The doctor had recently been in high spirits.

Edwin had started eating proper meals every day and had stopped refusing the awful health concoctions the doctor had prescribed.

Today was no different.

When another serving of chicken feet and ground sesame pudding was placed in front of him, Edwin silently shoved it into his mouth without complaint.

“This somehow tastes even more nauseating by the day.”

His evaluation was merciless, but the physician did not care in the slightest.

Smiling cheerfully, he placed another pudding onto Edwin’s plate.

“Even so, you have no idea how much your complexion has improved thanks to this pudding, Count. At this rate, you’ll recover your former appearance within a month.”

“That would certainly be fortunate.”

Edwin frowned deeply while staring at the new pudding before lifting his gaze again.

“How has Richel been doing?”

It was a question he asked every day.

As usual, the doctor gave him the same uneventful updates.

Recently, there had been so little of interest to report that the doctor had resorted to describing trivial details, such as the types of tea and snacks Richel had been enjoying.

Pointless. Mundane. Completely uninteresting stories.

And yet, every single time, Edwin listened with unwavering attention.

Compared to the old Edwin, it was honestly bizarre to witness.

‘Back then, even when Madam cried like that, he would usually just walk away without saying another word… No matter how terrible the ordeal he went through may have been, can a person really change this much?’

At this point, it felt as though Richel was the only thing left in Edwin’s life.

Simply because she wanted him healthy, he forced down disgusting health foods day after day.

And every single day, he tried desperately to hear even the smallest bit of news about her.

‘If he keeps acting like this, it almost feels like divorcing him would be a waste.’

Whatever he had been like in the past, the current Edwin was handsome, wealthy, and utterly devoted to whatever Richel wanted.

‘If it were me, I’d make full use of a husband like that and live comfortably for the rest of my life.’

The physician thought with mild regret.

Edwin asked him.

“Do you happen to know much about the captain of the guard?”

“You mean Hans?”

“Yes, Hans. From what I’ve seen, he seems to handle quite a wide range of responsibilities.”

“He used to oversee estate security and other miscellaneous affairs, but his responsibilities have grown considerably since then. Nowadays, he’s practically in charge of maintaining public order throughout the entire territory. Before this, most villages handled their own security matters independently, remember?”

The security groups operating in each village had been little more than glorified gangs.

Abusing the law enforcement authority delegated to them by the lord, they bullied the villagers and did whatever they wanted.

So, when Richel reorganized the entire management system, she stripped them of that authority completely.

Naturally, the backlash was fierce.

“There was trouble everywhere back then… Fortunately, Hans handled things well. He’s a rough brute, but he’s capable.”

“Then I suppose Richel calls for the captain of the guard often simply because of work.”

“Of course. What other reason could there possibly be?”

The physician asked the question absently before finally understanding Edwin’s implication.

His eyes widened in disbelief.

“Surely you don’t mean you thought Madam summoned the captain of the guard for that sort of reason?”

“I was just… curious. They seemed overly familiar.”

The physician began to wonder if Edwin had lost his mind.

After all, it was Countess Isle who had chosen to marry him.

Clearly, appearances mattered greatly to her when it came to men.

There was simply no way that a woman like her would ever look at Hans — an older man with a rough, intimidating face — in that way.

The physician spoke in complete disbelief.

“Good grief. You really do worry about the strangest things, Count. If it were some young and handsome man, perhaps it would be different, but someone like him—”

BANG!

A loud crash interrupted him.

Edwin had slammed his fist down onto the tray resting over the bed.

Startled, the physician snapped his mouth shut immediately.

“If there were a young and attractive man? Do you hear yourself right now? Saying that in front of me?”

“N-no, I only meant hypothetically that such a thing could never actu—”

“I don’t want to hear it, so get out! Take all of this with you!”

Edwin shouted furiously.

His face was contorted with anger.

Such a violent reaction to a mere hypothetical remark proved that he was not in his right mind.

The physician hurriedly gathered the dishes and tray together.

‘Touchy as hell… No wonder Madam keeps talking about divorce.’

The doctor grumbled to himself and left as quickly as possible.

He had absolutely no confidence in his ability to handle Edwin in this state.

Once the doctor had left, Edwin leaned back against the bed and took some deep breaths.

‘If there were a young and attractive man?’

Those words clawed painfully at his memories.

Because Richel had once had someone like that.

‘David. David Nathan.’

His stomach twisted violently.

The nausea became unbearable.

Unable to endure it any longer, Edwin vomited.

“Hrk—! Ugh—!”

Bent over the edge of the bed, he retched with pain.

The burning acid clawed its way through him like fire.

A sour stench emanated from the blankets and clothes clinging to his body.

He called for the servants.

It took quite some time to replace all the vomit-stained sheets. In the meantime, Edwin quietly washed himself.

By now, every part of this ordeal had become painfully familiar.

After changing into clean clothes, he lay back down on the bed.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on his body, yet sleep refused to come, no matter how drained he felt.

‘Why did I come back here?’

The room felt both familiar and strangely unfamiliar.

Over the many years Edwin had lived there, the room had undergone countless renovations, changing little by little until it no longer resembled the room he remembered.

Only the ceiling remained exactly the same.

