Chapter 3.5 - That Man's Perplexity - There's No Way My Wife Could Be This Lovable
Chapter 3.5 – That Man’s Perplexity – There’s No Way My Wife Could Be This Lovable
Rubellian never dreamed it would happen. That the day would come when that bizarre creature would seem lovable.
The day after his engagement to Evangeline was confirmed, the Crown Prince summoned him to the imperial palace. The pretext was to meet and have a friendly chat, but Rubellian knew that it was actually a place to congratulate him in his own way.
The Crown Prince, Icarus, truly considered Rubellian his brother.
However, Rubellian didn’t want to simply accept this gratefully as brotherly affection. Though the Crown Prince was a good person, he was insufficient to completely resolve Rubellian’s hatred. Especially since the person the Crown Prince respected most in the world was none other than the Emperor.
“Your Highness.”
“You came?”
The Crown Prince welcomed him with a smile.
“Getting married, I hear?”
When Rubellian nodded slightly, the Crown Prince smiled broadly and said:
“To Miss Evangeline Clauda.”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. She’s a pretty and kind young lady, though not exactly a proper young lady.”
At the Crown Prince’s words, Rubellian frowned. He was aware of the strange connection between the Crown Prince and Evangeline. He was curious about the Crown Prince’s intention in bringing this up at this point, but he dismissed the thought, thinking he had overreacted.
A brief silence flowed, and the Crown Prince spoke again.
“I called Miss Evangeline today.”
“Pardon?”
Rubellian’s face contorted completely.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll be meeting often from now on, won’t we? Since we’ll inevitably clash with the Colica ducal house someday, I thought it wouldn’t be bad to meet in advance.”
“You must know that the Colica ducal house is not particularly favorable toward the Florence ducal house. And for Your Highness the Crown Prince to summon her……”
“Duke.”
“There’s no one who doesn’t know whose summons my mother received when she entered the imperial palace.”
“……!”
“Your Highness. Please don’t drag her into this. I don’t want to see the same thing happen again.”
At Rubellian’s words, the Crown Prince flinched. He couldn’t not know what “the same thing” referred to. Evangeline and the former Florence duchess were too similar in their situations.
Both were commoners, both married Florence dukes, and both were somewhat entangled with men of the imperial family.
Understanding Rubellian’s meaning, the Crown Prince sighed. He hadn’t thought of that. He never imagined that what he’d done as consideration would reawaken someone’s painful memories.
Then Rubellian spoke again.
“I think I understand Your Highness’s intention, but I cannot readily accept it, and I’m sorry for that. Your Highness.”
His voice was frozen like the sharp winter wind.
And the situation flowed exactly as Rubellian had thought, without a single difference. If there was only one thing different, it was that Evangeline was much more crazy…… no, spirited than he had thought.
He let out an internal sigh of relief seeing Evangeline sitting quite nonchalantly in the garden. Though it looked as if a war had passed through, and wherever she might have struck someone, she certainly didn’t appear to have been struck herself. Evangeline welcomed him warmly.
Still, the Colica ducal house side must have said hurtful things. Concerned she might be hurt on her own, he asked Evangeline. When she eagerly tattled on him as if she’d been waiting for the chance, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
Ah, thank goodness.
If she had just cried without being able to say anything, his heart would have been torn, but that wasn’t her nature.
Though terribly selfish, wasn’t it still better to go around hitting people rather than being hit by those around her? Of course, Evangeline never beat innocent people.
“They said I’m like a prostitute.”
Gellin Psik, the libertine of the Psik count family. Rubellian pondered internally.
How should he take out that one to earn praise for doing it well? As he pondered, Gellin’s pale gaze pierced him.
Evangeline, who had told everything in detail like a fish in water, smiled smugly. Rubellian, glancing at her clearly triumphant face, smiled internally.
And soon, he said with a hardened face:
“The young master needs to learn something called manners.”
Glancing at Evangeline, who was laughing beside him as if it served him right, he momentarily fell into regret again. Actually, if not for him, she wouldn’t have had reason to hear such words.
Eventually, that day’s tea time ended rather anticlimactically. The first thing Rubellian did afterward was summon Gellin Psik to the ducal house.
“You called for me?”
Gellin Psik asked, shrinking back.
At the fear mixed in those eyes, Rubellian leisurely crossed his arms. Soon, in the extremely quiet study, Rubellian slowly opened his mouth.
“His Highness the Crown Prince won’t protect you.”
“……!”
“Of course, the Colica ducal house won’t bother stepping forward for you either.”
Because that’s the kind of family they were.
Gellin, who knew the Colica ducal house better than anyone, flinched.
