The enraged Marquis stood up and slammed his fist on the desk with a loud noise.

“No longer family? Marquis, please say that again……”

The nanny’s hand, which had reached out to the Marquis without thinking, was easily pushed away. Even by the hand of the Marchioness, who had belatedly run to the Marquis’s side.

“How dare you, with your lowly origins, touch someone else’s husband?”

“Honey, is that not true? I must have misheard, right? We couldn’t have lost, right? We have to be family until we die. So we have to solve our debt for us and even help our business.”

The Marchioness clung to the Marquis and began to ask in a trembling voice.

“I don’t want to admit it either!”

“……Then you’re really saying we lost? To that wicked girl? I, I can never accept it! I can never admit it!”

Hazel, who was standing behind them, grabbed the back of his neck and began to swear.

“Not family……? Just because I lost some trial like this……?”

The Marquis muttered blankly as if he had forgotten his wife and son. Then he screamed like someone who had lost his mind.

“Aaaaah! I absolutely cannot accept this!”

Only the sound of his bellowing echoed throughout the courtroom.

“My word, what is all this commotion?”

“To be punished for one’s own mistakes and deny it to the very end.”

“They have no manners and no common sense.”

The noblewomen gathered in small groups and began whispering, and the other nobles were no different.

“I heard they were so obsessed with living extravagantly that they couldn’t even resolve their debts and wasted time on nonsense. At this rate, their family won’t last long.”

“I share the same thought. It won’t get any better than this, so all that’s left is to become a fallen noble family.”

Someone clicked their tongue at the sight of the Marquis’s family.

“Indeed, if they had lived with kindness in their hearts, perhaps things wouldn’t have come to this?”

Someone else was busy criticizing the Marquis’s family.

There was much talk here and there, but what was the point? The trial’s verdict had already been reached, and the Marquis’s family would never be able to hold their heads high again.

“Tomorrow morning’s newspaper will be quite entertaining thanks to the Marquis!”

A hearty laugh rang out nearby. To anyone watching, it was clearly mocking laughter, and it seemed to reach the Marquis’s ears just the same.

“If you’re going to insult me, come out and face me! People who can’t say a word to my face, where do you get off making such noise!”

Even at the Marquis’s roar, people didn’t bother stepping forward. They didn’t want to get involved and embarrass themselves unnecessarily.

“That’s right, Isabel! This all happened because of you!”

When no one stepped forward, perhaps gaining confidence, the Marquis staggered toward me.

“What a disaster because of you alone! Not only did you abandon our family, but you brought down its prestige!”

The Marquis, who had been raising his voice as if I were the root cause of all this, suddenly began to change his tune.

“……Once. It could have been a mistake, so I’ll forgive you once. So make this trial disappear and come back!”

It wasn’t just the Marquis who changed.

As if sharing his thoughts, the Marchioness and their son quickly rushed toward me.

“That’s right, Isabel! You never intended to have a trial from the start. It was just a mistake, wasn’t it? So you know that well, come back. Did you not receive enough love as all this time? We’ll do better from now on. No, we were wrong!”

The Marchioness spoke as if asking forgiveness with a generous heart, and Hazel added his opinion beside her.

“Father says he’ll forgive you, and Mother says she was wrong. Do you want them to kneel and beg here? I think this treatment is too harsh over one misstep. How about you accept it now and we go back to how things were?”

As always, my thoughts didn’t matter to them.

“Forgive? Wrong? Accept it and move on?”

I stared directly at the three people before me. Now I could only let out an empty laugh.

“I don’t understand why I should act that way at all. Ah, are you going to say you don’t remember this either? Let me make it clear—through this trial, we became strangers. So why on earth should I do all that?”

“You, Isabel……!”

The first to get angry was Hazel.

“Yes. My name is Isabel. And young lord Valenti? There are many eyes watching, so you’d better be careful with your words and actions. I’m now the wife of the Young Duke of House Everett, and we’re not family like before.”

Moreover, even the status they valued most was different. There was an invisible line between a marquis’s family and a duke’s family, and they had to observe that line without fail.

