For a moment, Carlos’s face hardened. He stupidly asked back as if he had misheard.

“…What?”

But Ines answered in an even colder voice than before.

“Those duties as queen that you talk about… I can’t do them. I probably will never be able to meet your expectations. Above all…”

As she continued speaking, Ines dropped her head. Her voice was trembling faintly.

“I’m tired of this.”

Ines was sick of this whole situation. She was afraid of being hurt by his every word. She just wanted to break free from the shackles that were restraining her.

But Carlos ignored Ines’s request. Very firmly, as if it wasn’t worth listening to.

“I don’t think we’re in a position to exchange such pointless jokes.”

His face showed irritation, like someone confronting an annoying situation. When Carlos acted like he was bothered rather than listening to her words, Ines bit her lip.

At first, it had just been an impulsive statement that came out without her control. But.

“…It’s not a joke. I’m serious.”

Looking at her husband who wouldn’t even consider taking her words seriously, Ines clenched her fists.

“I want to end things here with you.”

Despite his attempts to stop her, when Ines repeated the same words, Carlos finally stood up from his seat.

“Then I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

He adjusted his clothes and added.

“It seems you’re not in a state to talk today, so let’s discuss this again tomorrow with a clear mind.”

Then he turned to leave as if he had no intention of continuing the conversation.

Watching Carlos turn his back before she had finished speaking, Ines’s lips twisted.

Even now, Carlos wouldn’t believe her and treated even the talk of divorce as a joke. He was busy denying her words and avoiding reality. Ines was now sick of this situation.

Suddenly overcome with anger at this repeated scene, Ines threw the cushion beside her at Carlos.

With a thud, the cushion hit the back of his head and fell to the floor. His footsteps stopped abruptly.

“…”

Carlos looked back and forth between the fallen cushion and Ines with an exasperated expression.

“What on earth are you doing…”

But Ines cut off his words and shouted.

“Please just listen to me! I hate this! I don’t want to be queen or anything anymore!”

Hot tears welled up in her eyes.

“I’ve come to hate you. Being next to you suffocates me. It doesn’t feel like I’m living.”

Seemingly shocked by her words, Carlos asked back.

“…You feel suffocated being with me?”

“Yes, suffocated! That’s why I said I didn’t want to marry. I asked to be sent to a convent or just kill me instead. Why did you keep me alive to treat me like this!”

Then Ines stood up and threw the remaining cushions at Carlos.

“Why…!”

He stared blankly at Ines while being hit.

“What did I do so wrong…!”

Ines’s hands flailed in the air as she ran out of things to throw. Unable to control her intense emotions, hot tears streamed endlessly down her cheeks.

“Just what… what did I do so wrong… for you to treat me like this.”

Her legs giving out, Ines collapsed onto the floor.

Her face was a mess with tears. Silently watching such an Ines, Carlos asked in a murmur.

“What happens after the divorce?”

“…”

“If you divorce me, what will you do about the child?”

At his question, Ines faltered.

“Answer me, Ines. If you divorce me, what will you do about the child in your womb? Will you leave alone without the child?”

“That’s…”

When Carlos suddenly brought up the child, Ines’s words trailed off. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Since asking for a divorce had been an impulsive action in the first place, she hadn’t specifically imagined the future afterward.

“I…”

Ines looked down at her swollen belly. Once she gave birth as queen, this child could never leave the palace. Even if she divorced, she would have to leave alone, leaving the child behind.

‘Could I leave without my child?’

It was something she had never dared to imagine. Hadn’t she just been telling herself that she could endure anything as long as she had her child?

After pondering for a moment, Ines wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Then she stood up again and looked directly at Carlos.

“I’ll take the child with me.”

“Ha.”

Letting out a short breath while looking at Ines, Carlos opened his mouth.

“Don’t be unreasonable, Ines.”

Having approached close to her by now, Carlos put his hand on Ines’s shoulder.

“You know it. Even if you leave the palace, the child can never leave.”

