Heliones stepped out of the bedroom where Lucian was resting and barely managed a few steps before he slid down against the wall and sank to the floor.

The guards keeping watch in the empty corridor had grown accustomed to this unfamiliar side of the emperor over the past two days, and so, following Count Fonta’s instructions, they kept their expressions blank and their eyes fixed straight ahead.

What kind of face did I make when I handed her those papers?

Watching Lucian stare blankly down at the divorce papers, Heliones felt a pain in his chest that was, quite literally, like his heart splitting in two.

‘D*mn it all. Duke Balthar, you son of a b*tch. I won’t let this go.’

Heliones had been aware, gradually, that the flimsy excuses he had been using to keep Lucian close were reaching their limit.

He had been seriously considering whether he should order the attorney who had handled the divorce papers, a man now running a small law office in the provinces, to leave the country immediately in exchange for setting him up with an office abroad. Anything to buy more time, to create some new excuse.

But somehow Duke Balthar had found the man and gotten to him first, showing up with that self-satisfied expression that said he knew exactly what Heliones was up to.

Heliones’s ultimate goal was to make Lucian the empress of Frianc. Four years of waiting had pushed his patience to its limit, but sharp as he was, he knew the time was not yet right.

With Lewian still alive and the Rodencia restoration movement unresolved, he could not draw Lucian into the political arena. Not with the criticism that would pour down on her, not with the risk of devoted followers like Roned pressing close, and not with the threat of violence from hardline opposition.

Heliones had told Duke Balthar to do as he pleased, but he had spent the entire night running through countless possibilities. Once the divorce was finalized, what means did he have to keep Lucian in the capital? He needed a visible, convincing reason to hold her here.

But if he kept delaying the finalization, Duke Balthar would inevitably start pressing him, accusing him of intending to make Lucian his empress.

Heliones could not stand the thought of being unable to see Lucian. He could not stand the thought of her being in danger.

He had even, briefly, entertained the thought of letting Delmir off with a plea deal. That was how desperate things had become.

As long as Lucian remained by his side, revenge could wait.

Then, in the early hours of this morning, news arrived that would normally have made his blood boil, but now served as the most welcome excuse he could have asked for.

‘Lewian was spotted near the incinerator on the outskirts of the capital. A guard saw him attempting to slip out of the capital hidden among corpses and gave chase, but lost him.’

What a rat of a man. Someone who was once a king, trying to flee by hiding among the dead? But this was an opportunity. A perfect opportunity to keep Lucian in the capital even after the divorce was finalized.

Every nerve in his body sharpened like a predator with prey in sight, and Heliones moved quickly, giving Count Fonta his orders.

‘Get to the attorney before Duke Balthar does and have him confirm the divorce papers with my signature. As for Lewian, just track his location. Don’t apprehend him even if you find him. Surveillance only.’

Count Fonta narrowed his eyes briefly at the order. Not long ago, Heliones had said he would kill Lewian with his own hands the moment he was brought in. Now he was ordering surveillance only. But Count Fonta said nothing and left the study to carry out the instructions.

That had been this morning. The faithful chamberlain Count Fonta went straight to the attorney, who apparently assumed the emperor was eager to push the divorce through, and confirmed the divorce papers bearing Heliones’s signature without delay.

Heliones looked at the papers, signed in his own hand over Count Fonta’s, the divorce finalized so easily it left him hollow. They had already been a divorced couple who hadn’t seen each other in two years. Even when they were married, they had never once shared a warm embrace. So why did a single sheet of paper stir up so many thoughts in him.

Had his hand trembled? His voice had seemed to catch, hadn’t it?

In reality, Heliones had kept his face as expressionless as he could manage. But in his mind, he had been walking across thin, fragile ice, as though that one piece of paper were severing every last tie between himself and Lucian.

Lucian had been unmoved. She blinked for just a moment, looking faintly surprised, but that was all. She returned to her usual composed expression almost immediately and accepted the papers without a word. He had known she would, but it deflated him all the same.

Heliones had wanted to shout that those papers meant nothing, that the two of them were husband and wife until the end of their lives just as they had vowed at their wedding. But he did not want to startle Lucian, who had shown no particular emotion, and so he forced his lips shut with great effort.

‘Ha. So on paper, we’re complete strangers now.’

Just the thought made him feel like his heart would burst. If he had known it would come to this, he would have been shameless about it from the start.

When she was still my wife. When she was still within my reach. I should have made her fully mine.

Even if she had hated me for it, even if she had despised me as the enemy who killed her family, I should have forced her to stay by my side.

I should have blindfolded her and bound her feet and locked her behind iron bars so she would never think of leaving me again.

Heliones caught himself mid-thought and tapped the side of his head with his palm, pulling back from it.

‘Then what would make me any different from that bastard.’

He had been holding Lucian here under the pretense of confirming a divorce that had already happened two years ago, but Heliones’s ultimate goal was never simply to keep Lucian near him.

What he truly wanted was for Lucian to be happy at his side. To feel safe enough to smile the way someone would who had never been hurt. To laugh the way someone would who had never known sorrow.

‘Even so… thank you.’

So this was not the time to be greedy. Lucian, whom he had believed dead, had survived, and for that he could be grateful to a god he barely believed in anymore. He could keep her close, slowly, until her wound healed and left not even a scar behind. He could protect her and keep her safe.

Heliones gathered himself, wiped the moisture from his face, and stood.

‘Right. Keep her safe. Make sure no one ever thinks of touching her again.’

With the divorce confirmed, Duke Balthar held no cards. This was a family that had dared to slander Lucian and attempt to take her life. He would make it unmistakably clear what happened to those who touched what was his.

Heliones walked into his study with cold, steady eyes. The empire’s finest attorneys were already assembled inside.

They were reviewing every document related to House Balthar from the intelligence Heliones had quietly gathered over the years.

‘Shame? Honor? How dare someone like you say those things to Lucian? I’ll make sure you understand, once and for all, what it truly means to be disgraced.’

With perfect composure and unhurried ease, Heliones finished his preparations to bury Duke Balthar and his beloved daughter Delmir completely.

* * *

The imperial palace was uncomfortable, no matter how one looked at it. I desperately wanted to return to my lodgings, but the physician had said I still needed to rest, and so I had no choice but to stay put.

The day after Heliones left me the divorce papers, Hanna received permission to enter the palace and brought newspapers and gossip papers with her. From the way she was acting, it seemed there were articles about me.

The article in the major daily paper was exactly what I had expected. The emperor’s divorce had finally been confirmed. The kind of thing that hardly seemed worth running as a front-page exclusive, it was so obvious.

But strangely enough, the articles in the irregular publications carried content that was the complete opposite of what the daily paper had printed.

‘Does His Majesty the Emperor intend to make Lucian his empress?’

‘Why has he continued to delay the divorce confirmation, when all it requires is his own signature?’

What is this? Even accounting for the fact that irregular publications carry no real credibility, the content was too different from the daily paper. No, it was outright contradictory.

I furrowed my brow and tilted my head, trying to make sense of it, and Hanna, who also seemed to find something off, lowered her voice slightly and asked.

“Could this be an article put out by House Balthar?”

“Most likely.”

Delmir’s criminal trial was certain to proceed, so if the goal was to damage my reputation as the victim beforehand and steer the trial in their favor, it made sense.

“Hmph. They’ll try anything to win the trial. It’s not as though any of it undoes what they did to you, Lady Lucian.”