I Tamed My Ex-Husband’s Mad Dog - Episode 30

Princess Canary came from the Duchy of Canary.

Canary was a country made up of small islands, and she was the eighth Princess there. She was in a perfect position to be sent as a hostage to the Empire without any presence in the Empire, and the Empire was well suited to neglect her.

The hostages of the Empire lived in a small palace in a location that could hardly even be called a fortress. The sorrowful sons and daughters of the territories were vaguely far from governing as territories and difficult to give up. Even the servants assigned to the place ignored them.

And her name was Dulcinea, but she came to the Empire when she was only twelve years old, and her name had not been called for ten years.

“Dulcinea.”

Having lived for ten years without being named, there was no way she could not have fallen in love with someone calling her name all over again.

“Yes.”

But she was obedient. Because that was how the Princess of Canary could carry on with her life and even become the Crown Princess of the Empire. Princess Canary lowered her eyebrows and put her hands together politely.

“I feel bad.”

Moreover, if you have ever heard the way her husband, Michael Alanquez, called her, you can understand why Princess Canary could not fall in love with him.

Michael, when he was irritable for no reason, would pronounce her name very clearly.

The Alanquez Empire generally used the official language, but the tone of the Imperial capital was exceptionally tight. Princess Canary, who had been in the Alanquez Empire for almost fifteen years, was intimidated whenever she heard the tone. It was a different matter, of course. Because she had always been a hostage here.

Besides, Princess Canary still couldn’t get rid of Canary’s leaky pronunciation, so she used to pronounce Alanquez as ‘Alain Kechet’. Michael copied Princess Canary’s words mockingly whenever she pronounced them like that. Thus, Princess Canary was always intimidated.

“Should I burn incense? Even so, the scent of magnolia comes in.”

“Which specialty is that?”

“…It’s not a specialty…”

Michael frowned as he watched her slurred speech.

“It’s hot. What kind of flower scent is it? Just wipe my legs.”

“Yes…”

Michael’s right leg was paralyzed after being stabbed by the former Crown Princess. But Michael was always suffering from phantom pain. He always appealed that his right leg was itchy, painful, hot, and felt like something was on it.

There was still a lingering scent of late summer in the capital. Even though it was morning, the sun was already bright. After injuring his leg, the Crown Prince became very sensitive to heat. Princess Canary asked for cold water from the maid who was standing nearby. She put water on a soft cloth and wiped his right leg. Originally, the maid would be the person responsible for such a job, but Princess Canary always did it herself.

The reason wasn’t a big deal. One day, shortly after sleeping with the Princess, Michael again complained of an uncomfortable feeling in his right leg. It was embarrassing for the maid to take care of the naked Crown Prince, and somehow it seemed to be Princess’ fault, so she took care of him from then. Michael, spillingly, praised her for being ten times more attentive than the maid.

Thus, from then on, Princess Canaria personally served her husband.

Since his injury, the Prince’s casual clothes have always been made to easily expose his right leg. While she was kneeling in front of the Prince, she painstakingly wiped his legs and rubbed them with soft oil.

“She is coming tonight.”

“…If she is that woman…”

“Who is she? She’s a b!tch to chew on.”

Princess Canary carefully looked up at Michael. Her hair was silver in colour, a rarity in the Empire. It was completely different from Michael’s dull grey-silver hair. If Michael’s was hard steel, Princess Canary’s hair was pale and looked white. Her eyebrows were thick and droopy at the tips. The corners of her mouth also turned slightly downward when expressionless. Her eyes were also a pale blue, and even her eyelashes were whitish.

So, those who saw Princess Canary felt that she was always immersed in deep sorrow, even when she said nothing.

The same was true of Michael. He felt that Princess Canary, looking up at him, was reflecting on her great guilt. So the Crown Prince stroked her hair quickly. It was a friendly and careful touch as if it were petting a cherished bird.

“I didn’t blame you. I felt bad because I thought of her. I have to blame that b!tch, but I made you do the hard work.”

“It is my pleasure to do so.”

Princess Canary smiled faintly. The Prince thought he had married a truly chaste and respectful woman. No matter what he said, she apologized and reached out to him affectionately, and responded with the same smile as now. She never showed signs of being difficult. The Prince was delighted with Princess Canary in the same way as someone who thinks their pet bird is happy when it chirps high, or sad when it chirps low.

“I hate that b!tch. I want to kill her.”

What kind of crazy guy would run happily to see a woman who stabbed him in the leg? However, Princess Canary quietly listened to her husband’s chatter.

