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Chapter 6
“Is that why you went to see him?”
Roselyne asked, barely collecting her trembling voice.
“Yes. The Duke said he would help us.”
“Allen did…?”
Roselyne remained frozen in her hunched posture. After her marriage, she had sent him a single letter and never once replied thereafter.
“I know you feel guilty toward the Duke, Mother.”
“H-How do you know that?”
“I heard Rhea Werther saying so before. But Mother, right now, we have no other choice.”
Ludiana guided Roselyne’s stiffened body to a chair and gently placed her own small hand atop her mother’s. Though it was a hand not yet fully grown and could not cover Roselyne’s hand entirely, its warmth was more than enough to melt her frozen heart.
“Rhea Werther will never leave us alone. She might even kill you, Mother. If that happens, we…”
Ludiana trailed off and looked toward the terrace. To Roselyne, it was something that had not yet occurred, but Ludiana had already lived through it. There had been far too many suspicious circumstances surrounding Roselyne’s death.
Just putting it into words brought tears welling up in her eyes. At the hellish memories of her past life that made her chin tremble with sorrow, she turned her head to hide the tears trickling down her cheeks.
“Rudy…”
How terrified she must have been; with what thoughts had this young child gone all the way there? Not just this letter, but how much worry must she have carried for her mother? It felt as though Roselyne’s heart were being ripped to shreds.
“For your own sake, Mother—no, for our sakes—I want you to be strong.”
Ludiana’s trembling voice gradually settled down. And before long, her gaze hardened with firm resolve.
“Let’s leave Nurnbern.”
Roselyne quietly looked at Ludiana and at Irene standing behind her. The two most precious beings in her life. One of them, Ludiana, was trembling with anxiety. In the West, a divorce was considered an indelible disgrace upon a woman, but at this moment, none of that mattered.
“…Very well. Let’s do that.”
A resolute light blazed within Roselyne’s eyes, which shared the same violet hue as Ludiana’s.
Two days later, on the morning after the Emperor’s coronation ended, Roselyne made an appearance at the main house. Her determination not to let her two daughters live trapped as she had brought her here.
“…M-My Lady!”
Roselyne pushed open the heavy main doors of the mansion with her own hands. Since being banished to the annex, she had never once returned here. To her, this place was nothing more than a symbol of shameful memories.
As the doors swung open, the servants cleaning inside gaped open-mouthed, frozen in shock.
“Where is the Lord?”
This time, Roselyne held her head high with dignity.
“……”
The ‘legitimate wife of Nurnbern,’ who had lived like a shadow since being driven out, had suddenly returned and thrown open the doors herself. The servants were so startled they couldn’t even manage an answer.
“Do you not even bother to answer my words now?”
Her voice rose with a touch of annoyance.
“A-Ah! H-He is in his study!”
One of the flustered maids barely managed to open her mouth. No matter how reduced her status was in the annex, she was still the Duke’s lawful wife. Even if her family had fallen, no one dared to draw her wrath directly upon themselves.
Roselyne cast a cold, sharp glance at the other servants before ascending the grand central staircase. Watching this, Rhea’s personal maid gasped in horror and sprinted toward the servants’ staircase.
“L-Lady Rhea!”
She burst into Rhea’s room without even knocking.
“Good heavens, what do you think you’re doing?!” another maid shouted in surprise.
“What is the matter?”
Rhea did not scold the maid for acting rudely. The urgency in the maid’s voice made her intuitively sense that something far more pressing had occurred.
“M-My Lady—I mean, Lady Roselyne is currently heading toward the study!”
I almost called her ‘My Lady’…! The maid thought, breaking into a cold sweat.
“What did you say?”
Rhea’s face contorted in displeasure as she hurriedly stood up from her seat.
“On what business have you come all the way here?”
In the second-floor hallway near the study, Rhea Werther tilted her chin up and hid the corners of her mouth with a fan toward Roselyne, who was ascending the stairs.
“Is there a problem with coming to my own home?”
Roselyne clasped her trembling hands together, striving to keep her voice from shaking.
For the sake of my children, I can no longer yield before this woman.
