(5) A Place Without Margo
When Asla regained consciousness, the first person she saw was Enoch.
Meeting his black eyes looking down at her, she felt somehow embarrassed and hurriedly sat up.
Asla quickly looked around while adjusting her clothes and hair.
Judging by the clean white bed, simple furniture, and faint smell of disinfectant, she guessed it was a hospital.
They had been heading down to Dynus city near the Ventus territory, so she was guessing it might be the Dynus Municipal Hospital when Enoch spoke.
“To faint just from the carriage shaking. Why is your body so weak?”
‘……What?’
Unable to tell if he was expressing concern or criticizing her weak constitution, Asla stared at him blankly.
But she soon organized her thoughts.
This man would certainly not worry about her, so it must be the latter.
‘Who would faint just because a carriage shakes?’
Asla found Enoch strange for having such foolish thoughts.
“I’ll call the doctor again.”
“That’s not necessary.”
Asla thought there was no need to call a doctor since she knew why she had fainted.
“Lie down.”
But Enoch firmly made her lie back in bed and pulled the blanket up to her neck.
Finding it odd that Enoch was taking care of her, Asla obediently lay down and stared at his firm jaw and stubborn lips.
He twisted his lips and said, “You still have that habit of looking at me like that.”
“Does it bother you?”
Slightly surprised by his words, Asla hurriedly lowered her gaze, and Enoch brought his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat.
“……Would you understand if I said it feels like you’re piercing through my soul?”
He muttered quietly, then added that he would call the doctor before quickly leaving the room.
Once he disappeared, Asla turned her gaze to the ceiling and sighed softly.
How long had it been since she had such a normal conversation with her husband?
No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say this was the first time. Now that they finally felt like a normal couple, she felt strangely empty.
She found herself pathetic for still hoping that her relationship with Enoch might improve.
Regardless of who was at fault, she was the one who had first demanded a divorce.
It was she who loved him, and she who wanted to end this lonely and difficult marriage.
Asla didn’t want to remain in Enoch’s memory as a desperate woman who retracted her divorce.
‘Ah, my head.’
Smelling the faint scent of disinfectant made her head throb, and Asla wrinkled her nose.
‘Is this what happens when you’re perfectly fine but in a hospital?’
She knew why she had fainted.
The strange dream in the carriage.
The cause was being swept by the blue waves, the symbol of God, in that dream.
Though Asla had almost no holy power, she was theoretically more knowledgeable than anyone after growing up as a princess of the Holy Kingdom.
Dreams featuring blue waves indicated divine intervention.
Those who had such dreams often lost consciousness or collapsed due to the strong holy power of God.
«I oppose this divorce.»
Asla’s mood soured as she recalled God’s judgment annoyingly stamped below the divorce petition.
Why would God appear even in her dreams? Making her dream such absurd, false dreams.
‘Those hateful gods who stood by and watched the Holy Kingdom fall, now they dare to block my divorce.’
Asla resolved to stage a hunger strike in the prayer room of the Grand Temple if necessary to receive a new oracle.
While she was inwardly seething, the doctor appeared with Enoch.
“I am Dr. Keyton of Dynus Municipal Hospital. You seem quite fatigued lately, Mrs. Ventus. Have you been eating properly?”
“……Of course.”
Asla answered sincerely that she had been eating well, at least by her standards, but the doctor looked displeased.
Asla glanced at Enoch.
He too was slightly frowning, but somehow her eyes were drawn to his neck area first.
‘Oh my.’
Enoch was always someone who followed etiquette strictly, never undoing even a single button of his shirt.
But now his cravat was gone, and the buttons near his collar were undone.
Seeing his collarbone, which had always been hidden by his shirt, Asla felt strange and couldn’t take her eyes off him.
‘Is even his collarbone perfect?’
She had never seen her husband’s bare body. They had never had marital relations, not even a kiss.
A relationship worse than lovers—truly a perfect and pure(?) divorce.
Asla thought God Ters must have gone senile to oppose such a divorce.
The holy priests would have been horrified to know that the last princess of the Holy Kingdom had such thoughts, but she didn’t care.
She inwardly mocked that if the land of the Holy Kingdom could age, become polluted, rot, and turn into desert, there was no reason why God couldn’t age and fall ill too.
“Stay in bed a little longer.”
As Asla tried to get up, pulling back the blanket while listening to the doctor’s advice to eat better and rest more, Enoch gently pressed her shoulder.
“I’m fine.”
Startled by Enoch’s scent so close to her, Asla lowered her gaze.
“Even if you want to get to the Grand Temple quickly for the divorce, rest for now.”
Enoch left the room with the doctor without waiting for Asla’s response.
