The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 74

Chapter 74

While Ines led Jose around the residence, showing him the sights, Cárcel remained on the first-floor terrace, smoking a cigar. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] The lights illuminating various parts of the garden intersected with the light inside the terrace, dimly illuminating him.

The acrid scent of the smoke, spreading hazily in the dim light, lingered and then disappeared.

As a soldier, Cárcel enjoyed the repetition of his daily routine. Smoking a cigar with a drink while looking at the night sea from the terrace wasn’t anything special, but it was a regular routine for him to relieve his fatigue. It wasn’t something he would sacrifice even for a guest who didn't feel like a guest.

If even a small detail went awry, it felt like his entire day would be thrown off. That’s why he both liked and disliked his vacations in Mendoza, because each day there was something he couldn’t control on his own.

There was the Empress, along with the Escalante family, and the Crown Prince, whom Duke Escalante revered and served like a religion….

‘…And there was Ines Valeztena.’

Cárcel’s aunt—Empress Cayetana—had considered the gloomy eldest daughter of Valeztena a thorn in her side when young Oscar had followed Ines around, but she had a different perspective after Ines became her nephew’s fiancée.

Ines, who had been too bothersome for her own son to swallow and too precious to give away, had become her nephew’s fiancée and hadn’t become hers.

Then, she was left with only usefulness, without any inconvenience.

Since her precious son—no, her troublesome nephew, who always made her son look bad—would be the one to deal with the petty struggles of dealing with a haughty woman, Cayetana was rather satisfied and showed off Ines.

To be precise, she showed off 'the daughter of Valeztena who was by the side of the Escalante heir.'

His aunt, Cayetana, was the embodiment of ambition in human form. The greatest lump of ambition that Escalante had produced… Even his father, who harbored many grand schemes, could only barely keep up with his sister. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] In terms of being manipulated, his being manipulated by Ines was nothing compared to that.

Cayetana had been worried that the señorita, who was born with a distinguished background like herself, would suddenly shine somewhere else—so even though she had been so displeased with Oscar and Ines’s engagement, she would never have allowed Ines to become a member of another family.

Even if it meant making ‘that unpleasant crow’ Oscar’s wife….

So, how could she not? As soon as Cárcel arrived in Mendoza on vacation, the Empress sent him a list of official events to attend with his fiancée.

The Empress’s invitations, which Ines, who usually rejected most invitations, couldn’t refuse, were just a basic formality to Cárcel.

Even for most of the events Ines refused, he had to attend to show her absence, and most of his precious vacation was spent beside that empty space. And if Ines happened to change her mind and attend, he would escort her like a coat rack, offering his arm beside the bland fiancée….

According to Cayetana, that was the 'solidarity between Escalante and Valeztena,' the 'Duke Valeztena's support for the Crown Prince,' a 'warning to Duke Osorno and Duke Ijar,' a 'display of the greatest marriage alliance in Grandes de Ortega,' and a 'device to let Duke Valeztena know that this is a point of no return'…… and so on.

He thought she was going crazy, coming up with all sorts of meanings, but perhaps Cayetana knew that Duke Valeztena would try to take his daughter back whenever he got the chance.

So, she must have been desperate to carve Escalante onto Ines’s forehead somehow.

Ines’s reserved, almost suffocating, impression was actually a representation of the pressure the Imperial family and relatives were pushing onto him. We need her, and fortunately, she wants your handsome face, so shut up and be a coat rack for her to rest her arm on in public… Thinking back, his life had been tiringly swayed from all directions, as becoming Ines’s coat rack had come with all sorts of life responsibilities and the position of heir from an early age.

Thinking about his vacations in Mendoza, a feeling of boredom instinctively crept up on him. He didn't dislike parties, but he couldn't have been happy with the Imperial family's interference and pressure, forcing him to attend all sorts of parties without a partner throughout his vacation.

But resistance was even more bothersome. With this kind of personality, he must have been cut out for military life from the beginning. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] The same goes for being swayed by Ines as if it were ingrained in him….

He took a deep drag of his cigar as he watched Ines and Jose come out into the garden.

Despite his personality, it was certainly strange. The feeling of being swayed wasn’t entirely unpleasant, unlike in Mendoza.

Among all the tiresome things in Mendoza, there had definitely been that culprit-like face before…….

“We’ll start with this side of the fence. They said they could repair the retaining wall and build it up in half a day.”

“In half a day? Can it be done that quickly?”

“Yes, of course. I’m a little embarrassed to show it all to a guest since it’s still under construction.”

But the culprit these days was too beautiful.

Cárcel narrowed his eyes and slowly exhaled smoke as he stared at the simple lavender dress, which exposed her collarbone—considered excessively revealing among Ines’s clothes.

Today, the fluttering sleeves and loosely braided black hair erased her characteristic haughty impression and left only a pure image, but Cárcel was imagining a dress that buttoned up to her neck, like an iron fortress.

He also imagined the way she used to look at someone with a cold gaze and twist her lips sarcastically.

It had been her consistent behavior for seventeen years, but he couldn’t remember seeing it recently. As he recalled that suffocating image over her unnecessarily kind face towards Jose, he instinctively felt suffocated, but then blood rushed downwards.

Ah, damn it. What was so good about that prudishly wrapped up look… But damn it, it was good. It was so tempting that he couldn't help but curse.

Just imagining the tightly wrapped figure from her face to her toes, with just a few buttons undone, revealing her skin without even showing her cleavage, made Cárcel excited like a dog in heat these days.

The moment of breaking down that strictness, the moment her firm gaze distorted with desire, tightened his throat.

He was frustrated because she didn’t dress like that and didn’t act like that. He thought he was a pervert. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Being frustrated that she wasn’t more covered up when he was always eager to undress her.

Besides, anyone would find her current appearance much more beautiful… Even his hopeless pervert brain acknowledged that fact.

But sometimes, some facts only reached the head and not the heart.

Undressed or half-dressed… it wasn’t that he wasn’t excited. The problem was that he was excited no matter what she did. The reason he had been practically living at the training ground since their marriage was to avoid acting like a dog in heat towards the noble Ines.

He would be grateful if he could be less aroused, so it would be better if she was naked every night…. No, that was also arousing.

Cárcel lit a new cigar with a seemingly normal expression while undressing and dressing Ines in his mind. He frowned for a moment when Ines burst into laughter again towards Jose, then he searched his memories again.

Was it at some count’s funeral? He sacrilegiously recalled her wearing a real mourning dress. Suddenly, he felt thirsty. In his mind, he was already sneaking out of the chapel during mass and lifting her black skirt in the carriage.

Ines’s contemptuous and accusatory voice was swallowed by his mouth. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] He felt his desire boiling as he was pressed down by her haughtily raised chin and condescending gaze.

And his desire soon turned into aggression.

“…Why isn’t that bastard leaving?”

He felt irritated again as he looked at the bear-like Jose, who was still being held captive without any sense of timing, even though it was already nighttime.

The days in the near-tropical Calstera were disgustingly long, and the nights were endlessly short.

And that clueless bastard was wasting this short night….

“Oh, Jose. We’re planning to paint the upper part white, what do you think?”

What was there to see with those eyes?

“Ah, yes. I think it will be very beautiful.”

Anyone could give that answer.

“Right? Warm, bright, and open. It would be good if you discussed these things with your fiancée before your marriage, Lieutenant. The rooms in the residence are generally much smaller than those in Mendoza, so it’s important to pack strategically and decorate the house accordingly. Cárcel lacked that consideration. Of course, you’re a meticulous man, so you’ll do well on your own.”

Bullshit….