The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 59

Chapter 59

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“I didn’t expect you to come back so early.”

“I skipped training today.”

“I haven’t prepared anything yet, what should I do?”

“There’s nothing for you to do in our meals, Inés, anyway.”

“At least I’ve been pretending like that so far….”

Pretending to have something to do… Cárcel nodded vaguely as if that were true, and entered the bedroom. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] But he added lightly,

“Yolanda is skilled, so we can just eat what she prepares.”

Then, while the butler briefly helped him take off his uniform jacket, Inés followed him into the dressing room, with a slightly serious expression.

There were no noblewomen who were still sane who personally took care of their husbands’ meals, but at least it was the hostess’s job to supervise the employees. That’s why, it was common for the hostess to interfere even with a few words about her husband’s food and dinner. Even if she didn’t care, pretending to care was the virtue of Ortega's wife.

That was how, by carrying out the trivial domestic affairs of the household and entertaining her husband, it was the outdated duty of a good wife… There’s no need to say how outdated that duty was. However, in Inés’s case, if her duty was to claim, “I prepared your meal,” just by lounging around lazily all day and answering a few questions from her servants around dinner time, then she was ready to accept it.

Even if it was easy and convenient, she didn’t want to do it for the rest of her life.

It was a belated thought, but Inés didn't want to be a negligent wife. To be more precise, she didn't want to be an insincere spouse, and even further, she didn't want to ‘look like’ that. As a step forward in not living as someone's wife or spouse for the rest of her life.

The lawyer said, the reality was that these trivial things piled up and eventually became evidence in court.

Even if Cárcel was unmoved, he could be a nuisance in the eyes of those around him. There were countless cases where things that people themselves didn't even remember came out in divorce court as testimony from those around them. Inés realized how many thoughts she had subtly put on the waves of Calstera, and she glanced at the butler over Cárcel's shoulder.

Unlike Arondra, who interpreted even Inés’s lounging on the sofa in the drawing room, basking in the sunlight, as ‘poor, precious lady taking a nap in a place like this…’, what did the butler, who walked with every step in the manners of Mendoza, think of his master’s wife?

She asked, trying to convey a sense of warmth,

“So, you don’t train every day?”

“I’m naturally lazy, so I can’t do that.”

It was a surprisingly honest answer, devoid of any humility. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] It was not something someone would say after skipping a single day of voluntary training, training that was optional and not enforced by anyone.

Especially in front of Inés, who had been eating and sleeping all day ever since she had come to Calstera, by chance.

“You are, a bit lazy.”

But Inés had a thick skin.

“You know, skipping one day easily turns into two, and then three.”

“You’re saying the same thing my grandfather used to say.”

“To think that a random remark from someone who doesn’t know anything would echo the words of Admiral Calderón… I’m honored….”

“Come to think of it, your personalities are similar.”

“Don’t insult your late grandfather because of that.”

“It’s not necessary for someone to have a good personality.”

He didn't deny that Inés's personality was not very good in a similar vein to his grandfather's, he simply said so. Inés shrugged her shoulders as if it weren't much of an insult.

“Anyway, if you were lazy, the world would be full of starving people, Cárcel.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“It’s true that you’re amazing.”

It was a generous evaluation, rare for anything other than appearance. A type of praise was never heard in Mendoza, in Valeztena’s Pérez Castle, or in Escalante’s Esposa Castle.

Her rare praise made Cárcel chuckle lowly as he turned around and handed his shirt to the butler.

His back, as if to overpower anyone looking at him from behind, contorted into a perfect form as his shoulder muscles moved, then returned to its original sculpted shape.

A random memory came to mind, of someone drooling over the beautiful shape of his shoulder blades and spine. They said that the essence of Cárcel Escalante wasn’t his divinely sculpted face, but his sculpted back and chest.

Then, starting with “his thick waist”, she stopped listening. That usually meant they were going to talk about his ass and lower abdomen next.

It was a long time ago, when she didn’t care, but his praises from head to toe were so numerous that she was tired of hearing his name. It must have been one of the noblewomen from Mendoza, who had been her friend in a previous life.

