Maybe I'm Pessimistic

Yeah I was thinking about this too but also, she can’t be to mad right? Like her plan was to have his kid so she could get a divorce and that’s the only reason she wanted a kid. Terribly selfish planning to destroy a kids life before he’s born. She can be upset that he lied but while knowing she is actively still lying to him? Idk either this makes her take a step back like you said or she just lets it go because her even wanting a child was lowkey a lie.

She does want a kid though just not for the reason's we would think someone wants a kid. She wanted one so that she would be able to get divorced without remarrying since her previous two marriages ended in suicide. In the context of this story, Ines' idea is not so different from the nobles that have kids just so they have heirs. Both of those are motivated by wanting to fulfill a duty to stabilize your (and your family's) position.

The real lie was that Ines made Carcel feel like she had chosen him to spend her life with him.

He's approaching their relationship quietly bc this whole time he knew he's walking on eggshell with her. Look at the beginning of their marriage again. He knew he couldn't even tell Ines he loves her bc he could sense that she would be scared of an actual relationship with him. Read that mermaid ch and you'll see why he hid things. Carcel isn't stupid. She's the one keeping secrets from him and he can sense that but he doesn't know her secrets so he's just playing things safe. Like someone else said, the only reason she wanted a child before was to get a child and then divorce bc she needed that child to keep her connected to Carcel's family so that the prince can't try to marry her. It's selfish of her to want a child that she just wants to use to divorce him after. He knows she doesn't even rly want a child with him bc he's not stupid and can sense she didn't love him before. It's only when they go on the hunting trip and they have a talk and Ines finally wants a child with him bc she wanted to be with him that he stopped taking the contraceptives but he still had them lying around so she finds them.

In the context of the story children aren't made from love though. They're a matter of duty. I don't think Carcel is taking the contraceptive because Ines doesn't want a love child with him. I think it's because of how worried he is about her health (which is also why he's not touching her as much as he used to) as he stated in the recent chapter.

Putting the child issue aside. Carcel is for sure not stupid. He's known since early on that Ines was scheming something and he did figure out that she was trying to get him to cheat on her. He notices Ines is planning stuff and his approach to it is to quietly try to find out what's going on and scheme secretly himself. Like yall said, he's probably just trying to play it safe.

In very simple terms, Ines had these secrets and plans because she felt detached from life and just wanted to finally die. Carcel made his own secret moves because he didn't want to make Ines angry by intruding in her space when she had already been putting distance between them since the beginning. He was essentially matching her energy. My issue comes with the following: Ines is opening up, letting go of her plans, and closing the distance between her and Carcel, but Carcel (after noticing that) is keeping the distance with no second thought. I feel like before he was meeting her halfway but now they're not on the same page. I don't blame Carcel. I like both characters quite a lot. I just feel like this is going to create unnecessary discord between them.

To Ines children aren't made from love but for Carcel, he only wants children for love bc he don't care about duty. Just read the whole beginning again. He nvr wanted to marry bc he didn't even care about his title or becoming a duke. He cared more about his navy title more than his family title. The love child adds to the reason. If Ines was going to die for a child she don't even want to have from love, that gives it even lesser reason to have a child. Ines is opening up now and letting go of her plans but he don't know that. It was only like what, a few days ago when she invited that woman to their home to get him to cheat. Ines only suddenly stopped after he confessed and he is noticing she's opening up more but that's not enough to make him feel secure when the whole time she be pushing him away. Unless if she rly show she want a child with him bc she love him, there no reason for him to think she changed when she been plotting and using him for years. I don't think he's wrong to do what he did when Ines didn't even tell him anything. She's opening up a bit but it's too recent for him to even think she rly likes him.

When he gets his memories, he will even keep asking Ines if she rly likes him bc he don't believe that. That's just how insecure he is of her feelings to him bc of how she acted to him all these yrs.

I don't really understand where you are coming from. Carcel's original plan was always to marry Ines out of duty (and continue his bloodline). Yes, he ran away for multiple years. But he never considered not marrying her and he says that explicitly in one of the early chapters. There was never a "I will only have a child with her if I fall in love with her". And there was also never a "Because she's in love with me, I will give her a child" when he thought Ines was pining after him in the beginning of the story. It was never about having kids because they love each other. The only reason he doesn't want a kid right now is because it may harm Ines' health.

Also, Carcel isn't stupid. He knows how to read Ines very well. If there are any changes in Ines, Carcel notices all of them. That's how he was able to figure out part of her plan that absolutely no one knows about. Once he got over his only misinterpretation of Ines words in the story (the 5-6 year old event where he thought Ines asked to be engaged to him out of love), Carcel understood that Ines didn't care for him whatsoever. He got a small house just to force Ines to be closer to him. And now that Ines is starting to care about him Carcel knows that, he acknowledges it, and he knowingly takes advantage of it to be more clingy. There's never been this sort of situation you are describing were Carcel spends his time drowned in insecurity wondering if Ines loves him. He knows she's not in love with him. He has also never said anything remotely close to "Well if Ines falls in love with me, I'll ignore her health and give her a child". The only reason he doesn't want a kid is because he loves her and thinks that it may harm her health .

He still follow what his family wants but he himself nvr cared about the duty. He is just someone very responsible. He doesn't think about having a child only out of love but love factors into why he now doesn't want a child with her when she's sick bc he doesn't want her to die for something that isn't even love. If she's doing it for love, then he can go ok there is a better reason to have a child bc he don't care about inheritance so that isn't enough reason for him to risk Ines' life to continue his family line.

There will be what I describe, It's not in the manhwa yet but it'll come so that will show what I said is right. It's a spoiler. I wasn't using that example from the manhwa. It was after Ines return to Mendoza and he came to visit her after he got his memories again and he would feel very insecure. He keep asking Ines if she likes him and she will keep telling him that she does. This was after they went on the hunting trip and she even told him in the hunting trip to keep loving her and wait for her so he was still insecure after all that.

You are misunderstanding my words. I nvr even said he wouldn't care about her health if she loves him. What I said was that if she wants a child out of love, that's a better reason to risk her life than for just wanting a child for duty.

I skipped your spoiler cause I don't want to know. I still don't see how whether Ines loves Carcel or not matters in the current discussion about Carcel wanting to use contraceptives. We can agree to disagree. To summarize what I've said before:
1) It's not selfish for Ines to want a kid even if she doesn't love Carcel because love in this setting is not necessary to bear or raise an heir. It's all about duty. Even if she planned to divorce Carcel, in the story it's been made clear that married noble couples only do so for bearing heirs which is why having lovers is so common.
2) The current Carcel won't get Ines pregnant solely because he's concerned about her health. It has nothing to do with whether Ines loves him or not.
3) Carcel knows Ines very well. He knows she's opening up to him. But instead of accepting that she's coming closer to him, he's pushing her away and keeping secrets. This is bound to create a misunderstanding. Whereas there was no trust between them before, Ines is now trying to trust Carcel more than she has ever trusted anyone in this life. Carcel seeks that and is, by not being honest, breaking that trust.