IHTMP 09

I’ll Change My Husband First with an Abduction Marriage – Chapter : 9

Ludwig’s knights, who belatedly came to their senses, cried out in shock.

All of their faces had turned ashen.
“What—what humiliation!”
“What will we do if His Grace the Grand Duke learns of this?!”
“Thinking of His Grace Ludwig, the Crown Prince’s cousin, how can you do such a thing?!”
In the midst of that, only one knight grew angry for the bride, Hylia.
“How can you inflict such an insult upon a precious lady?!”
Without hesitation, he drew his sword and stepped in front of Hylia, shielding her.

The most startled by Sir Beltein’s sudden charge was neither the surrounding knights nor the threatened Crown Prince.

It was Hylia herself.
‘No!

I have to be abducted in an abduction marriage today, Beltein!’
At this rate, Hylia’s life-staking gamble was about to be ruined by her loyal knight.
* * *
The moment Hylia confirmed that the Crown Prince had blocked the bridal procession, she rejoiced.
‘Yes!

I’m saved!’
And while cheering on the Crown Prince’s rampage, she got impatient and ran out herself.
‘This will make it easier to kidnap me, right?’
“At this rate, it seems we will be late for the ceremony.

Please move aside.”
Inside that request was this kind of urging:
‘Hurry!

Quickly!

Faster than the wind!

I’m already completely ready to be abducted!’
Only Arpad could fully understand that.

He let out a small laugh.
‘No matter how I look at her, she really is a mysterious woman.’
The most surprising part was that this feeling wasn’t all that unpleasant.

In truth, thinking back from the start, it was strange.
“Please abduct me!”
Wasn’t he the one who ended up sparing and sending back alive the woman who made such an outrageous threat?

In fact, the moment he let this woman live and sent her back, he might already have lost the tug-of-war.

It still didn’t make sense—this sensation of not being displeased even though he’d lost—but.
‘No matter what the reason, it seems worth keeping her close and observing her.’
In truth, even that felt like an excuse to accept the ridiculous threat, but.

There was no other way.
‘Shall I try it once?’
The moment that thought came to him, that was the end.

Because he was in quite a good mood, Arpad was rather merciful.

Which is to say, he did not kill in one stroke the knight who dared to draw a sword and block his path.
“Kuhk!”
The knight who had been cut deeply in the arm dropped his sword.

And Hylia screamed.
“Sir Beltein!!”
She was worried about that knight.

Truly.
‘What?’
The excitement that had been strangely surging cooled in an instant.

Arpad realized.

That he had suddenly become displeased at that woman’s expression alone.

Hylia stepped in front of the knight and appealed.
“Please show mercy.

Your Highness!”
The pitiful, modest bride act from just before was definitely acting.

But her concern for this knight was not acting.
‘It’s just sincere.’
Arpad was a little flustered.

His insides had twisted up.

Yet he still couldn’t understand why.

Chapter 2.

The Abduction Play
Arpad suddenly let his twisted mood show plainly in his tone.
“He seems to be a knight who serves you as his lady.”
“Yes.

So the knight’s crime is, naturally, the crime of me, his master.

Please hold me accountable for the sin.”
At Hylia’s affirmation, Arpad’s mood, already twisted more than a braided pastry, became even more complicatedly tangled.

Beltein, pressing his wound, tried to step in front of his mistress again and cried out resolutely.
“No!

Drawing the sword was entirely my own will.

The young lady is not at fault!”
Even before the Crown Prince’s blood-stinking wrath, Beltein still did not waver.
“And above all, it was Your Highness who first humiliated my mistress!”
A smile, incomparably gentle, hung on Arpad’s lips.

Anyone who had heard even a little about this Crown Prince would have known.

That when Arpad was smiling like this, rather than when he was angry… he was several times more dangerous.
* * *
‘Aagh!

Stop!

Stop!’
I knew very well that Sir Beltein was the very model of chivalry.

