An Ode to Divorce - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#2

“…Divorce?”

“Did you just say divorce?”

As soon as I finished speaking, the entire banquet hall erupted in murmurs. Even the gentle music that had been playing in the background had stopped.

“…What?”

Amidst the noise, Gert asked back with a displeased expression.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

‘This is exactly why I wanted to talk when we were alone!’

It’s not like I had planned to openly ask for a divorce in front of everyone!

‘If Gert gets angry… that’s scary.’

But even knowing that, I had no choice.

When Gert goes out on monster hunts, he returns after weeks at the shortest, or months at the longest. From my memory, after leaving for the hunt today, he only returned three months later.

I didn’t have the confidence to endure staying in this manor until then. Thinking of what I suffered at the hands of the household after his death, I wanted to escape from this place immediately.

Still, it was fortunate that I could clearly convey my desire for divorce in front of all his relatives.

Even if the divorce doesn’t go through this time, at least I won’t be falsely accused of killing Gert for wealth and glory like in my previous life.

Of course, Gert might be angry at my sudden divorce proposal, but at least he wouldn’t kill me for it.

‘…He won’t kill me, right?’

As I was rolling my eyes anxiously with this belated worry, Gert cornered me with a face struggling to suppress his anger.

“Say it again, Orphea. What did you say you wanted as a gift?”

“I said I want a divorce….”

Facing the menacing Gert, my initially bold demeanor completely disappeared and my words naturally trailed off.

Gert’s murderous aura pricked my skin sharply.

His presence was so terrifying that the banquet hall, which had become noisy as soon as I mentioned divorce, fell silent as if cold water had been poured over it.

In the silence, Gert spoke in a calm tone.

“Hilias, could you wait for a moment? It’ll just be brief.”

“Understood.”

“And Orphea.”

When Gert pointed at me, my neck instinctively shrank.

“Let’s have a little talk.”

I was the one who first requested to talk alone, but now that the opportunity actually arose, I became scared.

‘I want to stay in the banquet hall even if I have to roll around on the floor… I’m scared to be alone with him….’

But I obediently followed Gert. It wasn’t a situation where I could avoid going even if I threw a tantrum.

As I was almost running to match Gert’s stride, I heard Hilias hastily trying to restore order behind us.

“Now, now. How long do you plan to rest? Resume the performance immediately!”

***

Thud!

The drawing room door near the banquet hall closed, cutting us off from the commotion of the banquet hall.

Without giving time for silence to build, Gert immediately turned to me and interrogated me.

“What’s this sudden talk about divorce?”

He turned around so abruptly that I nearly hiccupped.

Gert’s demeanor was still menacing, but I still read a glimmer of hope.

At least the fact that Gert was asking about my intentions meant he was willing to have a conversation. I felt slightly relieved.

Since it seemed like the conversation would be long, I immediately sat down on the sofa in the drawing room.

But Gert had no intention of sitting and remained standing tall.

Even when standing, I had to crane my neck to look up at him, and trying to see him while sitting felt like my neck would break, but I couldn’t dare tell Gert what to do, so I decided to just keep my neck craned.

Since I had torn the great Gert’s dignity to shreds, I had to endure at least this much pain.

‘But I never intended to shout it out loud in front of everyone like that!’

Though I felt wronged, anyway, my desire for divorce wasn’t just an improvised response.

I had thought about it countless times during my confinement.

Gert too would be displeased with the way I proposed divorce, not with the divorce proposal itself.

And for good reason….

“Our marriage still has a year left, doesn’t it.”

That was right. While ordinary marriages are promises to spend a lifetime together, my marriage with Gert was different.

It was a time-limited ‘contract marriage’ formed without love to break Gert’s curse!

***

Gert was cursed and suffered from fits of madness at random times.

The reason he periodically went out on monster hunts was because once his madness erupted, it wouldn’t subside without seeing blood.

Then one day three years ago, on his way back from completing a grand year-long expedition, he received a prophecy.

“If you want to break the curse upon you, you must marry one of the women on this ship.”

There were only three women on the ship, including me.

The other two women besides me were not suitable partners for a casual marriage to break a curse.

One was a princess from another country.

The other was a priestess serving the god of chastity.

On the other hand, I was a commoner with no complications, and I even had something I wanted from Gert.

Wanting to achieve my goal by somehow using this prophecy, I proposed a contract marriage to Gert, and he accepted.

The contract conditions were simple.

First, if Gert’s curse is broken, we divorce immediately!

Second, if the curse isn’t broken even four years after our marriage day, by my 25th birthday, we divorce without waiting any longer!

And the final condition: whether the curse is broken or not, Gert gives me ‘the right to write his story as an epic poem’!

If not for such circumstances, a commoner like me could never have married the great noble Gert.

Anyway, we were still married.

That meant Gert’s curse hadn’t been broken yet.

According to the second contract condition, we were scheduled to divorce next year on my 25th birthday.

‘Except Gert dies before then, making it all useless.’

I couldn’t just quietly wait until next year as per the contract.

But Gert seemed unwilling to agree to the divorce, scowling his already menacing face even more as he objected.

“Divorcing a year early won’t make much difference. Wouldn’t it be more convenient to stay at the Archduke’s Mansion to focus on your work until the ‘Day of Gazing’?”

“Mmm.”

Gert’s words made sense too.

The ‘Day of Gazing’ refers to an artist’s 25th birthday.

The day when you can present your work to Mnemiir, the god of arts, just once.

Legend says that if you offer a work excellent enough to catch the god’s eye, the god will grant a wish worthy of the work’s value.

As such, artists held that day in very high regard.

I was the same.

The Day of Gazing held even greater meaning for me in particular.

My birth household ‘Vogelbaide’ had a rule that the most outstanding bard inherits the household.

So I had been working hard to become a better bard than my stepbrother Linos.

On the Day of Gazing, the results of my efforts were supposed to be revealed.

But Gert suddenly died, and as if waiting for it, Eurich not only confined me but pushed me out the window on the Day of Gazing.

While falling from the tower, I offered a song to the god in despair.

Since even my lyre was taken away, it was an incomplete song with just my voice, no accompaniment or anything.

Even while offering the song, I thought it was a failure, but surprisingly, the god not only liked my song but even turned back time.

So in the end, I could say I had beaten Linos… though it was a future that no longer existed.

But since I had achieved it once, there was no reason I couldn’t do it twice.

Besides, I had a reason why I absolutely had to achieve it.

“Instead, you must offer me a song far superior to the one you’ve presented now, one year from today. If you fail to do so… you will ultimately meet your original fate and die that day.”

‘…I was planning to do that even without such a condition.’

Offering an incomplete song to a god was already a severe blow to my pride, and now that I’d been given another chance, I never even considered half-heartedly getting by with the same song.

‘I’d rather die than do that.’

In any case, to complete the unfinished song, I needed to focus on my work for a full year.

If I stayed at the Archduke’s Mansion, I could certainly concentrate solely on my work.

However…

The problem was Gert’s death.

If I could prevent Gert’s death, I wouldn’t need to desperately pursue this divorce. If Gert didn’t die, I wouldn’t have had to die either.

But since I didn’t know how Gert had died, I had no way of preventing it.

So divorcing him early and keeping my distance was my best option.

‘Besides, I’m not trying to get divorced solely for my own sake.’

The divorce was necessary for Gert’s sake as well.

Because in a few months, he would find a woman he loved enough to consider proposing to.

Of course, I had no idea who that woman was.

Gert never showed any signs of it.

I only learned about Gert having a woman through Eurich, after Gert had died.

“Turns out Gert had a woman he was keeping secret. Did you know about it?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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