A Way to Confirm Your Husband’s True Feelings - Chapter 13
“So basically, the bastard doesn’t even know his place.”
“…”
“Hah. So what you’re saying is… your husband finds married life with you boring?”
“That’s just my assumption.”
Beatrice replied with a twinge of guilt.
Though she had made up her mind to confide in Regina, now that she was about to speak, she couldn’t bring herself to repeat Caesar’s words exactly as they were. Admitting that she had heard her husband describe her as ‘annoying’ and ‘bothersome’ was far too humiliating. And more than that, she couldn’t predict how her hot-tempered sister would react.
“Men with good looks always live up to the price of their faces, don’t they.”
Regina was the type who, if provoked, might storm off to the capital right this instant and drag Caesar back by the collar.
Had it been Freya, Beatrice would have relayed the facts as they were. But with Regina, she instinctively felt she shouldn’t. So she softened Caesar’s words a bit—though she couldn’t know what kind of disaster that decision might bring later.
“What exactly made you think that about your husband? His behavior? Or something he said?”
As if it weren’t already upsetting enough that her pretty little sister had been snatched up by some random scoundrel, now this man was making his wife of less than a year feel this way? The sheer nerve of it infuriated Regina, though she held it in for now and pressed for more details.
The problem was, Beatrice had to hide the truth and talk around her own concerns.
“His behavior, I suppose…”
Since she had overheard the comment rather than being told directly, technically, she had only witnessed his behavior.
“What kind of behavior?”
Because she couldn’t mention the core event, her confession led to vague and misleading statements.
“Well… I guess you could say his attitude toward me has changed a bit since the early days of our marriage… It just feels like… I might be a bother to him.”
After several hesitant back-and-forths, Regina, frustrated by her sister’s inability to say anything concrete, drew her own conclusions.
She’d seen this kind of thing plenty among her married friends—a husband who wasn’t doing anything wrong, per se, but had become inattentive or distant. It was an all-too-common theme.
“I get it. Sounds like he’s going through what people call… a ‘boredom phase’.”
“Boredom… phase?”
It was a conclusion far removed from the truth—but since the input had been flawed to begin with, it was inevitable that the output would be just as off.
“Yes, the boredom phase. It’s infuriating that your husband would already be feeling that way, but on the other hand, it’s not all that uncommon either.”
Regina swept her shoulder-length light brown hair back roughly, her expression filled with irritation.
“But he hasn’t actually said anything awful to you or done something like cheat, has he?”
“N-No, nothing like that.”
“And you? Do you still like your husband? You want to keep the marriage going?”
“Y-Yes… I think so…”
“Then you already know this, Betty, but a noble’s marriage doesn’t last on love alone.”
As the conversation took a more serious turn, Beatrice clenched her fists tightly in her lap. Everything Regina said was true. She had never believed that Caesar had proposed to her purely out of love.
“The only things you can really expect from marriage are mutual benefit, minimal trust, and a bit of respect. That’s it. Sure, at first there might be some affection born out of curiosity and novelty. But feelings like that are fleeting. What comes next is the miserable thing called boredom.”
Beatrice felt herself slowly being persuaded by Regina’s words. Yes, maybe Caesar really was going through a phase of boredom.
But if that were true… what was she supposed to do now? Was she meant to live the rest of her life clinging to the scraps of affection they’d shared in their newlywed days?
Would she and Caesar become just another noble couple who exchanged dry formalities with blank expressions, living separate lives in separate rooms?
And did she truly want to preserve their marriage even under those conditions?
“Still, every problem in the world comes with its own solution.”
Just as her tone grew heavy, Regina’s expression shifted suddenly to one of smug confidence as she snapped her fingers.
At that point, Beatrice should have realized that she shouldn’t take Regina’s advice at face value.
“Beatrice, Beatrice. Men are creatures who must never be allowed to get too comfortable—body or mind. The whip is not optional. It is essential.”
She also should have remembered that Regina, much like herself, had absolutely no experience when it came to love or relationships.
“From what I can tell, Margrave Valentin is getting complacent and losing his mind. Which means now is exactly the time for you to act. I’ll teach you everything—from A to Z—about what you need to do.”
And she should have kept in mind that the only worldly knowledge Regina possessed outside her academic field came from the racy gossip she exchanged with her friends.
“Let’s start with this. How many times a month are you sleeping with your husband?”
