“I have no intention of having children. I don’t want to pass on the same misery I went through to my own child.”

‘…What did I just hear?’

Ariadne froze in place, her hand still on the door she had been about to open. The voice leaking through the gap was unmistakably her husband’s, a voice she hardly heard even once a day.

But that husband was now saying—

“As head of a house, if I’m not granted even a single proper right and all I do is work myself to death, am I a lord or a slave? Do you not think that’s miserable?”

“Mind your tongue, Duke!”

He said that he had no intention of having a child. He didn’t want to pass on his circumstances. He didn’t want to be seen as a lord who had not yet received the council’s approval.

However, she had been told that the council had promised to grant him those rights when they married.

Now he was saying that he had received nothing. Was he really not considering having a child because of that?

It made no sense. It contradicted everything she had believed.

“It is only natural not to transfer rights to an unworthy successor!”

“Keep your voice down. The ‘unworthy successor’ you’re talking about is very sensitive about how others see him.”

‘Unworthy successor.’

They had said that to him.

So why was he still in this marriage with her?

Ariadne’s thoughts went completely blank. He had married her in the first place to gain the council’s recognition. He had tolerated her childish complaints and agreed to the marriage because of the benefits it would bring to both families, and because the council had promised to recognize him as the head of the family.

They had told him: “If you marry—if you marry Lady Peyton—we will recognize your authority as the lord of your house.”

That was what she had believed. But now he was saying that he still hadn’t received the head rights?

Stunned, Ariadne suddenly remembered that Princess Lorelei was in the room, too. What if she had come at this particular moment, accompanied by Franz of the council?

“Still, isn’t a woman who cannot bear a child considered a significant flaw?”

Ah!

So that was it.

Ariadne had to fight the urge to collapse on the spot. She had hoped, prayed, that her fears weren’t real. But they were.

The council intended to place Princess Lorelei on the duchess’s throne using the outrageous claim that Ariadne ‘could not bear a child’. Yet they knew nothing about how her husband treated her.

A tremor passed through her. The injustice was so acute that it made her tremble.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want a child.

She did.

She wanted to be loved.

She wanted a child with her husband’s features. But her husband recoiled at the mere thought of touching her; in their two years of marriage, they had never shared a bed. Not once.

From what she had overheard, the council was clearly at fault as well.

Was he only keeping her by his side because the council had insisted?

Hadn’t he met with them before the marriage to confirm that they would grant him the rights of the head of the household?

Had she really been resented and punished all this time for something that was never her fault?

And now, over something so absurd, was she really supposed to be pushed aside for Princess Lorelei and Lord Franz?

No matter how stunned Ariadne was, and no matter the storm churning inside her, the three people in the room continued their conversation as if nothing had happened.

“And then Your Highness would take her place?”

“…I never said anything like that.”

“But it isn’t a thought you’ve ruled out.”

Kieron said, his tone sharp with derision. Then, in a voice full of contempt, he continued.

“Your Highness, my wife is someone who will become your in-law. And as you know, the Peyton siblings are exceptionally close. If people say Your Highness took her sister-in-law’s place—do you truly think the Peyton family would remain silent?”

“I never said I’d take it!”

“That is precisely what you’re implying. You change your words very easily.”

The whole situation was confusing enough, but it was something else entirely that unsettled Ariadne the most: Kieron Ambrose’s attitude.

He was acting as though he were defending her. As though he were trying to protect her.

Until now, Kieron had always acted as if she had done something terrible. As if everything was her fault. As if all the resentment he felt towards the world should be directed at her.

But why now?

“So take my advice. Keep quiet and leave peacefully. Divorce, remarriage—one marriage in this lifetime is more than enough.”

Why was he acting as though he were protecting her?

Maybe he just meant that if she was thrown away, he would be the one to do it. She was his possession, and he alone could decide whether to discard or crush her.

What a cruel man.

Utterly without mercy.

As resentment surged through her, their eyes met.

Just as Kieron turned his head, their gazes collided through the narrow gap in the open door.

“……”
“……”

For a brief moment—an agonizingly brief moment—their eyes held.

He looked at her with an unreadable expression. She glared back at him with every ounce of pent-up resentment.

But as always, Ariadne was the one who looked away first.

