CHAPTER 35……
My thoughts on Ludwig’s nonsense were simple.
‘Did he drink so much he actually turned into a dog?’
And then I immediately repented.
‘Ah, I must once again apologize in my heart to the puppies who make the world a better place with their cuteness.’
How could I compare a rotting pile of garbage—no, something closer to nuclear waste—to lovable, harmless balls of fur?
No matter how blinded by rage I was, I should not forget the basic decency required of a human being.
In the meantime, Ludwig staggered down the stairs in a zigzag.
By some miracle—and unfortunately for me—he did not tumble down or fall.
His face flushed with drink, he beamed brightly and stretched out his arms to hug me.
“Hillia! I knew you’d come back!”
Two people reacted to Ludwig’s attempt to embrace me.
First, me—by swiftly sidestepping out of the way.
Second, Arpad, who had just been facing off with me a moment ago.
He stepped in front of Ludwig faster than I could, hooking Ludwig’s leg in one smooth motion.
Thanks to that, Ludwig rolled across the floor like the perfect drunkard he was.
The bottle fell from his hand, and what little liquor was left in it spilled onto the floor.
The servants who had followed him down—or the grand duke’s servants who had ignored me earlier as though I were invisible—panicked and rushed to help him.
“Your Grace!”
“Oh dear! Please, sober up!”
“Right now, Lady Hillia is—!”
Apparently, they wanted to tattle to their master that I had somehow wronged him.
But Ludwig, flailing in the puddle of liquor he’d spilled himself, was in no state to hear them.
How much had he even drunk?
‘If only I had something to record video… I’d film this and spread it everywhere.’
Ah, now that I thought about it—while it couldn’t be made immediately, I did know of a mage who would one day develop a magic tool capable of recording sound and video.
I mustn’t forget to find him early and make him mine.
He would be very useful.
Even Evangeline didn’t know of him from the “original” story—she must have found him by chance in her own life.
‘Which makes it even easier for me to snatch him up first. She wouldn’t know about him right now.’
It was too risky to steal all of the talents Evangeline acquired through her foreknowledge—she’d probably notice something was off.
‘I can’t risk her figuring out I’ve regressed until I’m strong enough.’
But that was an issue for much later.
The most pressing matter right now was the banquet at Artanus Hall.
Before that, however, I needed to reclaim House Delphine—starting right now.
By then, the disgraceful Ludwig had finally managed to get up from the floor, leaning heavily on the grand duke’s servants as though they were canes.
And then he picked a fight with Arpad for tripping him earlier.
“You—you! Lowborn trash, how dare you trip me?! Treason! I’ll kill you!”
The way his tongue twisted around the words was quite the spectacle.
Even Evangeline would probably agree he was just picking a meaningless fight at this point.
I smiled sweetly at Ludwig.
“It’s not becoming of a noble prince to drunkenly harass an innocent commoner. If word gets out, the royal family’s dignity will be in the dirt.”
Ludwig stared at me, half dazed.
Then he mumbled something stupid.
“Hillia… were you always this… pretty?”
“Of course. You’re only realizing it now? Our dear—oh no, I mean, His Imperial Highness—has always been beautiful!”
Annie, who hated Ludwig more than a fruit fly in her drink, shot back with a voice as sharp as needles.
But Ludwig, not realizing she’d just insulted him, simply nodded blankly.
“Well… yeah, I guess you were. Always pretty. In fact, Hillia, you’re even more than Eva—”
Hearing his belated compliments and regrets only deepened my disgust.
“Enough nonsense. Time for you to leave.”
He seemed to understand that much.
“Leave? Where? This is my home.”
He actually looked a bit soberer now.
I spoke clearly, my expression cold.
“This is not your home—it’s mine. And you have no reason to be here anymore.”
He stared up at me, as if drenched by cold water.
“No reason? Why? I’m your husband.”
“I’m already married to His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince. That makes us not… no, actually, that makes me your sister-in-law.”
“…Sister-in-law?”
Ludwig’s face twisted in misery.
Then, in the next moment, he exploded and lunged at me.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You’re mine!!!”
