When no response came — unlike Bjorn — the officiant looked at Ivnen with a puzzled expression.

“Ivnen Denia?”

“……”

“Please answer, Ivnen Denia. Do you swear to take Bjorn Balder as your husband, to always cherish him and stand by his side, and to love him eternally?”

The eyes Ivnen had fixed on Bjorn were, unlike before, utterly still. She looked almost like someone who had made a decision.

She held Bjorn’s gaze in silence for a long moment, then parted her lips in a voice that came out just slightly fractured.

“I do. I swear……”

As though he hadn’t expected her to look at him like this when she answered, Bjorn faltered almost imperceptibly.

But Ivnen did not look away. Even though not once in her past life had she ever held his gaze for this long.

Her clenched hand trembled faintly.

“……I hereby solemnly declare, in the name of the gods, that these two are now joined as husband and wife.”

The officiant’s solemn voice settled slowly over the temple. The sound of applause came from the handful of people present.

Grind.

From between Ivnen’s pressed-shut lips came the faint sound of teeth clenching together.

What a thoroughly unremarkable wedding it had been.

After the ceremony, Ivnen returned with Bjorn directly to the estate.

More precisely — to the very room where she had drunk the poisoned tea and died.

“……”

Sitting on the bed, Ivnen was breathtakingly beautiful. All of it thanks to Dek’s painstaking work.

What a useless, foolish thing to have done.

……Ivnen still remembered this wretched wedding night with perfect clarity.

She had fought to hide the flush spreading across her face as she waited for Bjorn. And she had thought.

What should I say to him first when he arrives? Should I ask if he’s tired — tell him he worked so hard today?

Or perhaps I should tell him what’s in my heart. That I intend to do everything in my power to be a worthy mistress of Balder estate, and a good wife.

And — though he wouldn’t have known — that I have loved him for a very long time.

“Ha……”

Ivnen sat on the bed and laughed, her face cold.

And at that same moment, the sound of footsteps came from somewhere down the hall. Ivnen straightened her back and looked silently at the closed door, and before long it opened.

There stood Bjorn, a black robe draped over him.

“……”

“……”

A brief silence settled between them. A cold, wordless quiet utterly at odds with the fact that they had become husband and wife mere hours ago.

Bjorn seemed to study her for a moment, then slowly closed the door.

“Let’s talk for a bit, Ivnen.”

He placed a hand on his hip and continued.

“There is something that needs to be made clear.”

Ivnen already knew far too well what words would come next from his mouth.

“Don’t expect anything from me, Ivnen. I have nothing to give you.”

“……Count?”

“Whether that means attention or love. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“You needn’t bother saying it, Count Bjorn.”

It was Ivnen who parted her lips first, her face cold as ice.

“Because I won’t be expecting anything from you.”

“……What?”

Bjorn, standing by the door, faltered visibly.

The face that had always been brazen and composed, betraying nothing — it shifted, almost imperceptibly, out of place. The blue eyes that had always been so still churned like a sea in storm.

Like someone who had just heard something they were never supposed to.

“So don’t trouble yourself over it. I have not the slightest intention of disappointing myself and burdening you in the process.”

But Ivnen didn’t yield an inch. No — if anything, she pressed on as though to say: wasn’t this exactly what you wanted.

“I already know you have no feelings for me. The truth is, the proposal letter you sent to House Denia was never meant for me, was it? The person you wanted sitting on this bed was Lilien. Not a b*stard daughter of a ducal house who amounts to nothing but a burden. So there is no need to spell out your feelings for me. What good does it do to repeat what we both already know — it would only exhaust us both. And you must be exhausted enough as it is.”

At Ivnen’s words, delivered with a cold smile, Bjorn appeared thoroughly taken aback.

“Do as you please in all things. You may go on seeing whatever woman you have in mind, and you may speak ill of me wherever you like — I don’t mind.”

Bjorn had met with his mistress as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. That faceless woman had been the most precious person in the world to Bjorn — a far more important existence than his own wife. How much it had hurt, how bitter it had been. How many times her heart had broken before she learned to accept it without flinching — she couldn’t even count.

But…… she would not do that anymore.

“I’ve shown you this much understanding of your situation, so shouldn’t you extend the same to mine?”

“Understanding?”

“Your reason for seeking ties with House Denia was purely to gain greater power.”

House Denia was the most powerful noble house in the empire. For Bjorn, it had been the only means of transcending the limits of his common birth.

“Although it was a burden like me you ended up marrying instead of my sister, the reason my father couldn’t ignore the proposal was because he anticipated your power would only continue to grow.”

“……”

“In any case, I have served as that stepping stone for you — so it would not be an exaggeration to say that everything from here on depends entirely on you.”

“What exactly are you trying to say right now?”

Bjorn, who had been listening to her in silence, asked in a very low voice.

“What is it you’re demanding of me, Ivnen.”

“What I mean is that even I have no intention of being a stepping stone that receives nothing in return. Not forever.”

Even if she broke off the marriage, the place Ivnen had to return to was fixed.

House Denia.

The place that had gnawed away at her heart and mind her entire life, dragging her endlessly toward h*ll.

If she simply continued this marriage as it was, the same thing that happened in her past life would come to pass.

Whichever of the two paths she chose, the end would be much the same.

Either a life worse than death — or a death that was truly, wretchedly hers.

If there was no way out either way……

Then she would make use of it instead.

It would have been an outright lie to say she had shed every last drop of her betrayal. Even now, looking at his face as he stared back at her so brazenly, she felt as though her heart might burst — with anger, with fury that had come too late.

Especially when she thought of the mistress he loved to the point of madness……

But what did any of that matter.

The opposite of love is not hatred, nor is it resentment. It is simply cold indifference. Ivnen felt she understood that now.

Had Bjorn not done exactly that to her?

So just as Bjorn had used her as a stepping stone, she would use him in return.

As nothing more than a means to an end.

A way out of this h*ll.

That was the choice of an Ivnen who had once been incapable of doing anything on her own.

“One year.”

And so Ivnen said it with force.

In a way entirely unlike her old self.

“Exactly one year from today — we divorce.”