I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 96

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

Chapter 96

About a week after the banquet.
Arpard and I were sitting on pins and needles.
No, wait. Glancing over, Arpard maintained an utterly serene expression even in this situation. It seemed only I was truly uncomfortable.
The Duchess of Axion was standing and personally brewing tea for us.
The maids beside her stepped forward awkwardly.
“Your Highness the Grand Duchess. Please, allow me to….”
“That’s right, Grandmother. Let me handle this.”
“No. As the head maid, I should do it myself.”
The teapot looked far too heavy for an elderly woman to lift.
Yet the Grand Duchess, with stubborn determination, brewed the tea herself and poured it directly for Arpard and me.
“….”
“….”
Being attended to by someone of my grandmother’s generation felt deeply uncomfortable.
‘The Confucian sensibilities within me… are practically screaming to stand up!’
I restrained myself with superhuman patience from snatching the tea service from the Grand Duchess’s hands.
Perhaps if it had been just Arpard, myself, and our close attendants, I would have done so.
But this was not such a moment.
“Goodness, the Grand Duchess herself is brewing tea for us….”
“She’s not merely going through the motions—she’s genuinely supporting Her Highness the Crown Princess.”
Admiration flickered across the faces of the noblewomen attending the audience.
They seemed already astonished that I had appeared at the audience alongside Arpard.

‘So the Crown Prince truly cherishes her! It’s all true!’

These reactions.
When the Grand Duchess, serving as my temporary maid, added her dignified attendance to the mix, my status soared to unprecedented heights.
It was a stark contrast to the Empress’s quarters, which had been nearly empty since the ban on imperial visits.
The guests of honor invited to my first audience—as they themselves proclaimed it to be such an honor—went so far as to receive tea personally prepared by the Grand Duchess.
Of course, the Grand Duchess didn’t pour the tea or deliver the cups herself.
Only Arpard and I received such treatment.
The Grand Duchess had the maids bring the tea to the visitors.
Even that alone was enough to leave them awestruck.
They all fell over themselves with endless praise and flattery toward me.
“To meet Her Highness in person like this. It is an infinite honor.”
“And to see His Highness the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Grand Duchess together as well. I am truly blessed by fortune.”
“It must be because His Highness the Crown Prince cherishes Her Highness so dearly.”
“Is that all? I heard His Majesty the Emperor told everyone to call her ‘Mother.'”
“That’s right. I heard it directly myself.”
They all wrung their hands together with such fervor it was almost comical.
“Now that Her Highness oversees the inner palace, the Imperial Palace will shine even more brilliantly.”
“Indeed. The capital’s social circles have been rather subdued until now, haven’t they?”
The shamelessness of those who had once fawned over the Empress and Evangeline—the queens of that very subdued realm—was remarkable.
While I found it brazen, it was hardly disadvantageous to me.
This audience was merely the opening salvo in my campaign to seize control of society.

* * *

Fortunately, the first audience concluded successfully.
Shortly after, as Arpard made his way to the Crown Prince’s Palace to attend to his duties, he encountered an unexpected face.
It was his maternal grandmother.
“Might you spare me a moment, Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
“…Very well.”
They had just seen each other during the audience, so it seemed odd that she would approach him separately, but Arpard dismissed the attendants and spoke with his grandmother in a secluded corner of the garden.
Come to think of it, this was the first time he had ever conversed alone with her.
‘She rarely visited even when Mother was alive.’
He held no memories of receiving her affection as a child.
Because of this, their conversation was stiff and awkward.
“No matter how I consider it, I am the only one who could speak such words, so I followed Your Highness here.”
“There is no need to draw out your words.”
A curt dismissal—hurry up and get to the point.
The Duchess of Axion regarded her grandson with a cold expression.
Had Hillia witnessed this, she would have clapped her hands in delight at how alike their expressions were. Though neither of them realized it.
“It appears that Her Highness has inherited most of the treasures that belonged to the Former Empress.”
Arpard’s brow furrowed.
Was she truly going to harp on about that?
“It is only natural for a daughter-in-law to inherit her mother-in-law’s jewels.”
His voice took on an edge unbidden.
The Duchess of Axion was not criticizing him for this.
“You did well. They passed into good hands.”
“…?”
It was fortunate that the Duchess of Axion did not reproach him, but he wondered if this was truly worth summoning him separately to discuss.
What came next struck Arpard like a blow to the back of his head.
“However, I noticed scarcely any new jewels or ornaments.”
“…!”
Arpard realized his mistake.
Of course, Hillia already held the purse strings of the Crown Prince’s Palace. With the platinum key in her possession, there was no shortage of funds.
She possessed sufficient accessories and gowns.
But.
‘I have given her nothing with my own hands!’
The realization struck him like lightning.
‘Wait… did I ever give her a betrothal gift?’
Of course not.
In fact, it was Arpard who had received jewels.
Agrippina’s tears.
Though they were technically an advance payment for a commission, in Arpard’s mind they had already transformed into a betrothal gift.
Because of the abduction marriage, they had not held a proper wedding ceremony.
The only thing that could be called a proper celebration was the banquet held in Artanus Hall.
In the end, he had never properly given his wife anything—not the proposal, not the marriage, not even the wedding feast.
Arpard’s expression grew grave.

