An Ode to Divorce - Chapter 3

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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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#3

Naturally, I didn’t believe it.

Even if our marriage was a contract marriage, a marriage was still a marriage.

To think that someone as upright as Gert would do something so faithless as to have relations with another woman while married.

If he really had a woman, it would have been more like Gert to openly reveal it.

Despite my disbelief, Eurich remained relaxed. Rather, he clicked his tongue as if he pitied me for knowing nothing.

“Still can’t believe it? Well, I couldn’t believe it at first either. But there’s evidence.”

What Eurich handed me with those words was a small box.

I opened the box without letting go of my suspicion.

“…A proposal ring?”

“The craftsman came looking for payment, that’s how I found out. He said it was a ring Gert had ordered before leaving. No matter how you look at it, it seems like Gert was planning to propose to another woman.”

Inside the box lay a ring decorated with a blue gem that resembled the color of Gert’s eyes.

When proposing, giving a ring made with a gem or stone the same color as one’s own eyes, meaning to reveal oneself to the other person, is a very old custom.

For that reason, gems matching one’s eye color were used only for proposal rings, and giving gifts with gems of one’s eye color was avoided at other times.

Whether the recipient was family, acquaintances…

Even if they were lovers or spouses.

So Eurich’s speculation that this ring had a different owner made sense.

Did Gert really have another woman?

My heart denied it, but my mind was acknowledging that Eurich’s words were correct.

It would have been impossible to prepare such a ring in just one month.

The blue diamond decorating the ring wasn’t something easily obtainable. Moreover, he would have had to choose one similar to his eye color, so even the great Gerhardt Alkides Lübenhartz would have had to search quite extensively.

I could no longer deny it.

That Gert had a woman he loved, and that he had intended to propose to her.

After my 25th birthday, the contract would end and we could divorce. He must have prepared the ring in advance to divorce me and immediately propose to her.

The moment I realized this fact, a corner of my heart stung as if carved out with a knife.

As if I had been betrayed.

‘Betrayed? Me, by Gert?’

Gert and I were married by contract, nothing more.

So there was no reason for me to feel betrayed just because he liked another woman.

Right. If it had been before we slept together, I surely would have thought that way.

***

“We won’t be sharing a bed. We’ll just spend four years as husband and wife in name only.”

Those were the words Gert had said to me on our wedding day, in the bridal chamber decorated for our wedding night.

I had accepted his proposal as well. Since we would divorce after four years, if I slept with him and ended up pregnant, only I would suffer. That child would belong to Lübenhartz, not Vogelbaide.

Three years passed like that.

He thoroughly kept his word.

Even without sharing a bed, we got along well enough. We were closer to comrades than spouses, not much different from our expedition days, but that was sufficient.

But a few months after my 24th birthday, something happened.

“What’s that?”

“It’s liquor that the delegation from Okrolandi brought as a gift this time. It’s precious enough to rival nectar.”

“Wow, can I just taste it?”

“Of course.”

The golden liquor flowing from the bottle into the glass was glowing softly. It was fitting liquor for the golden country, Okrolandi.

The first sip was as sweet as drinking honey, while the sensation going down my throat felt like flames spreading.

“It’s strong!”

“You should stop drinking.”

Gert chuckled watching me like that. He sipped that strong liquor quite well. But Gert seemed quite drunk too, as his voice was slightly more excited than usual.

Since giving up here would feel like losing for no reason, I pestered Gert for just a little more.

While Gert was drinking, I kept stealing sips here and there, and I started feeling somewhat hot. I stripped off my clothes. With my bare chest exposed, the cool air chilled my skin and I felt like I could live.

“You’re crazy. Put it back on quickly!”

“But it’s hot…”

I rubbed my cheek against the cold table and mumbled. I could feel Gert’s gaze looking at me as if dumbfounded. I mean, can’t a person get hot…?

But then, staying like that, I suddenly felt cold. While my body was shivering, I felt something warm next to me. Without knowing it, my body burrowed toward the warmth.

“Cold…”

But something was tightly wrapped around the warm thing. I thought it would be warmer if I removed it. I struggled and tried to take it off.

Then, suddenly my body was lifted up. Soon something warm enveloped my body.

“Good…”

“Good?”

“Mmm…”

Soon I heard a low chuckling voice.

Ah, Gert is laughing. I couldn’t think of any reason for Gert to laugh, so worried that Gert might take my heater away, I desperately hugged the heater. After all the trouble I went through to unwrap this…

I touched the heater here and there. The heater was a bit hard, but the feeling under my fingertips wasn’t too bad. It felt like smoothly polished wood.

Especially when holding it like this, the warmth around my bottom area felt very nice. I swayed my body a few times. Even then it didn’t shake, very stable.

I didn’t know where it came from, but it was definitely a very precious heater.

Good, I should tell Gert to give me this heater. Always keeping the good stuff for himself…

“Mmph…”

Perhaps noticing that I was eyeing his heater, I heard Gert’s troubled groan.

Smooch, smooch.

Liking the heater, I kissed it several times. If I marked it with my saliva like this, Gert wouldn’t be able to stand it and would give me the heater.

And then…

“Haa…”

A drowsy feeling like floating in warm water. It reminded me of lying on the deck of the Argo, watching the flowing clouds. Skin dampened by sea breeze. Not wanting to move even a finger, I relaxed all my strength and went limp.

‘Come to think of it, where did my heater go…?’

The heater was hanging above me. Gert must have been trying to take it. I hurriedly reached out to hug my heater, and at that moment my body swayed greatly as if the Argo had run aground.

“Ah!”

Then came excruciating pain as if my body would split apart.

Heater or whatever, I snapped awake and opened my eyes wide with a scream.

What I faced upon opening my eyes was Gert with unfocused eyes.

Through his open shirt collar, his firm chest glistened with absorbed sweat.

“My… heater?”

I realized that what I was hugging was Gert’s nape.

So, what I had been making all that fuss over, thinking it was a heater, was actually Gert!

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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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