“I thought she would starve to death on the border or die by bandits, but she survived constantly and got saved by a stray who didn’t even know where it came from.”

“…”

“Crawling all the way to the capital without knowing any shame.”

No shameful person would come all the way back to find their father’s corpse. However, people who gossip about others do not properly examine whether their gossip is correct or not. Michael poured out curses on the woman who had previously been his wife for a long time.

Princess Canary listened to Michael’s abusive language without even stretching her knees. At the end of the gossip, he changed the subject as if he had remembered something.

“Oh, yes. Come to think of it, your face is so white today. What the ladies are doing seems to have worked.”

“Thanks to the grace you have given me…”

Princess Canary smiled a little brighter. A few days ago, the Prince personally called a famous hairdresser from the Imperial capital. He usually laughed at women’s efforts in dressing up, but not this time.

The Prince called his personal attendant without even looking at her face properly. What the attendant brought was a dazzlingly beautiful sapphire necklace and earrings. The set was so large and shiny that even the ladies-in-waiting who helped the Princess and tidied her dress admired it without even realizing it.

“Oh my, it is beautiful!”

“Oh, my God…”

The Prince was satisfied. He shrugged his shoulders as if the sapphire necklace was wrapped around his own neck, even though he wasn’t the one wearing it.

“My wife, you should wear something like this more often. Put it on and come to the audience this afternoon.”

“What? But at His Majesty’s reception…”

Princess of Canary was startled. In general, the Crown Princess should not attend the meeting between the lord and the Emperor. There was no specific reason for that.

Furthermore, Reinhardt Linke, who was meeting the Emperor today, was visiting to be recognised for her status as a great lord, both in name and reality. There were going to be many other negotiations going on, but that was primarily why there was no reason for Princess Canary to be there.

But Michael had other ideas.

“What’s wrong with me taking my wife to the audience?”

“Still, never before-”

“Dulcinea.”

Michael called her name with that sharp accent again. It was a voice full of annoyance. Princess Canary flinched.

“That girl originally had a low status rolling on the street. What is there to be afraid of when you are a beauty, a Princess from birth, and how splendidly you reign in a position where you could have resigned gracefully!”

“…”

“It’s a place where you can show the dignity of the Imperial family. A great lord? Hmm…”

Michael snorted.

“I have to kill her.”

What the hell did it have to do with wearing a sapphire necklace and the dignity of the Imperial family? Princess Canary wanted to ask that question, but she kept her mouth shut. It was because she instinctively realized that what the Prince meant was closer to the pride of the gold of the servants than to the dignity of the Imperial family.

[Ed./N: more so being more prideful of what he has, such as expensive jewelry and a new pretty wife, rather than caring about the dignity of the family]

Putting on the sapphire necklace and calling in a hairdresser was like polishing and polishing the gold. There were people in the world who believed that their value increased by wearing gold.

“…Yes.”

“The grey dress you wore last time will look good with this necklace. The necklace is beautiful and large, so wouldn’t it be nice to wear clothes in calm colours?”

“You look better in the sky blue dress, the one you wore at the Summer Palace? You look like a young girl….”

The ladies-in-waiting, who grasped the atmosphere, quickly made a fuss. They knew very well how to suit the whimsical Prince. Princess Canary was not good at flattering words, and the Crown Prince spoke softly of her and said he liked her, but deep down he wanted her to flatter him. So the ladies-in-waiting chirped louder to please Michael.

“Is there anyone else in the world who is this meticulous!”

“You must be happy to be loved so dearly!”

Princess Canary lowered her head and stared at her clasped hands. The tips of her manicured nails were poking into the back of her hand. Salt exchanged for turmoil in Sarawak relieved poverty in her country. The only thing her father had given his eighth daughter, who had become a hostage and had come a long way off, was at best a tasteless and odourless drug that could kill her like she was sleeping.

If she really wanted to run away, run away with death. There was a time when she wasn’t even allowed to run away.

Ten years later, when she became the Crown Princess, her father gave her a hundred rolls of silk as a gift, and the Crown Prince gave her a sapphire. With that, the princess could barely measure her own worth. However, she wasn’t sure if this uneasiness was satisfactory in exchange for the circumstances of her country, where she had to travel from the Imperial capital to the Crystal Gate for half a day, and then from there by boat for another four days.

“…Yes, I’m happy.”

So Princess Canary pushed her anxiety out of her mouth. The Crown Prince smiled satisfactorily at her.

“It’s nice to see you smile at me. I was upset because the Emperor took out his anger for a long time. I want you to continue to say that you are happy next to me.”

“I hope so, too, please.”

They were a beautiful pair.