It wasn’t just the royal family. What noblewoman could take and raise her child after divorce? Something not even allowed in noble houses would never be possible in the royal family.

The child to be born was a member of the Tezever royal family before being Ines’s child.

“So endure it. If you choose to divorce me, you’ll never see that child again.”

His hand gripping her shoulder tightened strongly.

“So even if you hate me, you have to stay by my side.”

Then he lowered his gaze to look at Ines’s swollen belly.

“You have to think about the child in your womb, right?”

At his words, Ines clenched her fists.

Carlos was now threatening her with the child. And unfortunately, that threat was working quite well. However…

“Even if it’s not your child? Would you still say that if, as the rumors say, this child is Joseph’s or the marquis’s son’s?”

Ines didn’t back down here. She used Carlos’s past suspicions of her as leverage. At those words, Carlos’s face crumpled.

“Don’t spout whatever nonsense just because you have a mouth. You’re crossing a line right now.”

The emotions of both people, pushed to their limits, intensified. Ines twisted her lips as if Carlos’s reaction was amusing.

“Weren’t you the first one to doubt who the father of the child in my womb was? Why, do you suddenly think the child in my womb is yours now?”

“Ines!”

Unable to take it anymore, Carlos grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

“I told you. I don’t care whose child it is. Both the child in your womb and you are ultimately mine.”

His eyes were burning like a forest fire.

“So you just need to fulfill your duties as my wife.”

“Wife’s duties! Duties! Duties! What even are those! I don’t want to do them! How can I fulfill a wife’s duties when I can’t stand the sight of you! You hate me too. You hated me when I betrayed you that day! You were the first to doubt me and corner me! So why are you doing this!”

“Yes, that’s right.”

He didn’t deny Ines’s words.

“So what? You’re already my wife and queen. Once you became queen, don’t get swept up in personal feelings. Think about your position. Wouldn’t it be better for the child to live as royalty rather than as the child of a disgraced noble?”

Ines was at a loss for words. There was simply no getting through to him.

Carlos probably wouldn’t let her go even if the child born from her womb didn’t resemble him.

Tired even of fighting like this with him, strength left Ines’s body.

“Right. You’re not wrong.”

Hearing her resigned voice, thinking Ines had finally given up, the strength left his hands.

“Good that you understand. So don’t ever bring up such nonsense again. If you do it one more time… what are you doing?”

Carlos’s warning, which he had been muttering lowly, cut off abruptly. That was because suddenly, out of nowhere, Ines started undoing the front of her dress.

But despite his question, as Ines continued undressing, Carlos restrained her hands.

“I asked what you’re doing.”

Shaking off his grip on her hands, Ines undid the last button. With a thud, the outer layer of her dress fell.

“You said it yourself. That I just need to fulfill my duties as a wife. So I should fulfill those duties.”

“Ines!”

Unable to contain himself, Carlos raised his voice. But as if unwilling to back down, Ines’s words grew short.

“Carlos, isn’t this what you wanted from me?”

“What?”

“A wife’s duty is to serve her husband at night. To spread my legs like a wh*re and just please you.”

“You…!”

Barely holding back the curses about to burst forth, Carlos ground his teeth. Soon came the sound of his reason snapping.

They say when one gets too angry, they become calm instead. Between the two people lingered an eerie silence like before a storm. Finally, a cold voice cut through the silence.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Carlos loosened the tie that had been choking his neck.

“…A wife’s duty is to serve her husband at night.”

Gritting his teeth, Carlos grabbed Ines’s nape and pulled her.

“So you just need to spread your legs and please me.”

Still gritting his teeth as he muttered those final words, his lips finally crashed down on Ines.

—

T/N: This back and forth between arguing and then just f*cking afterwards is starting to drain me. I know I’m so close to the end with just 40-ish chapters remaining but I’m really starting to hit my limit with this novel. We’ve progressed 80+ chapters so far and at this point, you would expect some kind of character development, but so far all that they’ve done is argue, have misunderstandings, and f*ck like rabbits. Character development who?