An Ode to Divorce - Chapter 76

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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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#76

Gert stared straight at Tamar, as if his earlier avoidance of her gaze had been a lie. His blue eyes churned like a tsunami about to crash down.

“If Orphea were the type of person who would threaten someone, I would have revealed that fact immediately.”

Gert continued speaking with his voice heavily suppressed. As if he had drawn upon every ounce of patience he possessed, his voice was strained and tight.

“But she’s not like that. Rather, if that girl found out about this, she would somehow make time to play music for me. Isn’t that right?”

“…If it’s Orphea, then yes, she would.”

Unlike how she had been pressing Gert, Tamar readily agreed. She hadn’t actually believed that Orphea would threaten Gert when she said those words. It was merely a poker to draw out Gert’s true feelings and ignite his sincerity.

And Gert also understood Tamar’s inner thoughts. Perhaps that’s why he laid bare his own feelings one by one before Tamar.

“It starts with good intentions, but eventually it becomes a burden, a shackle. Right now, listening to my songs seems to inspire her heroic poetry, but what happens after the heroic poem is completed?”

Though it had to remain secret from Orphea, he could tell Tamar, who cherished Orphea dearly, as much as he wanted.

Because Tamar would never reveal any of this to Orphea, even if Gert told her everything.

“I don’t want to make her continue playing when she no longer needs to perform for me, and doesn’t feel like doing so, just out of a sense of responsibility toward me.”

Though he had broken his vow from the expedition days to never ask Orphea to play, Gert still wished for Orphea to be free.

The madness…

He had endured well enough without listening to Orphea’s music until now, and he couldn’t suppress it with her performances for the rest of his life.

‘Besides, we’re divorced anyway…’

While others said Gert didn’t care about his divorce from Orphea, he was actually quite deeply concerned about it.

He knew well that it wouldn’t be good for an ex-husband to keep hovering around Orphea when she found a good man to remarry.

So he could endure a mere headache easily enough. Just having this fortune-like respite granted to him occasionally, even if only for a while, was sufficient.

“…”

The image of Orphea, who had insisted on hiding Eurich’s problem out of concern for the relationship between Gert and the Royal Family, overlapped with Gert, who didn’t want to burden Orphea.

‘Are these two really divorced?’

With that thought, probing Gert further seemed pointless. Tamar clicked her tongue.

“Fine. I’ll keep the curse matter secret. But I also can’t tell you about my conversations with Orphea. I promised to keep it secret with Orphea. If you’re so considerate of Orphea, you’ll understand her desire to keep things secret too, right?”

“…”

Even after revealing all his cards, Gert’s face crumpled when he failed to obtain the information he wanted. For Tamar, just seeing that expression made enduring this unpleasant time worthwhile. Tamar let out a small sneer.

***

Gert’s carriage arrived at the delegation residence where Tamar was staying.

Usually, when a foreign princess visited, it was customary to stay in the Royal Guest Hall of the Royal Palace, which was reserved for state guests.

However, since Tamar found the Royal Palace stifling and her stay in Petalien was prolonged, she came to stay at the delegation residence where she could live more freely.

While it was certainly lacking in security and protection compared to the Royal Guest Hall of the Royal Palace, who was Tamar?

A priestess beloved by the goddess Hecate and the greatest mage alive.

Since Tamar was skilled enough to rescue the guards rather than the guards rescuing her, she lived freely with just a few servants.

“I won’t particularly thank you for the ride. Don’t ever stop me out of the blue like this again to interrogate people.”

“The interrogation was something I…”

Bang!

“…seemed to be on the receiving end of.”

Tamar slammed the carriage door shut without even listening to the end of Gert’s words. Since he was familiar with Tamar’s personality, Gert clicked his tongue in displeasure.

At Gert’s reaction, Hilias, who was sitting on the driver’s seat, casually spoke to Gert.

“That’s why I told you there’s nothing to gain from asking Princess Tamar. She’s not an easy person to deal with.”

“But she’s also one of the few people close to Orphea. Rather than stirring up trouble here and there, asking Tamar is the fastest way.”