***

“My lady, are you really all right?”

On any other day, she would have collapsed the moment she got back to her room. But they say that when the shock is too great, you become strangely numb instead.

Ariadne, who had been staring blankly out of the window, slowly turned her head.

“Mm. I’m fine, Jay.”

“But your expression… it looks terrible…”

Jay looked at her with deep concern, but she couldn’t hear or feel anything.

After spending time with her family earlier that day, her spirits had been lifted, but now they were plummeting endlessly with no sign of stopping.

In that state, what words could she possibly register?

She forced a smile to reassure her.

“I’m really fine, Jay. I’m just a little tired, I think.”

“But you said you were going to see His Grace. Nothing happened there, right?”

Jay asked anxiously.

Well, of course she would. She had gone to ask why the guests had come, and now she was returning with her face drained of color.

Jay could understand her concern, but she herself was struggling just to process her own feelings. So she could only offer a thin, brittle smile.

“Nothing happened. I’m thinking of sleeping early today, so you should go rest as well.”

“Already? But the sun hasn’t even set yet!”

‘Is something really wrong, my lady?’

Jay’s startled reaction spoke volumes.

She asked again if Ariadne was really okay.

Had nothing really happened?

But Ariadne couldn’t say a word.

Meanwhile, Franz of the Council and Princess Lorelei had come to see Kieron.

Together, they had come for him. They had come to remove her from her position as duchess and replace her with Princess Lorelei, using the absurd excuse that a woman who had not been touched by her own husband was ‘infertile’.

They were completely ignorant of the fact that the duchy had only survived this long thanks to the enormous dowry her family had provided.

None of that mattered to them. They urged Kieron to cast her aside without hesitation. Yet her husband, who had always been cold towards her, seemed to have taken her side for some reason.

He said that one marriage was enough. He stood up to the very council he usually feared. He spoke as though he were defending her.

She knew she had heard every word, yet he offered no explanation.

No reassurance.

Nothing.

He simply let her walk away.

How was she supposed to explain any of this?

All Ariadne could do was shake her head, insisting that she was fine and nothing had happened.

“I’m really fine. Just tired. Could you bring me some chamomile tea? I should sleep early.”

“…Yes, my lady.”

Jay clearly wanted to ask more questions, but when her mistress insisted that she was all right, she backed off.

After helping her prepare for bed, she left the room to make her a cup of tea.

Once Jay was gone—

—Ariadne finally let out a long breath and collapsed onto the bed.

There were so many things she wanted to know.

So many things she felt she needed to investigate.

But, more than anything,

— she wanted to understand Kieron’s behavior in that room.

She wasn’t expecting anything from him.

Of course not.

She was simply curious.

She wanted to know why he had acted that way.

Why had the man who had looked at her with such disdain — the man who had once told her to live as though she were dead — now said that he wanted neither a divorce nor to remarry?

Ah.

Perhaps marriage itself was simply a nuisance to him.

Yes, certainly.

A man too busy to spare a few minutes for tea with his wife certainly wouldn’t want the hassle of getting married again.

With that thought, Ariadne stopped tormenting herself with questions.

He must simply be too busy and tired to think about divorce or remarriage.

“…I expected something again, didn’t I.”

The moment she realized this, it was as if something inside her had collapsed, like a slowly deflating balloon.

Still lying on the bed, she buried her face in the blankets.

If he had wanted to, he could have fabricated those words effortlessly.

Especially someone like him, who was always acutely aware of the eyes around him.

Once she had reached that conclusion, the turmoil clawing at her chest only moments earlier fell silent.

The confusion inside her cleared, as if the fog had finally lifted.

So all her worrying had been for nothing.

If he had truly stepped forward for her, he would have followed her afterwards to explain what had happened.

What he said must have been nothing more than words to get himself out of the situation.

They meant nothing to him, so of course he offered no excuses or explanations.

Even the things he had said to Princess Lorelei and Lord Franz were probably just convenient lines spoken in passing.

Ariadne decided that there was no point dwelling on it any further.

However, she would have to investigate the council’s affairs again, since they involved her family’s assets.

Once her emotions had settled, she pushed herself up from the bed and moved to her desk.

She needed to write to her father, there were several things she had to confirm.