“Oh, is that so? How romantic. I had no idea you two met like that.”

At that moment, Estelia chimed in. As she spoke up, the women at the gathering began to read the atmosphere.

“It is… romantic.”

Even Matilda reluctantly agreed, suggesting she wanted to get close to Estelia. After all, befriending a member of the imperial family was the greatest honor for a noble lady.

But her agreement was short-lived.

“But single mothers… are you saying we’ve been wearing clothes made by single mothers?”

At her sudden sharp question, silence fell over the room.

And shortly after, criticism began pouring from all directions.

“Now that I think about it, that’s right. Are you saying we’ve been wearing clothes made by those immoral women?”

As always, the first to join in was Amelia, Matilda’s close friend.

Following Amelia, the women began expressing their discomfort one after another.

“I feel a bit uncomfortable about this too……”

“Me too……”

Having successfully swayed public opinion, Matilda coldly sneered at me in a way only I could see.

‘Who do you think you are, crawling in here?’

Her eyes seemed to say exactly that to me.

For a while, the women whispered among themselves, and Matilda, who had been observing the situation as if enjoying it, added,

“Duchess, don’t you have anything to say to us?”

The look in her eyes as she stared at me contained a hint of ridicule. My fists clenched involuntarily.

It was true that this was something I hadn’t considered. But it wasn’t entirely unexpected either.

After taking a deep breath, I bowed my head deeply.

Sometimes, in battles of public opinion among women, appropriate emotional appeal is necessary.

I wasn’t particularly sensitive by nature, but I knew well how to appeal to emotions.

As I bowed my head, Estelia reflexively asked,

“Duchess, what’s wrong?”

And I deliberately spoke in a sad voice,

“Ah… I understand how Her Majesty the Empress Dowager must have felt, being pointed at as an immoral woman……”

“What do you mean by that?”

By then, I slowly raised my head. Deliberately sighing audibly with indignation, I stood up and began addressing Estelia,

“You may not remember, but… the mother of the current Emperor also gave birth to His Majesty as a single mother.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, Estelia let out an exclamation as if she understood, and the noisy table instantly fell silent. Without even turning my head, I could imagine what expression Matilda must be wearing right now.

“I know that too. Father has mentioned it to me several times.”

“……Really?”

I looked at Estelia with a moved expression, and she nodded quietly and added,

“Yes. I heard that my late grandmother suffered numerous humiliations while raising Father alone in a civilian home during her childhood.”

“……Ah.”

I let out an exclamation as if I understood everything, and Estelia also showed a sorrowful expression while slightly raising her eyebrow.

It was a kind of signal. A signal containing the question: am I doing this right?

Indeed, while Matilda and Amelia had branded single mothers as immoral women, there was one blind spot in their argument.

The fact that the current Emperor’s mother was also a single mother.

For Estelia, her paternal grandfather, the late Emperor and the current Emperor’s father, was a womanizer.

Not content with changing empresses three times, he had dozens of unofficial illegitimate children.

He was also excessively obsessed with his direct lineage, but the problem lay in the fact that the Empire only recognized monogamy.

He treated children not born from the Empress as if they were cattle or chickens, and it’s said that when a pregnancy was revealed, he would hand over a small pouch filled with gold coins along with instructions to terminate the pregnancy.

Such treatment was severe but not particularly problematic. Most of the women who became pregnant with his children were commoners or maids of the imperial palace.

Unfortunately, one of the women he touched, namely the Emperor’s birth mother, was the closest friend of the Empress and the niece of a high-ranking high priest.

‘Thinking about it again, this is truly a mess. She had an affair with her friend’s husband…?’

And upon realizing her pregnancy, the Emperor’s birth mother, fearing the condemnation from her family and the Empress, fled to a commoner’s village in disguise to give birth.

Apparently, she raised the current Emperor in the village until he was twelve, and then, with her health deteriorating and death approaching in a few months, she directly sought out her uncle, the high priest.

At that time, when the temple’s power was strong, even the Emperor couldn’t treat the high priest carelessly.

The high priest vehemently protested his niece’s treatment, and the Emperor, fearing the temple’s retaliation, adopted Yulisius as the son of Empress Letitia, Assel’s birth mother.

Not long after, Yulisius’s mother passed away. Having lived a life full of hardship, her life was, in a way, tragic.

Anyway, this fact was widely known.

But typically, stories found in historical records are often skimmed over rather than deeply explored.

Indeed, who would point out that during those 12 years in the village, the Emperor’s mother was essentially a single mother?

I targeted this blind spot precisely.

Glancing around, I saw everyone rolling their eyes and staring at each other.

Among them, Amelia and Matilda’s expressions were terribly crumpled.

“……What do you mean?”

