Chapter 3

The ill-fated relationship between Odillia and Escael began about 30 years ago during their time at the Royal Knight Academy.

Earl Albrecht Odillia and the current head of Escael, Marquis Peter Escael, were classmates at the Knight Academy. Moreover, they were in the same class at school and roommates in the dormitory, so they were called inseparable friends at the time.

The rift began when Albrecht veered away from becoming a knight and chose military science, specifically focusing on military supply procurement, breaking their youthful promise to become excellent knights and support the empire together.

The first to act was Peter Escael. He criticized and harassed Albrecht, calling him a traitor. Although Albrecht had hit the limits of his talent as a knight, he thought his friend’s criticism was valid and endured it without a word. However, Peter misinterpreted this endurance as disregard, becoming more persistent and rough, leading to an incident.

During an argument, Peter couldn’t hold back and ended up verbally abusing Albrecht.

“You insignificant blacksmith!”

Of course, Peter Escael considered blacksmithing a respectable profession and knew that military science was an important field, but the betrayal felt too great, and he chose words intentionally to wound.

Albrecht, who thought his friend would at least keep the line, was deeply shocked. Needless to say, the inferiority and defeat he had suppressed until then burst forth.

Finally, Albrecht struck back. Since the outburst happened at the Knight Academy graduation, the revenge took place after they became adults.

Albrecht seemed to have more talent in commerce and trade than in the sword, as he found considerable success with military supplies. Less than five years after graduating from the Knight Academy, he became the head of a large guild and monopolized the artisan guild to produce military supplies. The weapons he manufactured were supplied to the royal family and other nobles.

The problem was that his revenge manifested in excluding Escael. Odillia blatantly refused to supply weapons to Escael. The sales condition was that under no circumstances should they resell or “transfer” them to Escael. In other words, they shouldn’t even lend them.

And as time passed, with much research and condensed practical data, weapons evolved. More user-friendly weapons appeared, and those with better lethality were made. Naturally, everyone sought the latest weapons.

As expected, Odillia was at the forefront of that supply. Everyone, sooner or later, received Odillia’s weapons. Escael was one of the families that “intended to do so.”

However, Odillia did not change its policy.

Escael was not to touch Odillia’s weapons.

This was Odillia’s stubbornness that not even the current Emperor, who was then the Crown Prince, could stop. They said they were merely returning what they received, so how could they be stopped? Except for that, there were no issues with the supply, so there was no justifiable reason to intervene.

Moreover, since Peter Escael himself was willing to endure the injustice, the Crown Prince and other third parties couldn’t interfere further.

Then the conflict escalated when the noble alumni from the Knight Academy, namely Albrecht and Peter’s classmates, began to take sides.

The social circle was quickly divided in two. Families siding with Odillia were mostly wealthy middle-class merchants influencing local commerce, while those siding with Escael were scholars from the traditional civil and military departments.

A conflict between those pursuing material and practicality and those valuing lineage and justification.

This was a very sufficient trigger for the accumulated dissatisfaction with hierarchy and discrimination to explode.

The survival of the Empire also began to shake as the stakes grew larger.

When Odillia struck, Escael retaliated, and when Escael moved, Odillia moved twice as much.

Caught in the middle, Bernhardt didn’t know what to do. All he could do was reflect on his inability to stop it, thinking it was because he was in the ambiguous position of Crown Prince.

However, even 20 years later, when he became Emperor, the situation remained the same. It even seemed like it would continue forever unless someone declared defeat.

Thus, the Emperor intervened directly. He couldn’t let the empire be divided over a personal feud.

He wanted visible results rather than words that might break at any moment. It was a natural attitude, having been deceived by the lie of “amicable settlement” more than once.

He went through numerous trials and errors. He tried conciliating, mediating, and even threatening. Of course, none of it worked. They would rather lay down and refuse reconciliation to the death.

If they couldn’t be thoroughly separated, the only thing left was reconciliation or capturing a “weakness” equivalent to it. Or exchange hostages so they would have no choice but to yield.

