45. Ivan’s Imagination Becomes Reality
As soon as the knights left the reception room, Katya pulled out a pistol from her chest.
“You’d better not try anything funny. I’m quite confident in my shooting skills.”
“Did you bring an empty gun without gunpowder? You surprised us with rubber arrowheads 12 years ago too.”
As soon as Ivan sneered, Katya pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet grazed past him and struck the portrait of Count Petrovsky hanging behind.
The gunpowder left a scorched mark on the Count’s right ear.
“So it’s real this time.”
Ivan whistled casually, either unable to grasp the situation or having some confidence.
“Think I’ll fall for it again? Before the Grand Duke shatters your skull, I’ll shatter it with my own hands.”
“I think I’d prefer dying by your hands than the Grand Duke’s. Just thinking about it turns me on.”
“Still have the spirit to talk nonsense?”
“I’m just happy to see you after so long. If you hadn’t asked to meet today, I was planning to expose all your secrets in Padovangrad as soon as the sun rose tomorrow morning.”
Ivan leaned forward with a smirk.
“Does the Grand Duke know you can’t have children?”
“……”
“Seeing how you can’t speak, I guess you’re hiding it from him too. When that comes to light, you won’t be able to show your face anywhere. The Grand Duke will abandon you too, what will you do then?”
He had been blackmailing her with this fact all this time.
Actually, he got lucky.
As soon as he came down to the South, he happened to see Katya on the street.
She looked around suspiciously like she’s trying to do something in secret, then entered a physician’s office.
Instead of following her in immediately, he went into an alley and pressed his ear against the curtained window of the examination room.
That’s when he heard her instructing the physician to destroy yesterday’s medical records.
Through a slight gap in the curtains, Ivan witnessed the physician stuffing the records deep into the waste paper bin for incineration. After she left, he went inside for a consultation.
Then, while the physician went upstairs to deliver the prescription to the pharmacist, he searched through the waste bin and found her medical records.
「Lady Smirnov」
As soon as he confirmed Katya’s surname, Ivan rejoiced.
Just as he was contemplating how to torment her with this stolen record, Count Gregory came to him asking for help.
“You can divorce her later if you wish, but please seduce that ill-tempered Katarina and marry her. If you do this for me, I’ll reward you generously.”
The moment he heard those words, Ivan felt an unparalleled surge of excitement and pleasure.
He felt his spirits soar at the thought that he could finally possess Katya.
The foolish southerners didn’t recognize Katya’s true worth and were hesitant to propose to her.
That’s when he thought:
‘I am Katya’s savior.’
He believed he was the only one who could love a woman with the fatal flaw of being unable to bear children.
Wouldn’t she shed tears of gratitude when she realized his sincere feelings?
Just when he thought he had Katya in his grasp according to plan, she slipped through his fingers like a loach.
Then she chose the Grand Duke.
‘Bad girl. Do you know how much I love you? Why don’t you understand my love?’
He grew resentful of her.
“Who would make a barren woman their Grand Duchess?”
“……”
“The Grand Duke will abandon you, but I’m different. Since my father plans to pass on the family name and title to my runaway brother anyway, I have no responsibility to produce an heir. We can live happily together, just the two of us.”
“How can we live happily when I don’t love you?”
“That’s why you just need to love me. Simple, right?”
“You’ve always only talked about yourself. Just spewing out your emotions, your desires, what you want to say. Is this what you call a conversation?”
Enraged by her words, Ivan slammed his fist on the table.
“What, is the Grand Duke different? Is that bastard so great?”
“He is different. He speaks while considering the listener’s feelings.”
“Stop comparing me to that bastard! Were you always this materialistic? How can you sell your body and heart for power and money like other women? Shouldn’t you choose an honest man like me who only has eyes for you?”
“You think power and money are the only things that make you inferior to His Highness? And what, honest?”
Katya laughed at this ridiculous statement.
Nikolai was a man beyond such a simple comparison.
Someone like Ivan wasn’t even worthy of being compared.
putting Ivan on the same level as Nikolai, just because he proposed to her, was an enormous disrespect to him.
“And have you already forgotten about the written pledge you made to give up on me cleanly if you failed the test back then?”
“You underestimated me too much. Did you think I would keep my mouth shut? Did you think I would keep your secret forever while wishing for your happiness? I can’t do that! Rather than not having you, I’d rather drag you down into the mud just like me, a hundred– a thousand times over.”
