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Chapter 7
At those words, I swallowed hard.
So he saw it. The divorce papers.
And when he had asked earlier if I had something to say to him… this was what he meant.
I wanted to avoid his gaze, but the look in his eyes was so fierce that I felt like I couldn’t.
It felt as if tears were about to spill over, but I forced them back and carefully clasped the hand that held mine.
The eyes that had flickered like blue flames slowly lowered to our joined hands.
At the same time, the crushing strength of his grip gradually loosened.
But his voice remained just as dark and heavy.
“Tell me. Why do you want a divorce?”
“Well…”
Wasn’t it because you never liked me in the first place?
Weren’t things already going well between you and Saint Seira, the heroine?
…There was no way I could say that in this situation.
Not in front of the protagonist who had returned with such an incomplete body.
After hesitating for a long while, I decided to avoid answering.
Forcing an awkward smile, I added a spoonful of desperate cuteness in the hopes of surviving.
“Can’t we… just not get divorced?”
“…Ha.”
Yeah, I know.
Even I thought that sounded ridiculous.
It wasn’t like I was joking around…
But I couldn’t think of any excuse.
If I blamed Ian like it had happened in the original story, things would probably become a complete disaster.
At the same time, I couldn’t simply agree to the divorce either.
Abandoning the protagonist, who had come back to life in such an incomplete state, and running away…
Perhaps it would have been kinder never to have brought him back at all.
Blake stared at me for a long time, his expression frozen as though he had lost the ability to speak.
Then, wearing a hollow expression, he finally released my hand and said,
“So now you don’t even want to tell me why. You’re just taking it back?”
It was obvious he no longer expected an answer from me.
A self-mocking smile appeared on his lips as he quietly muttered to himself,
“You know me too well.”
“Me?”
The person I understood the least in the world was my own husband.
Blake silently studied my bewildered expression before slowly standing up.
As he helped me to my feet—I had practically been sitting in his lap—he said,
“Don’t ever mention divorce again. That’s an order from your master.”
“…Yes.”
Looking at that terrifying expression, there was no way I’d ever dare bring it up again.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel afraid that if I stayed by his side, I might end up dying meaninglessly to a wolf just like in the original novel.
Maybe once the world’s destruction was successfully prevented like in the story… I should quietly run away on my own.
As I began revising my plans in my head, my eyes darted around.
Whether he had read the thoughts on my face or not, he sighed and said,
“You should go. I’ll have the maids bring you another meal to make up for the one you couldn’t finish.”
“…What about you, Your Highness?”
So…
I knew he couldn’t feel anything anymore.
He couldn’t feel pain.
He couldn’t taste food.
But…
Are you really okay?
Is it really fine if you don’t eat?
Perhaps he understood the meaning hidden behind my question.
Blake smiled faintly.
“Go to bed first. I still have work to finish. I’ll come back afterward.”
So that means…
If I asked whether we were sleeping in the same bed again tonight… that would probably be a bad idea.
Well, he had said he couldn’t sleep unless I was beside him…
In the end, I simply nodded without saying anything else.
Blake watched me leave the dining room with a softened expression.
Only after I stepped into the hallway and escaped that strange tension did I finally let out a long sigh.
“…Phew.”
The entire walk back to my bedroom, I couldn’t stop thinking.
Blake’s incomplete body seemed incapable of feeling most sensations.
A body that couldn’t feel cold or heat.
A body that never became sleepy and could never fall asleep.
A body that had lost its sense of taste, pain…
Even its sharpest senses.
And yet…
For some reason, I alone was still an exception.
You could say, At least he’s alive. Isn’t that enough?
But I couldn’t think so carelessly.
“You’re just a character inside a book, carrying out the role assigned to you. You don’t need free will. Just be a doll and do what you’re supposed to do.”
I couldn’t look at someone who was breathing and living right in front of me and think that way.
That would just be self-justification.
Nothing more than running away from reality.
No matter what, I had brought him back to life.
