At Cadel’s sudden words, Jaina’s expression turned puzzled.

“What?”

“My bedchamber.”

The answer came so quickly that it left her momentarily speechless.

Jaina faintly furrowed her brow and asked.

“Do I need to know?”

“We’re married.”

“Not yet.”

Jaina lowered her gaze to the written vow in Cadel’s hand.

“We were married in the past.”

“At that time—”

Jaina was about to retort, but she closed her mouth mid-sentence. She had no desire to continue such a childish argument.

“Jaina.”

Cadel called her name.

She looked at him instead of answering. His expression seemed slightly subdued as he asked.

“Do you hate me?”

Her heart dropped heavily at the question.

‘…Do I hate him?’

To be honest, she still wasn’t sure how she felt about Cadel.

One thing was certain: she had loved him. She had spent countless nights agonizing over the other woman in his life.

If she could simply call it ‘hate’, it might have been easier. But her emotions were far too tangled for that. The word refused to take root in her heart.

She had no intention of loving him again. Over time, even the love she once felt might fade, as though it had never existed at all.

Perhaps, once every trace of feeling had disappeared, she would finally be able to look at Cadel and see him as nothing more than a friend.

‘But not yet.’

Confronted once again with the reality of Cadel and Violet’s relationship, the pitiful remains of her buried jealousy rose to the surface.

“No.”

Ultimately, denial was the only response she could give him.

When she replied, Cadel stared at her in silence for a moment.

She met his gaze and did not look away.

A heavy silence stretched between them.

It was Cadel who broke it first.

He gave a small nod.

“I see.”

“……”

“But, Jaina.”

“Yes.”

“You must already know.”

Cadel released the doorknob and turned fully toward her.

Then, in a firm voice, he said,

“To me, there is only one companion. And it is you.”

“……”

“Even if you were to die and turn back time again and again, what I said before—that I would make you my wife—was never a lie.”

Jaina’s expression stiffened slightly at his words.

An unsettling thought crossed her mind: perhaps she would never be truly free of this man.

This thought lingered, and slowly, one corner of her lips curled upwards.

‘Free? Why wouldn’t I be?’

She looked at Cadel steadily and spoke.

“Is there anyone more suitable than me to be installed as a puppet Grand Duchess?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Cadel’s face twisted at her words.

“Of course. If that’s my karma, then I suppose I should accept it willingly.”

“Jaina.”

“But I won’t cry like a fool anymore.”

She finished speaking and rose to her feet, standing face to face with him.

“Whether you use me for the sake of your love or not—do as you please. I have no intention of involving myself.”

“You’re taking this too far. I—”

“There’s nothing excessive about it. I’m merely responding to what you said.”

Jaina straightened her back and lifted her chin, meeting Cadel’s gaze without flinching.

“You said I am your only companion? Then I’m sorry to say this—but the day the Empire is stabilized and the Elim Tree is restored to its original state—”

“……”

The color slowly drained from Cadel’s face. As though he already knew what she was about to say.

“I intend to divorce you.”

***

“Adil, what is the divorce process in the Empire?”

The moment Cadel entered his study, he called Adil urgently.

Adil’s face rose abruptly from behind the towering stack of documents on his desk.

“Pardon?”

“Divorce. If one were to divorce, how complicated is the procedure?”

“How would I know? I’m still unmarried. Divorce isn’t exactly common in the Empire.”

“……”

“And may I ask why you speak of divorce while holding your marriage vows in your hand?”

Adil glanced incredulously at the rolled marriage contract clutched in Cadel’s grasp.

“It’s not me.”

Cadel sank heavily into his chair and exhaled slowly and shakily. He had never imagined that Jaina would say the word ‘divorce’.

No matter how strained their relationship had become, he had always believed that she was the kind of person who would honor a vow made before God until her death.

Even during their previous life together, when misunderstandings had driven her to anger and despair, she had never once spoken of ending their marriage.

Lowering his gaze, Cadel looked at the tightly clenched scroll in his hands and slowly unrolled it.

Yes, their marriage had begun out of necessity. But he had believed that Jaina felt some sense of responsibility towards it.

In fact, if he was honest with himself, he had believed that she loved him.

She had loved him once. He was certain that upon returning to the past, she would embrace this marriage as strongly as he did.

“I intend to divorce you.”

Divorce.

A deep line formed between Cadel’s brows.

He had not anticipated that Jaina would leave the castle of her own accord after returning. However, by doing so, she had shown him that, like him, she was still carrying all her memories of the past.

He had therefore assumed that her feelings towards him had not changed.

“Surely the Saintess isn’t saying she’ll divorce you?!”

“……”

“Just because you sleep elsewhere when it rains? Don’t tell me you still haven’t explained it properly. It can be extremely disrespectful to your companion no matter what, so I told you to explain it in as much detail as possible.”

Adil continued in a flustered voice, but none of it truly registered with him.

He was simply at a loss.

Cadel turned his gaze to the window and muttered to himself.

“As if I would know what she’s feeling.”

The mere suggestion of sleeping in separate rooms was beyond his expectations.

He had never imagined that he would get married and then be told by his wife immediately afterwards that they should sleep in separate rooms.

