IHTMP 15

I’ll Change My Husband First with an Abduction Marriage – Chapter : 15

From Arpad’s perspective, it was only natural.

From the start, he was the only knight who stepped forward before the Crown Prince who had rampaged through the wedding procession.
‘Rather than being an overflowing-loyalty knight, it makes more sense that he’s love-blinded enough not to care about the crime of treason.’
And Hylia’s attitude of protecting that man so conspicuously was also irritating.
“Yes.

So the knight’s crime is naturally my crime, as his master.

Please hold me accountable for the sin.”
“No!

Drawing the sword was entirely my own will.

The young lady is not at fault!”
The sight of them protecting each other was enough to be moving.

And that quick-minded Hylia even wanted to save the man’s life at the cost of taking on another debt.

In truth, Arpad should have been pleased.

It was a weakness revealed by a woman whose depths he couldn’t read and whose limits of ability were impossible to measure.
‘I ought to be glad and think of how to use it…….’
And yet.

Arpad voiced the question that rose in him.
“Why is it that this is uncomfortable and irritating?”
But she wasn’t in any state to answer Arpad’s question.

Because she was asleep beside him, as if she’d fainted.

She must have been extremely exhausted.

He had deliberately pushed the pace without any consideration for a frail woman’s stamina.

Yet through all of it, Hylia hadn’t complained.
‘Ah, no.

At the end, near the castle, she did say she felt like she was going to throw up.’
She’d jumped down with a face gone white and nearly collapsed.

Arpad had the un-Arpad-like thought that her expression then was rather funny and cute.

But the smile that rose to his lips soon vanished.
‘One thing is certain: that is not the mental strength of a noble young lady raised in a greenhouse.’
A bride with not a single thing about her that wasn’t suspicious.

But this point was especially so.
‘And her background isn’t special at all.’
Though the time was short, Arpad had investigated Hylia Delphine in his own way.

The result was that there wasn’t a single piece of standout information.

There was no environment in which she could have built such great mental strength, and she’d never shown unbelievable ability before.

It was as if she had changed overnight.

Especially during the insane situation of the abduction-marriage commission, Arpad had put a blade to this woman’s neck.

And yet Hylia hadn’t twitched even an eyebrow.
‘Even a trained knight would find it difficult.’
In every way, she was a woman suspicious beyond measure.

He needed to be wary.

So if that knight truly was this woman’s weakness, Arpad ought to have been cheerful and satisfied.

Reason said so.

But Arpad’s emotions said something else.
“Still unpleasant.

The irritation hasn’t disappeared at all.”
Watching the morning sun rise, Arpad came to that conclusion.

Looking down at his wife sleeping deeply with small snoring sounds, he grumbled softly.
“Anyway, a bride worrying about another man’s safety on her first night in front of her groom.

Isn’t that too much, my lady?”
Of course, Hylia, asleep without a care in the world, couldn’t answer.

After watching for a moment, Arpad lay down close beside her.

To observe this incomprehensible, fascinating woman from even closer.
“Well, in any case, she’s in my hands, so I can keep watching.”
He was a man with strong patience.

Especially with things that were in his hands.
* * *
Ludwig couldn’t endure it and spat out a curse.
“Damn it!”
Today made it the fourth day.

Since the day, eyes wide open, he had his bride stolen on the wedding day.
‘The whole country—no, the whole continent—has made me a laughingstock!’
And yet the Emperor had said nothing in particular.

And the missing Crown Prince and bride hadn’t shown even a single strand of hair.

As the period of disappearance grew longer, Ludwig’s delusions only deepened.

What did Arpad do with the bride?

Why did he kidnap her?

Where did he go?

What in the world is he doing right now?

Worry and delusion trailed into more worry and delusion.

By the fourth day, it had swelled beyond what he could bear.

It felt as though Ludwig’s chest were burning away, unbearable.

He had taken her for granted as his own woman.

Yet once she was stolen, even a thought like this came to him.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve taken the first night long ago!’
Hylia’s soft pink hair and shining cheeks lingered vividly in his memory.

The gentle expression that always yielded to his stubbornness, too.

Why did each and every one of them feel so painfully missed—and so regrettably precious?

She had been a woman he mocked as naive and foolish, beyond taking her for granted.

He drank water, but the fire that blackened and burned his chest would not go out.

In the end, he shouted,
“Still no news of Hylia?!”
“I’m sorry.

We are searching in every way we can, but……!”
Ironically, the place Ludwig was standing was House Delphine’s ducal estate.

And the steward prostrated before him, looking as if he were overwhelmed by the honor, was also the Delphine steward.