That meant I was responsible.
“This is driving me crazy…”
Nothing like this had ever appeared in the original novel’s side stories that I had read.
If this was simply the price that had to be paid for reviving someone who had already died, then perhaps it couldn’t be helped…
But before he was the husband who was supposed to divorce me…
He had been the protagonist of a novel I truly cherished.
I genuinely wanted him to be happy.
I wanted Blake to find happiness.
Reading the story that told his life, cheering him on, watching him reach that brilliant ending…
Those moments had made me incredibly happy.
But the madness I had glimpsed in his glittering eyes just now…
That dry, cold appearance, like a dead tree stripped of all life.
I never wanted to see the face that had once been so vibrant become someone who had given up on everything.
“…I’ll find a way. I have to.”
I’ll return you to the way you used to be.
No matter what it takes, I’ll turn you back into the dazzling protagonist I read about in that novel.
As though you had never been scarred at all.
Taking a deep breath, I strode forward with renewed determination.
“Ah, Your Highness! What brings you back? Didn’t you say you were having dinner with Her Highness today?”
It was Ron, Blake’s aide, who had been buried under piles of paperwork.
Seeing Blake return to the office late in the evening, Ron looked up with eyes full of expectation.
His Highness had looked to be in such a good mood when he left earlier…
But the Blake who returned simply stared at Ron expressionlessly.
Yikes. Things must not have gone well with Her Highness.
Ron quietly read the room and lowered the corners of his mouth that had unconsciously curled into a smile.
Blake still said nothing.
He simply walked over to Ron, held out his hand, and crooked a finger.
The cold, emotionless expression was the same one Ron had always seen on the Crown Prince.
But ever since his “resurrection,” there was something about him that felt…
“Give it to me.”
“Huh? G-Give you what?”
“The thing I told you to investigate yesterday.”
“The investigation? Ah, you mean about Saint Seira?”
“That’s right.”
Blake’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he answered in a low voice.
Ever since Blake had returned alive, Ron couldn’t shake the feeling that something about him had become frightening.
Pushing that thought aside, he began searching through the mountain of documents for the report on Seira.
Fortunately, despite the chaos of his desk, Ron had a remarkable talent for finding whatever he needed.
He didn’t keep Blake waiting long.
“Here it is! Though I only had one day to gather information, so there isn’t much in it…”
“…”
“Ah, by any chance… do you have an idea about Saint Seira’s disappearance, Your Highness?”
“I do.”
“W-What is it? Do you think she was kidnapped, like the Temple’s theory suggests?”
“There were no signs of an outside intrusion.”
“Well… magic could explain that! Or maybe, just like the locked-room murder aboard the Atman in the latest issue of German Times…”
“Ron. Stop talking nonsense.”
Stung by Blake’s sharp gaze, Ron immediately shut his mouth.
He carefully placed the report into Blake’s outstretched hand.
Blake remained standing as he flipped through the pages one by one with an indifferent gaze.
Eventually, it seemed he found what he had been looking for.
He stared at one page for a long moment.
Then…
He smiled.
But it was nothing like the bright, refreshing smile Ron was used to seeing.
It was a sneer.
Or perhaps a mocking smile.
Cold.
Dark.
The kind of smile that made people instinctively wary of the heavy darkness lurking beneath it.
Finally reaching the last page, Blake closed the report and handed it back to Ron.
Then, smiling faintly, he gave a quiet order.
“Burn it.”
Ron, who had been watching him in silence, cautiously spoke.
He simply couldn’t understand what the Crown Prince he served was thinking.
“What’s wrong, Your Highness? Did something happen with Saint Seira?”
“It did.”
“And now this confirms it.”
Blake answered briefly.
But the strange smile on his face looked less like a smile than something born of simmering rage.
It suited his cold features and decadent beauty so perfectly that Ron found himself staring blankly at him, as though gazing upon a terrifying work of art.
Until Blake spoke words that were far more frightening.
“Seira killed me.”
