QBSLB 15

Chapter 15. A Woman Who Can Be Treated That Way — A Wife

So that was all that made her feel a little upset. If she were made truly upset, would she go so far as to crack her daughter-in-law’s skull?

I had been letting out small, incredulous chuckles for a while now, offering no response at all.

Seeing this, Deuphel—who had been strutting about confidently with an air of bravado—began to sneak glances at me, gauging my reaction.

Unable to endure my silence any longer, he finally snapped and shouted in irritation.

“Your husband gives you a present for the first time, and that’s your reaction?!”

“……”

Even then, I patiently remained silent.

If I were to question him first about what happened in town, he would obviously play dumb.

People, after all, tend to instinctively get offended and make excuses when their own wrongdoing is pointed out—even when they know they’re in the wrong.

Jerks are especially bad about that.

That was a lesson I’d learned over ten years of working at a café.

When I continued to keep quiet with a blank expression, he finally spoke again, as if reluctantly.

“Geez. Fine, fine. You’re upset because of what happened at the jewelry shop, right?”

So now he was finally admitting his fault.

He must have thought that if he feigned ignorance like usual, good old Aileen would let it slide.

But I have no intention of being that generous.

Deuphel spoke to me in a coaxing tone.

“I get why you’re angry. But—”

“Angry?”

I finally opened my mouth.

In an icy, utterly emotionless voice, I sneered at him.

“Why would I be?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

Facing his bewildered expression, I continued calmly and deliberately.

“Anger only exists when there’s affection between two people. In our ten years of marriage, have we ever once shared any real marital affection?”

For a moment, he looked confused.

Then Deuphel let out a small chuckle, as if he finally understood.

“Right, right. So you’re acting cold and out of character just to get my attention.”

…What?

Where on earth did that creative interpretation come from?

Even I was momentarily left speechless by how ridiculous it was.

He truly was a man who knew only himself.

Someone who believed the entire universe revolved around him, twisting every situation to suit his convenience.

Looking at me in my stunned silence, he continued speaking in the tone of a gentle husband humoring a childish wife.

“Aileen, it’s because you’ve never really been out in society. A devoted wife should be able to understand a husband’s harmless little flings.”

“……”

“Even if a man wavers now and then, they say the place he always comes back to is his wife’s side.”

Deuphel stepped closer, wrapped his arms around me, and whispered tenderly into my ear.

“They say a diamond symbolizes ‘unchanging love.’”

What nonsense, you absolute bastard.

Unchanging love, my ass.

Thud!

I shoved him away with all my strength.

“Aileen…?”

I glared coldly at his flustered face and spat out my words.

“Oh, so that’s why you bought such a pathetic, mouse-dropping-sized diamond? Because that’s the size of your heart?”

Deuphel’s face instantly flushed bright red.

“M–mouse droppings…? You—how dare you…!”

His face turned red and blue as his wounded pride flared.

Honestly, if you couldn’t keep up the act for long, why bother pretending to be a considerate husband at all?

“You really are a block of wood for a woman!”

He began yelling at me at the top of his lungs as I stood there, utterly indifferent.

“No wonder I never feel like buying you anything!”

“Oh my, that’s something you say after you’ve actually given a gift.”

I shot back instantly, without batting an eye.

“You’ve never given me a single present in ten years, and now you’re saying my reaction is the problem? What kind of nonsense is that?”

I spoke in a tone that was pitifully baffled, as if I truly couldn’t understand his logic.

“You—ugh… damn it…!”

Faced with my perfectly logical words, Deuphel couldn’t muster a rebuttal and just stood there, opening and closing his mouth like an idiot.

“…Damn it! What a boring woman! Fine, do whatever you want with it—throw it away or keep it!”

He shouted those predictable words and stormed out of the room.

Bang!

Wow, at that rate you’ll break the door.

Left alone, I clicked my tongue, utterly unfazed by his tantrum.

Then I grinned and lifted the necklace.

…What a steal.

