@WhimsiCat apologies for being so late, but there are some points i wanted to address in regards to your comment.
to begin with, i agree with a lot of your sentiments about how he does care and just has difficulty showing it, leading to a number of misunderstandings, as well as how many of his actions probably stem from the fact that he’s worried about her health. however, the woman he takes with him to social gatherings in his wife’s stead, madeline, is not his sister. she’s the sister of his second-in-command, meaning there could very well be misunderstandings regarding the true nature of their relationship as they are not in any way, shape, or form siblings. that’s the reason rumors of him having two lovers were mentioned throughout the chapter rather than just rumors of one—the commoner girl.
the other thing i wanted to address was your stance on the rape that occurred in this chapter. sure, he was jealous, having assumed that his wife was attempting to elope with another man, but that
by no means justifies his behaviour towards her. in the first place, it means he doesn’t trust her enough to believe that a) she hadn’t initiated contact with the other man despite her adamant denial of having done so, b) she was telling the truth about desiring the marriage, and c) she was faithful enough not to cheat. the complete and utter lack of trust in her is a huge red flag in their relationship (although their entire relationship seems quite toxic already at this point in the story). it’s also rather concerning that his first thought when overwhelmed with jealousy is to turn to violence towards her. no amount of jealousy makes rape and violence towards a loved one okay.
i’m also unsure why you put rape in quotation marks, because it was 100% rape. she was sobbing, saying he was hurting her, and told him to stop. she clearly didn’t want to do anything with him in that moment. it doesn’t matter if they’re mutually in love, it doesn’t matter if they’re married, and it doesn’t matter if she wanted to do the deed before. the fact of the matter is that she strongly expressed her opposition and never gave consent, yet he went ahead and did it anyway.
that’s rape. and whether he was overcome with emotion or not, nothing can justify that.
who knows, maybe the next chapter will reveal that she did give consent somewhere along the line, slightly absolving him of the blame here; though he’d still be a scumbag for using violence against her out of jealousy. for now though, the name count asshen suits an asshole like him quite well.
@AnimeLova yesss preach 🙏🙏