That’s when he thought of marriage. If they brought direct descendants from each family into the family, wouldn’t they restrain themselves? Moreover, by uniting Odillia and Escael, the divided social world would be unified.

It wasn’t a completely unfounded idea. In fact, there had been talk between the two families about marrying their children if they were of similar ages, so it wasn’t an unreasonable suggestion. Even if it was a conversation from their time at the Knight Academy when they were close friends.

In the end, this marriage was a sacrifice of the children to resolve the childish emotional fight of the adults.

The fortunate part was that the fathers’ conflict didn’t transfer to the children. The “discomfort” felt by the two heirs was only because they were marrying strangers they barely knew, so their feelings towards each other were merely awkwardness and sympathy.

In terms of appearance, the two matched quite well. Marie was a radiant beauty with the Odillia family’s characteristic light red hair and blue eyes, and Kalik was a uniquely handsome man with black hair and tanned skin from training under the sun. Although Marie was a year older, Kalik was so serious and exemplary that he sometimes felt like the older one or at least the same age.

However, just looking good together couldn’t cover all the concerns. The fact that the two heirs were sacrifices was undeniable.

The same reason applied to Earl Albrecht Odillia’s gift offensive.

The purpose of the gifts was to flaunt Odillia’s wealth.

Not sending gifts was because, after all, they’d have to bring everything back if they divorced, so why increase the baggage?

Everything was for divorce.

But no, he could never let his daughter become a divorcée, no matter how complicated things got. 

Due to this acute internal conflict, even after 3 years, he couldn’t make up his mind.

“Just go and get divorced already.”

Marie frowned at Albrecht’s words. To come after so long and say such a thing out of the blue.

“…Is that something you say to your daughter?”

It was unexpected, a divorce order without even a greeting. No wonder his expression seemed so solemn.

Marie moved her gaze to the piled-up gifts as she transferred salad to an empty plate. She came to organize them, only to find the sender himself here.

Albrecht had sneakily entered through the back door and hid in the annex until Kalik left. Normally, he would enter with a bang, eager to see his son-in-law’s anxious face, but today even Marie didn’t know he had come.

In such cases, he was usually up to something. Or perhaps his hatred had suddenly exploded that day.

“Then, are you going to keep living with him?”

Albrecht asked, furrowing his brows. In his view, three years was a long time. Even in the merchant guild, after working for three years, you lose the newbie label and start being called experienced. The honeymoon period should be over by now.

Marie shook her head.

“That’s not possible.”

“See, the answer is divorce.”

“Father, you make it sound so easy. Well, I guess everything is easy for you.”

It takes a rather strong heart to make a perfectly fine child a divorcee. No matter how many conflict factors there are, mentioning divorce creates another conflict. It was a fatal flaw that came with Marie being a noble, especially carrying the Odillia name.

Marie was more afraid of how the Emperor would react than Escael’s opposition if this marriage were annulled.

But her father’s argument had grounds. No matter how arbitrary, he wouldn’t defy an imperial decree without a plausible reason.

The basis was precisely the blind spot of the command.

The part where divorce wasn’t mentioned.

“I’ll find you a good man before you get any older.”

“I’m already of sufficient age!”

“No, you’re not. You have to at least pretend to repent for a few years after divorcing. If you remarry right away, those people will make a fuss, claiming you cheated, and I can’t stand seeing them boast.”

If he was going to remarry me, why tell me to divorce…

Marie chewed on the greens silently. Finding a piece of chicken occasionally made her as happy as finding a star candy. Honestly, her father’s words didn’t resonate, so they didn’t really sink in.

Nevertheless, Albrecht passionately continued.

“If you rest for three or four years and then marry, it can’t be considered too soon. Your youngest nephew is already running around, you know.”

“A child born just last year is already running?”

“It means time flies like an arrow, you rascal.”

“Alright, I understand what you’re saying, Father. I’ll see how things go.”

“You don’t mean…”

Albrecht’s eyes narrowed. He glared at Marie with a furrowed brow.