It was a while after I had spoken that Matilda finally opened her mouth.

For a moment, her eyes, focused on me, lost their focus and trembled as if unable to accept the situation.

“Duchess, I don’t understand why you’re so surprised.”

But unlike her, I just smiled calmly and said,

“Surely you’re not unaware of this famous story from the Empire’s history books?”

“……”

“Or perhaps you knew but……”

The moment I probed slightly, I may have pressed some kind of trigger button.

Because Matilda, her face flushed red, glared at me as if she wanted to k*ll me and shouted,

“No! I simply hadn’t thought that far, it was absolutely not intentional!”

“Oh my, is that so? But even if you hadn’t thought that far, you still knew, didn’t you?”

“……”

Matilda’s mouth, which had been about to retort, closed again. Urgency was evident in her movements as she looked around with widened eyes.

“That, that’s……”

It was at that moment.

“Duchess Esteban is right.”

The Crown Princess’s voice was heard from the head seat.

Matilda and Amelia’s faces turned pale.

“Your, Your Highness……!”

It was Matilda who cried out, ashen-faced.

“Though you might not have been aware… I don’t feel particularly good about my grandmother being pushed aside as an immoral woman.”

“……”

“And even if you were aware, it seems you already consider single mothers to be immoral, is that right?”

Estelia asked, making eye contact with Matilda. It was a quiet question, but its impact was far from trivial.

Reactions of surprise, with hands covering mouths, were already visible here and there.

Just because Matilda was a duchess, people couldn’t openly express their feelings, but public opinion was already leaning unfavorably against her.

Sensing this, Matilda’s eyes widened, and then she desperately shook her head.

“It’s, it’s a misunderstanding! That’s not it!”

“Then why did you say that to Duchess Esteban earlier?”

“That’s…….”

“You said it was a misunderstanding, but what misunderstanding are you referring to? Does the standard of right and wrong change if a member of the imperial family is a single mother?”

Matilda’s gaze wavered.

Basically, most nobles would indeed hold such thoughts.

But there was a clear difference between just having such thoughts and deliberately voicing them.

“……”

Knowing this, Matilda could only bow her head without giving any answer.

A faint smile crossed Estelia’s lips.

She didn’t seem to have any intention of directly punishing the two. The Rolls family was quite influential, so there was nothing to gain from a confrontation.

However, her questions were clearly pressuring Matilda. Especially this last question.

“Duchess, do you truly have nothing to say to me?”

It was undoubtedly a quote of the words Matilda had thrown at me earlier.

“Duchess, don’t you have anything to say to us?”

Matilda’s face reddened, and then she lowered her head even deeper, her eyelashes trembling.

❀❀❀

Fortunately, thanks to the collaboration with Estelia, the commotion seemed to calm down.

Even though there were occasionally those who behaved rudely afterward, there were no major issues thanks to Estelia’s well-balanced mediation, neither too much nor too little.

She would immediately change the subject if questions seemed to be concentrating on me.

This moment was no exception.

“By the way, how did you end up getting divorced?”

The one who asked was Lady Duffel. While her character was said to be honest and straightforward, this was too direct.

‘With that attitude, she’ll find herself in serious trouble someday.’

Even with the knowledge that I had no position to worry about others, I couldn’t help clicking my tongue when her future appeared so clearly.

“I’m a bit taken aback by such a sudden question when we were just talking about desserts.”

I showed a moderately uncomfortable expression while responding with gentle words, not excessively.

This was characteristic of social circle speech.

Usually, most people would understand when spoken to like this, but for some reason…

“Ah, I’m sorry. I have a character that can’t hold back my curiosity.”

“……”

“I’ve been curious all along. Honestly, divorce isn’t a common thing in the Ricardo Empire.”

“I see.”

She was clearly not only direct but also lacking in tact. At this point, it would be stranger not to notice, so was she deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?

As various thoughts crossed my mind, Estelia stepped in.

“That question makes me uncomfortable too. It’s someone else’s private family matter……”

But at that moment, seeing several cold gazes directed at me, I sensed that if I didn’t provide a proper explanation here, rumors about me would spread even worse than they already were.

Of course, I didn’t care about rumors about myself, but I feared that insults directed at me would tarnish the reputation of my family and father.

That’s why I had been reluctant to enter social circles after my divorce.

After much deliberation, I opened my mouth.

“Well, I think it’s natural for you to be curious.”

“……!”

And soon, I felt all eyes turning toward me. I smiled at those gazes and continued,

“Indeed, it’s not common for a woman to divorce.”

When the words that everyone knew but had been avoiding due to etiquette came from my mouth, the gathering fell into silence.

Everyone looked at me in surprise. Not only Matilda and Amelia but even Estelia.

