Chapter 13

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Adel, on days when her body was tired, would draw a hot bath, dissolve plenty of bath salts, and soak herself in it. It was when she was trying to lift her spirits by matching her dark, spiraling thoughts to the steaming bath.

“The Count is looking for you.”

“Ah, Ben….”

Ben, seeing her expression, cleared his throat for a moment and looked around.

“I will say you are already in the bath. Please come slowly.”

Ben was, of course, a longtime retainer of House Devryan, but he was also the one who had looked after Adel since her childhood. Grateful anew for his consideration, Adel was able to smile brightly.

She had finished her bath long ago, but she did not go to Ethan even late into the night. She wanted to avoid meeting him as much as possible, but she could not keep ignoring the head of the family’s summons.

Dragging her heavy feet, she entered the main house with Susan, and Ben came out to greet her.

“You are here?”

“Where is the Count?”

“He is in his office.”

She had assumed he would naturally be in his bedchamber at this late hour, but he was still in his office.

“However… there is a guest with him.”

The only person who could be with him in his office at this hour, and whom Ben would call a guest, was Annaston.

When Adel let out an involuntary sigh, Ben quietly asked.

“Shall I announce you first?”

“No, leave it. I do not wish to meet the Count alone today.”

Something had clearly upset him today. So Adel did not particularly want to send Annaston away. Seeing Ethan take her side in front of her would be dreadful, but ever since that night she had refused him, being alone with Ethan had become something she kept avoiding.

The mansion was so quiet that the sound of an ant crawling could be heard. At night, the knights guarding the front door to strengthen the mansion’s security all patrolled the surroundings and stood watch at each building. Because of that, even before she reached his office, a woman’s sharp voice reached her first.

Perhaps the door was open, for the sound grew increasingly distinct.

“Why won’t you send her away?”

At Annaston’s clear voice, Ben panicked and tried to overtake Adel with quick steps. But Adel caught Ben’s arm and put a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

Soon Ethan’s words followed.

“Anna, calm down. You have not yet had your name entered in the noble registry.”

“I understand that divorce also requires a long time. So I am saying we should hurry.”

“Nobles cannot divorce as easily as commoners.”

“What… on earth does that mean?”

“It means exactly what it says. Divorce between nobles is not an easy matter.”

For some time now, Ethan had found meeting Anna simply tiresome. In his childhood, this woman had been like a light in his stifling life.

But Anna, who had reappeared, always demanded something of him and was always a little angry. Thinking that the years she had spent outside must have been so hard, Ethan tried to understand her. But the thought did not linger long.

“I know all about it. That if a marriage produces no heir for five years or more, it becomes grounds for divorce.”

“That is… not Adel’s fault.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Anna, please… I am tired right now.”

Ethan, his voice thick with fatigue, pressed his hand to his forehead.

“Do you know what I have heard most from you since I returned here?”

He did not answer, but Anna went on.

“The words ‘I am tired right now.’ If that was how it was going to be, why did you accept me—accept Lewein—in the first place? Why make me so miserable? Why!”

Ethan wondered just what part of this made her feel miserable, but he did not ask. The more he spoke, the longer the conversation would only become.

“I am not telling you to initiate divorce proceedings right now. I am asking you to promise me.”

“Promise what?”

“A promise to divorce. Was that not what you had in mind from the start when you decided to make me a noble?”

“What on earth are you talking about? That was not it. I simply did not want to leave Lewein in such an ambiguous position.”

In Hessenia, a child born to a maid in a noble house ultimately followed the mother’s line and became a commoner; once past adulthood, the child could not remain in the mansion. With financial support, the child might live a better life than an ordinary commoner, but most such children grew twisted, degrading their own status.

“What does that mean? Are you saying you would take Lewein from me and adopt him as that woman’s son?”

“Countess.”

“Pardon?”

“Even so, you are the mistress of House Devryan. What is this ‘that woman’?”

“Is that important right now? I waited only for you to inherit the title. Do you know what I have endured all this time? Do you know how hard it is for a woman to raise a child alone with no protection? You cannot even imagine.”

When Anna sniffled and shed tears, Ethan inevitably began to fluster. Since childhood, this woman’s tears had a way of leaving him helpless.

