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chapter 34
└ [Tutor takes another loss today]
Ahem. Well, anyone might want to skip a day once in a while.
Left behind with me, Hestina watched Damian’s retreating back with a calmness that suggested she was used to this sort of thing.
The affection in her eyes drew my attention.
‘Taking care of her son like that, personally looking over the shopping district and the territory…’
She might not be married to the duke anymore, but she was doing everything a duchess would.
Which only made me wonder even more:
‘Why did they get divorced?’
The comment fairies had explained vaguely, but their reports were always blurry second-hand gossip.
During our outing and then tea time, I quietly slipped in the question.
“Miss Hestina… why don’t you live here anymore?”
“Is that what you’re curious about?”
“Yes. Um, you have family here, so living separately feels unusual.”
I was also wondering whether she had some kind of hidden health issue.
While I spoke, Hestina placed a cookie on my plate—as if telling me to eat—and then began.
“Well… There are many reasons, but if I had to put it simply: we didn’t need to insist on staying married.”
She stared into the empty air, as if pulling up old memories, then summarized her stance.
As the wealthy second daughter of an earl’s family, she had never needed the practical benefits of marriage—and she still didn’t.
“To be honest, talk of divorce came up several times even before it happened.”
As everyone knows, Duke Valente served as the Commander of the Imperial Knights—someone who fought on the front lines.
Wars didn’t happen nonstop, so the emperor and the knights sometimes came home before departing again.
Apparently, when he returned home on one such occasion, the duke himself brought up the idea of divorce.
Because… he was afraid that Hestina would end up widowed and alone.
└ [OMG Father is so sweet ㅠㅠ]
└ [Then why is he like that to Rose]
└ [Mother waiting for him to return alive after ending the war… true lionheart wife]
└ [She’s explaining why they divorced but I somehow understand less now]
Right? All this tells me is that they didn’t have a bad relationship.
I must have looked confused, because she summarized further:
“Living apart was always one of the options on the table.”
And the reasons didn’t end there. Hestina’s story gradually moved further into the past.
“The reason I didn’t dismiss his nonsense outright… hmm. It was on the day of our wedding.”
She and her new husband, Duke Valente, had a private moment to talk about their future household.
└ [She means their wedding night, right?]
└ [Oho]
‘Please do NOT add context she skipped because of the child present…!’
He might be only five, but that doesn’t mean he’ll automatically filter out the term ‘wedding night’!
While I tried to keep a straight face, Hestina continued.
“You know the duke is a knight who protects the country. So I told him—building a household is like running a small nation… so at home, he must devote all his heart and body to me.”
…On their wedding night?
└ [On the bed?]
└ [Devote his whole body??]
Stop specifying the location. Stop highlighting the innuendo!!
└ [Slay, queen..]
And why did “Mother” suddenly become “Queen”?!
└ [If she’s cool, she’s an unnie, period!!]
└ [Author give us a side story PLEASE]
└ [I would read every page]
The romance-loving fairies were now chirping excitedly about someone else’s love story.
Between the unexpected twist in the conversation and the fairies’ noise, my head was spinning.
└ [Too fast-paced for loveless Rose]
My lack of dating experience isn’t the point!!
‘Is… is this okay for me to hear?!’
And just when I thought it couldn’t get heavier—
“Well, the duke said this in response.”
What the duke answered was even worse.
“He said he is His Majesty’s knight and therefore can only devote loyalty to His Majesty.”
└ [On the wedding night??]
└ […On the bed??]
└ [Oh… Father…]
Earlier the fairies sparkled with excitement—now their eyes were dead.
└ [Valid reason for divorce tbh]
……I understood immediately.
“At the time, the country had to be protected for the family to survive, so I understood. But I thought… priorities can always change in the future.”
“Yes…”
So they separated because their values diverged. That part made sense.
‘But if that comment was what cooled things… why was the divorce so late?’
They waited until after the war ended.
There must have been another unstated reason.
“Don’t you want to stay with Damian?”
“Of course.”
For a brief moment, something lonely flashed across her eyes.
Looking out the window at a bird in flight, Hestina added:
“The position of duchess… means always standing before everyone as the duchess. That wasn’t what I wanted.”
Seeing my puzzled look, she rephrased it simply.
“I didn’t want to be ‘the duchess.’ I wanted to live as Hestina.”
“Ahh…”
└ [But wouldn’t she have more power as the duchess?]
Normally, yes. Wealth and status let you do more.
But Duke Valente’s situation was different.
Putting everything together…
‘It’s because of His Majesty, isn’t it.’
└ [Does the emperor like the duke]
└ [HUH??]
└ [Did he chase out the wife to monopolize him???]
└ [Duke’s irresistible charm arc]
└ [That’s a different genre STOP]
WHAT are they imagining?!
I’ve only met His Majesty a few times, but I know a decent amount.
After all, he almost became my father-in-law. I’d heard a lot from the second prince.
His Majesty is extremely wary of powerful in-law families.
Even in the previous reign, they struggled with that issue.
That’s why the second prince’s mother’s family grew resentful—they were close to the noble faction.
Meanwhile, the crown prince’s mother was a princess from an allied kingdom and had little influence here before passing away from illness.
└ [Everywhere Rose goes, the mother is dead, so the motherless crown prince is the male lead]
└ [Is… is that a slur?]
└ [NO I SWEAR IT’S NOT ㅠㅠ]
Anyway—
If the imperial family keeps foreign relatives in check, imagine what they’d do if the duchess controlled the Duke House.
If Hestina ever overstepped, the pressure from the crown would be unbearable.
So she gave up the status of duchess and chose freedom instead.
└ [A duke with zero ego and a mother with EXTRA ego—soulmates confirmed]
I don’t know if the duke truly has zero ego, but…
What mattered to me was this:
Even though she was no longer part of the Duke House, within this family of three, she still had influence. That was important for my situation.
“Can’t I stay here? The duke keeps telling me I can’t.”
“I agree with him, dear. This isn’t a place for a child to grow up. That’s why Damian is going to the academy—it’s better for a child to learn and grow elsewhere.”
Meaning: a child shouldn’t be raised inside the duke’s estate.
But if I followed that logic, the only place left for an orphan like me was the orphanage again.
Seeing that I didn’t look convinced, Hestina redirected the question:
“Is there a reason you don’t want to go back to the orphanage?”
“It’s not that I hate it. But… if someone comes to take me away, I’d just have to follow them, right?”
Following Duke Valente on my own two feet and then saying this felt contradictory, but—
I immediately presented a reason she’d accept.
“My real parents! I want to find my real parents.”
“You remember something about them?”
“Uh, um, maybe a little…? I don’t think they had yellow hair like mine. One time a blond man came saying he was my father and tried to take me. I didn’t want to go with him.”
Amazing how convenient it was having zero records about my birth parents—it let me lie without getting caught.
“That’s why I asked the duke to be my guardian. He said that way I wouldn’t be taken away immediately.”
That, with a pinch of fabrication, was the story of how I ended up following the duke.
Hestina nodded in understanding.
Then she spoke lightly—almost too lightly.
“If that’s the case, then I’ll be your guardian.”
“Really?!”
└ [YESS only Mother gives us true satisfaction]
└ [Father was only a stepping stone]
└ [Father?? Did we ever have one? All I see is Mother]
