A Second Divorce is Difficult - Side Story 3 - The Emperor and the Empress (10)

Side Story 3 – The Emperor and the Empress (10)

The door to the room opened long afterward.

Only one person’s footsteps could be heard, so Arlen assumed it must be the jeweler.

“I will no longer sell you that jewel, so give it back.”

The bracelet was her only hope, and she couldn’t give it up.

For whatever reason, if this jeweler couldn’t buy it, she would sell it to another.

“Oh, no, the bracelet has already been returned to its owner.”

Arlen’s eyes widened at the unexpected voice, and her gaze shifted to the voice’s owner.

It was Shannua who had entered the room alone.

He sat down on a chair inside, holding a small lantern he had brought with him.

He wiped the dust off the chair with his handkerchief before sitting down.

“I didn’t even get to say hello properly, and here we are again.”

“Uh…… how……”

Arlen asked and tried to hide her pitiful state from the light and Shannua’s gaze, but failed.

“You tried to sell my stuff, didn’t you?”

His words startled her.

“Of course. You knew I wore this bracelet every day, so you were trying to get rid of it at that moment.”

“Well, you gave it to me anyway, and now it’s mine, so it’s up to me to sell it.”

She cowered in the corner, avoiding eye contact.

Shannua had been wearing a bracelet with a single blue gemstone, nothing fancy, for some time now.

She hadn’t seen him in years, but she remembered because he hadn’t taken it off since the moment Arlen had noticed its presence.

It had been fate, she thought, that the bracelet had come into her field of vision as she was forced to the ground in Bloomfield. Everything about it, from the way she managed to snatch it out of his hands in a split second to the way Shannua generously gave it to her afterward.

But the bracelet that Arlen had stolen from Shannua and intended to sell was now back on his wrist.

“What were you planning to do by selling it?”

“It’s going to the priest in the city…….”

Shannua looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

“I’m going to… fix my face. If I fix my face, I can go back to how things were!”

“…….”

“That woman’s place is mine; it’s my place; it’s where I should have been…… and you know it.”

As if she hadn’t already been trying to hide her appearance, Arlen stepped up to Shannua and grabbed his pants with her still-bound hands.

When she realized Shannua was staring down at her, she tried to cover her face again.Covering her face with her hair and hands, Arlen began muttering like a madman.

“I can go back, I can go back, I can go back. If I have the money, I can fix it. I can do it.”

“……Where are you going back?”

Hearing the mumbling, Shannua asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“To the Duchy of Miles, to your side!”

Arlen shouted, and then, as if suddenly remembering something, she looked up and walked back to Shannua.

“You came to take me, didn’t you? Yes, you came to take me without anyone knowing. That woman is just my substitute. A fake can’t become real. You know that too. You regret it, don’t you?”

Arlen spoke brightly, deciding for herself the answer to her own question.

“Did I leave you because of your…… face?”

“Huh?”

Arlen tilted her head, puzzled by the question.

Shannua waited in silence for an answer.

“Of course. You won’t leave me if I still have my beautiful face.”

The answer came without a second thought, and Arlen’s face was so innocent and childlike that Shannua was at a loss for words.

“If that b*tch hadn’t made my face look like this, you wouldn’t abandon me.”

Arlen muttered in horror as she remembered Marie attacking her.

“I’ll get back at that b*tch when I get my face fixed, I’ll get back at her!”

“…….”

“And I’ll come back to your side, and then everything will be as it should be, back to the way we loved each other.”

Arlen was fuming to herself, but when she realized Shannua was staring at her, she lowered her gaze and bowed her head.

If she had shied away from the light before, this time it was more of a shy gesture.

As Shannua stared at her, he spoke.

“……Arlen.”

“Yeah?”

The shyness was evident in her voice.

“I didn’t leave you because of your face.”

“Huh?”

“If it was about your face, I wouldn’t have left you while your face was still intact.”

Arlen shook her head, dumbfounded.

Shannua’s face didn’t waver in the slightest.

“I left you for your selfish, ugly self, for ordering the death of dear friend Eli and feeling no remorse.”

“…….”

“That was the you…… that everyone praised, not the one you are now.”

“No, no, no, that can’t be……, that can’t be.”

Arlen looked genuinely shocked.

“There’s no way you could leave me with my beautiful face.”

“I’m not the only one who left. Duke Miles-your father left you, your mother left you. Even the aristocracy you thought you outshined.”

“No……. No. That can’t be true; my parents are always watching over me!”

“You mean watching you to make sure you don’t run away?”

“They’re protecting me!”

Arlen shouted, her face contorting.

