My Contract Husband Demands a Divorce - Chapter 89

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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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I stepped out into the corridor with Yulisian.
I glanced back for a moment, but Arpeggio seemed to have been caught by others and couldn’t follow us out.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I walked down the corridor with Yulisian.
“Are you alright, Holy Knight Amarynthis?”
“Holy Knight?”
“Since you’ve become a Holy Knight, I should address you as such.”
I possessed no great piety, nor did I even know how to wield a sword, yet a Holy Knight!
It was nothing short of a comedy.
Overwhelmed by a rush of shame, I covered my face.
“Don’t tease me!”
He pulled my hands away, bringing his face close to mine.
“Oh dear, Holy Knight. Are you embarrassed?”
“I told you not to tease me!”
Furious, I struck his chest, and he obligingly leaned down to make it easier for me to hit him.
Flabbergasted, I lifted my head.
Our faces were entirely too close.
“……!”
Just as I tried to take a step back, an arm wrapped around my waist.
“The stairs are right behind you. You must be careful.”
As his arm tightened, our bodies pressed together. I ended up held in his embrace with my hands resting against his chest.
The gaze tracing over my face felt as light and ticklish as down feathers.
Without realizing it, I took a deep breath.
His eyelids were half-lowered as he stared at my lips, and his eyelashes cast soft shadows on his cheeks.
My reflection in his eyes was growing larger and larger.
Gulping down my dry saliva, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Our foreheads bumped gently together.
Yulisian asked, his voice laced with amusement.
“Why are you closing your eyes?”
“Just do it.”
“Do what?”
“The kiss!”
He held his breath for a beat before finally bursting into laughter.
The vibration traveled directly through our touching skin.
However, I couldn’t laugh.
Every time he laughed, I could feel his breath.
It was the first time I had ever been this close to someone’s face.
Neither my parents nor my nanny had ever given me even a common good-night kiss.
As I waited with my eyes shut even tighter, Yulisian’s laughter subsided.
The tip of his nose brushed against mine.
“Someone might see us.”
“What does it matter? We’re married.”
There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Thinking he was finally about to do it, I parted my lips slightly, but he playfully nipped the tip of my nose and pulled back.
“Ouch!”
I stared at him, utterly dumbfounded.
A smile played on his lips, but he didn’t look genuinely amused.
“Yulisian?”
The sudden shift in the atmosphere made me feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
Had I unknowingly said or done something to ruin the mood?
As I fidgeted with my fingers, Yulisian’s hand approached.
It looked like he was reaching out to smooth my hair.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem as though he was upset or hurt by my words and actions.
I waited for him to brush my hair back, but his hand withdrew without ever touching me.
‘What is it? What’s wrong with him?’
I grabbed his retreating hand and pressed it against my head.
“Why are you suddenly acting so distant?”
Yulisian let out a chuckle.
Yet, he pulled his hand away. Without even a gentle pat.
In that instant, the image of Melis Haller half-buried in Yulisian’s embrace flashed through my mind, turning my stomach upside down.
Don’t let it show.
Jealousy is ugly.
Maybe he just isn’t in the mood to touch my hair today.
Or maybe he feels slighted because I was the only one credited for the achievement?
‘No. Yulisian isn’t the type of person to care about such things.’
Then, the memory of Yulisian’s arm buried in Melis’s chest resurfaced.
As I clenched my fists and trembled, Yulisian leaned down to peer into my face.
His smiling face looked so infuriating that I snapped my head away.
“Why are you pouting so much again?”
“I’m not.”
“Liar. Your pout could reach the first floor. Or are you jutting your lips out because you want a kiss?”
“It’s not like you’re going to give me one anyway!”
Even as I snapped, a tiny spark of expectation flared within me.
With my face growing hotter by the second, I cooled it with the back of my hand while scanning his expression.
I could see him clenching his teeth.
It was a look somewhere between a smile and a frown.
He turned his body away.
“Let’s go home, Wife.”
Wife. Not Amarynthis, but Wife?
“Are you playing with me right now?”
Halting his descent down the stairs, Yulisian stopped.
When he turned to look back at me, his face wore his usual sly smile.
Like a mask.
“Playing with you? I’m hurt, Wife.”
Hurt? I was the one who was truly hurt.
