If You Wish For A Married Couple’s Duties - Episode 110

“As expected, the Duchess is really quick-witted.”

The princess’s gaze soon turned towards the duke.

“This is a true chance to break down the fourth prince’s influence. So you can’t let it slip.”

“I understand.”

Julia shrugged at the Duke’s answer.

“In any case, I’ve told His Majesty about your trip to Bashal. But you’ll have to come back as soon as possible. It seems like he’s really furious, perhaps out of shock that his daughter would be attacked right in the middle of the imperial castle.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Leonhart brought his right arm before his chest and bowed.

“I will definitely locate the influence that tried to harm Your Highness.”

“Yes, I’ll entrust it to you.”

Julia smiled secretively at the two people that stood before her.

“Our meal together will have to wait till you’ve returned. I’ll receive both of you properly then.”

“Then I’ll see you again, Your Highness.”

After greeting her politely, the ducal couple walked out of the palace side by side.

Julia observed their disappearing silhouettes, stretched and stood up.

“Well then, it’s been a while, so I should also go out for a drink.”

As she left through the back door, documents scattered haphazardly on her desk could be seen behind her.

The words ‘List of Graduates of the Krone Academy of Magic’ were written on the front page in large letters.

* * *

“Apparently, the Duke has returned, Sir Nate.”

“Is that so?”

Nate, the head of the Esbaden family’s senior council and the duke’s uncle, didn’t seem interested by the news of his nephew’s return.

He just sat in an office chair on the top floor of the Kreuz and looked out the window.

“And this is a letter from that person.”

The servant held out an envelope with a luxurious seal from the desk.

It clearly bore the seal of the Imperial family of the Krone Empire.

Nate turned his head and immediately opened the envelope roughly.

“…Haha.”

When Nate suddenly burst into laughter, the attendant seemed to scan his expression anxiously.

It was because his master always had a habit of laughing louder when he was in a bad mood.

‘This fool, doing something that he wasn’t told to do and ending up in failure once again.’

Nate couldn’t help but grit his teeth.

As expected, no matter how impatient he was, he shouldn’t have reached out to a slow-witted person like the fourth prince first.

No matter how he looked at it, even if the fourth prince was reincarnated a hundred times, it wouldn’t be enough for him to become the emperor.

‘How many times does this make?’

Up till now, he’d put so much effort into getting rid of the nephew that doesn’t know his place and that annoying Bashalian lass.

But every attempt he’d made ended in failure.

He tried putting monsters into the lake, he tried framing them with prohibited drugs, and also tried luring them to Tochern Castle intentionally to end their lives there and then.

For some reason, the duke, no, the ducal couple held onto life tenaciously like a leech and came back alive each time.

‘I’d told him to stay quiet for a while because a long tail will get stepped on.’

Despite Nate’s request, Justin couldn’t stop himself from getting into trouble.

He tried to kill the princess by deluding the Duchess’s biological older brother.

In the first place, he’d joined hands with Nate in order to steal the Duchess away.

Nate recalled the conversation he’d had with the prince at that time.

“Use the Bashalians? Their princess came over for the sake of the alliance, so would they really accept this offer?”

“Don’t worry. This time, I’ve also reached an agreement with the Duchess’ older brother, who has become the chieftain of the wind tribe.”

“…The Duchess’s biological older brother accepted the offer?”

“Yes, the Duchess is rather similar to me. How can there be such a lack of siblinghood? I can’t believe that he, who’s her biological older brother, is actually thinking of selling off her sister in exchange for maintaining the terms of the alliance and a few boxes of gold coins.” 

Justin talked triumphantly, like the battle had already been won.

“My sister will be killed by a stray arrow at the hunting ground. And the ones who’d killed her were the warriors that followed the tribe of the wind’s chieftain. And the one assisting them in their atrocities would be none other than the Duke of Esbaden, who was plotting treason.” 

The elaborate script was quite touching, even.

In order to become emperor, the Duke of Esbaden used his wife as a hostage and drew his in-laws onto his side, while the prince forgives the poor Bashalians that were only used after executing the duke for treason.

Of course, the price for the prince’s forgiveness was the condition of taking the duchess as his wife.

“If they succeed in killing my sister, I’ll take the throne and the Duchess for free, while Sir Nate can deal with the Duke of Esbaden with the crime of having a wife that conspired to treason, so isn’t this a win-win situation?”

“However, the crime of murdering a member of the imperial family is a heavy offence that cannot be washed away, unlike other crimes. If it was discovered, the family’s three generations would be destroyed all the same…”

“I’m also a member of the imperial family!”

Justin slammed the desk and looked around with madness-tinged eyes.

“As the legitimate son, I’m more suitable to be the emperor than that unlucky sister of mine! Why are you wagging your tongue so much when I’d just made a move to gain my position!” 

The prince pointed a finger at the face of Nate, who was much older than him, and shouted threateningly.

“You’re the one who reached out to me first, Sir Nate! I’m the one that helped you with your plan! But have any of your plans ever worked? Do you know how much money I’d lost because of you this time?” 

“…My apologies, Your Highness.”

“D*mn it! Since Sister is also bent on killing me anyways, what’s there to hesitate over? After all, the first to kill the other is the victor. So just open your eyes wide and watch as I make it happen.”

He said to watch as he made it happen, but it ended up as a huge mess.

He didn’t even attend the hunting contest because he was afraid that others would become suspicious of him if he stayed beside the prince.

It was a relief that the emperor failed to discover that the hitmen were Bashalians.

‘Besides, this is no different from that d*mned Bashalian lass messing things up.’

Saving the duke wasn’t enough, she’d even saved the princess. He didn’t know about others, but he had to acknowledge her talent.

Nate wanted to use magic to get rid of her, but now he couldn’t even touch her thoughtlessly because she’d become a sacrificial lamb that’ll be offered to the fourth prince.

‘It’s already too late to regret it anyway. Now that things have come to this, the fourth prince must be made the emperor at all costs.’

Nate rubbed his temples as he recalled the fourth prince, who didn’t have any patience.

‘Come to think of it, everyone is anxious to have her.’

The Duke, the Prince, and……

‘Who the hell is that barbarian lass?’

Nate thought of someone with a look of disapproval.

‘…That good-for-nothing fellow.’

His only son, who had a strange interest in the Duchess.

Nate was already aware of Daniel’s feelings toward the Duchess a long time ago.

He thought that it was just because he found the barbarian lass interesting and hung around her, so he’d just turned a blind eye to it, but that wasn’t the case.

He’d been so enraged when he found out belatedly that Daniel had secretly brought the duchess to Tochern Castle, and had almost died from overuse of magic because of that girl.

‘That hopeless fellow, if he wanted her that much, he should’ve just taken over the duke’s position immediately.’

If he’d done so before the prince coveted her, it wouldn’t have been too late.

‘Don’t look at her when you don’t even have the courage to take her for yourself. Who the hell do you take after to be so soft-hearted?’

He clicked his tongue at the thought of his son’s pathetic face.

Daniel suddenly began speaking lesser ever since the carnival ended.

The guy that would’ve retorted with ten when he said a sentence didn’t even respond to his father’s nagging.

Plus, what was he even doing, staying in his room day in and out?

Nate was frustrated because he didn’t want to leave his room if he wasn’t called out.

‘I’d rather he just continue playing with any other girl.’

Nate threw the letter he’d finished reading into the fireplace irritably.

He watched the letter burn to crisp before turning around.

“Prepare my outerwear. I heard that my lofty nephew had returned after a month, so I should say hello to him.”

“Even if you go now, I’m afraid that it’ll be for naught.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard that the two are going to leave the castle right away.”

“What? Where?”

“I heard that they’re going to visit the duchess’s family.”

Nate’s forehead wrinkles deepened at his attendant’s response.

‘They’re suddenly going to Bashal? Don’t tell me…’

Nate’s eyes darted around busily like he was reckoning something.

He finally came to a conclusion, and abruptly picked up his pen to scrawl letters on a sheet of paper quickly.

“Send this letter to Bashal and the other to the palace. Right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, use the fastest messenger bird.”

His brows, which were wrinkled with years of experience, lowered deeply.

“It mustn’t arrive late. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir Nate.”

Nate balled his fist as he watched the attendant carrying the letter out.

‘This time, I can clean up that b*tch and b*stard at once. If things go well, even those annoying Bashalians as well.’

The eyes of the old aristocrat glinted with the colours of an ugly conspiracy.

* * *

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s too much.”

Dooha’s gaze turned outside the carriage window.

Behind the carriage was an endless procession of carts.

The carts were full of large boxes containing all kinds of gold, silver and treasures, various specialties from the empire, and even the precious animal pelts.

“What do you mean, too much? It’s his first time going to his in-law’s house. What’s the use of an aristocratic man like a duke if he’s incapable of this much?”