The rain showed no sign of stopping, pouring steadily into the night.

Jaina remained by the window, unable to bring herself to go back to bed. She watched the relentless sheets of rain falling. In the north, when it rained, it could continue for almost a month.

A month.

The thought alone was unbearable.

Even if she was lucky and it stopped after a week, the suffering she would endure during those seven days would gnaw mercilessly at her heart. The mere thought of that torment made her feel as though all the blood had drained from her body.

She stared at her reflection in the darkened glass. Her face was so pale that she resembled a corpse.

She slowly closed and opened her eyes, a faint crease forming between her brows as a familiar wave of anxiety washed over her. It was inevitable. Rainy days always brought such overwhelming pain that she sometimes wished the sky itself would disappear rather than continue to pour misery down upon her.

Click.

The bedroom door opened without a knock.

She knew she should turn around, but her body refused to obey. At last, she forced herself to shift slightly, bracing herself to face her husband as he approached.

And, as always, the nightmare slipped from his lips.

“I’ll be sleeping in Violet’s room tonight.”

Her heart plummeted.

She could barely maintain her composure; her face stiffened beyond her control and her lips trembled faintly.

Seeing that Jaina did not acknowledge him and continued to stare out of the window, Cadel let out a long sigh.

Her vision blurred instantly.

She could endure his dry, frigid tone, but she could not bear the sigh he directed at her. Fearing that even the slightest blink would cause tears to spill down her cheeks, she clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.

Perhaps he saw her reflection in the window.

Another sigh escaped her husband’s lips.

He did not know.

He had no idea how deeply his sighs tore her heart to shreds.

“You agreed to this before we married.”

The silence of the bedroom was shattered by Cadel’s icy voice.

It was true.

When they had first discussed marriage, he had told her outright that he would sleep in another woman’s room on rainy days. Jaina hadn’t even asked why. She had simply said that she didn’t mind.

At the time, she truly hadn’t.

All she wanted was to escape her family, who treated her as nothing more than a tool for acquiring wealth. The only way to free herself was to marry Cadel, the Grand Duke of the North.

But things were different now.

Jaina had fallen in love with him.

In fact, she found herself envying the nurse’s daughter — the woman he spent every rainy night with.

He knew it, too.

There was no way he could not have known.

Before this rainy season began, during the endless month of downpours that had nearly driven her mad, she had done something to Violet that she should never have done.

No woman could remain sane if her beloved husband slept in another woman’s room for more than four weeks.

No woman could remain composed when she saw Violet adorned with necklaces, earrings and other trinkets every morning — gifts from Cadel, given almost daily.

Perhaps Violet had spoken to Jaina out of nothing but gratitude, addressing her respectfully as Cadel’s wife.

Maybe the slap Jaina had delivered had been born solely of her own dark, petty jealousy.

She regretted it the instant her hand struck Violet’s cheek. But Violet, wounded and humiliated, left without accepting her apology.

That night—

Cadel, who had not returned to the marital bedroom once during the rain, came to see her.

It had been two weeks since he confronted his wife.

The moment he saw her, he demanded to know why she had hit Violet.

Disdainfully, he told her that if she had nothing better to do, she might as well leave the castle and use her divine power to help those in need.

At that moment, Jaina wished she could simply disappear.

As this memory resurfaced, Jaina squeezed her eyes shut tightly, as if that alone could make it go away.

“So stop making it sound as though Violet and I are committing adultery.”

Cadel spoke as though he were sick of the very suggestion.

“As though we are committing adultery…“

Jaina turned his words over in her mind.

From her perspective, it was adultery.

Regardless of the reason, wasn’t he still a married man spending the night in another woman’s bed?

“You gave me permission to sleep in Violet’s room before we got married. That was the most important condition for our marriage.”

So that was what it came down to.

That was why he could stand there and speak with such shameless certainty.

“So don’t lose control over how you express yourself and make an even bigger mess of things.”

“…”

“Because of you—because you throw hysterics every time it rains—innocent Violet is being pointed at by the servants and called an adulteress.”

At those words, it felt as though Jaina’s throat tightened shut.

In the end, it was an order: keep your emotions in check, so Violet would not be made uncomfortable because of you.

‘How can you be this cruel to me?’

Just as grief twisted her face—

As though even that sight disgusted him, Cadel turned sharply and left the bedroom.

“Hhk—”

Her heart seemed to shatter instantly.

Jaina sank to the floor, folding in on herself as she released a series of broken sobs.

Had she done something wrong by falling in love?

Had he grown weary of her because the wife he wanted was merely a title, and had he suddenly begun to desire love in return?

Or was this punishment born of guilt? Guilt because ultimately it was Violet who suffered hurt and humiliation because of her?

Questions flooded her mind, yet not one of them offered a clear answer.

Sitting on the cold floor, she cried until her chest ached. She hit her chest with her fists as though she could pound away the doubts that refused to be silenced.

Who would have thought that loving her husband could demand such a cruel and unbearable price?

Had she known it would hurt this much, she would never have allowed herself to love him.

No —

But even if she had known, would she have stopped herself?

She hadn’t chosen to love him. Not truly. It had simply happened beyond her control.

Like relentless rain hammering against the window, Jaina poured out every grievance from her heart until only dull, hollow numbness remained.

And in that emptiness, a thought began to take shape that she had never dared consider before.

‘Maybe he doesn’t need me anymore.’

She still did not know why the Grand Duke of the North had chosen her — a mere commoner — and insisted on a marriage. Perhaps he no longer needed her, though.

‘Or maybe… I’ve become an obstacle.’

Perhaps he wanted to marry Violet so much that he gave her a gift every day.

How had she been so foolish as to fail to realize it?

How had she failed to see that she might be the thing standing in their way?

Only then did Jaina understand.

Ah. So this is where the relationship ends.

***

That night—

Jaina took out the teleportation stone she had hidden at the back of her bottom drawer.

This stone led directly to the Grand Temple.

When she was a child, the former High Priest had placed it in her small hands and told her that it would one day prove useful.

Using the stone, Jaina arrived at the Grand Temple undetected.

It was nearly dawn, and the entrance was silent.

Moving as quietly as she could despite her hurried steps, she made her way towards the garden where the Elim Tree stood. Even in the darkness, the tree radiated a soft, sacred light.

She stopped before it.

A storm of emotions churned around her heart.

She had come here without hesitation the moment she had made her decision. But now, on the verge of letting go of everything, fear slowly began to rise within her.

“Because of you, innocent Violet is being pointed at by the servants and called an adulteress.“

Cadel’s words echoed in her mind once more, pushing her forward.

At last, Jaina forced herself to steady her trembling heart.

She had endured a life of cold neglect and exploitation at the hands of her family. The first man she had ever loved had become her entire world — her reason for living.

But she did not have the strength to face the truth: the man who meant everything to her now looked at her with disdain and had grown tired of her.

This was no longer a life worth living.

If the only alternative was to continue existing beneath Cadel’s cold gaze, it would be better to disappear. Yet those blessed with divine power could not choose death so easily. They were not free to end their lives at will.

There was only one way: to exhaust the divine power within themselves.

In other words, the only path left to Jaina was to pour every last fragment of her sacred power into the Elim Tree, the vessel of holy strength.

Jaina lifted her hand and placed it gently against the Elim Tree’s luminous bark.

Then she began to release it — every drop of divine power she possessed.

And so—

— she ended her own life.