Anna, a year older than he, had been a strikingly beautiful woman even among the maids. Ethan still remembered the joy of clinging to a woman who said she could never accept him and wresting from her the words “I love you.”

“Anna, I am sorry. Please stop crying.”

“You swore eternal love. You said you would die without me.”

Soon the muffled sound of the woman weeping in the man’s arms was heard.

She had waited for the story to end quickly, but their tale showed no sign of ending. Adel thought it was time to step away from the lovers’ quarrel. She let out a sigh and turned around.

“Tell me honestly. Your love for me has cooled now, hasn’t it? You have feelings for that woman. Don’t you?”

But Anna’s question caught Adel’s feet again. She should go back, but she was so curious about his answer. To be caught by something she already knew was foolish lingering. Yet even as she waited, Ethan’s answer did not come. Perhaps the woman had pushed him, for her voice came clear again.

“Look at this. Your heart has changed. You pushed me into that pit, you turned my life into mud!”

“That is… not it.”

“Then what? Why won’t you accept me? Why won’t you divorce that woman? You said you loved only me. Are you telling me to share you?”

After being asked whether he loved Adel, Ethan could think of nothing. To Anna’s demand for a divorce, he was thinking only that he absolutely could not part with Adel. In that moment, he felt as if he had been driven to the edge of a cliff.

“Tell me. Tell me! Is it because you love that woman? Tell me why!”

“Please stop. I do not want to have this conversation.”

“If you do not tell me now, I will take Lewein and run away from this mansion this instant. I will go somewhere you will never find us!”

When she turned as if to leave, Ethan grew urgent.

“The dukedom!”

“What?”

“Yes, the dukedom. As a condition of marrying Adel, Her Highness the Crown Princess promised our family a ducal title. As you know, Adel is the Crown Princess’s sister. She will soon ascend to the position of empress, so until then, I cannot divorce her.”

After he spoke, Ethan felt strangely at ease.

Honestly, Ethan had no particular interest in a ducal title in the capital. Of course, he knew that position was the highest glory obtainable as a collateral branch of the imperial family. For a count to obtain a dukedom in the Empire was all but impossible.

The Crown Prince’s ascension was not far off. In such a situation, if he cast out the empress’s sister, by what means could he receive a title?

Yes, with that reason, Anna would not be able to torment him for the time being.

As if proving his thought, Anna, who had been shouting in agitation, quieted. Ethan decided to drive the nail in at this point.

“So for the time being, I absolutely cannot divorce.”

Ben, having heard everything from outside, could no longer bear it and put strength into his feet to go toward the office. But the Countess’s action, holding his arm, was faster.

Adel shook her head and stopped him. Then she quickly moved her steps not to the office but to the stairs.

Once out of the main house, Susan, who had been quietly enduring until now, raised her voice.

“Why on earth are you not saying anything? Go in and give that Anna woman a proper scolding. How dare she covet this position? A lowly maid, no less.”

“Susan, maids are not lowly.”

But Adel could not scold her, for she knew that even in her distraction, Susan was crying.

“Why are you just retreating? Go right now and say your piece. And report all of this to Her Highness the Crown Princess. Tell her to ensure that even after giving the dukedom, they cannot divorce.”

“Be quiet. At this rate, you will wake everyone in the mansion.”

“Then just tell them you heard everything. If you cannot, madam, I will.”

Adel gripped the hand of Susan, who was about to go back inside.

“Never, never step forward.”

“But madam, this is not something to just let pass.”

“Do not. You must not.”

“Why on earth? Why not?”

“Because I have… nowhere to go.”

“Pardon?”

“I said I have nowhere to go.”

It was not that Adel did not know how dreadful the current situation was. But she literally had nowhere to go. If she stepped forward now and demanded a divorce in exchange for the dukedom, he would likely grant it at once. And then?

A woman divorced without an heir returns to her natal family. Then that vicious Max Millium would surely hand her over to become the second wife of a member of the imperial family. And then she would inevitably become her sister’s enemy.

Feeling dreadful, Adel trembled.

To think she had been going on about love when she could not know even an inch ahead of what would become of her—she could not bear how pathetic she was.