The Murderous Duke's Domestic Affairs - Chapter 49

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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 49
Abarid reacted sharply to the sound of Lauren clicking her tongue. When he turned his head abruptly and our eyes met, I flinched in surprise. His fierce golden eyes looked like those of a beast ready to tear her apart alive. As she froze, Aster drew her close and stepped half a pace forward, as if to shield her from Abarid’s gaze.
“I’ve been waiting, Duchess.”
Whether Lauren was frozen or not, Abarid paid no mind. As if he hadn’t just been angry and shouting moments before, he approached with a sinister smile, but Aster blocked his path. Abarid’s eyes lifted to regard the man standing before him. Despite the menacing glint in his gaze, Aster didn’t retreat.
“Your Highness, why are you waiting for my wife?”
“I’d like to have a conversation. Is that not possible?”
Abarid raised one eyebrow, his tone almost confrontational. Aster’s expression remained unchanged, but the hand resting on Lauren’s shoulder tensed noticeably. One could tell from their gazes alone that Abarid harbored hostility toward him, and Aster clearly disliked Abarid in return. That much was only natural.
“Surely the lady has her own privacy. Isn’t your interference a bit excessive?”
It’s not particularly elegant to be so obsessed with your wife, either.
Abarid let out a sharp, vicious laugh and sneered. Aster met his mockery head-on, his brow furrowing slightly, but he quickly composed himself as if nothing had happened.
Seeing the Crown Prince deliberately provoke Aster, Lauren found herself growing angry first. This must be the fault of that alcohol-infused jelly. She muttered to herself inwardly. Then she gripped Aster’s arm firmly. Before he could say anything, she stepped forward.
“You may speak here. I have no secrets from my husband.”
Lauren looked directly at the Crown Prince. The situation was quite different from when she first encountered him on the terrace of the Glass Palace. They were standing before the Emperor’s Audience Chamber. It was late, after the banquet had ended, so while the officials had left, servants were still working throughout the Imperial Palace. My calculation was that Abarid wouldn’t dare do anything to the “Duchess of Lilywood” in such a public place.
And her calculation proved not entirely wrong. Abarid clicked his tongue and glanced around quickly.
“Is that so? But I wanted to speak with the lady alone.”
Abarid approached Lauren and extended his hand. Was he offering an escort? Lauren pressed her lips together and eyed his hand warily. Then she placed her hand in his. She felt Aster’s hand on her shoulder tremble slightly.
She turned back to look at Aster. His green eyes flickered with fine tremors. That was probably worry. He was a tender-hearted man toward those he cared for.
“It’s alright.”
So she smiled at him. Lauren hoped her smile appeared soft and reassuring to him—so that Aster could find peace of mind. She patted his hand on her shoulder once, then turned her attention to Abarid. She straightened her posture and lifted her chin. She didn’t want to appear weak. Not as the Duchess of Lilywood, and not as herself.
As she was about to follow Abarid, she caught sight of the Imperial Princess standing alone beyond Aster’s shoulder. Something about her hunched posture and bowed head weighed on her heart. She bit her lip, then turned back to Aster. His deeply shadowed eyes seemed anxious.
“Please look after the Imperial Princess. I’ll see you later.”
Aster was someone she could trust. Though he appeared fierce and sensitive on the surface, he was actually tender and gentle. So she could entrust the young Imperial Princess to him. Just as he had comforted her without words, she believed he would show consideration to the Princess as well.
Lauren left those words behind and departed with Abarid. Aster remained frozen in her line of sight.
* * *
“Do you have any idea how startled I was when you left like that?”
Aster sat with his legs crossed, leaning against the back of a long settee as he spoke curtly. Lauren let out a dry laugh. She didn’t need to ask to know he had been worried about her. She had felt the deep relief in Aster’s eyes when he returned after taking the Imperial Princess away and saw her again.
“I’m sorry, Aster.”
It was certainly wrong to take Abarid’s hand without explanation, and to suddenly ask him to look after the Imperial Princess. Lauren apologized sincerely. Aster twisted his lips into a bitter smile. He brought the wine glass to his lips and brushed back his hair.
“Forget it. I didn’t ask you here to hear an apology. So, what did you two talk about?”
“Oh, just pointless conversation.”
Abarid and Lauren had moved to a nearby room. At first, he had tried to take her to the terrace, but when Lauren flatly refused, he didn’t press further. His thinking was rather lacking. After what had happened, who would want to be alone with him in a similar place? With such thoughts, Lauren followed behind Abarid.
The place they arrived at was the Waiting Room for those who had come to have an audience with the Emperor. Since it was after business hours, no one was present, but Lauren appreciated the fact that it was an official space. She thought that at least Abarid wouldn’t dare do anything improper in the Emperor’s domain. And her thinking was correct.
