If You Wish For A Married Couple’s Duties - Chapter 14
Episode 14. The Naughty Prince (3)
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“Duke, you don’t look so happy. Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Sitting right in front of Leonhart was a person with a corrupted character, a person who beat up his own wives. There was no way Leohart could have a good expression on his face, but Justin looked at him with a face saying that he didn’t know anything.
“I’m not.”
“Then I think we’re done eating, so shall we move?”
“You must have had a hard time coming, I’ll take you to your room right away.”
“The journey here was definitely rough. I’ve definitely realized why Esbaden Castle is called an impenetrable fortress, haha.”
The moment the two of them got up from their seats, small footsteps were heard outside the door.
It was a small sound that only Leonhardt, whose senses were sensitive, could hear.
“What’s wrong, Duke?”
Leonhart looked at the door for a moment, before turning his head forward.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
When he and the prince went out the door, there was only silence in the empty hallway.
★★★
“Madam, why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
Layla tilted her head. It was strange for Dooha to return to her bedroom so quickly when she had yet to achieve her goal.
It was only 30 minutes ago when she ignored the duke’s request and left the room to see the prince.
She then proceeded to stand in front of the dining room door for a while, but all of a sudden came back. It was strange.
“Madam, you said that you would greet the wretched prince. So why…”
“There’s no need to say hello to him.”
“What? What do you mean?”
She leaned back against the chair, immersed in her thoughts.
She recalled the conversation she had heard inside the dining hall a while ago.
“So, what does our Duchess look like? Was she so ugly that you couldn’t even open your eyes in front of her as rumored?”
The Fourth Prince had wondered if she looked as ugly as the rumors.
“Still, it is impossible to kill your wife, who is a symbol of the alliance. So, once again, I had no choice but to reject her.”
For him to say that you couldn’t kill a woman out of anger again is the same as saying that it had happened before.
Dooha frowned.
“Layla, didn’t you say the Fourth Prince was pitiful?”
“Yes? Ah, the rumors say so.”
“…Really?”
Rumors were sometimes more accurate than what was known as facts, but for the most part, rumors were just rumors.
It seemed that the rumor that the Fourth Prince was pitiful was simply just a rumor.
But a person who liked to torture other people for no reason? How could such a person be pitiful?
Dooha suddenly recalled what Paul, the one who got kicked out, told her.
He said that she was rejected from the top and was taken by the Duke.
Perhaps, the ‘top’ here referred to the Fourth Prince.
Dooha’s eyelashes drooped down and shaded the area under her eyes.
If that was right, this meant that her original marriage partner was supposed to be the Fourth Prince.
“…I didn’t think it was out of consideration.”
She didn’t think that Leonhart’s reason for telling her not to come out of the bedroom today was to make her not run into the prince.
Because the duke had no reason to be so considerate.
In her eyes, the Duke was not a man delicate enough to fathom the plight of his marriage partner, whom he accepted for the alliance.
Meanwhile, at Dooha’s self-talk, Laila tilted her head and asked.
“What? What consideration?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Without saying a word, Dooha tapped her finger on the table and opened her mouth again.
“Lyla, will you tell Sylvia to come to my room after work?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Dooha thought it was necessary to find out more accurately and in detail about the Fourth Prince.
★★★
“You said you were looking for me.”
“Welcome, Sylvia.”
That evening, the maid, Sylvia, came to Dooha with a haggard-looking face.
It was fortunate that the Fourth Prince fell asleep earlier than usual. Otherwise, she would not have been able to walk, even at the Duchess’ call.
Dooha greeted the maid with a friendly face.
“You must have worked hard to attend to His Highness, The Prince, instead of me.”
“No, I just did what I had to do.”
“Sit down, please.”
Dooha offered her a seat and warm tea she had prepared in advance.
“I’m sorry I called you when you’re tired and might want to rest. I have a question.”
“Please ask.”
“It seems that I have something to do with His Highness, the Fourth Prince, and the Duke.”
At the words of the Duchess, the maid’s face hardened.
“I thought that you would know what it was, so I called.”
“I…”
“I found out that I was originally going to marry His Highness, the Fourth Prince. What I want to know is the reason why the Duke is keeping me from meeting the prince?”
When Dooha spoke those words, Sylvia’s eyes widened in surprise.
She was wondering how the hell the Duchess knew that.
“It’s not hard to deduce if I put together everything that I have heard, Sylvia.”
In response to her answer, the maid lowered her gaze as if unsure.
“…It’s not important as long as Madam is the Duchess. Do you still want to hear it?”
“I think it’s up to me to decide whether it’s important or not. And after seeing Sylvia’s reaction to it, I don’t think it’s something to be taken lightly.”
