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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: No More Divorce Talks
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“……”
Akid couldn’t find the words amid my fervent behavior. I had given him exactly what he’d longed for, yet his reaction was utterly sour.
I barely reined in my excitement and began persuading him.
“I admit I’ve put you in a tough spot several times before, Akid. But that won’t happen again.”
“How can I believe that?”
Akid asked, chewing on his lower lip. Distrust radiated from the depths of his heart.
“You’ve been staging protests every day, demanding a divorce.”
“Th-that’s…”
“I thought you needed time. But if you hate me enough to throw your life away, I have to let you go.”
Akid spoke with surprising resolve.
‘This won’t do.’
I sighed, rubbing my forehead as Akid kept digging himself deeper into a pit.
Roena’s suicide attempt must have been a massive shock. With no other choice, I spun a white lie.
“Truth is, I wasn’t trying to die that day. I just slipped.”
“But the maid clearly…”
“Hanna got it wrong. She always overreacts to everything. Even I jump sometimes.”
“……”
“Yes, I disliked you, Akid. But I didn’t hate my life. I’ve never wanted to die.”
“……”
“I was terrified that day… scared I’d actually die.”
As I cast my eyes down mournfully, Akid’s lips quivered.
The unexpected truth seemed to leave him speechless. I seized the opening.
“If you hadn’t saved me that day, Akid, I’d be dead. Now that I think about it, I never thanked you. Truly, thank you.”
I bowed deeply from the waist, and Akid flinched. He quickly pulled me upright.
“No need. Protecting my wife is my duty.”
“No, it’s not just duty. Not everyone moves that fast. It was deep water, and an awfully cold day.”
I met his gaze with a bright smile, and Akid’s expression turned dazed. At last, he asked,
“……Did that change your mind?”
I shrugged.
“To some extent.”
It was the perfect answer for now. Claiming I’d suddenly fallen for him would only heighten his suspicions.
With a skittish cat, you approach step by step. Once you offer the spot beside you, game over. Heh heh heh.
I edged closer cautiously and gripped his hand tight.
“So please, take back what you said about divorce.”
“……You’ll regret it. This is your last chance.”
Oh, music to my ears!
“I don’t need that kind of chance. Even if you beg for divorce, I won’t do it.”
Did he think I’d toss away the opportunity I’d clawed for so easily?
Possessing my favorite character’s wife isn’t a walk in the park, you know?
Just try bringing those damn papers back!
Akid stared at me intently for a long moment after my firm declaration. My abrupt change clearly baffled him.
A beat later.
“……All right.”
He murmured softly without shaking off my hand. He seemed willing to trust me, at least for the moment.
“Really?”
“Yes. So, this hand…”
“Yay!”
As he started to withdraw, I clung tighter and shook his hand gleefully.
My heart had sunk at the thought of being chased out of this house. The relief made me all the happier.
I’d resigned myself to death anyway, but wanted one last look at Akid’s face.
As I kept shaking his hand, Akid spoke up.
“What in the…”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
Akid trailed off with a deep sigh. I beamed regardless. We’d cleared the biggest hurdle, it seemed.
My possession of Roena Hadellus happened right around the one-year mark of her marriage into the family.
And it was after she’d thrown her usual tantrum about wanting to go home, only to plunge into the frozen castle lake.
The Hadellus Grand Duchy lay in the northern Empire, with cool weather year-round and bitter cold in winter.
So tumbling into a winter lake was basically screaming, “I’m gonna die!”
The lucky part? It was an artificial lake inside Hadellus Castle—not too deep.
Akid had rushed over at Hanna’s screams and pulled me out. Even though his wife usually scorned him, he’d protected her without hesitation.
‘He must see Roena as family.’
That was Akid. Duty-bound to the core, he tried to respect even a rotten wife. She was his family, after all—his spouse.
‘Maybe the real Roena died back then.’
Hanna said I’d lain unconscious for a full month, teetering on the brink. She’d been wailing that my breath had stopped when I suddenly awoke.
‘Strange. Roena wasn’t supposed to die yet…’
In Please Hold Me, the novel I’d read, Roena was fated to die of plague years later. Her time hadn’t come.
‘Or maybe the accident swapped our souls?’
That would explain it. Roena had been a daily tyrant.
The lake plunge was likely just to torment Akid. It must’ve coincided with my own mishap.
‘Possession’s already impossible, so why not?’
Akid had agonized every time Roena pulled her reckless stunts. He blamed himself for her waywardness.
And Roena reveled in his pain. She despised him utterly.
Raised as the spoiled youngest daughter of a marquis house, she refused to see Akid as anything but a bastard.
“Well, whatever. I’m Roena now.”
I splashed my feet in the tub, flashing a lazy smile.
Rose petals wafted a subtle fragrance, filling the bath with a soft aroma.
Honestly, I’d been thrilled upon realizing I’d possessed Roena Hadellus. Please Hold Me was my all-time favorite, and Akid my ultimate bias.
In my past life, I’d been an adoptee. My foster parents seemed wonderful. Or so I thought.
But when their biological daughter came along, I was no longer family.
Just a fellow diner.
Maybe that’s why Akid’s story had struck such a chord—the illegitimate son acknowledged at thirteen and brought into House Hadellus.
Constantly under threat from his birth father and stepmother, forever wary of those around him. It mirrored my own life.
‘Maybe God gave me this time to help Akid.’
I truly believed it. My body should’ve been dead. These extra years had to mean something.
Roena dies in seven years. Plenty of time to help Akid secure his place in the duchy.
I wouldn’t rampage like the original. Instead, I’d support him diligently until his parents acknowledged him.
No lingering regrets about life. I’d suffered plenty last time—this was just a divine bonus round.
‘Might as well enjoy ultimate fandom life, right?’
The issue? Akid and his parents thoroughly despised me…
“Hmm, who to win over first.”
My husband was a stubborn pack mule, shouldering everything alone out of sheer responsibility.
My father-in-law was a freewheeling playboy with terminal prince complex—a personality disaster No. 1.
My mother-in-law? Once dubbed “Heint’s Mad Dog”—a terrifying personality disaster No. 2.
‘Now, who’s easiest to conquer?’
None looked like a pushover. As I mulled it over and stepped from the tub to dry my hair, Head Maid Countess Aria arrived.
“Young Madam, the Grand Duchess requests you.”
Wow, why was Personality Disaster No. 2 summoning me?
I toweled my hair just enough and headed to Elena Hadellus’s bedroom in my nightgown.
Her sudden summons puzzled me.
I’d assumed she’d let it slide quietly, but apparently not.
The Grand Duchess had always shown zero interest in Akid, or me. It worried me a little.
‘Did she call about humiliating Lady Lorque? Does she think I botched things?’
In the original story, Elena wasn’t the type to unconditionally forgive her philandering husband.
She exploited it to screw him over or snag economic gains.
She probably knew the Grand Duke had submitted the child abuse and corporal punishment ban bill for review.
In the novel, after it passed, Elena had presented evidence of Baron Lorque’s abuses to pressure the Grand Duke. In exchange, she’d gotten one of the duchy’s mines.
It later turned into a goldmine—literally—thanks to a spirit’s blessing.
Land blessed by spirits becomes fertile.
This world bowed to supernatural forces.
Post-blessing, the mine’s magic stones yielded over five times the norm. Elena had pocketed a fortune.
Countess Aria announced my arrival at Elena’s bedroom door.
“Madam, the Young Madam is here.”
“Send her in.”
The door swung open at the Grand Duchess’s permission.
