How to Divorce the Male Lead Chapter 1 part3

Chapter 1 (part 3)

Meanwhile, Juliana Auburn was sitting in the drawing room. This was the first time in her life that her heart pounded so fast and loud. Taking the tea that the maids had respectfully handed to her, she nervously stirred her tea with a spoon then sent them all out.

After confirming that the door was closed and no one was around, Juliana pinched her cheeks.

“Oof!”

Her cheeks glowed red after she pinched it too hard. Then Juliana started slapping herself in the face.

“If only this was just a dream!”

But it was no dream. It was real and she had felt everything quite vividly.

Juliana cried out in her heart: If you’re going to remember your past life, do it from the start! What’s the point of remembering when you’re already about to be killed as the villainess character?!

“This is stupid!” Julina inwardly screamed as she gazed at her black tea.

Just a few days ago she had entertained her lovers in this very house, eating and drinking merrily as they all mocked the husband who hadn’t been home for a year.

At that time, I really had no idea that I was living in the world of a romantic fantasy novel with a rating of 4.4! The truth was that she was Juliana Auburn, the number 1 villainess of the novel who could only see her illegitimate husband’s flaws and was blind to his good qualities.

But last night’s dream changed everything. Now Juliana knew that she was nothing but a minor villainess character who would soon be killed.

“I’m nothing but a bit player… like parsley beside a steak…”

Juliana couldn’t control her feelings of frustration and hid her face in her hands. She was so overcome with her emotions that her shoulders shook. Soon she heard the sound of a group of people approaching on horseback.

“He’s here.”

Juliana rose abruptly and opened the window.

Indeed, it was her husband arriving with a group of his men. The parade of elite soldiers looked very grand as they rode up the main road to the mansion. Outside the mansion’s closed gate, the loud cheering of the welcoming crowd could be heard.

Juliana hurriedly closed the window and took a deep breath to calm herself.

Her husband was here.

The husband who, sooner or later, would kill her.

***

Juliana impatiently led the servants to the mansion’s entrance. The staff stood there to wait with the butler in the forefront as she walked to the gate. All of the soldiers on their horses looked large and intimidating, which made Juliana tremble in fear as she clasped her hands in front of her body.

“...What did Juliana originally do in the novel? No, no! If you were planning to do the same thing as her, why would you go outside like this? I’m trying to do something different to avoid death!”

Juliana had no intention of repeating Juliana’s foolish actions in the novel. Now that she had ’ve made up her mind, it was time for her to put her ideas into action.

The knight slowed down as he approached. Seeing Juliana standing on this unpaved dirt road was unprecedented.

“Who!”

Even Hilchen, clad in a black helmet and armor, stopped his black horse. If an enemy were to encounter this knight in the battlefield, they would be overawed by his menacing air.

Juliana’s eyes went wide with fright but she forced out a smile.

“Um, Evan, welcome home.”

The people watching all gasped loudly in shock with a sound like deflating balloons.

“The Duchess said ‘welcome home’!”

“To the Duke!”

Before the noise could become any louder, Juliana raised her voice to say, “I’ve been waiting.”

“...”

This time Juliana could hear the sound of Evan swallowing once then breathing heavily underneath his helmet.

Evan then got off his horse. He stopped in front of Juliana and took his helmet off, handing it to a waiting maid who had stepped forward from the line of servants behind them.

When he took the helmet, Juliana could smell sunshine and the fresh scent of rose-scented soap. It was the fragrance of a person who had just washed himself at an inn. Juliana stood frozen under the shadow of his large body.

Evan narrowed the distance between them. Then, despite Juliana’s vigilance, he quickly grasped her by the waist.

“Ack!” Juliana suddenly came face-to-face with Evan.

For one long moment, Juliana was trapped against his body that was still clad in heavy armor. Juliana couldn’t take her eyes off the blue eyes that were staring into hers.

Even’s eyes were sharp and cold, like those of a black hawk. The pupils of his deep blue eyes were as black as the abyss. Evan’s glance flickered over her face, his eyes blue as the sea.

“My wife…”

“...”

“... still hates me,” he scoffed softly.

“Oh, no!” said Juliana, shaking her head.

Evan frowned. It seemed that he was on the alert because he thought this might be her new way of insulting him.

Juliana found it hard to find the words to reassure him. “I, I said I was waiting for you.”

“...I see. You’re angry because I kept you waiting?” Evan nodded his understanding in response to her words. “This dirt road will have to be paved at once since it’s dirtying the hem of your dress.”

“... wh what?”

He said that he would have the road fixed just because he hated that it dirtied his wife’s dress. This man… was he crazy?

“You don't have to…”

“I'm glad you came to greet me,” he said softly, avoiding her eyes.

Ah, he’s shy! thought Juliana. She was astonished at his reaction.

This… what kind of novel is this?

She had dropped the novel because she was mad that she was spoiled by the comments. As the saying goes, unlucky people will break their noses even when they fall backwards. How unfortunate!

Juliana suppressed her turbulent emotions and forced herself to smile again. Her lips curved upwards in a strangely wide grin, like a smiling angel.

“You’ve suffered.”

Her husband smiled happily like a demon who had grabbed the enemy by the neck and cut off the barbarian’s legs to keep him from running away. He lightly kissed Juliana;s cheek with a shy smile like a boy in love.

“What a welcome! With this, I wouldn’t mind going off to fight barbarians for a few years.”

“Ah, what a terrible thing to say…” said Juliana. “Ha ha ha.”

She quickly retreated.

Evan, who was still standing beside his black horse, stood unmoving as he stared at her. Juliana coughed a little as though suffering from the cold then waved Evan forward.

“Evan, I’ll serve tea, so come inside and rest.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Evan moved quickly, as though he had never been frozen in place earlier. Despite wearing heavy armor, he swiftly entered the mansion.

***

(to be continued)  (The novel has a break in the text here so I'm also stopping here for today.)

Translation Notes:
I thought doing parenthetical notes would be intrusive so I’m putting the translation notes at the end. These are nothing too important though. You can skip reading these if you like.“Juliana’s eyes went wide with fright” - It’s actually “her eyes were spinning” but that is a bit weird in English. I went with a more natural-sounding idiom.“...a sound like deflating balloons.” I just non-literally translated 충격에 헛바람을 집어삼키는 소리를 냈다. It should be fine, lol.I've added a Table of Contents and Previous/Next chapter links for easier navigation.Thanks for all the comments!

Chapter end