When You Don’t Get Along With Your Husband - Chapter 23

Although she joked about being married to a sword before, it’s certain that this is Tatiana’s first marriage. She’s also still young at twenty-one, not just young but even youthful.

However, Tatiana had a lot of miscellaneous information she had picked up about marriage. This all stemmed from her experience attending tea parties carefully selected by the Duchess of Muller.

These small parties were attended by high-class young ladies of Tatiana’s age, ranging from late teens to late twenties. The topics of gossip varied each time, but given their age, the most frequently discussed topics were romance and marriage.

Tatiana tended to quietly listen to her friends’ stories of glamorous newlywed life and marital conflicts. Sometimes she would let it in one ear and out the other, but occasionally she would pay close attention.

She didn’t think their stories were all correct. But she didn’t think they were wrong either. How can there be right or wrong when someone is talking about what they’ve personally experienced and felt? It’s just one of countless examples that exist in the world.

In short, anecdotes. However, listening to these anecdotes sometimes made her think,

‘I’m curious about you, not your husband. What I want to know is you.’

At some point in their stories, it seemed like they themselves had disappeared, and Tatiana found that regrettable and sometimes even disappointing.

Of course, she didn’t show it.

Moreover, their gossip wasn’t always wasteful or useless. Wouldn’t Tatiana have learned something from picking up these various marriage anecdotes?

First, all couples fight. There’s a very sophisticated way to express the cause of this.

We are individuals who have grown up in different environments for decades. Not everything can match, and those differences can’t all be reconciled overnight.

In short, you are not me.

Second, couples fight not only because of issues between themselves but also because of each other’s families.

In fact, it seems they often fight more because of this. In the stories of married friends, there were praises for in-laws, but conflicts between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law also appeared without fail.

Why, isn’t there a saying that marriage is a union of families?

But Tatiana has a question.

Let’s say I have a very close friend. Would I like every single person around that friend, a hundred out of a hundred? Would I force them, saying you’re my friend and you’re my friend, so you two should be friends too? We are the world, or what?

Similarly, just because you’ve become family with your spouse doesn’t mean you can completely merge with all the communities they belong to… it’s impossible.

But isn’t disappointment and friction inevitable when expectations are placed on this impossible task, and it’s sometimes forced?

So Tatiana came to think. If she ever gets married, she’ll maintain an appropriate distance when dealing with the relationships derived from it. She’ll lower people’s expectations of her from the start.

Some might frown, saying it’s too calculating an attitude. They might point fingers, saying the young one is already being cunning.

However, Tatiana’s perspective on this exactly matched her conviction about exercise and the body.

Everyone has probably tried eating a somewhat inadequate diet to lose weight. But you can’t maintain that forever. Eventually, you’ll binge eat, and our poor body has to bear the consequences several times over.

Perhaps the body is thinking about its owner like this: This fool is starting again, unable to break the habit. Now, know yourself a little.

That’s not all.

When the weather gets hot and people around start wearing lighter clothes, people start thinking. Ah… ahhh, that season has come again.

They reflect on their lazy lifestyle and make unreasonable exercise routines.

But can you do that intensity every day? If you managed even for three days, Tatiana is ready to applaud and encourage you. Saying, you have extraordinary willpower.

So Tatiana decided to deal with people only as much as she could consistently manage. Just like how she treats her own body.

‘Homeostasis.’

If you try too hard to do well and then suddenly let go, the other person is bound to feel hurt.

When someone who always held back finally can’t take it anymore and explodes, only the person who got angry is treated as strange. So she’ll open her heart only as much as she won’t get hurt, do only as much as she can consistently maintain, and endure only within the limits she can bear.

She doesn’t want to lose herself by pretending to be someone else out of a desire to do well.

When she someday becomes the speaker at a tea party, she hopes not to disappear completely from her own story. She wants to still exist within it.

So far, this was Tatiana’s own conclusion and philosophy drawn from the examples around her before marriage. It seems quite plausible.

…But why are examples just examples? Isn’t it because one example can’t explain all situations in the world?

Tatiana had no friends who married a prince. No one had a queen as a mother-in-law. There were often cases where the mother-in-law wasn’t the husband’s birth mother, or where the two didn’t get along, but of course, there were no situations where the husband was competing for the throne with his half-brother.

‘What should I do in this situation?’

Tatiana pondered her conduct the entire way to the Queen.

But it wasn’t long after arriving at the Queen’s quarters. Although she only gave a polite greeting, she quickly realized inwardly.

There’s a famous saying for times like this.

‘There was no need for me to step in.’

Gideon and the Queen, with lavish food between them, were smiling and exchanging curses back and forth.

“This mother was lonely and wanted to spend some quality time with her daughter-in-law. I’m sorry for making the busy prince come and go.”

Tatiana was about to apologize for not being considerate in advance.

Gideon intercepted before she could answer.

“You’ve reached that age. Normally, you’d be deeply engrossed in your grandchildren’s antics by now. We’re quite late in many ways.”

It sounds innocuous at first glance. However, Tatiana felt a subtle barb in his words.

It seemed to say, ‘Yeah, it’s time you stepped back from state affairs and retired to the back room. You’re that age, aren’t you?’

And it seemed this wasn’t just her imagination. Tatiana clearly saw a crack appear and disappear on the Queen’s perfect, wrinkle-free face.

“You must have been very busy this morning, Prince.”

“That’s true, but lately I often forget how late the night gets as I spend time with my wife. A good wife turns out to be a good conversationalist too.”

This too was an innocuous expression. But to Tatiana, who knew Gideon’s personality to some extent, those words sounded like: Stop interfering, we’re newlyweds.

The Queen covered her mouth and laughed, “Ho ho,” then spoke as if advising a much younger person.

“I understand that feeling, Prince, but it shouldn’t affect the next day. Isn’t there a saying that the early bird catches the worm?”

Gideon seemed to find even this level of advice annoying now. His too-bright smile made it even more apparent.

“That’s for birds. Would a lion bother to move from the morning just to catch worms?”

Gideon smiled gently at Tatiana as if seeking agreement, and she, after gauging the situation, simply averted her gaze. She thought his last comment might have been too strong.

Those words meant that he and Tatiana were not birds, but lions. …Then who would be the worms here?

Tatiana gloomily looked at the lavishly prepared food.

She’s had enough of the meal now and desperately wants to leave this place. If they’re going to keep growling like this, she wants to ask if it wouldn’t be better for both of them to take off their shirts and have a proper fistfight.

But the Queen wasn’t the Queen for nothing. She smiled elegantly as if she hadn’t heard Gideon’s words.

Instead, she seemed to decide to change targets. From Gideon to Tatiana.

How easy a prey must the young princess bride seem to the Queen? Doesn’t she look like a newbie who knows nothing but swords, with little experience in high society?

“I’ve left the consort too bored. How have you been, princess? Is the castle tolerable?”

“Yes, thanks to Your Majesty’s consideration, I’m adapting well.”

The Queen waved her hand as if to say forget such nonsense, then covered her mouth and laughed “Ho ho” again.

So that must be the laugh of the queen of high society. Tatiana was quite impressed, thinking she couldn’t imitate it even if asked to try.

“Consideration? It’s a royal marriage, but because we rushed so much, I haven’t done anything as a royal elder. You’re so young and full of promise, what was the hurry? The life of a royal woman is lonely after all.”

Gideon’s expression started to sour a bit from that point.