That teacher’s praise was the first and last praise Iris received in her entire life. That was why she forced herself, at least once a week, to come out to the training ground and practice with the sword. She didn’t want to completely forget the only swordsmanship she showed any talent for.

While Iris was in the middle of swinging her sword, a presence passed by her side.

That distinctive, clear fragrance, now so familiar. Even without turning, Iris knew who approached her.

“Even with a disability in one leg, you know how to handle a sword.”

“Being lame doesn’t mean I can’t wield a sword, Lord Michael.”

“Still, it’s not enough. You learned half of swordsmanship and never learned the other half.”

“…”

Iris let out a long breath. She slowly lowered her sword and turned to look at Michael.

He wasn’t as early as Iris, but he also started his day earlier than most people. Unlike Iris, Michael practiced with the sword every morning, and he wore comfortable training clothes with a sword at his waist.

He didn’t show it, but he seemed a little surprised that Iris knew swordsmanship. Michael studied her intently with eyes impossible to read, then opened his mouth.

“Iris Oppenheimer, how about an interesting bet with me?”

“I’ll decide after hearing what kind of bet it is.”

“Have a sparring match with me. If you knock the sword out of my hand, I’ll cleanly give up on the divorce. I’ll burn all the divorce papers I carry too.”

Her deep blue eyes glimmered faintly.

She didn’t know how outstanding Michael’s swordsmanship might be. But for Iris, who needed to avoid the divorce, it was a bet tempting enough.

Still, Iris hesitated for a long time where she stood over whether to accept. Michael’s offer to cleanly give up the divorce was suspicious, making it hard to swing a sword so readily.

Perhaps noticing her inner thoughts, Michael let out a short, hollow laugh. Perhaps because the weather was bad, his voice rang lower than usual.

“I swear on my family name that I’ll accept the result of the bet, whatever it turns out to be. You strike first. I’ll gladly face you.”

“…”

A small wrinkle formed between Iris’s brows. After showing signs of deliberation for a while, she seemed to steel herself, took a deep breath, and set her stance.

But the moment her broken left leg stepped onto the ground, Iris belatedly saw Michael’s lips stretch long.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it happened.

“Ah…!”

With a short cry, Iris’s small body plunged straight onto the floor of the training ground.

No matter how fine her swordsmanship was, with a leg that wasn’t sound, there was a limit to how she could shift her stance. Michael quickly noticed this, and in the brief instant Iris lunged, he simply sidestepped without crossing swords.

A rough groan escaped reflexively from between the teeth of Iris, who rolled across the dirt. The sword she dropped in her fall spun on the ground, and blood began to flow from both her knees.

Throughout Iris’s floundering at his feet, Michael stood upright as ever and looked down at her.

Then his voice echoed from the cloud-filled sky, together with thunder.

“I haven’t even properly raised my sword yet. With that little effort, you can’t keep our marriage the way you want, Iris Oppenheimer.”

The moment his threat ended, Iris gritted her teeth and pushed up her two bleeding legs. But her effort soon turned to bubbles again.

Metal rang out and the two swords met several times, but that was all.

Thud. The moment Michael dodged to the side, Iris, lunging at him, planted her nose in the training ground again.

“Ugh…!”

The rims of Iris’s eyes flushed red in an instant. A foreign sensation came with the pain, and tears mixed with dust began streaming from her eyes.

Not to mention standing, she couldn’t see ahead at all now because of the tears and dirt. Though he knew her state perfectly well, Michael only kept looking down quietly at her suffering.

His cold voice echoed once more above the crown of Iris’s head.

“I’m sure I told you a moment ago that with that little effort you can’t keep our marriage. Stand up right now, Iris Oppenheimer.”

Iris learned swordsmanship only briefly in her childhood, while Michael was a prodigy who handled the sword better than most knights. One of Iris’s legs was completely broken, but Michael’s lower body was perfectly sound and healthy.

So from the very start, there was no chance at all that Iris could knock the sword out of Michael’s hand.

Realizing this belatedly, Iris’s fists clenched the sodden dirt on their own. She looked up at Michael with eyes bloodshot red from burst capillaries.

At that moment, veins stood out on Michael’s neck too as he met her gaze.

Rumble, crash. Thunder rang across the black sky. At the same time, Michael bellowed roughly at Iris, his face full of resentment.

“Get up again right now, Iris Oppenheimer!”

But Iris didn’t move, collapsed pitifully where she fell. No, to be exact, she couldn’t move because her left leg was drained of all strength.

A single raindrop fell onto Iris’s dust-smeared cheek. Like a tear, it slowly trickled down her round cheek.

The rain, beginning drop by drop, filled the whole world in an instant.

In the ceaseless downpour, Michael and Iris looked at each other. In the eyes of the man and woman facing each other, all kinds of emotions that could never be untied lay tangled in disorder.

After breathing hot breaths for a while, Michael seemed to finally rein in his anger, brushed back his bangs, and slowly closed and opened his eyes. After looking down at Iris for a very long time, he slowly raised his arm and set the tip of his sword against her chin.

“You asked me yesterday where I went.”

With the tip still at her chin, Michael knelt on one knee.

“I went to see your father, Duke Oppenheimer. I needed to discuss the handling of the wedding gifts with the duke. But the moment I arrived at the castle, the duke scolded me, asking why I came alone without you. I couldn’t even have the conversation about the gifts.”

“Lord Michael…”

Michael, now at Iris’s eye level, felt his trousers slowly soak through with muddy water. Seemingly finding even her voice calling his name loathsome, he twisted his face roughly and spoke again.

“Setting aside whether we divorce, there’s a tax issue, so I want to settle the matter of the wedding gifts as soon as possible. That’s why I’m going to see Duke Oppenheimer again with you this afternoon. I’m telling you in advance because it seems you’ll need time to cover that ugly crown of yours.”

A faint sneer hung at the corner of Michael’s mouth as he looked at Iris’s completely bleached hair. After silently grinding his molars for a while, he burst into a chilly laugh again the moment he saw her warped face.

“Why that expression? Look a little happier. You miss your father, don’t you? He’s the father who mobilized every connection he had to cut his daughter’s prison sentence from fifteen years to five, so there’s no way you wouldn’t miss him.”

Michael pulled divorce papers from his jacket’s inner pocket again and flung them down before Iris. Iris’s blue eyes slowly lowered and took in the divorce papers soaking into the ground.

The rain grew thicker as time passed. Through the sound of rain filling both her ears, Michael’s mutter reached her.

“Going to see an even more loathsome father-in-law with a loathsome degenerate. How ridiculous I look.”

Before long Michael left, but Iris stayed slumped in the same spot for a very long time afterward. This time too, there was no one to pat her small back.

There was also no one to wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks.