WYDM 34

Was it just her imagination that it felt like he was indirectly insulting Ethan? Sehera couldn’t smile back at him, but she didn’t challenge his words either.

“You should go. You’re already late and getting later.”

He nodded, seemingly knowing the answer he wanted wouldn’t come.

“Then I’ll be going. Go inside.”

After softly bidding farewell in a gentle voice, he took her in with his eyes for a moment longer before boarding the carriage.

The coachman of the first carriage cracked his whip, seemingly having waited only for him to board. The sound of horses echoing in the darkness announced their departure.

Sehera stood there taking in that light until the gentle glow from the luminous stones disappeared from view. Losing that light, Sehera immediately turned around.

The Planer count’s estate, its outer walls illuminated by gentle lighting.

She had much to do. Like Fredil had said, she couldn’t be caught up in past emotions and wander without moving forward.

“I need to move on quickly. That’ll make things easier in many ways.”

Muttering with mixed feelings, Sehera stepped into the estate. And her footsteps naturally climbed the second-floor stairs, then turned right instead of left.

First, she needed to settle this worry.

Knock, knock, knock.

She properly knocked at the door of a place she hadn’t entered once in the past year, a room she’d simply opened and entered directly these past few days.

For him, who might be awake.

“Come in.”

A low voice came from inside. Fortunately, it wasn’t irritable or stiff. She thought Himoph had probably stopped by while she was seeing Fredil off, checked his condition, and left painkillers.

When she opened the door and entered, she felt the air settled quietly, seemingly without movement for a long time.

Had it felt like this when he was sick at the ducal estate too? Back then, Ethan had refused Sehera’s nursing, but no one had replaced her either.

She remembered the doctor frequently coming and going for treatment, but not staying by his side to nurse him the whole time.

Had he needed quietness… had having someone beside him been difficult?

“Did you enjoy… inviting yourself as an uninvited guest today?”

Sehera stood inside the door without approaching and said this. Whether her sharp tone reached him properly, Ethan, half-lying on the bed, flinched and slowly turned his head this way.

In her heart she felt tenderness toward him, but her words didn’t come out that way. The desire to deny these feelings seemed to twist her mouth.

By properly treating and nursing his injured self, she’d accomplish what she’d most wanted to do for two years, and once she saw him recover healthily, wouldn’t she feel relieved?

She’d tried to let go of all the past lodged in her heart and send him off. From this estate and from her heart.

“What uninvited guest? I’m your husband.”

Just when she thought a quarrel would continue, he suddenly said something strange.

“Husband…? We already divorced a year ago. What are you suddenly trying to say?”

Sehera looked at him with genuine seriousness. She’d wanted to end things with good memories, but the more they clashed like this, only bad words kept pouring out, which upset Sehera.

“Divorce? When did we… divorce?”

Sehera now frowned. What on earth was this about?

She’d definitely left the divorce agreement at his estate a year ago.

Even then, she’d visited a lawyer and confirmed it several times.

“I clearly left my intentions. In the letter I sent first, and in the documents I left when I departed the ducal estate. No matter how busy you were with war this past year, you must have heard about it. Everyone knows you and I divorced. Are you going to pretend not to know? Overturn it?”

At Sehera’s clear questioning, he pressed his lips tightly shut.

Earlier she’d definitely thought of Ethan while facing Fredil, but now even while looking at his face, she couldn’t recall the face of the Ethan she’d remembered earlier.

But his face was the same. At her words questioning him point by point with clear pronunciation, he looked momentarily surprised.

What kind of fantasy had she been living in? Had he… really known nothing about her at all?

She hadn’t hoped for special affection, but she’d thought they could live similarly to other noble couples, gradually building marital affection. And… she’d thought she could be satisfied with that.

But what was this… What exactly? Had he disliked her this much? No, if he’d disliked her, he would have happily signed the divorce papers…

Ethan narrowed his eyes, seemingly looking at her confusion. Probably because of the slight distance, he couldn’t see properly.

It was fortunate she hadn’t approached closer.

“That’s all because of what you left behind. You said you left documents, so naturally you believed I processed them. But I… didn’t process them.”

Sehera bit her lower lip hard. She’d thought she’d handled everything cleanly before leaving.

She’d sent him a letter first asking his intentions but received no answer, and fearing that would happen again, she’d left the letter and documents perfectly and returned to the count’s estate.

While thinking the absurd thought—laughable now in hindsight—of what if he came looking for her asking her to return.

Naturally, she’d been labeled a divorced young lady. She hadn’t yet properly reclaimed the count’s title, and she was a woman. For a mere young lady with no one to support her… it had been truly difficult to do anything.

If Fredil and Traver hadn’t supported her firmly and Sana and Romina hadn’t properly comforted her, there would have been plenty of problems both mentally and in the progress of Dirk’s business.

“You’re truly masterful at making people look foolish.”

Ethan wanted her standing far away to come closer. He wanted her to nurse him by his side like this morning.

Having her by his side was indeed embarrassing to show his body in pain and unable to function properly, but his heart felt so comfortable.

She’d truly not left his side for several days. At that devoted nursing that seemed to feel like affection, Ethan thought they could still turn things around.

That there’d been a battle in the nearby wilderness, that he’d changed plans with a surprise attack, that he’d received such a serious wound there and entered this village and even into the estate—it all seemed like God had brought her before him.

He felt strongly that he needed to hold onto her. Even while overexerting himself to go downstairs and being treated as an uninvited guest, after sitting briefly and seeing the current Sehera, that feeling solidified.

That’s why he’d said it. That she wasn’t actually divorced and could return anytime.

Because he’d brought back many victory reports and the time had come to settle the war.

But Sehera’s reaction… was a bit different from what he’d thought. Ethan was even more surprised than before by Sehera’s voice speaking coldly and chillingly enough to chill his bones, unlike before.

He rapidly worked his mind to find what part of his words she should be angry about.

“What feelings I had when I wrote that letter, what feelings I had when I wrote those documents… you never, not even once, thought about it.”

No, he had thought about it. That’s why he went to war even harder. Leaving the divorce papers aside, to quickly end this war, establish the Croft name by earning merit, receive plenty of rewards, and revive not only Croft but Planer too.

And then he’d planned to appear saying these divorce papers were never processed.

But…

Ethan didn’t even know his own eyes were trembling as he tried to understand Sehera’s reaction.

And Sehera, being far away, didn’t see his eyes trembling. To her eyes, he only looked like he was sitting there stoically just like before.

“From the beginning, I… really dreamed a useless dream. If you disliked it that much… No, never mind that. The document processing doesn’t seem to be the issue. Since everyone in the world already knows, we’re divorced, Your Grace.”

“That’s…”

Her words were right. Processing the documents was of course an important part, but the two of them were already considered divorced among the nobles.

The war-crazed duke and the former duchess who’d fled to her own territory.

He couldn’t understand what exactly made her want this divorce so much. He’d just wanted to work hard so she could live comfortably…

Now wasn’t the time to question what he’d wanted to do or why, and try to persuade her.

She was showing a reaction he’d never seen before, revealing emotions close to resignation.

“Rest. You must have struggled coming downstairs with that body today.”

Sehera only said that and turned around again. Her hair flew as she turned, seemingly expressing that cold turning away.

“W-wait… Sehera…!”

He belatedly spoke her name, but it was swallowed by the sound of her opening the door.

And she left the room without looking back and closed the door. With carpet laid in the hallway, he couldn’t tell whether she was standing there or hurrying away.

Left blankly in the bedroom, Ethan could do nothing but blink for a while. Her voice, the trembling contained in it, seemed like it would confuse Ethan for some time.

“Sehera…”

What should he have done? His heart grew urgent.

He’d thought the unprocessed divorce papers were his final trump card, but apparently that part was what had hurt her.

In his urgency, he tried to lower his feet outside the bed but had to grit his teeth at the suffocating pain.

Since pressing his chest in pain would make things worse, he gripped the bed so hard his knuckles turned white.

If he missed this moment, it would be terrible. By her side… there was already a man outstanding in both appearance and ability. He wasn’t a knight, so he wouldn’t go to war, and from what he could see, even if he wasn’t high nobility…

That would never matter to Sehera.

He couldn’t let that guy take her. In Ethan’s mind, Sehera and that pretty-looking man floated together. Not to that one man who’d openly displayed his clear feelings before her without filter.