When the Female Lead Went Off-Script, the Main Male Lead Became the Tyrant's Empress

Arden’s eyes widened.

He had been the one to bring up marriage, yet he jumped in outrage as though he had been insulted.

He should have stopped after joking around moderately, but he always had to hear something like this and become angry before he finally stopped.

As though his explanation still wasn’t enough, he huffed and demanded to know who Haster thought was interested in men, and whether Haster genuinely believed he wanted to live as a married couple with his male cousin.

“Do you have someone in mind, then?”

At the question directed toward him, Haster looked at his cousin.

Arden’s face was sullen, but his gaze was serious.

Although he was an imperial relative, the Grand Duke had a wider range of choices for a spouse than the Crown Prince.

Even if he chose a morganatic marriage, the spouse could be formally accepted as a member of the family with the head’s permission.

The current head of House Valtor was Haster.

In other words, he could marry whoever he wanted.

Realistically, however, Haster’s range of choices was narrow.

His treatment would differ depending on whether he entered a marriage that benefited the imperial family or one that benefited only the grand duchy.

The imperial family would welcome it if he married into a noble family belonging to the Emperor’s faction, but if he married the daughter of a provincial lord who belonged to the noble faction or was less loyal than others, they would have no choice but to keep him in check again.

There was no possibility that the Grand Duke didn’t understand the imperial family’s desire to secure the loyalty of the provincial nobles.

“I asked whether you had a family in mind.”

When an answer didn’t come immediately, Arden asked again.

“I haven’t thought about it yet. Unlike you, I don’t need to produce an heir urgently.”

Haster answered honestly.

He had also considered whether he could simply remain alone like this.

Although necessity had brought him into the central government, he didn’t want even his marriage to be arranged merely to watch the imperial family’s mood and appease them.

If he needed an heir, he could adopt one.

“But if I were to marry, I would prefer someone who could respect me as a spouse.”

“Then what about Countess Troanne?”

“What?”

Haster frowned at the unexpected remark.

He had gone to the trouble of answering, yet Arden was talking about something else entirely.

Arden paid no heed to Haster’s displeased gaze and continued chattering.

“You said earlier that you hadn’t made any deal with the Countess. I sounded her out too, and she only said it was a favor. Clary keeps insisting that you and the Countess are in that kind of relationship. But the more I think about it, the more it doesn’t sound entirely wrong. You haven’t been in the capital for very long, so why would Countess Stelly Troanne do you such a favor? Especially when she’s a liberal who hates becoming involved with the imperial family.”

“So?”

“I’m asking whether you’re already thinking of marrying someone else when you’re currently dating the Countess.”

“Countess Troanne and I have no relationship…… No, if I had to define it, we merely dated in the past.”

“You dated? When?”

“It was some time ago. We only dated for about three months when I was twenty.”

“Twenty? How could you hide that from me all this time?”

And how had he dated the person who seemed least likely to have any connection with him?

His violet eyes questioned Haster with a sense of betrayal, but Haster lightly ignored him.

“The Countess did me a favor not because she likes me, but because she feels indebted to me.”

Haster had been quite crazy about Troanne.

But that was in the past.

The two of them had loved each other, but the relationship didn’t last long.

Troanne was free-spirited.

And she was extremely fickle.

Just as she might go out to buy a muslin dress and return with a pile of silk shoes, she could love one man today and another tomorrow.

Because of that, the relationship between a woman who hated being tied down and her proud, overbearing young lover frequently soured.

Just as the relationship had begun abruptly, it ended the same way.

Troanne, who had unilaterally informed Haster of their breakup, carried a sense of indebtedness toward him.

Some people might have said she meant guilt, but what Troanne felt was unmistakably a sense of indebtedness.

She had warned him that she might leave at any time after finding another lover, and Haster had been the one who asked her to date him despite knowing that.

Her sense of indebtedness came from the fact that she had left during the most difficult time of his life.

She wanted to repay that debt, and Haster took advantage of the opportunity.

That was all.