Regardless of his displeasure with Tamar, considering how Tamar had helped Orphea escape danger multiple times, Gert couldn’t simply ignore her existence.

Of course, even the great Tamar seemed helpless when it came to incidents like this deer situation that occurred where she couldn’t see.

At the mention of being close to Orphea, Hilias thought of Orphea’s closest aide, the person nearest to her, and asked.

“What about asking Berta? Berta would have seen and heard quite a lot.”

“I assigned Berta to attend to Orphea, not to extract information about Orphea.”

Gert replied in a tone that suggested Hilias was talking nonsense.

Berta and Tamar were different cases. How could a friend and a subordinate be the same?

“Even if Dietrich went somewhere and spilled my weaknesses, I wouldn’t think much of it. That guy would have his reasons for doing so. But Hilias, if you spilled my weaknesses, I would feel deeply betrayed. It would be the same for Orphea.”

“…I was short-sighted. I apologize.”

Hilias immediately apologized and corrected his mistake. Since Gert had no intention of scolding Hilias for long, he didn’t drag the matter out further.

After that, Gert seemed lost in thought, tapping the carriage window with his fingertips. After mulling it over for some time, Gert clicked his tongue and added.

“Never mind. About the deer incident… If I wait a little longer, information will come from somewhere.”

Still, if Tamar was keeping it secret from Gert himself, it probably wasn’t a truly serious situation. If Tamar had judged that Gert’s intervention was necessary, she would have somehow conveyed it to Gert despite her promise to Orphea.

But that didn’t mean he would let his guard down.

Gert didn’t think this incident had happened by chance.

While he was away, Orphea had fallen into danger. And it was tremendous danger involving even a divine beast. At first glance, it seemed like Orphea had been coincidentally caught up in it, but the silk strings that Orphea had been interested in just happened to arrive at the instrument shop that day.

Of course, that alone wasn’t enough to be certain that someone had targeted Orphea, but Gert’s instincts were screaming that something was suspicious.

“At times like this, it’s frustrating beyond measure that we can’t communicate with the deer. If we could just ask that baby deer, we’d have answers right away.”

Gert muttered this while looking out the window. Tamar’s words when she had been pressing him echoed in his ears.

“Orphea doesn’t seem to know that her music suppresses your madness…”

“…Ha, it’s not like I wanted to hide it…”

Gert’s lamenting voice scattered faintly like dust floating in the air.

How wonderful it would have been if Gert could enjoy Orphea’s songs without any reservations, like Tamar.

That’s why he had sometimes wished that Orphea’s songs weren’t unique.

If he could suppress his madness with other performers’ songs too, then he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about using her every time he listened to Orphea’s performances.

So he had tried listening to performances by ‘those who could put will into music.’ He had even tried listening from afar to Linos’s songs, which Gert detested and had sworn he would never listen to again.

But none of them could suppress his madness.

Only Orphea’s songs could suppress his madness.

‘Right. There couldn’t be anyone else as skilled as Orphea to begin with.’

Gert smiled with self-mockery. If anyone with good skills could suppress Gert’s madness, that would have been strange instead.

He was just grateful that at least Orphea’s performances were special.

Though he had grown accustomed to it, suppressing the madness was still extremely painful.

Nevertheless, Gert always suppressed his madness until the very last moment. Because otherwise, he would have to spend almost the entire year soaked in monster blood.

How could that be human? Living entangled with monsters inevitably turns one into a monster.

So before he became worn down and started hunting out of habit like now, when Gert still felt sick of hunting, he thought he would be very grateful to anyone who could suppress his madness, and that he could do anything for them.

But why was it? With Orphea, he felt more sorry than grateful.

Since Orphea was the one who stepped forward to sing for him, it wasn’t something Gert had forced.

Yet his heart felt uncomfortable—was it because he was hiding the true value of Orphea’s songs?

Suddenly, the image of Orphea smiling brightly at Gert after finishing her performance flashed through his mind.

Orphea’s smile, as if she was incredibly pleased that her performance had moved 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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