* * *

The Kemel Atelier was bursting with customers as always.
Melissa Kemel surveyed the bustling shop and her diligently moving staff with satisfaction.
‘It’s been ten days since the banquet ended. The Crown Princess hasn’t said a word, so she must be letting it slide.’
If she intended to punish them, she would have done so already.
‘Besides, we simply followed orders because we had no choice.’
Therefore, the Crown Princess’s resentment and hostility should be directed solely at Evangeline.
Melissa’s daughter whispered beside her as she relaxed.
“It seems the bribes we paid had their effect.”
Melissa stiffened and silenced her daughter.
“Never speak of such things. If word leaks and reaches the Crown Princess’s ears, we could truly fall from her favor.”
After discussing a few more matters, mother and daughter began attending to customers.
That was when the already crowded street before the Kemel Atelier grew unusually tumultuous. Melissa herself went out to investigate and gasped in shock.
A golden carriage drawn by six white horses had stopped before the Kemel Atelier.
The moment Melissa saw the crest emblazoned upon it, her eyes widened in astonishment.
A crest bearing a blue sea serpent pierced through a window.
It was the crest of a great noble house—one she recognized.
‘The Duchy of Muzen!’
Only three houses held ducal rank within the empire.
What these three ducal houses shared was that they had once ruled independent nations before being subsumed into the empire.
There had originally been four, but the western duchy’s line had ended, and its cadet branch, the House of Sollenus, served as regent—though their status could not match that of a true duchy.
Three remained. One was the Delphin Duchy, rooted in the east.
And then there were Teslan in the north and Muzen in the south.
The Delphin house had been under imperial influence since the previous duke’s time.
Moreover, with Hillia, the heir, marrying into the imperial family, they were effectively incorporated into the imperial house.
The northern and southern houses maintained their independence to the end.
Because of this, they possessed extraordinary autonomy and command over their own military forces.
With semi-autonomous authority, members of these two houses only ascended to the capital in special circumstances.
When the house’s succession changed, when the emperor changed, or when a marriage was arranged, among other occasions.
“Wait, that crest… isn’t that from the southern Duchy of Muzen?”
“Y-yes, it is!”
“But I’ve never heard that the Duchy of Muzen was coming to the capital?”
“Oh my, oh my!”
Amid the gasps and exclamations from all around, a tall young man descended from the carriage first.
The young man cut an impressive figure, his fiery red hair contrasting strikingly with his deep blue eyes.
He extended his hand into the carriage.
“Come now, Mother.”
“Yes, Aaron.”
The noblewoman with her distinctive deep violet hair took his hand, her eyes the same brilliant blue as the young man’s beside her, making their blood relation unmistakable at a glance.
The dress she wore was a striking purple adorned with lace that cascaded like waves.
Their identities were not difficult to discern.
“Wait, I’ve heard of him! Aaron Muzen, the Viscount—the mightiest knight of the South!”
“Ah, the one who won the tournament at fourteen?”
“Then that noblewoman must be… the Duchess of Muzen?”
There were eyes watching from a distance as the elaborate hat entered the Kemel Atelier amid considerable excitement.
On a nearby second-floor terrace, a woman’s green eyes gleamed with triumph as she concealed her face behind a fan.
‘There she is!’
Evangeline had been waiting, knowing the Duchess of Muzen’s hat would make its appearance.

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