Whether that jerk Deuphel was cheating outside or not had nothing to do with me.

At a time when every coin mattered, getting a necklace was a net gain for me.

I wonder how much this would fetch if I sold it.

It was ridiculously small, but a diamond was still a diamond—surely it would be worth something.

I quickly erased Deuphel from my mind, smiling cheerfully as I tucked the necklace away.

Deuphel stormed into his large, lavish bedroom and slammed the door shut.

“After I went as far as buying her a present! And that was her reaction?!”

He muttered angrily, grinding his teeth.

“What’s gotten into her all of a sudden? Aileen of all people!”

Normally, she’d been pleased with even the smallest kindness from him.

On days when even he felt his mother, Sophia, had gone a bit too far, he would go to Aileen’s room and offer her a few gentle words.

It was never anything grand.

Just things like, ‘You’ve worked hard,’ or maybe a light pat on the shoulder.

Yet even that much made Aileen deeply moved, as though he had given her some magnificent gift.

“Thank you, dear. I… I’ll try harder again….”

Born selfish, Deuphel would watch her like that and think:

This woman is so easy.

Manon, on the other hand, was completely different from Aileen.

If he gave her a cheap gift, she would openly sulk; if he gave her an expensive one, she’d beam with delight.

She would act cute, and at night, she’d devote herself to him even more attentively.

Compared to Manon, who held him in the palm of her hand, Aileen was dull.

Her face is decent enough, but…

Always obedient. Always meek.

She held no appeal whatsoever for someone like him, who craved stimulation.

“And besides, Aileen is more a wife than a woman now, wouldn’t you say…?”

In Deuphel’s mind, a woman and a wife were entirely different beings.

A woman was someone gentle and pliant, whose role was to please a man.

A wife, on the other hand, was—

A woman who would be happy even with cheap things.

A woman who would endure being treated poorly.

A woman who would take care of his parents in his place.

A woman who could be treated that way.

That was what a wife was.

That was why he thought she’d be happy with such a small necklace this time, too.

That she would forget how disappointed his mother and he had made her, and return to being the good wife and daughter-in-law she always was.

So why was Aileen suddenly acting like this?

After a brief moment of thought, Deuphel quickly reached a conclusion.

Obviously, she was just trying to get his attention. Still, no matter what, looking down on her husband like that was unacceptable.

Deuphel’s sky-high confidence but low self-esteem quickly turned his thoughts into resentment-fueled anger.

“So now even my wife is looking down on me because I’m just some nouveau-riche viscount…?”

Just you wait.

One day, he would become one of the true powers of this empire.

Sure, every business he touched was failing right now—but those were just practice runs.

A man should aim for one big score in life.

The answer is the Second Prince.

The current emperor had two princes and one princess.

The eldest, the Crown Prince, was born of the late empress. After her death, the current empress took her place, and her children were the Second Prince and the youngest princess.

At present, everyone agreed that the Crown Prince would be the next emperor.

Not only was his lineage impeccable as the son of the former empress, but he himself was said to possess flawless character and ability.

The Second Prince, on the other hand, was lower in the order of succession and born to the current empress, who hailed from the foreign Principality of Venetia.

As a result, despite the current empress’s fierce political maneuvering, most nobles sided with the Crown Prince.

One such faction was the Rodric Grand Ducal House, the most influential family in the empire.

Trying to flatter the Crown Prince among people like them would only drain my wealth without earning me any notice.

So he would support the current empress and the Second Prince instead.

The odds were slim, but if the Second Prince overcame that narrow path and became emperor, the world would belong to them.

The world, after all, belonged to those bold enough to gamble with the heart of a beast.

At least, that’s what the political book he’d read said.

He didn’t fully understand it, but it sounded impressive enough to remember.

Just you wait. Even that high-and-mighty Rodric family will end up groveling at my feet.

With that vow, he finally managed to push thoughts of Aileen out of his mind—

Without realizing that this was the first time since their wedding that he had spent so long thinking about her.