As for the noblewomen who had rolled around with Cárcel in that life, there were countless—and since she had so many ‘friends’ who were overly social, it was hard to pinpoint them, but she vaguely remembers lying in a salon, listening to the stories of those loose friends, as if it were a good memory from a long time ago.

‘…Those nights were the only satisfaction I had.’

If it were now, it would be an utterly exhausting thing to do. The time she spent dressing in the most beautiful way, surrounded by people. The time she spent manipulating the nobles like a control freak. And behind it all, the endless days of forced smiling, enduring the insults of the royal family….

All those times have disappeared, leaving only the characters in the story. Cárcel’s story was noisier and more primal than her own, but… in any case, the people who had gossiped about her, the people who had gossiped about him, none of them were here in Calstera. Only they remained.

How powerful a six-year-old’s finger-pointing can be. With that one childish point of her finger, her life and his life changed into completely different shapes.

Inés stared at him, suddenly feeling a strange sense of wonder.

He was leisurely putting on a new indoor shirt and turned half-way around, neatly taking off his boots. Like any other nobleman, he had a butler attending to him, but he seemed to be able to do without it.

The man who in Mendoza wouldn’t have even buttoned his cufflinks himself, now stood alone, changing clothes with only a ceremonial butler standing by. Giving his employee the bare minimum of work to do. He was so used to doing things alone that the butler merely placed the new shoes in front of him, then received his boots into a tray.

‘I wonder if he lived so ungentlemanly in Mendoza too?’

In a society where even tying a shoelace was considered beneath a nobleman, it was quite refreshing to see him acting so ungentlemanly, especially with his face that was more aristocratic than anyone else's. Of course, he probably had to learn everything from scratch at the military academy….

“Do you need any help?”

“...You were going to help?”

“If there was anything to help with.”

He seemed to think there wasn't, though... She added that to her remark, as if with a look.

He was undoing his leather belt, and he looked back at her, his brows furrowed slightly as if he had misheard something. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Then, his lips slowly curved upwards.

“So, are you going to take my pants off for me?”

Of course, that was out of the question. As she had casually added a word or two to their dinner conversation, saying, ‘I’ve prepared it,’ she had planned to help him change clothes. In other words, she was going to stand by and watch.

She hadn’t even greeted him when he arrived, and she hadn’t prepared dinner, so she was trying to make up for it by watching him do this... Before Inés could answer, surprised by Cárcel’s unexpected reaction, the belt passed from his hand to the butler’s.

“If you touch me, it won’t just end with me taking off my pants.”

“......”

Cárcel loosened the top of his pants and said casually. His tone didn't seem to have much emotion, but it was definitely meaningful. Inés unconsciously looked at the butler first, then felt a blush a few seconds later when the butler discreetly avoided her gaze.

“It will take a while to change, so I’ll decline your help.”

Cárcel soon removed his crisply tailored uniform pants and put on beige pants woven from a light fabric from the southwest region. While he was undressing, she briefly returned her polite gaze to him.

He had loosened his collar by undoing a couple of buttons, giving him a more relaxed appearance than before. The shirt and pants, both perfectly fitting his muscular frame, didn’t give off a loose impression. But when he fastened his light-colored leather suspenders over his shirt, he seemed to be comfortable, at least for himself.

“…You really are staying until the end, aren’t you?”

He sent the butler out of the dressing room first with a small smile.

“Inés, are you trying to make up for dinner?”

“Am I that predictable?”

“It’s because you’re not predictable that you’re easier to guess. We’ve known each other for seventeen years.”

He’s not only overly diligent, but he’s now pretending to be able to see into her mind. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Maybe that's because her head has been empty lately.

It was definitely time for her to wake up. Inés nodded silently.

“I thought so.”

“It’s because I couldn’t prepare a meal in advance.”

“When you weren’t here, I just ate whatever Yolanda cooked. Unless you really want to get involved, there’s no need to go out of your way.”

“That’s such an easy duty… I don’t want to miss it.”

Cárcel looked slightly confused at Inés's response, then nodded as if to say, 'How could I understand you?' and opened the door to the dressing room.