But I didn’t think he’d be uselessly righteous even before the mad Crown Prince.

Just as I was about to stop Sir Beltein’s sudden charge, the Crown Prince struck first.
“Can you keep what you just said, Lady Delphine?”
“Huh?

What did you mean?”
‘I said quite a lot just now, so I don’t know which thing you mean.’
One end of the Crown Prince’s pretty mouth curved sharply.

Somehow, I felt a little uneasy.
‘Don’t tell me, because I made him angry, he’s going to cancel the abduction marriage?’
Then I’m finished.

But Arpad’s words were unexpectedly about something else.
“That you’ll repay the knight’s sin directly, as his master.”
Ah, that?

But why?

He was smiling as if he’d seized my weakness.

A rush of bloodstink washed over me.

It couldn’t be an illusion.

Sir Beltein, and also that nameless attendant, had already seen blood.

But I didn’t back down even a little.

If you show your back to a beast, you get attacked instead.

It felt like that.
“Yes.

Taking responsibility for one’s knight is a master’s duty.”
Of course, I’m only saying this because it’s Sir Beltein.

He’s a truly rare person who never betrayed me even once in my past life.

And in the immediately previous life, because of me, he… even recalling it is horrifying.
‘This time, I will never let that happen.’
At my answer, an oddly clean, fresh smile rose on Arpad’s lips.

It was different from the dangerous, blood-soaked smile he’d worn until now.

Was it because he had the dazzling sunlight behind him?

He looked strangely like an innocent boy.

Because of that, perhaps.

For a moment, I lost myself at the smile that suited him far too little.

By the time I belatedly came to my senses—

The man’s face had come right up to mine.

One of his arms wrapped around my waist in a single motion and lifted me.
“Ah!”
My view shook so dizzyingly that sky and earth seemed to mix into gray.

And when I came to, I was already in Arpad’s arms, up on the horse.
‘Huh?

This is?’
The shocked gazes of the people turned toward us.

Arpad’s whisper tickled my ear.
“You clearly said it with your own mouth.

That you’d do anything.

This is a separate matter from your threat.”
A shudder ran down my back.

I turned my head slightly and met his eyes.

Then, lowering my voice, I asked,
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?

Did you forget my commission?”
“I told you, this and that are separate.”
“Considering what you did, Sir Beltein’s reaction was the normal one!”
Winning an argument against Arpad was impossible.

He was practically the embodiment of the phrase, ‘I can’t win because he doesn’t understand words,’ in human form.
‘If I’d known it’d be like this, should I have told Sir Beltein in advance not to step in?’
But considering Sir Beltein’s stubborn uprightness, he wouldn’t have condoned the abduction marriage with just a word from me.

And I absolutely couldn’t tell him about regression.
‘No matter how I think about it, there was no choice.

I have to protect Sir Beltein, too.’
Seeing my complicated expression, Arpad suddenly asked,
“Seems you really are worried about him.”
“…He’s my knight.”
‘You want to save him.’
As if he were reading my mind, he added,
“You seem to trust and cherish him quite a lot.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, looking at what just happened, it seems the only one you can call a knight is that one.”
“Ugh.”
Arpad blatantly poked at my sore spot.

Even though I had been in charge of the family for three years since Father passed away, I have only one person I can call my knight.
‘This is clearly my incompetence.’
I was too naive, too ignorant of the world.

I trusted Ludwig alone and left everything to him.
‘But that will never happen again!’
After pulling my thoughts back on track for a moment, I realized.
‘What is it, why does his expression look like that?’
Even though I’d readily told him one of my weaknesses, Arpad’s expression right now was subtle.
‘Somehow… he looks a little displeased?’
But why would he?

While I was flustered, Arpad’s strange expression soon vanished.

All that remained on his unbelievably handsome face was a nasty smile.
“Remember this.

With this, you owe me a debt.

As much as that knight’s life.”