The bright red eyes looked blood-colored at this moment. Rubellian Florence. Though he seemed to stand quietly beside the Crown Prince, Gellin had vaguely sensed that his nature wasn’t quite so gentle.
Gellin Psik’s eyes shook seriously. Not knowing how to respond, he gritted his teeth, then mustered his last courage and said:
“If, if you’re doing this just because of a woman, it won’t be good for Your Grace’s reputation either. A-and E-Evangeline’s bad reputation is a f-fact……”
“Who created those rumors?”
“……Pardon?”
“I heard you pestered her and got rejected.”
“……!”
“So you spread disgusting words here and there?”
“Th-that’s because that wench’s conduct wasn’t proper—”
“Wench?”
“Lady Clauda’s conduct wasn’t proper……”
“The one whose conduct isn’t proper is you. And what does Eve’s conduct being proper or not have to do with you? Before that, what exactly is the standard for that improper conduct?”
In the end, that’s what it was. The shame of being rejected by a mere commoner wench, the fact that a commoner bitch who should be beneath him dared to step on him and try to climb up—that’s what enraged him.
Actually, Evangeline probably wasn’t unaware of this fact either. But she was a commoner, and Gellin Psik, a noble, was an opponent beyond her reach. He was undeniably cunning.
But the moment it reached Rubellian, it was no longer her fight alone, and Rubellian gladly took over her fight.
“You said you were lonely lately.”
“No, that’s not—”
“It seems like living alone and lonely would suit you, young master. Preferably for life.”
“Your Grace……!”
“If you really hate that, disappearing from the world would be a good method too. Without anyone knowing.”
Study abroad in name, exile in reality.
He would go so far as to use the power of a duke to eliminate anyone who dishonored Evangeline.
The Colica ducal house would be furious, but they wouldn’t bother stepping forward just for Gellin Psik.
Gellin realized this fact too, but it was already too late. In the end, it was clear he would never be able to set foot in the empire again.
* * *
“They say the Duke of Florence showers such affection on the daughter of Clauda.”
On the day when inevitable rumors were likely spreading, Rubellian, preparing for marriage, visited Evangeline’s mansion.
Though it was an empire tradition for the groom to bring gifts to the bride before marriage, visiting directly like this was quite rare.
He had to barely hold back laughter seeing Evangeline lying leisurely in her room, picking at cucumbers.
Actually, he knew. Except for the first day they met, Evangeline had always been clean. Ah, let’s exclude that appearance in the garden for a moment. It seemed quite disgusting to her too.
He did know that her claim of being clean was true. But for some reason, the moment he saw that face, why did he want to tease her?
Eventually, leaving behind her shouting indignantly, he visited the reception room once more and stopped upon seeing a portrait he hadn’t noticed before.
Sixteen-year-old Evangeline was smiling elegantly.
The guild head had mentioned it briefly. That in her childhood, her health was so poor she could barely move, let alone exercise. But one day at fifteen, she miraculously awakened and ran around actively.
The face of the Clauda guild head telling that story contained genuine love for his daughter, and hearing it seemed to make him pause for a moment.
“Evangeline, Evangeline……”
Eve. He muttered the name internally.
She was quite a strange woman. In any case, she was definitely not an ordinary person. Even setting aside her incomparably beautiful appearance, she was quite a unique individual.
When she occasionally said incomprehensible things, he wondered if she lived in the same world as him. And very occasionally, she acted as if she wasn’t a party to all these events.
Like an ‘observer.’
“I’m here, and I washed my face three times.”
A strange sensation enveloped his body, and at that moment the door burst open and Evangeline entered. Her eyes wide and her prim expression, like she was declaring war, looked so loveable that he couldn’t help but smile.
He was startled when he noticed that he actually found Evangeline quite lovable.
Lovable? That woman?
He wasn’t sure. She didn’t seem particularly lovable enough to use the word lovable…… This seemed somewhat unsuitable…….
She wasn’t particularly charming, nor did she show kindness. She wasn’t elegant and refined, nor was she affectionate enough to move people.
But lovable?
Watching the back of Evangeline’s head as she chattered and left the room, Rubellian blinked in confusion.
What was lovable about her? But somehow feeling like he might know, his senses became strange.
This wouldn’t do. This was business, and the emotion he should feel toward her should be guilt.
He had intended to treat her with care, but before he realized it, he found that instead of cherishing her, it was a relief if he simply refrained from teasing her.
But her sparrow-like eyes were cute every time. If he poked her, a reaction came out, and if he reacted to that reaction, another reaction came out. He should treat her preciously and prettily, but human hearts weren’t so easy.
And that heart fell into even more of a maze seeing Evangeline execute “Please buy everything from here to there.”
“……When I told her to choose freely, she really chose freely.”
How could a person live so thoroughly? She truly had a personality that needed to achieve steady progress. If she had bought just one hanger, he wouldn’t have been this flustered, but Evangeline bought all the hangers the clerk brought out. All of them.
Originally, using the excuse of a pre-wedding gift to the bride, he had gone out wanting to know what kind of dresses and colors she liked.
But making such efforts seem pointless, watching his prospective wife pondering how to spend money next with a satisfied face, Rubellian concluded:
Evangeline’s taste was just money.
Eventually, Evangeline ransacked all the salons in the capital and purchased all the new items. She ran around so energetically that Rubellian didn’t even know her feet were so scraped.
When she rubbed her ankle, he felt momentarily anxious and carefully removed her shoes, then frowned seeing her red, swollen feet.
Her snow-white heels were bleeding slightly. It was his fault for not noticing since she had been walking around fine.
“With your feet all scraped up like this, how did you walk around?”
She should have said it hurt. It would have been fine to just comfortably ask to go home.
Regretting his short-sighted thinking, she smiled brightly and said:
“I’m originally quite tenacious.”
She did seem that way. But don’t use that tenacity for things like this. Still, it seemed like she had walked around with the single determination to buy her own things, but was it really necessary?
If it was pretty and sparkly things, there were many at the ducal house too, and she could have more after marriage.
Eventually, he quietly opened his mouth.
“From now on, if there’s something you want to buy, just buy whatever you want.”
He just wanted to buy her everything. He wanted to dress her in the prettiest and most precious things, and preferably keep her comfortable without getting hurt. What kind of feeling was this? He thought internally while pressing Evangeline’s slightly swollen feet.
Come to think of it, her feet were quite small too. Snow-white feet that had never done rough work. Since she was often bedridden due to illness, she probably hadn’t walked around much either.
Thinking of her tiny body struggling to escape through a dog hole was rather amusing.
Anyway, he’d have to feed her well from now on.
Should he change the head chef? Should he hire more patissiers?
Then, suddenly seeing the small wound on her foot, he sighed. He’d have to hire more doctors too. So they could follow her around all day.
Whether the pain had lessened a bit, her adorable toes wiggled. Her feet were pretty, her ankles were pretty, and going up from there, her legs would be pretty too.
She had looked pretty buried in gorgeous dresses, but should he build another annex at the ducal house? Collecting only pretty things separately, filling it with precious and luxurious things every single day?
Rubellian let the thoughts that came up randomly without logic or order run around in his head.
At first, he had just thought she was pretty because she was pretty, but now he seemed to realize that wasn’t it.
She was pretty and lovable. When seeing something pretty and lovable, was it human nature for the lips to go first—
Lips, he wanted to kiss them.
Not anywhere specific, just everything. Should he lightly bite her fingers? Or put his lips on this slender ankle—
“But by any chance, what you’re trying to do now.”
That was the moment it happened.
At Evangeline’s voice, striking with perfect timing, he flinched. Even though she couldn’t possibly know his thoughts, he was startled all the same.
At that moment, Rubellian realized how ridiculous the imagination he’d just had was.
Was he going crazy?
How could he have such ridiculous thoughts with an injured person in front of him……
‘Ah, this, this vulgarity……’
At the imagination he had for the first time in his life, he frowned. To Evangeline asking what he was thinking, with the will to never tell her even if he died, Rubellian shook his head and sighed internally.
Eventually, having roughly deflected the conversation, he slowly stood up. Deliberately ignoring Evangeline’s still suspicious gaze and keeping his heart tightly hidden.
“You gave the Florence ring to Miss Clauda.”
At Mrs. Jena’s words, Rubellian looked up. She seemed to have heard about his visit to the Clauda mansion with Mrs. Rita yesterday.
“Yes.”
Though he didn’t know what an “unlimited credit card” was, the sight of her holding the ring tightly in her hand with wide eyes saying she loved it was quite cute. Though it was well known he disliked luxury, he was willing to enjoy it if Eve did.
However, Mrs. Jena seemed quite displeased as she opened her mouth.
“The Clauda guild head isn’t short on money either, so what’s going on? Bill was holding the back of his neck saying the ducal house’s expenses had risen abnormally large all of a sudden.”
“Really?”
“Your Grace. While I have no particular objection to Your Grace’s tastes being outside the scope of ordinary people, please exercise restraint.”
At Mrs. Jena’s words, Rubellian frowned slightly.
Mrs. Jena had been his nanny and tutor since he was young. So while he had delegated much authority to her, that didn’t mean he’d be happy hearing such words.
What was wrong with buying a few dresses for her? It wasn’t like she asked him to buy a country or demanded the imperial throne.
