If I Can’t Be Your Wife

br>The gloves fell into a puddle of rainwater, splattering ugly stains on the ladies’ dresses.

 

Alexis glanced at the trembling ladies up and down.
He wanted to cut off their heads, but because it was a banquet in the Imperial Palace, he had to come disarmed.

 

He rang the bell hanging on the central wall of the corridor and called an attendant.

 

“Your Grace, the Duke of Walten.
You called?”

 

After a while, the attendant appeared and saw the Duke of Walten facing the two anxious ladies, but he quietly lowered his head.

 

“Inform the members of the Imperial Court Council.
Two families who would organize the advance squad for the southern expedition have been chosen.”

 

At his words, the ladies’ faces froze in shock.
While they did not know politics well, they immediately understood what he meant.

 

It wasn’t that long ago when the southern immigrants, fighting in a savage and ferocious way, declared war on the capital.
Trivellian had not yet decided on a full-scale conquest, and nearby lords were blocking them with private soldiers.
In such a situation, it was suicide to be part of an advance squad to suppress them.

 

If it were someone else’s words, it would be taken simply as an opinion, but the opinion of the Duke of Walten, who was unofficially regarded as the Commander of the Southern campaign, was a different matter.
Moreover, since he was a member of the Imperial Family, the Cavir and Devion houses would not be able to protest.

 

Alexis picked up the broken fan and dirtied gloves and handed them to the attendant.

 

“Marquis Cavir and Count Devion volunteered.”

 

No one would be able to reverse Duke Walten’s words since there are even objects with the families’ crests engraved on them.
The ladies cried and knelt down.

 

“Your Grace, Your Grace! Please, please take your words back.
I made a mistake!”

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“I was jealous of the duchess and spread rumors.
Never again, never again! So please, please, not the campaign…”

 

He glared at the hesitant servant with an unchanging face.

 

“What are you still doing here?”

“Oh, yes!”

 

The servant quickly ran into the banquet hall and disappeared.
Alexis bent one knee and looked down at the weeping ladies.

 

“Are you already crying just because your families are going to war? We haven’t even started organizing the supply lines for military supplies yet.”

 

The weeping of the ladies ceased.

 

“If your husbands are killed by a sword on the battlefield and your sons starve to death, they’ll be able to meet in another world soon.
Don’t you think so?”

[T/N: He’s saying that the military supplies will be coming from their families too so they’d be bled dry hence starve.]

 

They began to gasp as if they could not breathe when he said that their husbands lives will be taken as well as all of their family’s properties.

 

“Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be bad to show my generosity since I have become a father myself.”

 

Alexis said, wiping the dust off the tip of his sleeve.

 

“If the social world becomes different from what it is now, I would be inclined to spare your sons.”

“I, I will do it!”

 

Marchioness Cavir and Countess Devion rose to their feet.

 

“I will make all the rumors about the successor of Walten disappear!”

“No one will ever be disrespectful to the duchess!”

 

If a beast that rolls in the mud was useful, he was willing to pour a cup of stinking water.
Alexis nodded as if he had released a hound in the field.

 

“Do it.”

 

The ladies ran frantically, fixing their tangled hair.
Alexis took his steps again and in a calm mood.

 

‘There wasn’t even one.’

 

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Given her money and status, he thought she could go anywhere and do anything, but even with those rights she was powerless.

 

At Trivellian, Kathleen was always an uninvited guest.

 

‘That’s why she gave her heart to that b*stard.’

 

He suddenly thought of that.
A woman that was in his hands but he never looked at.
A woman who got rid of her heart that embraced him and saw someone else.

 

Although he had already disappeared and his whereabouts were unknown [Joseph], he [Alexis] was overcome with the desire to get rid of him.
He would rather put him in an advance squad and send him to the South.
If only he could get the heartbroken Kathleen back after making him disappear from this world…….

 

He stopped walking because his thoughts had been going to the extremes.

 

Then the voice of an agitated middle-aged man resounded along with the sound of flowing water.

 

“Y-You! Duchess, duchess, you really are so precious!”

 

He unknowingly turned to his side.
In front of the fountain, Kathleen trembled as her arm was grabbed.
The man with his back facing him raised one hand high and was about to slap her on the cheek, his head turned blank.

 

Alexis ran right away and took the man’s arm off her and threw him into the fountain.

 

“Aack!”

 

He smashed his forehead against a piece of marble as he tried to rebel then rolled over and fell into the water.

 

Light blue eyes that grew startled and captured him.
Alexis felt a strange sense of satisfaction the moment those eyes that looked at him contained only him, then anxiety surged again in her trembling silver eyelashes.

 

“Are you hurt?”

 

He couldn’t wait for an answer to come, so he raised her small body and looked around.

 

He thought this woman was a solid shield, but he felt like his head was going to explode every time he thought that her bare body was being dragged to and fro the battlefield.

 

‘What should I do with you?’

 

I wish I could have you by chewing and swallowing you.
I wish I could hold you in my hand and never let go.
Then I would be able to wrap myself around you and give you comfort.

 

Three years ago, when I abandoned that opportunity, I was a pathetic piece of trash.

 

Alexis Walten had no way to calm his burning insides.