When the door closed, Asla shifted her gaze to the open window.
Dynus Municipal Hospital.
Located near a road, she could clearly hear the sounds of many people moving about.
‘The sound of people.’
Having been confined to the quiet Ventus mansion, these noises felt unfamiliar yet made her heart race.
Her plan to return to the Sherita Holy Kingdom immediately after divorcing her husband and await death began to waver.
Asla gazed wistfully out the window and moved her lips.
“I want to go somewhere else.”
Somewhere other than the Sherita Kingdom.
She was thinking that before the end, she wanted to visit places she had never been to when there was a knock at the door.
“My lady, it’s Talet.”
“Come in.”
Asla noticed a woman carrying food entering behind Talet as he opened the door.
When her eyes met the young woman who appeared a few years older than herself, the woman stared blankly at Asla for a moment before smiling warmly.
“My lady, pleased to meet you for the first time. I am May Bellos.”
“My lady……”
Asla, who had thought the woman was a hospital maid, looked at Talet in surprise, and he formally introduced May.
“The master ordered me to scout a capable maid to accompany you to the Grand Temple. He said you would be uncomfortable without a maid.”
“No…… there’s no need.”
Asla moved her lips in confusion before closing her mouth. She was afraid of maids.
Though she was called “my lady” at the Ventus mansion, she had done almost everything by herself.
The maids in particular were worse than the servants, tormenting her rather than serving her and offering no help at all.
They were all Margo’s minions.
The Ventus mansion was practically Margo’s own kingdom.
As Asla’s expression darkened, Talet felt a heaviness in his chest.
He was in the midst of investigating the incidents at the Ventus mansion and couldn’t freely discuss the matter with Asla.
As an uncomfortable atmosphere settled heavily in the room, May hesitantly approached her.
“You can call me May, my lady. Though I may be inadequate, I wish to serve you without causing any discomfort.”
May’s tone was cautious, but her eyes and attitude conveyed bright, positive goodwill.
Asla waved her hands dismissively.
“Don’t say you’re inadequate, that’s not what I meant. It’s just……”
May looked quietly at Asla, who had cut her words short, and smiled brightly. Her smile somehow made people feel comfortable, slightly loosening Asla’s tense mood.
“I am the daughter of the Bellos butler and head maid who have served the Marquis Kroitz family for generations. I will serve you with all my heart.”
“She is definitely talented. She was the VIP manager at the largest hotel in Dynus, the Luitel Hotel, and is so renowned that we brought her here for three times her original salary.”
“I never asked for triple the salary. It’s just……”
May glanced at Asla and blushed slightly.
“It’s an honor to serve the Duchess of Ventus. Shall we start with a meal, my lady?”
“Ah, a meal.”
May chattered away as she pulled a side table next to Asla’s bed and began setting out the food.
“I’d like to know what foods you prefer, my lady.”
“I don’t particularly have any foods I avoid.”
“I see. I’ll figure it out gradually. But I hope you’ll finish all of this food. It’s the most famous health food in Dynus.”
May looked at Asla’s thin wrists and groaned with concern.
“You’re so thin. Besides this health food, there are many other delicious dishes I’d like you to try.”
Nodding under May’s forceful personality, Asla was surprised to see the bowl set on the side table.
The amount of meat broth soup in the bowl was enormous.
But the flavor of the soup, with its huge chunks of meat and large-cut various vegetables, was so exquisite that Asla swallowed hard.
“It seems a bit difficult to eat all of this. But I’ll try my best.”
As Asla looked seriously at the soup bowl and spoke, May opened her eyes wide and smiled broadly.
“Thank you, my lady. I only asked because I wanted you to regain your strength. Please eat slowly so you don’t get indigestion.”
“Ah, I see.”
As Asla nodded, May added softly.
“But you should eat more than half.”
Asla found herself naturally conversing with May. She liked May’s respectful and warm personality so much that her heart fluttered.
As she picked up the spoon, Talet urgently approached and earnestly requested.
“My lady. Please eat more than half, not just half. Please.”
Asla tilted her head at Talet’s desperate face.
“Why?”
“Actually…… the master said you’re too thin. He said he would cut my salary in half if I don’t fatten you up visibly right away. Is that reasonable?”
“That man?”
“He was serious. Isn’t that too much?”
“……What a strange person.”
Asla agreed, and Talet, who had always seemed taciturn, grimaced and grumbled more. Asla was surprised.
Enoch’s secretary Talet had been as difficult to approach as Enoch himself and had seemed intimidating.
She felt happy that even Talet seemed friendly now that they had left the Ventus mansion.
Asla decided to relax a little more.
Because this was a place without Margo.
