The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - 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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Loice straightened his posture without thinking.
Zekard Evanharte.
When he’d seen him in the Capital, he was always dressed in formal military attire.
Looking every inch the hero freshly returned from war, not a hair out of place.
But now it was different.
He wore only a light coat over a black shirt—a comfortable ensemble. Yet he still commanded attention.
His tall frame, his broad shoulders.
The clean sweep of black hair framing a perfectly chiseled face.
‘That face never gets any easier to look at.’
Loice inwardly clicked his tongue.
“Ah, Zekard.”
Ines called to him with easy familiarity.
Loice watched their faces carefully, stealing glances between them.
‘So what exactly is their relationship?’
According to the rumors spreading through the Capital, Ines Evanharte was a jealous, clingy wife—so neglected by her husband that she’d gone mad with envy, tormenting the beauties of the Northern Region in her spite.
Loice had often witnessed similar married couples in the Capital.
One-sided attachments, where affection flowed in only one direction.
In such cases, innocent merchants like himself usually bore the brunt of the fallout.
If the husband remained indifferent, the wife’s mood would sour; if her mood soured, she’d find fault with a gemstone’s cut, pull every conceivable tantrum, and eventually demand a discount or force unfair terms.
‘Please, let me just sell quietly and leave.’
Loice prayed silently to himself.
“You’ve come at the perfect moment.”
“What may I do for you?”
“I’ve selected a few pieces and wanted your opinion on which would be best.”
Several jewel cases were already laid out on the table.
Zekard studied them for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“Take all of them.”
“……Zekard?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean, which one do you think is better……?”
Zekard tilted his head thoughtfully.
“The quantity seems a bit small.”
“Pardon?”
“Is there not more?”
……
What was this?
Loice was not the only one caught off guard.
“Wait. You don’t need this many.”
“Are you displeased?”
“That’s not it.”
Ines lowered her voice.
“I’m not pretending to be frugal or refusing out of false modesty—I genuinely don’t need this much.”
Then she threw a meaningful look toward Zekard.
‘You know how we are.’
Her eyes seemed to say it without words.
Zekard regarded her briefly, then spoke with unruffled composure.
“This is the minimum befitting the Dignity of the Duchess of House Evanharte.”
……
Ines fell silent.
In that moment, Loice understood.
‘She’s weak to that line.’
Zekard clearly knew it too, for a satisfied smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“Bring the rest.”
“Ah, yes!”
Loice snapped to attention and spun around urgently.
“What are you standing there for! Bring out everything else!”
The servants’ eyes went wide.
“Everything, sir?”
“Every last piece! That box too!”
“That’s something to present to the Imperial family…….”
“Now? Come on, hurry!”
Within moments, gemstones that had once barely fit on a single table now filled the entire room.
Ines’s expression grew increasingly rigid.
By contrast, Zekard looked thoroughly pleased.
“This should suit you wonderfully.”
He picked up a bracelet adorned with blue gemstones.
“It matches the color of your eyes.”
“It is beautiful.”
“Then this as well.”
“Zekard.”
“And this should complement your complexion nicely.”
“……Zekard.”
He was utterly delighted.
Loice watched the scene as if spellbound.
‘This is completely opposite to what people say.’
It wasn’t the wife clinging to her husband.
Rather, Ines was desperately trying to apply the brakes.
“Perhaps my gift displeases you?”
“How could it? I’m always grateful to you.”
“Then you dislike the gemstones?”
“No, I adore them. I’m truly delighted. It’s just…….”
Shouldn’t there be some limit to this?
Loice felt he understood what Ines had swallowed back.
But Zekard merely smiled with satisfaction.
“I’m relieved to hear you’re pleased.”
He gazed at the bracelet in his hand.
Then he extended one hand toward Ines.
“Will you give me your hand?”
“…….”
Ines stared at that hand for a moment.
A very brief hesitation.
Then at last she raised her own hand.
Only then did Zekard fasten the bracelet around her wrist.
Between the silver metalwork, small gemstones gleamed. The design was elegant yet restrained.
‘It really is beautiful.’
As Loice observed the two of them, an odd thought occurred to him.
It resembled a shackle wrought of gemstones.
“It suits you perfectly.”
Zekard hardly lingered his gaze on the bracelet itself.
His eyes remained fixed on Ines.
It had been the same when selecting the gemstones.
When he regarded the necklace, he watched her neck; when he held up the earrings, he brought them beside her face to compare the color.
The gemstones themselves barely held his attention.
He was simply gazing at his wife wearing them.
‘Ah.’
Only then did Loice understand.
Having witnessed countless lovers, he recognized that look in his eyes.
‘He’s in love.’
Deeply so.
Zekard of House Evanharte was utterly smitten with his wife.
‘But his wife…….’
He stole a glance at Ines.
She didn’t appear to be the sort who clung to her husband as rumor suggested. Rather, she seemed more often taken aback by unexpected kindness.
Only a slight stiffness to her expression each time Zekard drew near.
A flush creeping up her ear whenever he touched her hand.
From such reactions, she didn’t seem entirely indifferent either.
‘Hmm.’
A rather intriguing couple, these two.
“Now, let’s settle accounts.”
Loice came to his senses at Zekard’s words.
By that point, Zekard had already examined every item on display and even gone through the catalog to boot.
As Loice tallied the invoice, cold sweat beaded on his skin.
‘He’s mad.’
Even in the Capital, few people spent such a sum at once.
More astonishing still was the method of payment.
“I’ll settle the account in gold, straightaway.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No, no, of course not!”
There was certainly no problem.
If anything, there was no problem at all, which was itself strange.
‘Was House Evanharte truly this wealthy?’
The Northern Region was expansive and powerful, but it was not renowned for riches.
No matter how substantial the War Compensation, there had to be limits.
‘Where in the world is all this gold coming from?’
While Loice’s mind raced with calculations, Zekard called to him.
“I’m grateful to you.”
“Pardon?”
“Thanks to you coming all this way, my wife and I have had a delightful time together.”
“Oh, not at all. It is merely my duty, sir.”
Loice was answering with an instinctive smile when he suddenly paused.
‘Wait.’
Coming all this way? For that?
The Duke of Evanharte had gone to the trouble of summoning him—the most sought-after jeweler in the Capital—all the way to the Northern Region.
And he had spent an absurd fortune.
Moreover, he had ensured that Loice witnessed the entire spectacle from beginning to end.
‘Surely…’
He hadn’t summoned him merely to purchase gemstones.
Loice conducted business with countless nobles of the Capital.
His shop was one of the places where new fashions and society gossip circulated most swiftly.
‘He means for me to spread the word.’
Of how dearly the Duke of Evanharte cherishes his wife.
And once such rumors took hold, the existing whispers that surrounded Ines Evanharte would naturally begin to crumble.
In other words, this had been his design from the very beginning.
‘…Though it doesn’t seem to be mere performance.’
For an action meant to generate rumor, Zekard’s gaze burned far too earnestly.
Loice bowed deeply at once.
“Upon my return to the Capital, I shall speak of it to all.”
Zekard’s brow lifted slightly.
“Of what?”
“Of what refined taste Your Grace the Duke possesses.”
Zekard smiled broadly.
“Excellent.”
That was the right answer.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
Zekard turned toward Ines.
“Take your time choosing. If you find you need anything further, there is no need to ask me.”
“I already have more than enough…”
Ines trailed off mid-sentence.
Zekard had extended his hand toward her.
Ines gazed at his hand for a moment before slowly raising her own.
Then Zekard bent and brushed his lips lightly against the back of her hand.
It was the briefest of touches.
“…!”
The tips of Ines’s ears flushed crimson.
Zekard straightened as though nothing had transpired.
“Until later, then.”
With that, he truly did leave the room.
“….”
An odd silence settled over the room.
Ines withdrew her hand slowly, her face flushed.
‘……I didn’t think he’d go that far.’
She understood his intention well enough.
It was after the costume designer had visited several days prior.
When Ines had questioned whether Zekard really needed to summon someone all the way from the Capital to the Northern Region, he had answered calmly.
“To change the Capital’s rumors, isn’t it fastest if the Capital’s own people see it with their own eyes?”
It was a rational argument, and Ines had agreed.
‘I understand it’s for the sake of the rumors…….’
But did he really have to go to such lengths?
“I, well…….”
Loice laughed awkwardly.
“The two of you really do get along well.”
Ines cleared her throat unnecessarily.
“His Excellency is simply…… like that sometimes.”
“Ah.”
Loice’s eyes gleamed with peculiar interest.
Ines did not realize that his response had only sparked even wilder imaginings.
Loice, sensing the awkwardness, smoothly changed the subject.
“Rather, about that Necklace you showed me earlier.”
Ines’s expression shifted.

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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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