I don't understand, what were the servants supposed to investigate again? They're generally not trained to be spies. I guess you could hire a guild to run a background check, but what are we looking for?
More to the point, it's an accepted fact that the wife came to their home with only four or five cheap dresses in a suitcase and nothing else. The husband and mother-in-law both thought that the wife had decent clothing worthy of her station in that suitcase (because you normally would!), and she was just wearing "servant's attire" out of protest.
The husband never takes part in the bullying--his declaration that he has no intention of loving her is as mean as he gets. He stops the servants' bullying whenever he sees it, gets her properly outfitted immediately upon discovering she has no clothes, and always speaks to her with respect, and when she claims that his family is treating her well, he's even nicer to her because he doesn't want to make her a liar.
He's a complete green flag. Do NOT worry about it. This is as far from a regret novel as you can get.
He might not take part in it but he sure does watch it happen knowing well who ordered it and everything yet chooses to not stop it so yea he is technically taking part in the bullying by being an accomplice
I don't recall seeing anything like that when I read the manga, and I KNOW that nothing like that happened in the novel.
As I said before: the husband does help her. When she gets water poured on her, and when her clothes get stolen by the servants, he helps her and stops the servants from doing this again. Because it only happens the ONE TIME. They don't come back later and try something else. It's over right there, because he did something about it.
He doesn't do anything about the bullying in the kitchen, because he never heard anything about it until it was old news, and the wife had already won the kitchen servants over by that point. Why punish his wife's friends when a warning will do?
The only "bullying" he sees firsthand but doesn't immediately put a stop to is his mother criticizing her...because he can see his wife's face the entire time, and recognize that she's OBVIOUSLY ACTING! A "typical" noblewoman would normally argue back, but the wife not doing so, and instead "playing the victim" -- of course he's just going to observe her! He figures out very quickly that she's only pretending to be hurt by the bullying to keep the peace. Which, considering the novel is primarily written from her point of view, is an accurate conclusion! He's not mistaken at all!
I am well aware that there are terrible love interests in novels similar to these, but I say again, THIS IS NOT A REGRET NOVEL. The bullying stops, entirely, 100%, very soon after where we currently are in the manga. Probably 2-3 chapters from now. Which doesn't mean that bullying happens in those two chapters, it means that during the party they're preparing for in chapter three of the manga, the wife tells the third prince that her husband's household is treating her very well, and the husband thinks "I must fix anything that might possibly inconvenience my wife so that she's not a liar" and immediately starts trying to convince his mother to stop her bullying and criticism. (Note that he is only the Duke's son, not the Duke himself--he can't just kick out his mother until she grows some manners. His father is still alive, and until his father steps down, there's not much the husband can do other than talk.)
Again, the novel is only 51 chapters long, and the party where this conversation takes place is around chapter 12. So it happens really early in the novel.
Your writing is so good. I wish I could put two sentences together and argue in favor of my fav characters
Man, even if the male lead regrets or 'gets better', I still won’t like him. I’m the type of person who prefers proof over just reputation. Like, how can you hate someone just because someone else told you something? That’s just dumb. And you're a duke — you should have had a servant investigate first before you started believe nonsense.