But I couldn’t for the life of me understand what he was so upset about.
I needed to have a proper, rational, and mature conversation, but my tongue moved faster than my thoughts.
“I’m the one who’s hurt!”
“What has made you so upset?”
“The fact that you’re calling me ‘Wife’.”
“Then if I don’t call my wife ‘Wife’, what should I call you?”
“That… it’s a way of keeping your distance.”
Wife. At first glance, it sounded like a term used by a husband to affectionately and respectfully address his spouse.
However, it was also a title used to refer to someone else’s wife.
And from the moment Yulisian first woke up in Scheit’s body until he finally opened his heart to me, he had continuously called me ‘Wife’.
So, addressing me as ‘Wife’ in this current situation was by no means an affectionate title.
Biting my lip, I glared at him.
“How can you try to kiss me one moment and then suddenly push me away?”
He offered a troubled smile.
“Truly, you read people surprisingly well sometimes. It would be easier to deceive a ghost.”
Even as he spoke, he didn’t correct the title.
Slipping through the conversation like an eel over a wall.
This was Yulisian’s way of drawing a line.
I had to stop.
Throwing a tantrum, throwing a fit, and interrogating him like a child wasn’t like me at all.
Yet, anxiety clawed at me.
I couldn’t fathom his heart.
He clearly seemed to like me, but whenever I tried to step closer because I wanted to be near him, he retreated.
And in the midst of all this, Melis Haller had deliberately tried to seduce him.
What if he gave in? What if Melis Haller was actually more his type than I was?
An overwhelming anxiety that something was about to be stolen from me surged within.
The dread that someone else, not me, would stand by his side.
It was like a chronic illness common to those who had lived a life accustomed to being easily replaced.
Even so, I had to endure it.
If I pressed any further, Yulisian would likely wear an even more troubled expression.
And yet, I couldn’t hold it back.
“…I like you.”
Silence descended.
From a few steps below, he looked up at me.
I waited for an answer, but his lips remained sealed.
I bit my lip before letting it go.
“I want to know more about you.”
His real name, his real age. I wanted to know everything about the shell I didn’t know, not just the one I did.
Even if it was something I could never see.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“I cannot do that.”
This time, it was a flat refusal.
Even though he hadn’t answered my confession.
“Why not?”
He slowly closed and opened his eyes. He frowned slightly, then offered a smile with drooping brows.
“Because I want you to enjoy your life, squandering the inheritance you received. I prefer you to remain a coward.”
What on earth did that mean?
To call it mockery, his tone and gaze were excessively warm. Warm enough to make the inside of my ribs ache.
I stared desperately at Yulisian, trying to read his expression.
At that, Yulisian turned around and began walking down the stairs.
I shouted at his back once more.
“I said I like you!”
Yulisian stopped in his tracks again.
This time, he didn’t turn around.
“I know.”
That was all.
An ambiguous response that was neither a rejection nor an acceptance.
What kind of answer was that supposed to be?
He knew? So what did he expect me to do about it!
My eyes grew hot.
It wasn’t out of a sense of unfairness, anger, or sadness, but my chest felt suffocatingly tight.
“Are you running away right now?”
This time, he didn’t even halt his steps.
Slowly descending the stairs, he answered.
“Yes.”
“Coward!”
“I must have caught it from you, Wife.”
It was the same banter he always used, but it wasn’t amusing. In fact, it only made me angrier.
I didn’t want to go back home with him.
The moment I wiped away my tears and went to turn around to head back to the Ballroom,
“Ahhh!”
Someone pushed my back with immense force.
At my scream, Yulisian snapped his head back.
By then, I had already lost my balance and was falling.
Tumbling down from the top of the stairs, Yulisian lunged upward toward me, stretching out his arms.
His arms enveloped me.
Unable to withstand the force of the collision, his body toppled backward.
No!
I wanted to at least shield his head, but gravity was relentless.
Crash!
With a deafening noise, Yulisian’s body shielding me began to roll down the long flight of stairs.
The fall happened in an instant.
The moment we came to a stop, his arms went limp.
Startled, I pushed myself up to check on his condition.
Blood was trickling from various places.
Though I couldn’t confirm it, there might have been fractures.
But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“Yulisian?”
He lay there, completely unconscious.
Yet, his chest wasn’t rising.
Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

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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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