“I’ll assume you have nothing more to say and take my leave. Then I wish your days ahead to be peaceful.”

I curtsied neatly and showed them a smile.

Then I immediately turned and showed them my back.

“How dare you……!”

When I showed my back, the Marquis reached out to strike me.

“Aaaaah! My arm! This bastard, my arm……!”

But he was easily subdued by Sir Cesar.

“Stop right there. If you approach any further, I may take stronger action.”

As soon as the Marquis was released from Sir Cesar’s restraint, he collapsed to the floor screaming.

“I’ve never seen such rudeness!”

“Father!”

The Marchioness and her son glared at Sir Cesar, then scurried over to the Marquis’s side making a fuss about calling for a physician.

“Do you think you can live well after humiliating us like this? When I become Marquis, I won’t let you off first.”

Hazel stood up and looked at me as if disgusted.

“Yes. When you become Marquis, do just that. Though I worry whether you’ll even reach that position.”

Understanding the meaning of my words immediately, he tried to move his hand, apparently forgetting what had happened to his father, but was restrained.

“Wh-what! Who are these people!”

This time it wasn’t Sir Cesar who stepped forward. It was the guards stationed in the courtroom that he had summoned.

“This is a sacred courtroom. Please maintain decorum.”

“To avoid further disturbance to other visitors and the opposing party, you must leave now.”

The guards also approached the Marquis and Marchioness.

“Do you know who I am to lay hands on me! I am a Marquis of this country! A noble status that people like you cannot approach!”

“Let go! I said let go!”

“……F-Father! Mother!”

The guards moved, treating them like luggage according to protocol.

“M-Marquis! Where are you going! You promised me! You said you’d give me money if I just testified!”

“What about the payment you said you’d give when the trial ended if I took on the defense! We’re not finished talking!”

Watching the Marquis’s family being dragged away, the nanny’s and lawyer’s eyes began to change.

They each demanded money and followed the Marquis’s family as they were dragged out. As they left, the courtroom doors closed. Suddenly, the courtroom became quiet.

“Isabel!”

The first to break the silence and approach me was Freya.

“Are you okay? Those people earlier didn’t hurt you anywhere, did they?”

“Nothing like that. I’m not hurt at all, I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief then. But still, congratulations on finally not being family with those terrible people!”

Freya clapped her hands in celebration, and after that, others approached as well.

“I don’t know how you kept calling those people family.”

Dylan glanced at where they had left and shook his head.

“Good work.”

The Duke stroked my head along with those words.

Finally, Theodore took advantage of Freya stepping back to pull me into an embrace and pat me.

“You truly worked hard, wife.”

Everyone comforted me and congratulated me on escaping from those wretched family members.

When I said I was tired, everyone agreed it would be best to return to the residence and rest, and we headed for the carriage.

‘……?’

As we headed for the carriage, it was brief, but Theodore was rubbing his eyes as if trying to clear his head.

And Freya, who was not far away, watched Theodore with a cold expression before leaving.

※※※

After returning to the residence, as the trial results became known, everyone offered me congratulations and words of comfort just as they had at the courtroom.

After spending the day like that, time passed quickly and evening came.

I put aside my questions and quietly moved to the couple’s bedroom to sleep in the dark night.

‘What was that during the day?’

When I opened the door while thinking of Freya, I witnessed it.

‘What is this?’

As soon as I saw Theodore holding his head and showing signs of pain, I rushed into the bedroom. After Theodore briefly stopped his actions, I bent down before him and met his gaze.

“What’s wrong? Are you ill somewhere?”

Theodore just blinked at me as I suddenly appeared.

“The curse should be over too, so why……”

The Duke’s hereditary disease hadn’t been resolved, but he had never shown symptoms until now, and the curse had been lifted long ago, so I was even more worried.

“……It’s not sudden. It’s been like this before.”

“How long is ‘before’?”

He began to explain slowly at my tone, which was more insistent than usual.

“I’ve had these symptoms since the war started.”

“You didn’t mention any of that in your letters…… Ah, come to think of it, back then……”

Thinking about it, such stories were written in several letters. I had just brushed past them then, but I shouldn’t have let it go so easily.