How to Get My Husband on My Side

“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

“Who? Father-in-law? I guess he’s going through a mid-life crisis. The same also happened to our father.”

“… No, I’m talking about you, Ruby.”

Would you be in a good mood if you were me? Do you think I enjoy sitting next to you?

This b*stard had no conscience.

The audacity of him had me shaking my head and laughing to myself. This conversation was just so ridiculous. “Don’t say it like that. Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood? I’m having so much fun right now. You don’t have to glare at me like that. I’m good at managing my facial expressions, you know.”

My life must be one hell of a comedy to anyone watching.

“… Am I glaring at you?” Cesare, surprisingly, didn’t let much of anything show on his face. The faint look of confusion was gone within the blink of an eye.

“Actually, why don’t you put a smile on your face?” I hoped my sneering wasn’t that noticeable. “Your brother-in-law, who will most likely become the King of the North in the future, will appear at any moment, so shouldn’t you be showing your good side to him?”

Cesare didn’t say anything further. Instead, he just kept glancing at me while fiddling with the rosary in his hands.

His constant peeking was especially annoying today, but I decided to just put up with it since I didn’t want to hear him any longer.

Before long, the loud trumpets signaling the start of the match reverberated throughout the arena, but the rambunctious shouts and cries from the spectators drowned it all out as the entire coliseum filled with the crowd’s excitement.

My eardrums were about to burst. They were definitely going to burst.

Despite the fact that this was the moment I had been waiting for, I felt somewhat indifferent.

I hadn’t even thought about what would happen after this game was over.

I had nothing to lose anyway. Whatever happens, happens, no matter if I worried about it or not.

Everything is meaningless in the end, after all.

The first batch of monsters unleashed on the battlefield were Behemoths. They were animal-like demons of tremendous size and power, whose special ability was bewitching humans into giving in to one of the seven deadly sins, the sin of wrath.

They were ferocious and fearless creatures, unstoppable when angered, and they looked like a strange mix between a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, and a dinosaur. The monsters rushed out into the stadium and the jeers of the audience became even louder. I think I understand now why the people of this kingdom had so many anger management issues.

The crowd’s hollering and cheering, the Behemoths’ shrieking and screeching, all of it became too much.

There were so many Behemoths down there, how on earth could these people contain their anger? Did the cries of these monsters not trigger their wrath?

As if everything I knew about the monsters did not matter in the slightest, the players, who had been waiting for this moment, dauntlessly jumped into the fray with their holy swords drawn. The swords had been declared sacred by the priests during a holy ritual before the start of the game, and they clanged as the men boldly and confidently faced the beasts.

The shouts of the audience crying for blood, the roars of the demons, the sounds of metal and flesh meeting each other and the blinding lights of divinity sealed in the swords releasing and bursting forth like lightning strikes—everything made me nauseous.

“Kill it! Kill it!”

“Where are you looking at, you stupid b*stard?! You’re the disgrace of our family!”

it off! Hurry, hurry,

die here, don’t even

was

but everyone else seemed to

this just like the Olympics? Like other sports events? The human desire to see disaster happen was the same no matter

many of the Behemoths had been slaughtered already, there were still a few tenacious ones left that had withstood the bloodbath. And yet, when the last mana stone from the core of the monsters rolled across the floor, the roaring that incited the sin of

that had taken down the last monster

getting dragged out of

them to recover. That’s too bad,” Cesare said as he watched the helpers come out and clean up the mana stones

actually capable of

didn’t you bring Enzo, then? I’m pretty sure he would have jumped at the chance to participate. I mean,

crushed his arms while fighting here like those

fixated his eyes on me, looking for something. After a moment that lasted for too long, when I started to wonder if the corners of my mouth would be stuck in this

to participate, and Father would never allow it even if that punk had already traveled all the way here. But who knows if it

trying to get sympathy from me? I know damn well you wouldn’t have participated even

much better, isn’t that right? I think you’re having too much of a victim complex. Shouldn’t it be me out of the

mean? You know how much our

lie to me. If you thought of me as your real family, you wouldn’t have pimped me out five times.” All I could do was

have been different if I was? Would Father

fine. I’m the daughter of a courtesan, after all, so Father and Brother have truly been merciful. I really have nothing to complain

“Ruby…”

couldn’t make sense of and his

unfamiliar Cesare I was seeing would have been amusing to me if only I had the energy

time, the dust in the air and the stones on the ground had disappeared and been cleaned up. I wondered what

atmosphere was quite different

would charge at anything in their way without thought, but today’s monsters made the players be on their guard in a

turned solemn and the audience quieted down, the gloomy chill in the air making everyone’s hair stand on end. If yesterday’s match felt

to Hell,

to take

the madness hadn’t

monsters was overrun with ghouls. Their gray, decayed skin

men fell off the platform, but they didn’t seem to be injured. Rather, they seemed to have

or horse accidentally flew towards the edges of the platform, towards the audience, the sacred shield protecting us all

eyes of the Cardinals, including Cesare, unfortunately, and other high-ranking priests

always wondered why a committee was formed, because cheating just seemed impossible to do in this coliseum. The audience being seated so high up while all the players were down on the ground made it so that every single thing they did could be seen. But now I understood

matter at all, though, because the monsters kept on continuing their rampage and the audience kept on shouting their lungs out. The ghouls had been steadily killing and tearing apart the players, but the crowd didn’t seem to care whatsoever.

of the men down there fighting so hard to

over for the basket filled with candies, something made me halt. Someone had refilled it. I hadn’t noticed it,

some reason, so I pushed the basket away and grabbed the glass next

“That’s rum,” Cesare said.

“So?”

“… It’s strong.”

me drunk. Didn’t you tell me to have

far away on the battlefield as I saw him purse his lips. Perhaps he realized he was being contradictory, so he said, “I think the final victor has already been decided. Of course I’ve heard about his

“Really? How so?”