An Ode to Divorce - Chapter 79

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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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#79

‘…What goodwill!’

Lairinne bit her lower lip repeatedly. Seeing Orphea speak so confidently, she looked exactly like someone who had found a weakness to exploit.

‘I’ll admit now that Orphea is a decent Hero. But she still doesn’t seem like a good person.’

That was separate from Orphea saving people, and separate from Eurich’s slander about adultery and such.

It was just based on how Orphea treated Brother Gert.

Lairinne recalled how Gert had stayed by Orphea’s side even after their divorce.

The way Gert always looked at Orphea!

He definitely didn’t look like someone who would have asked for the divorce first.

‘…Brother still has lingering feelings for Orphea. And Orphea understands Brother’s true feelings and uses them.’

If she were a good person, she wouldn’t use her divorced ex-husband like that.

‘Wait…. But.’

Lairinne suddenly felt puzzled.

Seeing how Gert still had such lingering feelings, Orphea must have been the one to propose the divorce. Then why on earth did they divorce?

‘Could it be that Brother Gert was at fault somehow?’

Soon Lairinne shook her head.

It was an absurd speculation.

‘What could Brother Gert have done wrong? Forget it, I don’t need to be curious about other people’s divorce reasons.’

Honestly, Lairinne thought she had settled her debt to Orphea after the doe incident. She had done everything she could.

So now she didn’t want to get entangled with Orphea anymore. Last time, she got caught up in Orphea’s affairs for no reason and ended up realizing Eurich’s true nature, someone she had considered like a real older brother.

It wasn’t that she regretted learning about Eurich’s true nature, or that she would rather not have known.

She was just sick and tired of it all.

Lairinne sighed and looked straight at Orphea.

“So, what are you trying to say? Are you going to tell Brother that I lent Eurich the net?”

***

‘…This is unexpected.’

Orphea had come to meet Lairinne to probe the relationship between His Majesty and Eurich.

But she thought it wouldn’t be easy. When she had told Lairinne that Eurich was the culprit behind the doe incident, Lairinne’s voice had been thick with concern for Eurich.

But now….

‘Deep disappointment in Eurich…. Fatigue? Either way, she doesn’t seem to want to get involved anymore.’

It was definitely different from when she used to mention Eurich before.

Originally, she had planned to persuade Lairinne by bringing up Eurich’s safety, but she decided to change her strategy.

‘What works best on Lairinne is still….’

“Of course not. It’s the opposite, actually. I don’t want Gert to fall out with the Royal Family.”

As expected.

As soon as she connected Gert with the Royal Family, Lairinne’s hostile energy softened, if only briefly.

‘This girl really does like Gert quite a bit.’

Well, thanks to that, it was easy to persuade her now. I gently coaxed Lairinne with the mindset that whatever works is good.

“Eurich will continue to target me. I’m certain of that. Eurich believes without a doubt that I drove him out of Lübenhartz. When in fact it was because he got drunk at the banquet and insulted Gert.”

Of course, it was an incident triggered by me, but if Eurich had good intentions from the start, such a thing wouldn’t have happened, so it was ultimately his karma.

Lairinne looked surprised as if hearing this story for the first time. Naturally, Eurich wouldn’t have told her about it.

I continued with a deep sigh.

“I’ll be honest with you. I think Princess should completely break ties with Eurich, for Gert’s sake too. That’s why I came here. Right now, I can somehow smooth over even the Golden-Horned Doe incident.”

“….”

“But if Princess continues to get entangled with Eurich, I won’t be able to excuse what happened back then as just a mistake anymore. Gert won’t believe it either.”

I had to proceed step by step carefully. My goal wasn’t just to have the Princess break ties with Eurich, but to confirm the fact that His Majesty and Eurich were cooperating.

The process of continuing the conversation was like a song. Just as a high note after a low note comes across more clearly than continuous high notes, dramatic arrangement was important.

“Well, seeing that Princess doesn’t seem inclined to help Eurich anymore, I suppose I was worrying for nothing. There’s no one else in the Royal Family who would help Eurich besides Princess…. Even if Eurich causes more trouble in the future, the Royal Family won’t get involved.”

It was a statement that seemed to back down slightly after building tension for a while, but this was the key point. If Lairinne suspected something and didn’t want discord between Gert and the Royal Family, she wouldn’t just let my statement pass.

Sure enough, Lairinne’s face darkened. I calmly waited for her to speak.

After hesitating for a long while, Lairinne suddenly asked as if she had made up her mind.

“…If Eurich had joined hands with His Majesty, what could you do about it?”

It was merely a hypothetical statement, but there was no reason for Lairinne to suddenly bring up His Majesty if she had no suspicions.

Lairinne seemed to be coming around slightly. But immediately pouncing on her like a beast and interrogating whether His Majesty had joined hands with Eurich would be amateurish.

I continued speaking while maintaining an appropriate distance, pretending not to believe Lairinne’s words much.

“If His Majesty and Eurich really had joined hands, it would be simple. I’d just need to make the two of them break up.”

“That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“No, it is. Listen carefully. What’s important here is that Eurich’s current target is me, not Gert.”

I pointed to my chest.

“Let’s say His Majesty is helping Eurich. Eurich may have a grudge against me, but what about His Majesty? Would he truly want to get rid of me? He probably just wanted to harass me moderately to gain some satisfaction since I was Gert’s wife. What’s certain is that His Majesty has no reason to persistently antagonize me.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘Of course…. If His Majesty wants to take out his frustrations on me instead of Gert, he definitely won’t be satisfied with just moderately harassing me.’

But there was no need to tell Helena and Lairinne that much.

Anyway, His Majesty was Lairinne’s father, and what mattered wasn’t the degree of His Majesty’s retaliation against me, but the persistence of that retaliation.

“So if I can just secure evidence that the two of them joined hands, His Majesty will panic and hastily cast Eurich aside. His Majesty wouldn’t want Gert to find out that he helped Eurich.”

His Majesty fears Gert as much as he dislikes him. So at the slightest sign of potential danger, he would immediately withdraw.

And everyone present knew about His Majesty’s personality.

I only went that far and shrugged my shoulders.

“Of course, this is all hypothetical, assuming His Majesty helped Eurich.”

“That sounds easy enough, but how do you plan to find evidence that His Majesty and Eurich cooperated? Eurich isn’t someone to be taken lightly. Just look at the doe incident….”

Perhaps annoyed that I kept playing coy and not revealing what I was really curious about, Lairinne began speaking faster and faster.

I picked up on Lairinne’s attitude.

“Princess, your reaction is quite intense…. Almost as if His Majesty really had helped Eurich.”

“…!”

Only then did Lairinne realize that her attitude had been too obvious, and her eyes widened.

I smiled awkwardly and shook my head.

“Anyway, having said this much, I think I’ve told you everything I can.”

If she wanted to hear more about my plan, the Princess also had to clearly decide her course. Whether she would help me sabotage Eurich, or just turn a blind eye and ignore it all.

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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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