The Villainess' Joyful Married Life (59 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 15
The rivalry among women is just as fierce as that among men.
The majority of the ladies gathered there were clearly ignoring Eshika Klaus.
Though Eshika was a Duchess, those attempting to harass her—despite their husbands holding lower titles—displayed a habitual disdain, evident in their condescending gazes and tone.
Someone must have raised them poorly.
“…….”
Resban Deon Lusaine, who had originally come here to intimidate the Count, found himself merely intrigued by the conversation among the patrons.
He remained uncertain whether the white butterfly—that once had him desperately searching, then dismissed as mere fantasy, only to flutter feverishly in his heart again—had truly belonged to Klaus.
Aside from watching bloody wars, this was the only thing that had genuinely interested him lately.
He held a wineglass in his hand.
Each time the crimson wine sloshed slightly, his prominent Adam’s apple moved.
Even amid momentarily wavering gazes, her presence remained unmistakable.
Her blue eyes were calm.
Her noble nose and chin alike exuded dignity.
Only the other women’s faces flushed red, then pale, in turn.
Occasionally, Eshika Klaus extended her slender fingers to grasp her teacup.
Then, parting her red lips slightly, she savored the tea.
At the sight of her neatly shaped fingernails, Resban felt a sudden thirst and took another sip of wine.
Like a white rose among weeds, Eshika was both noble and poisonous.
After repeated attempts to prick her with their nails only to be stung by her thorns in return, the ladies—who had been so eager to slander her—slowly closed their mouths.
Like beasts sizing each other up only to retreat in fear, they seemed to recognize whose maw was truly dangerous.
The outcome was clear-cut—so much so that it felt rather dull compared to his initial expectations.
“Le… let’s go.”
“Yes. Hmph.”
Forgetting even that they were guests, the defeated women fled the scene first.
‘She wasn’t even a worthy opponent.’
Memories of his own past, trivial battles resurfaced.
A deep smile briefly appeared on Resban’s lips before vanishing.
Eshika did not rise from her seat.
His gaze remained fixed solely on her.
When she revealed the purpose hidden within those calm blue eyes, his throat grew dry once more.
And the next conversation might prove even more intriguing.
How could she possibly know the girl’s true identity? What was her motive? He became even more eager to eavesdrop.
“Love is bound to change. No matter how sweetly a man whispers, he cannot defy the passage of time. If you abandon the splendor and warmth of palace life to choose him, you might regret it until your dying day.”
Her crimson lips twitched slightly.
Though her voice was low, Resban heard her clearly.
The lips that had been gazing into her eyes twisted faintly.
This was her signature—bitterly beautiful, forlorn, and laced with poison.
There it was—the very mark he had long searched for—quietly gleaming within those blue eyes.
So it truly was that child from twenty years ago, who had left an indelible impression.
“Y–Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince.”
The Crown Prince ordered Count Alhemitz to correct the documentation, as the records of substandard military supplies did not match the submitted reports.
After a long while, Count Alhemitz hurriedly approached the Crown Prince, clutching a bundle of papers.
Sweat dripped down his balding forehead.
When Resban’s cold gaze fell upon him, he flinched and lowered his eyes.
“There seems to have been a mistake. My apologies.”
Like other nobles, Count Alhemitz feared Resban—the young, ruthless war demon.
Not only was he aggressively combative, but also meticulously thorough, especially toward nobles seeking personal profit from the state treasury.
“Your household seems entertaining, both inside and out.”
The Crown Prince frowned as he examined the haphazard stack of papers.
At this rate, it was practically a self-confession of corruption.
Alhemitz flinched again at that reproachful tone.
He couldn’t predict the Crown Prince’s next move. If only he could somehow appease him…
“Your husband is fretting over how to replace a hundred sets of weapons he wrote off as rusted, while your wife hosts an ill-mannered tea party for guests.”
“…Y–Your Highness.”
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Had they known the Crown Prince would come, they would have canceled the party.
Damn it—he especially resented his wife today for summoning ladies and disturbing the Crown Prince’s mood.
Alhemitz bowed deeply, begging for mercy.
“I shall strictly reprimand my wife. And I will personally fund the replacement of the weaponry—I swear it.”
**
After suffering stomach pains for two more days, Leona finally regained consciousness.
She had eaten exactly as usual, yet the pain had been so severe it left her disoriented.
Kalian, ever the devoted son, visited her three times a day to check on her condition.
Though she somehow recovered after five days of illness, she still lacked strength.
The physician claimed her inactivity had weakened her body, worsening indigestion—but this had never happened before.
“What did they say about Marchal’s tea party?”
