He attended to everything personally?”
“Yes!”
….
Hillia’s complexion turned ashen.
‘Wait. Now that I think about it… when I first woke up, my clothes had been changed, hadn’t they?’
That was true. Even my undergarments had been neatly replaced.
Since I’d been fevered and drenched in sweat, I’d naturally assumed Anny or the maids had done it.
But if Arpard had dismissed all the attendants….
‘Could it be… could it really be that Arpard did it?!’
Hillia’s pallid face flushed crimson in an instant.

* * *

This shocking revelation left me struggling to maintain my composure.
I managed my duties without incident, yet this newly discovered truth gnawed at my mind relentlessly.
That was why.
I casually probed Anny, who attended to my needs as the Captain’s wife.
“You were the one who cared for me while I was ill, weren’t you?”
I asked, desperately hoping for an affirmative answer.
Anny’s eyes widened as she shook her head.
“No? I only brought water for washing, towels, clothes, and meals from outside the room. It was the Crown Prince himself who attended to Your Highness directly.”
“…!”
Oblivious to my shock, Anny merely giggled.
“Everyone was worried, but at the same time they were amazed and impressed.”
“Impressed by what?”
“Well, we all knew the two of you were close, but seeing how genuinely the Crown Prince cares for Your Highness… it was truly moving.”
Don’t be moved by such things!
I wanted to deny reality itself.
But after Yulken, now even Anny had confirmed it.
There was no reason for either of them to lie to me.
In the end, I had no choice but to accept the truth.
That Arpard had seen every embarrassing part of me.
‘What do I do? I can’t marry… wait, I’m already married, so it doesn’t matter….’
In any case, the shame fell squarely on my shoulders once again.
All day long.
And only then did I realize.
‘Wait! Arpard will be coming to my room tonight too!’
We were currently playing the role of a newlywed couple with a harmonious relationship, after all.
Last night, Arpard had even caught me as I tried to escape from the bed.
So he would certainly come tonight as well.
‘How am I supposed to face Arpard?’
I spent the entire evening lost in worry, but no answer came.

* * *

All day, Arpard had been troubled.
Because of the dream from last night.
It was unmistakably Hillia.
But the place where they were was an unknown location, and Hillia’s condition was also strange.
‘Whether she’s the Duchess of Delphin or the Empress, she couldn’t possibly look like that.’
It was the kind of appearance one would expect from a criminal or a vagrant.
The moment he recognized that fact, anger surged within him.
‘How dare anyone——!’
And he felt such pity and sorrow that he wanted to lift her up with his own hands, to wipe away her flowing tears, and to assure her that he would protect her.
‘Do I harbor some kind of repressed desire?’
It was a dream that made him doubt himself in every way.
The most alarming part was not Hillia’s condition.
It was his own thoughts and emotions within the dream.
In that dream, he had wanted to consume Hillia entirely.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————