Married To A Savage Duke

Soon, she smiled blandly and looked up at Cade.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“You don’t have to explain. I already know.”

Caird added in a morbid tone.

“Just by looking at the way he pushes his sister in front of a man she doesn’t know well, one can tell right away what kind of scum he is.”

“…….” Rosaline’s eyes widened at the unexpected remark. He got up from the sofa first before she could ponder what Cade had uttered. Not wanting to get out of this space, Rosaline insisted on sitting down. It felt like she had seen another side of Cade, which the princess hadn’t seen in the past.

“Now that you have all the information, are you going to kick me out?”

“Since you’ve been honest with me, I’ll treat you as a guest. Weren’t you going to attend my wedding anyway?”

“I didn’t expect you to do me a favor since you’re being so cold. Will you guide me to the best room in this Castle?”

“I didn’t know that the unannounced visitor wanted hospitality. I’m sorry, but I’m going to send you to a villa far from the castle.”

“You mean you’re going to kick me out to the villa on the outskirts?”

“As you know, we’re not accepting any visitors in this castle until the wedding.”

Fearing that the wedding ceremony might be delayed due to some variable, Cade had been sending refusals to all the letters requesting a visit. It was a fact known throughout the empire that his territory was prospering day by day after he had taken over the dukedom and the discipline in the north had been tightened. As a result, desperate nobles who wanted to connect with him sent various letters before the wedding date. Their purposes varied from wanting to meet him personally and convey their congratulations, promoting their business in Carlsvik, or wanting to recruit him into a social gathering. However, Philip, the shameless crown prince, notified that he would visit the Grand Duke instead of celebrating the wedding.  Cade replied that he couldn’t afford to entertain the crown prince in the main castle since they were busy preparing for the wedding ceremony. He rejected all of them without a second thought.

He rejected all of them without a second thought. Then, he slowly crept in and pushed the princess to the Grand Duke while plotting a scheme somewhere in Carlsvik. He stood there in a daze while coolly contemplating snapping his neck. He wanted to wring Philip’s neck to death in return for his disrespect. Noticing that his mood had visibly taken a downward curve, Rosaline brushed her dress off and stood up.

“I’ll get up for now. I didn’t want your hospitality, but I guess I expected too much from you.”

Rosaline sauntered toward the door of the drawing room.

When she passed Cade, she had to take a peek at his cold countenance.

“Your brother is a man-child.”

The princess stopped at the deep baritone raising the fine hairs at the back of her head.

“Don’t you dare interfere with this marriage?”

A daunting shadow slowly approached, almost covering Rosaline’s entire frame even though he only took a few steps near her.

“No. Even if that person didn’t do it on purpose, if anyone gets in the way of my wedding———”

Rosaline intercepted the dismal voice that she could barely hear.

“Are you going to kill me?”

The silence was accompanied by the pitter-patter of rain. Before long, Cade let out a low chuckle as if he found that funny. Rosaline’s childhood wish, in which she hoped to see him smile someday, finally came true. However, Rosaline didn’t know how to react because her skin had shriveled from the shiver-inducing cold.

“You’re too smart for your own good, princess.”

“It’s a jest, right?”

“Believe whatever you like. I’m running out of patience these days, so I can’t afford any mercy.”

A blue-veined hand grasped the door handle. Unlike the man who threatened her a second ago, Cade opened the door for her like a true gentleman. The princess smiled bitterly because she couldn’t understand why he cared too much about his upcoming marriage. Rosaline, who had just stepped into the hallway, turned around impulsively just before Cade came out of the office.

“There’s something I want to say to you, Grand Duke. I wanted to take advantage of this mood early in the morning and I don’t think I can do it unless it’s now.”

A cold and detached gaze glanced down at Rosaline.

“I don’t care about what other people say about you over the annihilation of the previous duke’s family. I never believed in the rumors because——-” Rosaline slowly took a breath. “I know you who you were even if no one knew. I saw what happened at the ball ten years ago with my own eyes.”

Rosaline didn’t want to follow Philip’s order to visit the Grand Duke in the first place.

As a member of the royal family, she thought that it would be better——a thousand times better———to strictly follow etiquette and proceed with this mission in a more refined manner. However, if it were not for Philip’s order, she wouldn’t have had a chance to face her long-time crush. The princess knew that this shouldn’t be done to a man who was about to get married, but she assumed it was alright to be greedy because his arranged marriage was without love anyway. When Rosaline opened her mouth to say something, Cade stopped her with a scowl.

“Be careful about what you’re going to say next.”

And then——-“What?” A soft voice came from one side of the hallway along with the sound of falling rain.

Rosaline turned her head towards the source of the echo. At the end of her gaze, a pale-faced woman in a white, ankle-lengthed nightgown stood while clutching her mobile lamp.

“This—— What’s going on?”

Cherryl looked at Cade and the princess, who were facing each other, with a puzzled expression.