“Yes, that’s more like you.”
This was more fitting for Ivan.
The desperate pleading and love confessions didn’t suit him.
If she stayed here listening to his sophistry any longer, she felt she might go mad.
She didn’t want to waste any more time.
“What do I need to do for you to withdraw the lawsuit? Tell me what you want.”
Though it was filed against Katarina Smirnov, Hersen’s laws considered unmarried women immature and not fully adult.
So they would hold the father responsible.
In other words, the lawsuit against her was essentially the same as one against her father, Baptiski Smirnov.
Katya wanted to avoid her father standing trial at all costs.
It would leave a stain on Baptiski’s lifelong reputation for integrity.
“What exactly do you want? I’ll give you as much money as you want.”
“What I want… is for you to look at me.”
Ivan wanted to end this painful unrequited love that he couldn’t get over.
“Katya, I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I first saw you. Can’t you look at me just once with a smiling face and warm eyes like you do with that bastard?”
“Is that all it takes? Just looking at you that way?”
As Katya tried to put on the warmest expression possible as if willing to do anything, Ivan, who had lost his wish over something so trivial, waved his hands.
“No! I want you to marry me and become Ivan Petrovsky’s wife. That’s what I want.”
“Wife?”
“Of course, even though I’m the one begging, I don’t want just an empty shell. Men don’t ask much from their wives. Just three things.”
Katya leaned back against the chair diagonally, her face saying ‘let’s hear it then’.
“Even if the husband has affairs, the wife should look only at her husband with unchanging affection, a face beautiful enough to not be embarrassed anywhere, and obedience to her husband’s words. That’s all.”
“Ha……”
“Katya, you’re already pretty, so you just need to love me and become slightly more docile. I’m not even asking as much as other women. I can compromise that much. It’s not difficult, right?”
“Everything you say is absurd, but you can have affairs while your wife can’t?”
Katya briefly considered seriously whether to just shoot Ivan in the mouth right now.
“Men and women are different. Men are designed to be drawn to physical things. When we have affairs, we only take the body. But women give not just their bodies but their hearts too. That’s the problem.”
“But women can have physical affairs without emotions like men?”
“That’s even worse! How dare a woman be loose with her body? A wife’s body belongs to her husband. The husband is the wife’s master.”
“I see. I understand what you want.”
Katya suppressed her anger, fluttered her eyes closed then open, and stood up.
Frightened by her intimidating aura, Ivan instinctively flinched and raised his arms to protect his head.
When nothing happened, he cautiously opened his eyes.
“You’re not going to argue? Or shoot?”
Ivan lowered his arms while watching her carefully.
“I don’t have the strength to fight with you anymore. I’ll do what you want.”
“What?”
“Let’s get married. It seems impossible to get rid of you. I’m tired now too.”
“You’ll really marry me?”
Ivan asked in a trembling voice, filled with anticipation.
They say the gods answer prayers if you wish earnestly enough.
This was the moment Ivan’s dream was coming true.
“But we have to keep it a secret from His Highness. If he finds out, he’ll kill you. We can’t do it grandly either. We need to do it secretly, just the two of us, like a simple covenant ceremony.”
“I always thought wedding ceremonies were just empty formalities anyway!”
Actually, Ivan wasn’t being frugal—he just couldn’t afford it.
“Just making marriage vows before a priest makes it legally binding, so that’s enough.”
“Let’s get married at the third chapel of Padovangrad City Temple at dawn in two days. There’s no service that day so no one will visit the temple. Plus the third chapel is under renovation so it’ll be even safer.”
“Yes, good. Let’s do that.”
“After the covenant ceremony, let’s run away and live secretly from His Highness. We’ll register the marriage first and send a letter, then Father will send the dowry separately.”
Katya seemed to have had everything planned from the start, saying only things that would excite Ivan.
Ivan pinched his cheek hard, wondering if this was a dream.
“Ouch!”
The pain confirmed this was reality.
Katya was already perfectly playing the role of an obedient yet capable wife.
He felt proud of having tamed such a wild girl.
He had finally achieved victory in this war-like love.
The spoils of war was the beautiful Katarina.
Soon he would be able to make her completely his woman.
Ivan’s groin tightened as he imagined their first night together in two days.