He stared up at it endlessly.

The room before him existed as though all the years he had lived through had simply been erased.

Edwin pressed a hand firmly against his forehead.

Fragments of memory surfaced and scattered chaotically through his mind.

In this world, however, those memories were regarded as nothing more than delusions.

‘Delusions? There’s no way those were delusions.’

He slowly lifted his hand and stared at it.

His nails were unusually short.

Faint scars covered the skin around his fingertips — traces left behind by nails that had repeatedly broken over the years.

Since Richel died, he had never allowed his nails to grow properly again.

He never wanted to experience that life again.

And yet—

After returning here, everything started to repeat itself anyway.

Richel wanted a divorce.

No matter how desperately he pleaded, he could not change her mind.

She would leave him again.

Once more, he would inevitably be left alone.

Tears spilled from his eyes almost out of habit.

Choking on broken sobs, he muttered quietly.

“Hngh… I’m sorry for everything. I swear I’ll never do it again… Please, just forgive me.”

‘Please don’t abandon me.’

Edwin broke down in tears, muttering those words over and over again.

As he cried, vivid memories of the past came flooding back.

At the height of the scandal surrounding House Isle, Richel became pregnant.

At first, Edwin could hardly believe what the doctor had told him.

“Richel is pregnant? Ha… that’s… Is that really true?”

For nearly five years, they had never had a child.

And now, suddenly, she was pregnant.

At the exact moment when she was desperately trying to escape from him.

‘She really must want the divorce that badly. Enough to shove another man’s child in my face.’

Edwin convinced himself that Richel had deliberately become pregnant by David in order to force a divorce.

According to Imperial law, if the baby were born before the divorce was finalized, the child would legally become the legitimate heir of House Isle regardless of the father’s identity.

However, David’s hair and eye color were completely different from Edwin’s, making it obvious what the child would likely look like once born.

And if Edwin wanted to avoid raising another man’s child as his own heir, he would have to divorce Richel before the birth.

‘D*mn it. Did she really think I’d let things go her way?’

A violent storm of betrayal and rage raged inside him.

His thoughts spiraled into complete chaos.

Without ever mentioning divorce, Edwin confined Richel to the estate.

He claimed it was for the protection of the pregnant woman, but in reality it was imprisonment.

He prevented anyone from seeing her. Even Richel’s parents were turned away without being allowed inside.

When Richel found out what he had done, she stormed towards him in a furious rage.

But Edwin refused to yield.

“I already told you it’s for your safety. I’m taking care of my child. What exactly is the problem?”

“You think turning my parents away is helping my emotional stability? How could you send them back after they came all this way?! Do you have any idea what kind of state I’ve been enduring here in—”

“And what kind of state would that be? Nervous, perhaps? Because you’re carrying David’s child and I still haven’t brought up divorce?”

“What? You… right now…”

“Listen carefully. This is where you belong. No matter whose child you’re carrying, you’ll remain the Countess of House Isle until the very end.”

That was the conclusion Edwin reached.

Rather than watching Richel live happily with David, he would rather drag himself through the filth of scandal while raising her child as his own.

“Then give birth to the child. Watch carefully as your lover’s bastard grows up being treated like filth by both high society and this estate!”

Smack!

His head snapped to the side from the force of her slap.

Richel raised her hand again.

Edwin grabbed her wrist tightly.

“Let go!”

“And what exactly gives you the right to hit me right now?”

Twisting her arm desperately, she tried to wrench herself free.

Edwin only tightened his grip further.

“Do you have any idea what kind of rumors are spreading through high society right now? They’re saying the bloodline of some viscount’s family managed to climb its way into a count’s household by warming the right bed.”

“Stop it!”

“Stop what? Every bit of this is because of you! The child hasn’t even been born yet, and you’ve already branded it with scandal!”

Richel cried as she listened to him.

Tears poured endlessly down her face.

Even while watching her, Edwin did not stop.

He thought the reason she was crying was obvious: she couldn’t divorce him.

‘Yes. You must be sick of me too. But you’ll never escape from me.’

Thinking that, Edwin gripped her even harder.

Rage surged through him at the thought of Richel going this far just to leave him.

His head burned hot with fury.

“What a shame. You probably wanted to divorce me and hand that child over to David like some precious gift.”

“That never happened! David never once thought that way—”

“Then what? Was this your plan all along? Did you deliberately stop taking precautions because you thought carrying his child would force me to divorce you?”

“Let go! I said let go!”

Richel struggled wildly.

Her arm twisted and jerked as though it might break.

The moment Edwin released her, she stumbled unsteadily.

Reflexively, Edwin reached out to catch her, but she slapped his hand away immediately.

“Don’t touch me!”

Her eyes, drenched with tears, were filled with disgust and contempt.

Crying, she spoke.

“I don’t care anymore what you do. Lock down the estate, turn my family away, do whatever you want. Just stop involving yourself in my life.”

“……”

“You said it was for your child’s stability, didn’t you? Then do exactly that! Because the greatest thing for my peace of mind would be never seeing you!”

She turned away.

Her steps were unsteady, but she forced herself to keep walking alone.

She adopted the posture of someone who no longer wanted any help from him, not even the slightest bit.