It was Arpad who stopped Ludwig from rushing at me with that monstrous expression.
Earlier, he’d tripped him subtly. This time, he openly stepped in front of me—like an unshakable wall.
Ludwig thrashed, reaching out for me even though I was out of his grasp.
“Move!!! She’s my woman! Mine!”
Arpad valued his identity as the mercenary king Gerald quite a bit.
Except in rare circumstances, he avoided revealing himself as the Crown Prince when working as a mercenary.
If he acted like a prince all the time, there’d be no point in having the identity of “Gerald” in the first place.
But at this moment, he felt a real urge to throw away the mask and cut Ludwig down where he stood.
‘If I kill him, I could just claim it was a duel to defend my wife’s honor…’
An absurd thought.
One that the usual Arpad would never entertain.
Yet lately, he’d been feeling this kind of impulse more and more often—only when it involved one person.
And then, as if in answer to that, a voice as soft as the scent of sweet flowers called his false name.
“Gerald.”
Only then did Arpad realize he’d let his killing intent slip out.
That alone had nearly turned the surroundings into a disaster zone.
“Eek!”
“Please! Spare me!”
“Ahhh!!”
Some people foamed at the mouth and rolled their eyes back; others’ legs gave out entirely.
And Ludwig…
“Oh dear.”
Hillia wrinkled her delicate brow and turned her head away.
“The smell…”
Indeed—overwhelmed by Arpad’s uncontrolled killing intent, Ludwig had wet himself.
Gasps and murmurs of horror rippled through the hall.
“Good heavens!”
“What now?!”
“C-cover him, quickly!”
The reaction was the same from Delphine’s servants, Kielne’s servants, and mercenaries alike—it was too shocking an event.
The sharper grand duke’s servants quickly covered Ludwig’s lower half with their coats.
Hillia, however, didn’t care in the slightest.
She simply turned away and gave a cold order to the black-clad mercenaries.
“See that our guest gets safely on his way.”
No one misunderstood who “the guest” was—it meant to throw Ludwig out.
Unable to stand it, one of the grand duke’s servants shouted.
“This is too much! How could you do this?!”
Hillia slowly turned her head.
Her sharp violet gaze stabbed into the servant who’d dared to cry “too much.”
He trembled instinctively—and was startled by his own fear.
‘Why am I afraid of this woman? No matter what, I’m the grand duke’s close aide!’
Three years of looking down on Hillia and House Delphine had left him blind to basic propriety.
Still, he gathered his courage and yelled.
“You can’t just throw His Grace out like a thief when he’s so deeply wounded! He’s treated you so well all this time!”
His words were bizarre—making it sound as though Ludwig had done her a great kindness.
Hillia tilted her head, then approached the servant who’d just spouted such nonsense.
“What exactly have I done that’s ‘too much’?”
“Y-you’re coldly throwing out His Grace—!”
“I already became the Crown Prince’s wife before God and the court. Does anyone here not know that? So Ludwig and I are nothing to each other now. Tell me—wouldn’t it be rude and excessive for him to sit here like he owns the place?”
“T-that’s—!”
“My attendants sent to fetch my people were driven out of the house without even stepping inside because Ludwig ‘lost his temper.’ Tell me, is that not outrageous?”
The servant was at a loss for words.
Having spent so long siding with Ludwig and Evangeline’s lawless behavior in the Delphine estate, he’d lost all sense of normal conduct.
But hearing Hillia lay it out so plainly, he realized anew how far from normal things had gotten.
While he stammered without a real answer, Hillia asked in an icy voice:
“What’s the punishment for insulting a royal?”
“Those who insult a royal have the offending body part cut off,” Gerald (Arpad) replied immediately. In the early days of the kingdom, it had been a real law, though now it was practically obsolete.
Still, it was more than enough to terrify the servant.
Gerald added in a tone that barely hid his amusement:
“This man used his tongue to insult Her Highness the Consort. Naturally, the punishment should be to cut it out.”
“Eek!”
Gasps of fear spread through the room.
Cut it out Gerald