Under everyone’s gaze, I continued,

“I have two main things to say.”

“First,”

“……”

“My divorce from my former husband, Count Floredo, wasn’t due to any particular fault on either side.”

The eyes of the gathering widened even more. Some showed curious gazes, while others displayed incredulous expressions.

Matilda, belonging to the latter group, looked at me and began,

“You divorced without any fault?”

She was clearly determined to tear me apart somehow. I chuckled and answered,

“Yes, that’s right.”

She laughed as if in disbelief.

“Then are you saying you destroyed the precious family given by God because of capricious emotions?”

Her words elicited shock from various corners.

I nodded lightly again.

“That’s right.”

“What? I’m really disappointed in you, Duchess. I didn’t expect that.”

“But it wasn’t just because of capricious emotions.”

Feeling all surprised gazes turning toward me, I continued,

“Even in the neighboring Francesco Kingdom, there’s a famous saying.”

“……A saying?”

The question came from a noblewoman. I made eye contact with her, smiled gently, and said,

“Yes, if you don’t appreciate the value of your spouse, take a lover.”

“……”

For a moment, silence fell over the venue, but soon, one by one, they began to speak.

“Well, that does make some sense.”

“Indeed.”

Opinions agreeing with my statement poured out from various corners. This was because while the Ricardo Empire was vast in land, its history was relatively short.

Perhaps because of this, the development of knowledge and culture in the Ricardo Empire was slower compared to neighboring countries, and a strange sense of inferiority resided in people’s hearts.

This was true even for the noble ladies.

On the other hand, in the case of the Francesco Kingdom, although the country rejected Idoism, the kingdom’s advanced civilization secretly spread through the upper society of the Empire.

To the extent that anything with the modifier “Francesco Kingdom” would become expensive.

The same would be true for ideologies.

“But, but… that doesn’t justify divorce, does it?”

“That’s right! They only mentioned taking a lover!”

Amelia sided with Matilda’s words.

Then Amelia added,

“According to what you just said, even if you take a lover, you shouldn’t divorce, is that right?”

“That could be the case. But my ex-husband and I had different thoughts. We believed that if feelings for each other had cooled, rather than having an affair, it might not be bad to take some time to reflect.”

“……”

“So we decided to take that time, and somehow, so much time has passed. Enough for both of us to live well without each other.”

“Isn’t that too irresponsible?”

This time it was Matilda. Seeing the two of them attacking relentlessly, I couldn’t even imagine how much they must have gossiped about me during my absence.

“In what way?”

“That, that… anyway, abandoning a family is irresponsible.”

“I see.”

“……”

“But you know, Duchess Icalion, I have one question.”

I continued with a smile on my lips,

“I didn’t abandon the family alone, so why are you holding only me responsible?”

“What do you……”

“You’ve been talking about family destruction and such, but wouldn’t it be fair to hold Count Floredo equally responsible?”

“No, that’s…!”

“……”

“That, that……”

Matilda tried to answer but seemed unable to find suitable words, furrowing her brow.

For a while, numerous gazes focused on her as she remained silent like a mute who had eaten honey.

Eventually, Matilda’s white face turned red with shame. Feeling she couldn’t endure any more humiliation, she spoke with determined eyes,

“Well, Count Floredo is a man!”

I grinned. Her face crumpled, and a somewhat venomous gaze was directed at me.

“Why are you smiling?”

I maintained my smiling face and opened my mouth,

“Because it’s absurd.”

“……What?”

“I don’t understand why men should be exempt from criticism while women should readily accept it just because of their gender. Can you explain that?”

“……”

At that moment, silence fell over the venue. It wasn’t just Matilda; everyone present remained quiet as if a mouse had died.

They just silently stared at me, with somewhat blank expressions.

And perhaps sensing danger in this atmosphere, a look of embarrassment crossed Matilda’s previously blank eyes.

Sure enough, she soon retorted,

“You’re spouting sophistry. How can men and women be the same?”

“Ah, that sounds like you’re saying women aren’t people.”

“That’s……”

“If not that, are you suggesting there are grades among people, and women are inferior beings?”

“……”

The moment I sharply questioned her, Matilda’s gaze wavered. I met that gaze squarely and continued,

“Perhaps that statement is correct. For two years, despite no particular wrongdoing, I lived in hiding as if I was dead.”

“……”

“Even though we simply decided to end things cleanly by mutual agreement, one side received sympathetic looks while the other faced criticism and blame.”

“……”

“Sometimes when I went out without my mask, I was hit by an old woman’s cane who didn’t even know my face, and I could easily find those who approached me disrespectfully, thinking I was easy.”

I paused to catch my breath while speaking. Matilda’s chest rose and fell rapidly. I stand a full head taller than she does.