Sitting weakly on her bed as she received a foot massage, Leona asked.
Dark shadows hung beneath her eyes.
Marchal’s tea party—Leona herself was originally meant to attend, but she had sent Eshika instead.
It was obvious Eshika would have made a humiliating blunder in her flustered state.
Anyway, it was about time she arranged their divorce.
‘I’ve shown her enough patience.’
Marchal and Volan were clever friends who understood her intentions precisely.
Many women would have now witnessed just how worthless Eshika truly was.
And that there was only one queen of Klaus—Leona Klaus herself.
Eshika’s disgrace to the Klaus name would serve as yet another reason to expel her from the house.
Moreover, a wife deemed responsible for the marital breakdown wasn’t entitled to reclaim her dowry upon divorce.
That was precisely the point Leona had been shrewdly targeting.
“Um… about that…”
Emilia, the maid standing beside her, awkwardly began to speak.
She started recounting what she’d heard about the events at Marchal’s tea party—
how both Marchal and Volan suffered humiliation and were forced to apologize to Eshika.
The story had already spread widely through high society via gossiping ladies.
Several mothers who had planned to enroll their daughters under Marchal and Volan—paying their hefty fees—had reportedly canceled their appointments.
Furthermore, for some unknown reason, Count Alhemitz—Marchal’s husband—had lost his decoration and was furious with her, forbidding her from hosting any guests for the time being.
Leona’s eyebrows twitched repeatedly, then,
by the end of the tale, shot upward as if aiming for the heavens.
Slap—
Finally losing her temper, Leona reached out and struck the maid’s cheek.
“You’re telling me everything’s fallen apart?!”
The slapped maid knelt, sobbing.
Though this wasn’t the first time, Leona’s hand stung enough to bring tears.
And as a maid, the only recourse when facing an enraged mistress was to beg.
“…I—I’m sorry, Madam.”
“Eshika… no.”
Leona stopped mid-sentence as she stared at her own pale, bloodless hand.
The physician had warned her—
stress accelerates aging.
Seeing that pitiful, stupid girl’s face would surely worsen her recently recovered health.
Thus, she first needed to investigate why she had suddenly fallen so ill.
“Bring Yuri.”
“Yes?”
“I mean the head maid! Yuri Anesis! Are your ears deaf?”
Leona was exceptionally cruel and merciless toward those who defied her wishes.
“F–Forgive me… I understand! Madam.”
The maid sprang to her feet.
Yuri’s arrival would be her salvation.
Whether Leona ordered Yuri to torment Eshika or simply vented her anger on Yuri, the maid would escape unscathed.
As she hurried out of Leona’s room to find Yuri, the maid reflected on what she’d heard about the tea party.
‘The Duchess stood up to them?’
Even upon reconsideration, such boldness was utterly unimaginable for Eshika.
Eshika Klaus—the pitiful, wretched Duchess, lower than the maids herself—how could she possibly defeat those two malicious Countesses?
‘But… that look in her eyes then…’
When she and Yuri had gone to pour cold water on Eshika, the glare in Eshika’s eyes had been truly chilling.
Merely meeting her gaze felt like an icy, sharp awl piercing close to one’s heart.
‘…Just what was that?’
The maid bit her lip and shook her head.
Surely, no matter how she appeared, the Duchess remained beneath Madam’s feet—
a pitiful woman scorned by all, deprived even of her husband’s affection.
“Where is Eshika now?”
Yet the maid suddenly halted at that soft-spoken question.
Turning, she saw Duke Klaus standing at the corner, speaking with a servant.
Duke Kalian Klaus—handsome enough to make even long-serving maids blush at a glance—their flawless, perfect master.
She thought he’d completely cut ties with the Duchess after their last quarrel, given his prior coldness. What could possibly have changed?
“My wife.”
He was asking the servant where Eshika was.
With a somewhat anxious expression.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (267)
Can’t up leave the mansion and drive them to their ruin? Eshika ?
You and your mother were shameless enough to accept liberty while rejecting eshika.. so FU
I think she would have been less disgusted to find a rat outside he door
Inline Comments (39)
“You betrayed your friend, stole her jewels, and now you fawn over the Grand Lad
Why did they become friends to begin with? It’s not like yuri knew eshika would marry him
Cella spat out bloody saliva and glared at Yuri.
Does cella know martial arts at this point or no? I remember she asked
“This mother… can’t bear living under such injustice… uuhuhu….”
This guy is hopefully just gonna be an endgame final boss or something
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VKotaku28
Do you know your sister is alive prince? Does that mean you are intentionally ignoring her for her safety?