Richel summoned the butler.

If she intended to do what she still could, then she needed him.

She decided to begin by removing the greatest emotional obstacle standing in the way of her divorce.

The estate itself.

“You called for me, my lady?”

The butler appeared before her sooner than expected.

He had been in the Count’s office monitoring Edwin’s condition.

His face looked as though it had aged several years in only a short span of time.

For a brief moment, Richel pitied him.

It was painfully obvious how much he must have been suffering beneath the crushing weight of both the situation and the endless work.

“Have you had any time to rest lately?”

“Yes. I’ve been taking breaks whenever I can, so there’s no need for you to worry too much.”

He smiled lightly, but the exhaustion etched into the deepened lines on his face could not be hidden.

Ever since Edwin returned, the number of nights the butler had slept properly could likely be counted on both hands.

Richel asked quietly.

“How is Edwin?”

“We arranged for three guards at a time to rotate while watching over him.”

“He needs to recover soon…”

She let out a small sigh.

The memory of the first time Edwin wandered around like that resurfaced in her mind.

Richel had been asleep when she sensed an eerie presence nearby and woke abruptly.

Then she saw Edwin standing there in the darkness.

No—at first, she had not even realized it was Edwin.

Under the dim, blurry light, he had looked almost like a ghost.

She had screamed with every ounce of strength she possessed.

She had been so startled that she momentarily forgot even the pain in her ribs.

“I honestly thought I was going to faint the first time.”

At those words, the butler swallowed a sigh.

Thinking back on the chaos that had erupted that night, even a hundred sighs would not have been enough.

The servants and soldiers who rushed in after hearing Richel’s scream failed to recognize who the intruder was.

Edwin was tackled and pinned to the floor like a common thief.

In the middle of the chaos, Edwin lost consciousness again, and only after every light in the room had been lit did anyone realize that the man they had restrained was Count Isle himself.

The entire incident had been little short of a farce.

The soldiers hurriedly summoned the physician, while the butler came rushing over in shock after hearing the commotion.

Edwin had collapsed as though dead, and the fever that had briefly subsided returned burning hotter than ever.

From that day until now, his condition had shown little improvement and remained frustratingly stagnant.

“What exactly is wrong with Edwin? Where did he spend those three years…? Did you hear anything?”

Richel let out a deep sigh as she asked the butler.

For a brief moment, he hesitated.

His expression clearly showed he was debating whether he should say anything at all.

“So there was something. What was it?”

“He said he had been in Haverln.”

“Haverln? We already checked there two months ago. They said no one was there.”

“Yes, that’s correct. We’ve sent people to investigate once more just to confirm, but…”

His words trailed off.

Meaning the possibility that Edwin had truly been there was very low.

Richel groaned quietly.

“Then leave that aside for now. What about when Edwin returned? Where exactly did he appear from?”

“The gardener found him. He said the Count had collapsed beneath a tree at the edge of the eastern garden.”

“The eastern garden? That area connects directly to the forest. Then why come through the woods instead of the main gate…? Don’t tell me someone was chasing him.”

Richel frowned deeply.

There was so little actual information that even trying to speculate felt meaningless.

She could not tell whether any theory sounded realistic or utterly absurd.

‘When we mobilized countless people to search for him, we couldn’t even find a single trace…’

Three entire years had passed like that.

Most people had already concluded Edwin was dead and buried somewhere unseen.

Some had even gone so far as to claim Richel herself had intentionally stopped searching for him.

Remembering the endless, exhausting rumors, she let out another heavy sigh.

“Butler, you know I intend to divorce Edwin, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“I’m sorry for bringing this up while Edwin’s condition is still so unstable. But I think we need to settle things clearly.”

After saying that much, she glanced cautiously toward the butler.

He was already burdened with more than enough hardship as it was.

Bringing up such an uncomfortable topic left her feeling uneasy.

The butler looked at her with understanding.

“You may say whatever you wish.”

He, too, knew better than anyone how much Richel had suffered.

Caring about Edwin did not mean he was incapable of objective judgment.

“There is nothing for you to apologize for, my lady. During these past three years, I have truly thought countless times how fortunate it was that you were the Countess.”

The only reason the household had continued functioning so well despite Edwin’s disappearance was because of Richel.

The butler knew she was an extraordinarily capable and good person.

And because he knew that, he also knew he could not selfishly ask her to stay.

“So please do whatever you truly wish.”

At those words, emotion welled suddenly in Richel’s chest.

For the past three years, she had relied heavily on the butler while managing countless affairs.

They had suffered together, shared burdens together, and naturally grown close over time.

Even now, turning away coldly still felt difficult.

“Thank you for saying that. For now, I want to begin transferring responsibilities. I need to step away from the estate’s work.”

“By transferring responsibilities… what exactly do you mean?”

“There are many new systems we’ve built over the past three years, aren’t there? Taxes have changed, the management structure has changed, and the role of the private soldiers has expanded considerably too. Those things need to be organized and explained properly.”

“But the Count’s condition still hasn’t recovered enough for that…”

“It’s alright. I was planning to organize everything in writing anyway.”

“In writing?”

“That way, even after I’m gone, he’ll still be able to review everything himself.”

The transfer of responsibilities reflected her wish for the estate to continue functioning properly even after she left.

At the same time, it was also an act of resolve, proof that she truly intended to divorce him.

“I’d like you to organize things first, Butler. You understand the estate better than anyone else. Once you finish compiling everything, I’ll review it myself.”

“Are you certain you’ll be alright? Your condition still hasn’t fully recovered…”

“In a way, it’s perfect timing. I’d already run out of books to read and was starting to get bored anyway.”

After saying he understood, the butler quietly withdrew.

Left alone, Richel released a long breath.

She could not divorce Edwin immediately, and she still did not know whether the peaceful separation she wanted was even possible, but despite that, she had at least taken one step toward divorce.

Her heart felt lighter than when she had only sat there endlessly agonizing over it.

‘The problem is that everyone now knows Edwin’s lost his mind.’

After wandering the estate like a ghost searching for her, there was no one left within the mansion who did not realize something was wrong with him.

A secret known by nearly two hundred people was no longer a secret at all.

‘Still, it’s manageable for now. He hasn’t acted insane in front of other nobles yet…’

Even if rumors had begun spreading, they were still only unverified rumors.

If Edwin behaved normally in front of the nobility, the gossip would disappear quickly enough.

What people heard with their ears could never outweigh what they saw with their own eyes.

That was why appearances mattered so much.

A peaceful divorce.

Holding tightly to that goal, Richel steadied her resolve.

From that day onward, she devoted herself entirely to organizing the transfer of responsibilities.

Every day, the butler brought her newly organized documents, and she reviewed them carefully before adding whatever still needed clarification or reinforcement.

The process gave her the strange feeling of writing a memoir.

Those documents contained every hardship she had endured over the past three years.

Building new systems, stabilizing them, and reshaping the estate—she had spent those years buried beneath endless work.

‘Once I hand him these transfer documents, I’ll bring up the divorce again. After seeing how much I struggled, even he should feel guilty enough to at least consider it seriously…’

Working with that goal in mind made the work itself feel far less exhausting.

Richel focused entirely on what she could do.

Meanwhile, Edwin’s condition gradually began improving.

Once they confined him to his room and prevented him from wandering around, his recovery accelerated noticeably.

And after he fully regained consciousness, the ghostlike wandering episodes disappeared completely.

‘Maybe things are finally starting to improve.’

The flow of events often changed all at once.

Richel intended to seize that momentum and push straight through with both the transfer of responsibilities and the divorce request.

At least—until the physician came to see her.

“My lady, the Count refuses to eat.”