In response to Dooha’s words, Sylvia looked at the teacup and opened her mouth with difficulty.
“This is something I found out just a while ago, too. The duke told me when he ordered me to receive His Highness, the Prince, instead of his wife.”
The maid told her two things.
The first was that the Fourth Prince and the Duchess were supposed to get married and that they would have become a married couple if the Duke had not accepted the Emperor’s order.
The second is that both of the Fourth Prince’s wives were beaten by him for very trivial reasons.
“As expected, it wasn’t an accident that the women died.”
“Did you guess that too?”
“Actually, I inadvertently overheard their conversation in front of the dining room door during the day.”
The face of the maid turned white at Dooha’s words.
“Madam! If you run into His Highness, the-”
“I don’t understand, Sylvia.”
“What do you mean?”
“What does the Fourth Prince beating his wives to death have anything to do with the Duke forbidding me from seeing him?”
“Well, that’s…”
The maid quivered for a while with a bewildered face before answering, a sigh mixed in with her voice.
“I don’t know if Madam knows this, but His Highness, the Fourth Prince, likes women very much. Especially beautiful women.”
“Yes, is that so?”
“And the Fourth Prince’s wives, who died, were also great beauties.”
Dooha made a confused expression, she didn’t understand anymore.
“So, why does that matter?”
“His Highness, the Fourth Prince, is someone who gets whatever he wants. How would such a person react if he met Madam, someone who would have been his wife?”
“Of course, there would be no reaction, because I am not a beauty.”
“What?”
“You said His Highness likes only beautiful women, right? Even if he meets me, how would he react?”
Dooha seemed really upset and disappointed.
“Maybe, the reason that you can’t meet His Highness is because of the fear that the Fourth Prince might have a liking towards you…”
“Oh, do you really think so?”
In the silence of the maid, Dooha’s face hardened without realizing it.
“…Really?”
“…Madam seems to be very unaware of her appearance.”
“No, I…”
At that moment, Layla, who had been quietly standing behind Dooha, stepped forward to help.
“See? I told you so, right? Madam is very, very, very beautiful in imperial standards of the Empire!”
“Certainly, the word ‘very’ is not needed.”
Dooha blinked her eyes, embarrassed by the compliments from the two of them.
She coughed in embarrassment, and then she immediately turned to face Sylvia and questioned,
“Even so, I’m already married to the Duke, so what would be the problem if the Prince likes me?”
“They say, ‘If you make it a problem, it’ll become a problem.’”
The maid answered calmly.
“Madam, the Krone Empire is where the Emperor’s Order is absolute.”
Unlike the Bashal Kingdom, which is a federation of five tribes, in the Krone Empire, the authority of the emperor, the absolute monarch, was given priority above all else.
“If the Fourth Prince begged the Emperor for Madam, and if the Emperor accepted the request, then the Duke would have to give Madam to the Fourth Prince.”
“No, does it make sense to ask for a wife who is already married? What kind of bullsh*t is that?”
When Layla got heated up instead of her master, the maid replied in a calm voice once again.
“It is possible if the opponent is His Highness, the Fourth Prince. He is second in line to the throne and the third most powerful in the Empire.”
“Huh! Nonsense!”
Unlike her maid, who was constantly angry, Dooha was quietly immersed in thought.
The maid, who had been watching her, opened her mouth once again.
“The Duke tried to prevent the worst possible situation in advance. He is well aware of how hard his wife has prepared to take care of His Highness, the Fourth Prince, for the past 15 days.”
She bowed her head as if pleading with the duchess.
“Nevertheless, Madam must understand that the Duke made such a decision for the sake of his wife’s safety…”
“Okay, I’ll stop going out.”
“What?”
“I now know the intentions of the Duke. As he wishes, I’ll stay still here. Please tell the Duke not to worry.”
“Oh, yes. I see. Then I’ll get going now.”
Sylvia didn’t think that the Duchess would understand the situation so easily, and so the maid left the room with a shocked look.
“I’m glad the Duke seems to care a lot about his wife though. It’s not very romantic, but still…”
Dooha was thinking about her husband, while the words of Layla, who was standing next to her, only went in through one ear.
Unlike his mouth that spit out sharp words, she never expected him to be this considerate.
What on earth was the man’s true self?
“…Weird person.”
“Yes, Madam? What did you say?”
“No, it’s late, so you should go to bed now. I want to sleep now as well.”
Dooha ended the day by forcing her body to go to bed.
She hated moving according to other people’s intentions, but this time, she was thinking about whether to move her feet after knowing the duke’s intentions.
