Spring in My Grasp - Chapter 37

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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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(37) The Twisted Conclusion of a Marriage Proposal

To lavish everything good upon a single person—now I understood Countess Glister’s perspective. I recalled the whispers that Alexis had inherited the beauty of his late aunt. The Countess was hardly a great beauty herself. Considering how she’d spent her entire life being compared to another, her warped disposition suddenly seemed almost comprehensible.
“Come here.”
Alexis sat upon the bed and extended his hand toward me.
“Where are you going?”
“Well, I… um…”
I offered a nervous smile, cold sweat beading on my brow.
“I thought you should rest more… I can simply retire to the adjacent room.”
“What are you talking about?”
Alexis spoke.
“Didn’t you hear what I said yesterday?”
“…”
“This is your bedroom.”
My mouth fell open soundlessly.
“And mine as well.”
His extended hand remained stretched toward me.
“It’s our marital chamber.”
His voice resonated at a dangerously low pitch.
“We should share it, shouldn’t we?”
But… but… I found myself utterly speechless. I could only gaze helplessly between Alexis’s unwavering stare and the hand he offered.
‘Get ahold of yourself.’
With morning sunlight scattering through the window and bathing him in its glow, Alexis looked like an angel descended to earth. Watching him sleep with eyes closed had been intoxicating enough, but seeing him awake and gazing at me like this set my heart racing beyond all reason.
‘Goodness, he’s beautiful.’
I never knew I could be so susceptible to a man’s face. I wept silent tears of self-reproach.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never truly encountered a man before.’
A handsome man, no less. In the world where I actually lived, I’d been too consumed by part-time work and financial desperation to notice anything else. More importantly, there had been a severe shortage of suitable prospects. I’d never encountered anyone worth pursuing or even curious about. As a result, my interest in the opposite sex had dwindled to virtually nothing. But now…
‘I’ve never been seized by such intense impulse and temptation before.’
I stared at Alexis as though my soul had left my body. After a long moment of mutual observation, he quietly rose from the bed.
“You’re quite the handful, aren’t you?”
He approached me slowly. Unable to speak, I could only watch as he drew near.
“I said come here.”
Before I could protest, he lifted me effortlessly from where I sat. Instinctively, I wrapped both arms around his neck to steady myself.
‘What a wonderful scent…’
Did handsome men even smell good? I squeezed my eyes shut. Alexis carefully set me down upon the bed, then leaned his face close to mine.
‘This can’t happen!’
I cried out silently within myself.
‘If you come this close with that expression, it’s cheating!’
I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Dear God. Dear God….’
Why do you test me so? I truly felt the desperate urge to clasp my hands in prayer.
“We’re husband and wife, aren’t we?”
Alexis’s soft voice resonated near my ear. At those words, I cracked my eyes open.
‘Oh no!’
And I squeezed them shut again.
“I’m your husband.”
“….”
“And you’re my wife.”
I finally exhaled a faint sigh.
“A vow made before God cannot be undone.”
His voice was far too beautiful… I ultimately melted.
“Especially now that I’m a Holy Knight.”
Alexis continued.
“There will never be a divorce.”
Then cool lips brushed gently against mine. As I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself completely surrendering to Alexis’s warmth as he kissed me tenderly.
‘Fine, whatever.’
I’ve endured this much—I’ve done my part. My arms naturally wrapped around Alexis’s neck again. His body leaned toward me. A pleasant weight pressed against me.
‘I don’t care, I don’t care.’
As Alexis’s arms held me firmly, my own arms naturally drew his waist closer. And there, we truly became husband and wife.
***
News of Alexis’s sudden independence from his family, House Glister, and his entry into the Royal Castle spread like wildfire through High Society. Everyone naturally assumed he would take residence in his own castle, but what caught them off guard was Rowan. The fact that he had brought his wife—the very woman he had treated with such coldness until now—made the revelation all the more shocking.
At this juncture, if he were to abandon his wife, who had been cast into the East Annex in disgrace, and pursue a new marriage alliance, it would have seemed only natural and fitting.
Moreover, in this current situation, the Hartwood Marquis Family held no value as a political asset or connection for Alexis. In Aristocratic Society, where inter-family exchanges and mutual interests were taken for granted, his actions were utterly incomprehensible.
“What on earth is he thinking? Wasn’t the eldest daughter of Hartwood already written off as a lost cause? Yet he brings that woman with him to the castle.”
Day after day, High Society buzzed with endless gossip about the matter.
“It would have been far better for him to divorce and remarry at a time like this… yet he makes such a choice instead.”
A nobleman spoke up, his expression bewildered.
“Could it be that woman somehow has leverage over him?”
“That makes no sense. Until he entered the castle, that woman was abandoned in the East Annex. Everyone knows this.”
“Then what was Count Glister doing? Why didn’t he stop it?”
It was almost unbelievable. Even if the abandoned wife had stubbornly refused divorce, Alexis’s position would have made it a trivial matter to resolve.
“Unless perhaps….”
A noblewoman whispered conspiratorially.
“There were rumors that he favored his wife more than expected, so could it be…?”
“Ha, love?”
The noblewoman shot back at those words.
“That’s nothing but a baseless rumor. If that were true, would he have left her abandoned in the East Annex all this time?”
At her words, someone tilted their head with a skeptical tone.
“And yet… it’s true that he personally brought his wife into the Royal Castle itself.”
The entire gathering fell silent.
“It’s absurd. She’s supposedly the daughter-in-law of House Glister, yet that woman has never even shown her face at an official party. Moreover, now that he’s become a Holy Knight, she’s never appeared alongside him once.”
That was also true. Yet the gossips could not shake an unsettling feeling.
“Regardless, the fact that this woman has claimed the position of mistress of the castle… cannot be denied. What could that possibly mean?”
It was far too mysterious. He was now the hottest topic in the Kingdom. Furthermore, Rowan’s existence, who had never appeared in High Society, was equally intriguing. His elevation to Holy Knight was already an enormous sensation, yet he had boldly entered the castle with his abandoned wife, and so the two of them once again became the subject of endless speculation.
***
News that Alexis, now a Holy Knight, had entered the castle together with his wife spread across the Royal Capital in mere days. Many people sent letters to Count Glister’s Household or requested audiences. Particularly, the noble families who had been pursuing marriage alliances were even more eager.
However, Count Glister’s Household made no official statement whatsoever. They closed their doors. The Countess Glister and the eldest son’s couple did not step foot outside the Count’s Residence after that.
As people’s suspicions grew, there was one family with an entirely different atmosphere from Count Glister’s Household. It was the Hartwood Marquis Family. Hartwood Mansion was in constant turmoil.
“Our eldest daughter is the wife of a Holy Knight!”
Marquis Hartwood, who had feared that Rowan might be cruelly abandoned by Alexis at this very moment, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“The Divine has finally blessed our family!”
Now that he had become a Holy Knight, his relationship with Rowan seemed to have improved, and he had entered his independent castle together with her. The Marquis, his face flushed with excitement, raised his glass repeatedly. To the flood of contacts from nobles seeking his favor, he could not contain his elation.
“Now no one in High Society will dare to ignore House Hartwood!”
Listening to the Marquis’s joyful exclamation, Rowan’s Stepmother sat quietly across from him. She attempted to maintain a graceful smile, yet her hands were clenched into sharp fists.
‘So that is the Holy Knight’s wife…?’
Her expression remained composed, but jealousy roiled within her like a churning sea. By rights, the marriage proposal from Count Glister’s Household, the position of Holy Knight’s wife, should have been Layla’s. Yet now that woman had claimed what should have rightfully been Layla’s place!

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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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