When You Don’t Get Along With Your Husband - Chapter 25

Neither the Prince nor the Princess seemed to have any interest in dressing up, relying solely on their faces.

“Oh my, look at me… I should die when I get old…”

Isabelle berated herself as if she had asked something unnecessary.

Tatiana was bewildered by that terrifying soliloquy. So she wracked her brain for a while, trying to remember ‘What did he say again?’ before finally coming up with an answer.

“Ah, he said there’s no need to dress up too prettily.”

“……”

Isabelle couldn’t hide her furrowing brow. The expressions of the other maids were similar.

Why do men, especially husbands, utter such useless words before going out? If asked whether they dislike the sight of their wives dressed up beautifully, in Isabelle’s experience, the answer was a resounding no.

Even Lord Browning, Princess Scarlet’s husband, would grin foolishly when his wife dressed up this way or that way.

The experienced head maid pondered for a moment and interpreted Gideon’s request like this: Dress up beautifully but come quickly. Don’t make me wait.

It was indeed a contradictory request, but making this impossible task happen was exactly what made one a professional.

Isabelle, who always wore a kind expression, wiped the smile off her face from that moment. And she began to lead the maids from the front.

The castle maids were certainly more skilled and had better sense than the maids from the ducal household. They had a perfect understanding of Tatiana’s body type. That much should be known just by glancing over the dresses that the princess consort brought from the ducal house when she married into the royal family. They had long ago finished calculating which parts to emphasize and which to complement.

Tatiana also played a part in adding wings to the maids’ work speed.

Usually, too many cooks spoil the broth. Tatiana knew very well that today, she wasn’t the cook of this ship. She didn’t even seem to think about boarding the ship despite it being her own body. Instead, she made decisions very quickly when needed.

Noble ladies usually feel ashamed of having rough hands. Tatiana’s hands had many calluses from holding a sword for a long time.

Wondering if she might have a complex about it, Isabelle carefully asked, “Shall I bring you gloves?” but Tatiana didn’t seem to care at all.

“I won’t wear them. They’re inconvenient.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I also think it’s better not to wear them with this dress. You look very beautiful now.”

Wow, she doesn’t even think about it, how refreshing.

The maids felt it was very comfortable, but at the same time, they felt their motivation burning brightly.

If someone passing by had seen this scene, they might have thought it looked like playing with dolls. But depending on the skill level of the person handling the doll, even playing with dolls could become a sufficient art form.

The maids unleashed their artistic spirit on Tatiana.

Even though the Princess’s side hurried, when Tatiana arrived at the royal annex, Gideon was already sitting in the waiting room.

He stopped flipping through a file and briefly raised his eyes to stare at Tatiana.

Wasn’t he the man who didn’t even give a formal compliment on their wedding day when she was dressed up even more splendidly? Tatiana had no expectations, but Gideon’s reaction was too much.

Looking at Tatiana’s dress with a back cut down to her spine, he asked,

“Aren’t you cold?”

Oh dear. If Isabelle outside had heard that, she would have been very disappointed.

Tatiana looked over her dress here and there.

In fact, she knew from the beginning that the maids would recommend this style of clothing. Even the Muller family maids enjoyed cutting her back deeply and decorating it with jewel ornaments.

And couldn’t help it, could they? Tatiana didn’t dislike it when they let out exclamations of admiration. In fact, it was quite nice.

“Your Highness, I’m confident about my back.”

Tatiana turned her back towards Gideon, but he remained silent for a while.

Of course, Gideon knew very well that his wife was pretty. It’s just that he felt a bit awkward saying, ‘Yes, that part is especially pretty’ to a woman’s back.

However, Tatiana seemed to have developed some stubbornness, as she stroked her firm stomach hidden by the dress and said,

“Actually, my abs are quite nice too…”

“That’s off limits.”

Gideon cut her off, afraid she might start cutting her dresses at the stomach too after the back. But he immediately seemed to feel it was a slip of the tongue and looked troubled.

“What I mean is… you can wear whatever you want, but…”

But… but… but that’s difficult? That area was still uncharted territory in Valter’s party dress culture. Of course, there’s a way to challenge it progressively, but if you keep moving forward with that attitude, there might come a day when there’s not a single thread left to wear.

Of course, his wife had the cutest belly button of all… but at a party? Today?

Finding it difficult to find the right expression, Gideon frowned, and Tatiana burst into a small laugh.

“I know what you mean. I haven’t seen a single noblewoman walking around with her stomach exposed at a party either.”

“Yes, let’s not be the first for something like this.”

Gideon, thinking it was fortunate that she understood, pulled her to sit beside him.

The party had already started long ago, but it was customary for the royal family to appear last.

Tatiana thought Gideon might consider even this waiting time a waste, so she picked up the file he had thrown down and showed it to him. It meant that he could continue reading if he wanted, she didn’t mind.

But Gideon just shook his head. Instead, he began to examine her in detail, starting a full-fledged appreciation.

Tatiana also looked back at him for a moment.

‘His Highness looks handsome without doing anything special,’ she admired, and also thought ‘But showing your forehead looks much better.’

At some point, her gaze was drawn to the large and majestic mural hanging over his shoulder.

Tatiana smiled softly. It was a somewhat ordinary painting for a royal masterpiece. Not that the artist’s skill was ordinary, but the subject matter was.

There were countless paintings dealing with mages and knights throughout Valter. Yet, the reason this painting could capture Tatiana’s attention was probably because she had a special affection for the Magic Tower and swords.

She read aloud the phrase at the bottom of the painting.

“Let he who obtains the strongest sword become the king of Valter.”

It’s a very weighty sentence. However, this too was no different from a common idiom in Valter. Even little kids in Valter would have heard it at least once.

It’s a kind of founding myth, you could say.

Valter was actually a country established under the activities of mages and knights, and both have shown a strong presence whenever the country faced a crisis. And even now, the Magic Tower and the Royal Guard argue that ‘the strongest sword’ refers to themselves.

The knights say gruffly, ‘Doesn’t it say sword? Sword. My goodness, can’t you read?’ and the mages raise their noses saying, ‘Don’t these vulgar ones understand metaphors?’

But Tatiana’s birth mother, when she was alive, never wanted to get involved in that childish fight. Rather, she would shudder as if disgusted, saying ‘Here we go again.’

Although his response was different, Sir Bloom also wanted to stay out of it. When someone tried to start a pride battle between the couple, he would just laugh, ‘Hahaha,’ like a simple-minded person.

He once secretly told his daughter, ‘Actually, your mom is the strongest in the world, magic is the best, dad always loses.’

In many ways, it’s a sentence full of stories and memories for Tatiana.

She smiled softly and jokingly asked Gideon,

“Who is Your Highness’s strongest sword? Have you thought about it?”

If Sir Bloom were still alive, everyone would have named him as the First Prince’s sword. Although he was no longer in this world, since his daughter was asking, it would have been nice to wrap it up a bit more beautifully.

Gideon was quite realistic in nature for that. He didn’t believe that sentence, which sounded like it could be passed down as an oral legend, at face value. It was an illusion perfect for various interest groups to use as a grand cause.

“Titi. That saying has its context reversed.”

“…Why?”

“It’s not that the one who obtains the strongest sword becomes king. It’s that the sword the king possesses becomes the strongest sword.”

“……”

“Didn’t you say it yourself yesterday? The best is still the best even when holding a wooden sword. Similarly, if the king chose a wooden sword… that would ultimately be the strongest sword.”

“……”

“Of course, I’d prefer to wield a famous sword if possible, but I don’t want to be hung up on such superstitions.”