It was true that he had to sleep in another woman’s room when it rained. But on clear days, they could be together without issue.

So what exactly was so unbearable for her?

Rumors could be controlled. He could ensure that nobody ever said he was ‘staying’ in Violet’s room. But that wasn’t the real problem.

‘If Jaina and I sleep separately, I lose the time to speak with her.’

There was so much he wanted to say and so much he wanted to hear.

He still didn’t know why she had invested all her divine power in the Elim Tree, ultimately taking her own life in the process.

He had disappointed her countless times in the past. This time, however, he had promised himself that he would make her happy, no matter what it took.

He was going to uncover and erase every source of her suffering, one by one.

The first thing he planned to deal with was her toxic family — the most useless, vile and wretched presence in her life.

Staring out of the window, Cadel pondered how to untangle their twisted relationship and restore what had been lost.

But he still did not understand. He still did not grasp the fundamental problem between himself and Jaina.

***

“Separate bedchambers?”

Violet’s eyes gleamed strangely as she questioned Daze, who was hanging laundry.

Daze nodded a couple of times as she answered.

“That’s what I was told. Razran—who has been assigned to attend the Saintess… no, Her Grace the Grand Duchess, during her baths—said so.”

“Really? And how did it come to that?”

Violet asked with a smile spread wide across her lips, as though genuinely curious.

“Then are they going to keep sleeping separately? Did they set up another room for Lord Cadel?”

“I’m not sure about that…”

“Who’s cleaning the third-floor bedchamber right now?”

“Um… I think it’s Merian?”

In an instant, Violet turned sharply and hurried off somewhere.

Watching her retreating figure, Daze shook her head and muttered.

“Honestly, she makes it so obvious…”

Daze could more or less guess what Violet was thinking.

Although she was a servant like everyone else, Violet had been granted a title equivalent to that of a viscount thanks to her mother, who had once been Cadel’s nurse.

Violet took great pride in this.

She even behaved as though she had always been a noble.

And yet, no one could truly dislike or resent her.

To her master, Cadel, she was indispensable.

Especially on rainy nights.

On rainy days, the cursed lord of the castle could only find sleep when Violet was by his side.

Although people spoke of it in hushed tones, everyone in the castle knew this.

This was why no one dared reprimand her, even when she neglected her duties and behaved as if she were the lady of the house.

‘Still, now that Her Grace the Grand Duchess has arrived, I wish she would at least keep her place.’

Daze began spreading out the laundry she had hung, hoping Violet would not act foolishly.

‘She’s sharper than I thought.’

Violet smiled as she hurried down the corridor looking for Merian.

When she encountered Jaina on the third floor, she was consumed by a sudden, inexplicable jealousy and impulsively provoked her.

But perhaps that had worked in her favor.

No woman would remain indifferent upon learning that the man she was about to marry spent his nights in another woman’s room, especially in a marriage devoid of affection.

‘That must be why the Saintess insisted on separate chambers from the start—to ensure she would never have to share nights with Cadel.’

To Violet, it was nothing short of perfect.

When she first heard that Cadel intended to marry a Saintess, she was devastated. She had always believed that he would never share his bed with anyone else. After all, she was the only one necessary to bear the curse he carried.

The idea that another woman might stand by his side had never once crossed her mind.

However, no matter how special she was to Cadel, she had overlooked one undeniable truth: she could never become Grand Duchess.

Even if her mother had been granted a noble title, the fact that she had once served as Cadel’s nurse could never be erased. That stain, that history, would always remain.

If she could not claim the title herself, then someone else would have to take her place.

Not long after she came to accept this, Cadel publicly announced that he would appoint a Saintess as Grand Duchess.

She mistakenly believed that it was something he had done for her.

If he had chosen a noblewoman from a great house as Grand Duchess, she would undoubtedly have been harassed and oppressed.

Cadel must have chosen a saint instead precisely to prevent this.

‘He pretends otherwise, but he always thinks of me.’

Violet’s lips curved upward as she recalled Cadel—cold and composed, yet quietly considerate.

That was what made him so endearing.

And what made her love him all the more.

‘Since it’s come to this, I’ll have to make my own move. I can’t allow the Grand Duchess to develop even the slightest feelings for Lord Cadel.’

Now that the couple had agreed to sleep in separate rooms, there was no reason to hesitate.

Regardless of who had suggested it, the message was clear: they no longer had any affection for each other.

However, Violet believed that if Jaina spent enough time with Cadel, she would eventually fall in love with him. Therefore, she was determined to destroy that possibility before it could take root.

Jaina needed to understand that, although he was her husband in name, his heart belonged to another woman.

Only then would she think twice before giving her heart away. From the moment she saved him as a child, Cadel had been hers. No — perhaps even before that.

Back when her mother served as his nurse and she helped to care for the young lord.

Four years his senior, Violet had once cherished him as a younger brother. But as they grew into adulthood, her feelings changed. She loved him not as a sibling, but as her man.

On rainy nights, he would stumble into her chamber, trembling with pain. Gradually, he would grow quiet in her presence before falling into a deep, exhausted sleep.

How could she not love him?

‘Yes. He was mine from the very beginning.’

To Violet, Cadel was her sky, her earth—her entire world.

And she had no intention of losing him to anyone.

Never.