“The Crown Prince drove people away.”
So in the end, they were alone. Aster’s eyebrows furrowed at an odd angle. Oh no. She shouldn’t worry Aster. Lauren hurried to continue.
“But it was fine. Abarid said so himself. He swore on his honor that he wouldn’t lay a hand on me.”
The words of such a man shouldn’t be trusted. Aster pressed down the words that had risen to his lips. He noticed from the way Lauren was chewing her lower lip that there was still something important she hadn’t said.
He shouldn’t interrupt her story carelessly. So instead of speaking, he swallowed along with his drink. Lauren gave him a bitter smile. Aster didn’t want to see her smile like that.
“In the end, it was the same story as last time.”
“He asked you to become his mistress?”
“Yes, something like that.”
Lauren exhaled softly and took a sip of her drink. At some point, her cheeks had flushed a delicate rose. Was she drinking too much? Aster glanced sideways, gauging how much remained in her glass.
Drinking out of frustration would only leave her exhausted. It had been a mistake to let Lauren have alcohol. Yet separate from that, he found himself angered by what Abarid had apparently said.
“He claimed that once I became his concubine, he’d feed me alcohol jelly until I was sick of it?”
What nonsense was that supposed to be? Lauren shook her head in disbelief. Aster let out a hollow laugh. The alcohol jelly was delicious, certainly, but as Lauren continued—
“It was delicious, but no woman would agree to become a concubine just to eat a bit more of something like that.”
Aster nodded. If nothing else, even the Duke’s Mansion’s cook could make such a thing.
Tomorrow, I’ll have them prepare some jelly and bring it to Lauren. A reward for a capable lady. Yes, using fruit juice instead of alcohol would be better.
As that thought crossed his mind, Calvin Stewart’s smiling face suddenly appeared in Aster’s mind. A useless distraction. Aster brushed his hair back, sweeping the thought away with it.
“As the Crown Prince’s concubine, you could enjoy all manner of delicacies, of course…”
“Ah, he mentioned that too. That he’d grant me wealth and power I could never enjoy as the wife of the Lilywood Duke?”
Certainly, there were people who could be tempted by such things. But Lauren was not one of them. Her life’s scale held no weights of wealth or power. What she valued was something else entirely.
Aster, having known Lauren only a short time, understood this well. In fact, one could discern it from just a few words of conversation with her. To promise wealth and power to such a woman struck Aster as almost absurd.
“And?”
“And what? I refused, of course. He staked the Crown Prince’s honor on it, but he didn’t even try to stop me.”
Lauren shrugged as if relieved, then took another sip of her drink.
“What about you?”
Lauren tilted her head to one side. The thick braid falling down one side of her shoulder swayed with her movement. Despite the dimmed lighting in the Office, her hair caught the light and gleamed.
As Aster gazed at her, their eyes suddenly met. He instinctively lowered his gaze, avoiding her stare. It was because her eyes, flushed from the alcohol, seemed to sparkle more brilliantly than usual.
“Did you see the Imperial Princess off properly?”
Aster twisted his lips. If asked whether he’d seen her off properly, he could answer affirmatively. Leaning back against the long chair, he recalled the young child he’d walked alongside. Quiet and timid, a fourteen-year-old who should have known nothing of the world. The Lilywood Duke and the Imperial Princess had merely exchanged a brief, unwanted marriage proposal—nothing more than strangers. So when the Imperial Princess spoke to him, Aster was somewhat surprised.
“I showed you an embarrassing sight.”
Those were the first words from the Imperial Princess, her head bowed. Her voice was thin and trembling, yet clear. Aster found himself stopping without thinking. A few steps ahead, the small, thin girl turned to look at him. Her cheeks were swollen bright red, her hair—braided childishly into one plait—was disheveled, yet her golden eyes still gleamed quietly.
“I thought of her only as a child, but she was quite different from what I expected.”
Though the fact that she was a child remained unchanged.
Lauren was meeting the imperial family properly for the first time, but Aster was not. No matter how much he disliked it, as a nobleman of the Empire—and a high-ranking one at that, a Duke—he had to answer the Emperor’s summons and appear here and there. Not just on battlefields, but at banquets and balls as well. Thus, he naturally found himself facing the Crown Prince and Imperial Princess frequently.
The Imperial Princess was always quiet. The child who wouldn’t even lift her head properly stood like a backdrop behind the Emperor, Empress, and Crown Prince. No one paid her any attention. Not the nobles before her, not her brother, not even her own parents.
In truth, it was the same for Aster. Only after the marriage order came down did the Imperial Princess enter his field of vision. Though his gaze toward her was hardly kind, given that she’d become the subject of an unwanted marriage command, the Imperial Princess showed no disturbance. She remained standing like a backdrop in her own affairs. That was, certainly, not natural.

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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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