* * *

Magnus von Kelahinum has been feeling his hair falling out in clumps lately.

Every time he ran his hand through his hair, the strands caught between his fingers bothered him no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

And when he saw one or two white hairs among them, his irritation doubled.

He was confident in naming just one culprit responsible for damaging his hair.

Serena Lavernia.

They had their engagement ceremony at 10, and after postponing it again and again, they finally registered their marriage 10 years later.

And they had been living together in the mansion for 6 years now.

It was a long relationship.

No.

Let me correct that.

Damn it! She was truly a rotten, cursed connection that had entangled him disgustingly.

He had quite good feelings towards the young Serena Lavernia.

She didn’t bother him and always listened attentively to what he said.

Despite topics like tactics, war, and world affairs being areas of little interest, Serena Lavernia always listened to his stories with her black eyes shining brightly.

“You know? I heard that in the Mule Kingdom, the second prince started a rebellion to kill the crown prince. And the tactics used here…”

“Mm-hmm, oh my. As expected, Magnus, you know so much. You’re different from me. When they say genius they must be referring to you! Listening to you makes me want to study tactics too.”

“I have no intention of entering the imperial family, but those around me…”

“Those around you won’t leave you alone, huh. That must be really tough. It breaks my heart. But still, stand firm in what you want to do. They’ll grow old before you anyway.”

“…Still, the stress builds up.”

“Oh, oh, right, the supporting male lead has it tough. Well, find a hobby. Something no one knows about. Simple, right?”

The young Serena Lavernia listened to his stories very well.

She was a good conversation partner. When he talked about his worries, she quickly came up with solutions.

Despite being three years younger than him, she felt much more mature.

But then, one day, she suddenly sent a letter saying she was going to enter a monastery and wanted to break off the engagement, along with signed breakup documents, and then disappeared.

Not long after, the carriage Serena was riding in was found crashed at the bottom of a cliff after being caught in a tornado.

All the soldiers and knights died instantly, and Serena was in critical condition, unsure if she would survive.

Her bones were all crushed and her whole body was covered in blood. Magnus learned for the first time that day what human death looked like.

Still, he was grateful that she didn’t die.

The reason the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are a bit soft on Serena Lavernia, who acts so rudely now, is probably because they saw her in that critical state.

Although they didn’t have much interaction, they weren’t complete strangers either.

When they heard a noble lady was in critical condition, they probably visited out of courtesy.

Nevertheless, they returned with pale, shocked faces.

Of course, Magnus tore up and burned the breakup documents he had received at that time.

But now, he wishes he could go back to that time and at least tell himself to keep them.

It was half a year later when Serena Lavernia, who had fallen into a coma, opened her eyes.

And from that day on, she changed completely.

Having lost a significant portion of her memories, she became violent and hysterical.

She would chase after the Crown Prince saying she liked him, and even performed the outrageous act of cutting up the clothes of women who displeased her right in public.

He was so shocked when he heard that during her days at the academy, she had slapped the Crown Prince repeatedly with a fan, saying he was cheating on her!

Slap! Slap! Slaaap!

The sound of the fan sticking to his face was so crisp that the surprised Crown Prince’s jaw dropped — this has now become a story everyone in high society knows.

They say that since the academy was extraterritorial and everyone was equal, she couldn’t even be punished.

After that day, no one dared to touch her in the academy.

After graduating and getting married, she would beat the servants and maids, walk around wielding a whip, fire people she didn’t like, and in social gatherings, she would overturn food, pour wine on people, and make scenes while drunk.

He thought it was because of the big scars on her body.

He thought it would get better with time.

But the harassment got worse and worse, and finally, this time she even tried to kill people using poison.

The Crown Princess, and his young twin siblings who were only 10 years old.

The dose for the Crown Princess wasn’t lethal, and the attempt on his siblings failed.

Magnus’s patience ended that day.

He could tolerate anything else, but touching his family was unforgivable.

He said let’s divorce.

Surprisingly, she nodded calmly.

And when he got all the paperwork notarized and presented it to her, she refused to sign, mocking him.

Magnus could say that he really had a lot of patience. He endured and waited. Thinking that someday it would be okay.

‘If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to do it by force.’

He ran his hand through his hair out of habit, then frowned at what got caught in his fingers.

His jet-black hair was stuck to his palm again.

“……”

He sighed deeply as he shook the hair out of the carriage window.

‘I didn’t want to use the power of the information guild for personal matters.’

There are two ways for a living couple to divorce.

Divorce by mutual agreement and forced divorce due to the other party’s fault.

If an agreement can’t be reached, there’s no choice but to take the hard line and find grounds for fault.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

He rubbed his face.

When the clear face of Serena from before the carriage accident occasionally comes to mind, even after making up his mind, he ends up thinking, ‘Just a little more…’

Even though he knows she’s lost all the memories they shared and has become a completely different person.

“We’ve arrived, Your Grace.”

“Alright.”

Magnus got out of the carriage.

As he entered the mansion, the head butler, Pamel, and Lotty beside him, who were waiting at the entrance, bowed.

“Welcome back, Master.”

“Yes. Was there anything unusual?”

“There was, the Duchess came to visit today.”

His footsteps crossing the mansion stopped abruptly. It wasn’t a name he wanted to hear right now.

He was about to run his hand through his hair but belatedly remembered his dignity and stopped the movement with a start.

There was no need to demonstrate his stress-induced hair loss by showing his hair falling out in front of the servants.

No, never mind.

She used to come often at first anyway.

“It’s fine as long as you sent her away.”

It was when Magnus was about to step on the stairs to go to his room on the second floor.

“She’s in the reception room now.”

“……”

He glared at Pamel without bothering to hide his gaze full of irritation and displeasure.

“Why?”

Suppressing the urge to raise his voice, Magnus first asked for the reason.

“The Duchess said she would keep her promise.”

“…She said she would sign?”

He took his foot off the stairs and immediately turned towards the reception room.

“Yes. And she said she was cold and hungry.”

“……”

Magnus’s steps towards the reception room stopped again.

“She said she was hungry and cold? What about the servants in the annex?”

“I think she might have chased them away or fired them… or punished them. I was planning to check tomorrow.”

She was truly a talented person.

She was exceptionally talented at pissing him off. He tried hard to swallow the sigh that was about to come out.

Fortunately, thinking about his hair makes even the sigh that was about to come out go back in.

“Tsk, how much trouble did she cause this time?”

He asked, recalling Serena Lavernia who always made the mansion noisy.

“Well…”

“Did she hit the servants or maids?”

He asked, thinking that’s what she must have done.

“No, she didn’t.”

“She didn’t?”

Magnus frowned.

“Then, did she hit you or overturn the dining table?”

“That… didn’t happen either.”

“Alright, she must have smashed some things.”

He said with confidence.

“How many things did she break this time?”

“She didn’t break anything.”

Magnus was now a little scared. All of his predictions had been wrong.

And whenever Serena Lavernia defied his expectations, she always creatively pulled out his hair.

Now, afraid to even ask, he slowed his walking speed, waiting for his faithful butler to shout out the answer.

“…She didn’t cause any trouble at all.”

“……”

Magnus stopped walking again.

“Pamel, are you feeling unwell?”

He asked the head butler of the ducal family with a very serious face.

Somewhat rudely, he reached out without warning and placed his palm on the wrinkled forehead.

“Really, after having her meal and refreshments, all she did was bring a book from the library and read it.”

“…It seems it’s not you who’s unwell, but her.”

Magnus said without a shred of doubt as he stood in front of the reception room door again.

He took a deep breath and then opened the door and went inside.