“Protecting me from people so I don’t get criticized unnecessarily.”

“Do people point at you when you walk out?”

Arlen had no answer. No one was paying attention to her, let alone pointing fingers.

Noticing the look on her face, Shannua continued.

“Then how about this: what is your life like in a protected place?”

“I’m……. I’m…….”

Arlene thought back to her life so far in the Lauf convent.

Cold-floored prayer rooms, meals that were of poor quality and scarce enough to keep her hungry all the time, and clothes made of thin, cheap fabric that didn’t protect her from the wind.

“They call it a prison.”

When Arlen’s silence lengthened, Shannua spoke as if to explain.

“They put you in the convent because it was the only way they could punish you, even if you were a high noble, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was a place to imprison you.”

“…….”

“Which means that no matter what face you put on, you’re not going back to the way you were, Arlen.”

Shannua firmly drove the wedge in.

“Besides, the sins you’ve committed over the past few days are heavy enough that I wouldn’t mind killing you right now.”

“Mu, what…….”

“Your arrogant manner, your offenses against high-ranking nobles, the emperor, and the empress. And finally, for stealing imperial secrets.”

“…….”

“Anyone who steals imperial secrets will have their entire family killed.”

Shannua held up the bracelet and looked down at her as if asking her if she understood.His gaze seemed to regard her as something lowly and insignificant.

“Why… why did you give that to me?”

Arlen asked, dazed.

“I wanted to see what you’d do with it. The bracelet is supposed to come back to me no matter who takes it. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t thinking of selling it.”

“……How is that possible?”

“It’s a sign of my danger. Wherever it is found throughout the Luben Empire, it is supposed to contact the nearest temple.”

That’s why Shannua was able to locate Arlen so quickly because the temple he’d told him about had been contacted.

It was a close promise between the Emperor of the Empire and the Temple, a proof of rightful succession that could only be passed down from the Emperor of the Luben Empire to the next in line.

It was a secret known to no one except the Emperor and the High Priest, so the other priests knew the location of the bracelet only as the location of an important imperial treasure.

Jewelers from the Luben Empire also contacted the Imperial Court after seeing a mark engraved on the inside of the bracelet that was so small that it could only be seen with a magnifying glass, indicating that it was an imperial secret.

The penalties for not reporting imperial secrets as soon as they were acquired were high enough to wipe out the hider’s family name if discovered.

But the reward for reporting it was so high that it was not worth the risk of keeping it.

“That can’t be possible. You were just trying to meet me, to meet me… … .”

Still in denial, Arlen stepped closer to Shannua again, just as she was about to touch his pants.

Before she could reach him, he pushed her back, blocking her approaching hand with his foot, signaling her not to touch him.

“That way, you’ll walk out of the convent yourself.”

Pushed back by his hoof, Arlen blinked, still not understanding his words.

“You’ll realize what your life is like without the least bit of protection. It’ll be a good time to rethink all of your wrongheadedness.”

Shannua’s expression took on a look of contempt that she hadn’t seen before, not until the last.

Arlen looked at him with a faint frown on her face. Her eyes were still a little dazed.

“You want me dead, so……”

Her mouth grew wider as realization dawned on her face—a mixture of surprise and despair.

“That’s why you’re telling me this.”

“…….”

“Because even when you loved me, you never told me this secret.”

Shannua didn’t say yes or no, and that was enough for her.

“Why would you do this to me when I’m living a miserable life in prison, just like you said!”

“You’re unable to come to your senses even after everything that’s happened. That’s the reason, both then and now.”

With that, Shannua stood up.

His leniency had reached its limit.

“The way your life has turned out…”

With an impassive expression, he paused for a moment.

“It’s your fault and no one else’s, so live with it and get on with your life.”

“For the rest of your life!”

“…….”

“I’ll curse you for the rest of your life, so you can’t sleep at night! You’ll never be happy!”

“Fine. Live your life cursing me. But don’t even think about touching anyone else around me.”

With that, he turned to leave but paused briefly to look at Arlen again.

“Being cursed by you feels like I’m living my life properly.”

With that, Shannua left the alcove.

“What shall we do?”

One of the knights waiting at the door asked.

They were the ones Eli had attached to Arlen.

“Release her and leave her alone. Don’t let the Duke of Miles’s people find her, so she can’t get any help.”

If the Lauf Convent was a prison for Arlen, then being outside without any protection would be even more painful than imprisonment.

“Understood. We’ve compensated the owner through the priest.”

“I see.”

Shannua climbed into the carriage guarded by the knights and headed back to Bonneuil.

* * *

TL NOTE: More advanced chapter of this story is already up to the site. Visit dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and stories