At this unfamiliar side of Roselyne, Rhea’s eyes flickered violently. Her voice rose sharply.
“…Did the Lord happen to summon you?”
“No. I came on my own business.”
“Ha! I thought as much. The Lord is busy right now.”
Rhea sneered, tilting her chin up even higher.
“It makes no difference.”
Ignoring her, Roselyne walked past.
“I told you he is busy!”
Rhea blocked her path with a shrill voice.
“Being busy is no excuse to stand between a husband and wife, Miss Werther.”
Roselyne’s cold eyes swept down over her.
How dare you. You are merely a concubine—this is no place for you to interject.
No matter how much Rhea went around acting like the mistress of Nurnbern, the real wife was Roselyne.
“Y-You insolent—!”
Rhea’s face flushed bright red, and her voice choked in her throat from surging rage.
“How dare you…!”
Her hand holding the fan trembled violently.
“How dare I? Miss Werther, show proper etiquette.”
According to Imperial law, a concubine had to show utmost deference to the legitimate wife. Within the internal hierarchy of the household, Jonas let Rhea run wild because the husband determined the order, but by law and custom, she still stood beneath Roselyne.
Holding her head up with dignity, Roselyne walked right past her.
“Roselyne…!”
Rhea could only glare at the floor, trembling, unable to utter another word.
“You will regret this…!”
Meanwhile, Roselyne reached the study at the end of the hallway. Composing her trembling hands, she knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“…Enter.”
Jonas’s dry voice came from within.
Roselyne closed her eyes and opened them once more. Grasping the smooth doorknob, she pushed the heavy door open.
“…! My Lady!”
Rupert, standing beside Jonas, gasped in surprise.
“I have come to speak with you.”
“……”
Jonas looked at Roselyne, who walked resolutely toward his desk, with indifferent eyes.
Is this woman truly the Roselyne I used to know?
Her demeanor gave him a moment’s pause, but he soon gave a light nod, granting her the chance to speak.
“Please grant me a divorce.”
At those words, Rupert’s face turned pale with shock, and Jonas’s expression contorted coldly.
“A divorce? Have you lost your mind?”
In the Kalatos Empire, there was no woman who desired a divorce. Not even commoner women wanted one, let alone the meek and frail Roselyne. Yet here she was, demanding a divorce.
“Yes. Please grant me a divorce.”
“…You’ve clearly gone mad. Rupert, take her back to the annex.”
Has living locked away made her lose her mind? Tsk.
“I can no longer live like this. If you do not comply, I will submit this matter to the noble court.”
“What?”
Under Kalatos law, divorce was not impossible. If there were just cause or a hostile relationship within the marriage, one could request a divorce, and divorce by mutual consent was also possible.
But what woman would ever want that?
In truth, divorce trials were mostly pursued by men seeking to elevate their concubines to legitimate wives. Even then, most preferred to simply take a concubine rather than risk becoming the subject of shameful gossip in a public court.
Because a divorce trial was judged by a noble jury, the accompanying rumors and scandals were a humiliation hard to bear.
“I said I will submit it to the court. And should that happen, I will claim ownership rights over all property and business holdings related to Mjombeck.”
Mjombeck—that was Roselyne’s maiden house. Located at the crossroads of trade connecting the West and the East, the Count’s House of Mjombeck had accumulated vast wealth. However, after the Count, his wife, and the heir perished on the same day in a carriage accident, the family began to decline.
A giant noble family left with only a single daughter became easy prey for others. Jonas had not missed the opportunity and reached out, and Roselyne, desperate to protect her family, had taken his hand. But Jonas broke his promise and seized all of Mjombeck’s business rights, ascending to become a ruler of the West.
“Ha. Truly insane.”
One of Jonas’s eyebrows arched upward. A sneer spread across his face.
“I am not. I am entirely serious. But if you agree to a divorce by mutual consent, I will relinquish everything except for a single business holding.”
As if playing along with her tune, Jonas leaned back against his chair and crossed his arms.
“The Bruno Firm. I ask only for that one.”
“Bruno?”
The corners of Jonas’s mouth twisted into a smirk.