Because the Delphine ducal estate was much larger and more luxurious than the Kierne grand ducal residence, it had already been close to three years since Ludwig began living here.

During that time, Ludwig had completely taken over the estate.
“What about the Imperial Palace?”
“…Still no contact at all.”
“Damn it!!”
Cursing again, Ludwig threw the glass in his hand.

Clang!

The crystal shattered to pieces, and, as if used to it, the ducal maids cleaned the room.

After raging alone, Ludwig headed for the prison beneath the estate.

To vent his anger on the knight locked up down there.

When the basement door opened, Ludwig poured his fury again onto the man collapsed in a mess inside.
“You!

You couldn’t properly protect the bride, and because of that I’m suffering this kind of humiliation!!”
Ludwig stomped brutally on Sir Beltein’s back.

Jolted awake from unconsciousness, Sir Beltein asked in a fading voice,
“Th-The young lady… is……?”
“How would I know?!

You offered her up to Arpad and—!!”
He kicked at Sir Beltein’s arms and legs.

After Hylia was kidnapped, the only one who first stepped forward before the furious Ludwig—and who even asked to be punished—was Sir Beltein.

The other knights were busy making excuses.

Ludwig’s own knights, and the Delphine ducal knights, too.
“We couldn’t do anything!”
“Isn’t His Highness the Crown Prince’s madness famous?!”
“We couldn’t draw a sword before His Highness Arpad!”
That didn’t mean those knights went unpunished.

Nor did it mean they escaped becoming targets for Ludwig’s venting.

But Ludwig’s fiercest anger went toward Sir Beltein, who called himself a sinner.
“A criminal who couldn’t protect his master has no words he can put in his mouth.”
His wounded body was thrown into the underground prison that very day, and he had to become Ludwig’s punching bag.

As a result, he had become this complete wreck.

Ludwig raged like a monkey that knew only those words.
“Die!

Die!

Die!!

I never liked you from the start!

Acting like some proper knight—how dare you!”
Unable to endure it, he had run outside, snatched the sword of another knight standing guard, and come charging back in.

A bright, ringing woman’s voice echoed through the basement.
“Ludwig!!”
Normally, Ludwig would have turned with a smiling face the moment he heard that voice.

But now he couldn’t.
“Go back.”
No matter how lovely his lover was, he had no mental room to spare for her right now.

And there was still resentment left from their fight over the wedding dress on the eve of the wedding.
‘And… even though I told her not to come to the wedding, she still showed up…….’
Wearing a bright cream-colored dress.

Indeed, perhaps the culprit who ruined the wedding dress was a hired hand acting on Evangeline’s orders.

They fought that day, but he ultimately let it pass as Evangeline doing it out of jealousy.

As she said, taking House Delphine was something Evangeline wanted as well.

But was it really so?

From the moment the wedding dress was ruined, it had been strange and ominous.

Perhaps the one behind ruining his wedding and turning him into a laughingstock was, in fact…….
“Ludwig.”
As if cutting off his delusions, Evangeline called him once more.

Still, the man did not turn.
“I said go!

I don’t have room to worry about you too right now!”
At last, behind Ludwig’s back as he vented his anger without holding back, came words he could not ignore.
“There’s news.

They say Brother Arpad is coming to the capital with that woman.”
“What?!”
Ludwig whipped his head around.

The man’s eyes shone dangerously.

Seeing that, Evangeline sighed and muttered only inwardly.
‘And to think this man is the male lead of the original story…….’
She nearly clicked her tongue without realizing it.

But she didn’t show those thoughts on the outside.

Pretending to be a tender, wise lover, she whispered to Ludwig,
“The information agents Mother planted brought it.

Which route they’re taking, how far they’ve come.”
“Good!

Hurry and give it to me!”
Ludwig snatched the note almost as if ripping it away.

At his violent reaction, Evangeline hid her displeasure skillfully behind her expression.

And she provoked him further.
“Mother has lent you part of her own knight order.

You should hurry and go get Hylia back.”
For her sake as well.

As she watched Ludwig, filled with fury, kick off the ground and rush out, Evangeline fell into thought for a moment with a cold expression.
‘But this didn’t happen in the original story.

Is this the butterfly effect from me twisting the original so much?’
Even so, it didn’t matter.

Because in the end, she would take everything.

She was no different from someone taking an exam with the answer key in hand.

There was no way she could lose.
* * *
From a fairly high hill, Arpad and I, both mounted on a horse, were looking out into the distance.
“You can already see the capital.”
The battlefield where the real fight would begin was waiting for us.