Divorcing the Duke to Buy the World

Chapter 87: System Update!

Evelina watched them go, her posture remaining perfectly straight until the sound of the wheels died down.

Only then did she let out a slow, quiet breath.

"You shouldn’t have stopped me," Ace grumbled from behind her.

He reached out to grab her elbow, his grip tight and possessive. But his touch was still careful, as if he was afraid of pushing her too far after everything that had happened.

"Elian will just find another loophole tomorrow," he muttered.

Evelina took a small step back, "Let him try," she said, "He thinks he destroyed my supply. He doesn’t realize he just made the twenty wagons stuck at the city gates the only high-end linen left in the entire empire. Tomorrow, the price triples."

Ace stared at his empty hand, his fingers curling slightly where her arm had just been.

The fierce Duke who had just threatened an imperial army felt a familiar twist of helplessness in his chest.

It took quite some time to settle the situation around. After that, Evelina and Ace journeyed back to the capital guest estate together.

The carriage drowned in silence again. The bitter scent of wet soot clung ruthlessly to Evelina’s ruined lavender gown like a constant reminder of the huge fire.

Ace sat directly across from her.

His huge frame took up most of the small carriage space. Yet, he kept himself completely rigid, his hands resting tightly on his knees as if he were trying very hard not to crowd her.

His dark eyes never left her face.

The man sat there like a dragon guarding it’s treasure. Even the slightest movement in the air seemed to trigger him to react.

One look on his face and anybody would understand that he wanted to lock Evelina away in the North where the greedy palace wolves couldn’t touch her.

But he was helpless against her.

Evelina didn’t look at him. She didn’t give him even a glance.

Instead, she leaned her head back against the velvet cushions of the carriage, her eyes half-closed.

After the moment of crashout, Evelina’s brain was spinning at maximum speed... almost like she had found new strength again.

If the southern warehouses are gone, the northern transit wagons are my only leverage, she calculated behind her closed eyelids. I need to shift the market demand. I need to make Elian’s blockade work for me.

The continuous strain of the entire day finally caught up to her.

As the carriage wheels rolled, her heavy eyelids slipped shut slowly. She dozed off right there, her head tilting slightly to the side as she fell asleep.

Seeing her head drop, Ace’s moved instantly, his instincts kicking in before his brain could even process the action.

With extreme caution, he slid across the carriage seat and sat beside her.

He extended his large, leather-gloved hand, catching her head just before it could violently hit the hard wooden window frame.

The man held her like that for the rest of the ride.

When Evelina finally woke up, she wasn’t in the carriage anymore.

She was lying in her own bed inside the guest estate. The suffocating smell of smoke had dissipated and it was replaced by the scent of fresh linens and lavender incense.

The morning sun was already filtering through the heavy curtains, cutting through the dim room.

But what caught her attention first was a radiating heat pressing against her left hand.

She turned her head slightly.

Ace was sitting right beside her bed on a low wooden stool. His massive shoulders were hunched forward, and his head was resting near the edge of her mattress.

He hadn’t even changed his clothes. His dark military uniform was still heavily stained with ash. His large hand was wrapped firmly around her left hand.

His grip was almost possessive. His face looked incredibly haggard. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes, and his usually perfectly trimmed stubble was rough and messy.

It look like the man had dozed off while looking out for her.

She opened her mouth to call out to him but before she could utter a word, a deafening chime rang violently inside her skull.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Evelina winced, a sudden pressure blooming behind her eyes as the dormant translucent blue screen exploded into life directly over Ace’s sleeping head.

[CRITICAL REBOOT SUCCESSFUL!]

[Processing backlogged emotional trauma data from Primary Target: Ace Alvarez...]

[Analyzing target’s internal state during Host’s breakdown... Warning: Despair levels exceeded safe operating parameters!]

The lines of text began to scroll down at a breakneck speed.

[Target State: Utterly devastated. Consumed by regret. Ready to commit high treason for Host’s sake.]

[Calculating accumulated Heart-Wrecker points... Overflow detected!]

Ding!

[ACCUMULATED BALANCE:]

[+61, 000 Gold Coins!]

[+261,000 Heart-Wrecker Points!]

Evelina’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of it all.

The amount of points and gold had spiked since the last time when she had been able to see the balance.

And it looked like although the System had gone blank, her points and gold were still increasing through the events that took place.

As Evelina went through a few details, she realized that she had gained her balance for dealing with the Prince, uncovering Isabella’s plot with Lila, dealing with the revenue minister... And a major part of her heart wrecker points came from Ace’s fluctuating emotions.

It was a ridiculous fortune. This amount of gold was enough to completely rebuild the destroyed warehouses three times over and buy an entire shipping fleet on the southern river ports.

A glowing golden button appeared at the center of her vision: [CLAIM ALL].

Usually, the System sent all the gains to her balance but since it had been out for weeks and it was a huge spike, it asked her for confirmation.

Evelina’s finger instinctively twitched in the air, ready to smash the button and secure her capital.

With this much gold, Prince Elian’s luxury tax wouldn’t even be an inconvenience. She could simply buy the customs house itself.

But just as her finger hovered an inch away from the screen, a loud clank echoed in her mind.

CLANG!