The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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‘A crying sound?’
After a moment’s hesitation, she moved quietly toward the direction of the noise.
At the end of the corridor lay a small courtyard where sunlight barely reached.
A handful of servants had gathered there.
At their center stood a small girl, her head bowed low, shoulders shaking with sobs.
‘……Mei?’
Ines recognized her at once.
It was Mei Blanc, her newly assigned personal maid.
Mei woke her each morning and attended to her needs.
Yet Ines had never managed to have a proper conversation with her.
‘She’s always kept her distance from me.’
Unlike the other servants, she never spoke ill of Ines behind her back or gave her disrespectful looks.
But Mei maintained a careful distance, always.
As if afraid Ines might appear too close to the Duchess.
That obvious reserve had made Ines hesitant to draw near as well…….
“Filthy!”
One servant spat out the word like an oath.
Mei flinched, her small frame trembling.
“No, I…….”
“What do you mean, no?”
Another servant laughed mockingly.
“If you came from a filthy place, then you’re filthy.”
Ines’s brow furrowed at the crude harassment.
“That’s not true! Our village is just…….”
“Just what?”
“Are you making excuses? In that state?”
The servants jeered.
“Your village is the only place where even the priesthood can’t cure the plague!”
……A plague?
Ines suddenly recalled something Leo had mentioned days earlier.
‘There’s a strange plague spreading in one of the villages in the territory. It’s been going on quite a while, they said.’
Could that have been about Mei’s village?
“No! That’s not true! It’s not contagious!”
Mei cried out as if seized by desperation.
“It doesn’t spread! It’s just……a lot of people suffering from the same illness, that’s all.”
Realizing her explanation fell short, Mei added urgently.
“The priestess came to our village too. Everyone’s receiving treatment. It’ll be fine soon.”
“Soon? When? How many times have you said that already?”
“Don’t come near me. You’ll spread the disease!”
At such crude mockery, Ines found herself frowning.
‘How childish.’
And yet somehow deeply unsettling.
She didn’t know what this “strange plague” truly was, but it was likely, as Mei claimed, non-contagious.
Otherwise, with rumors spreading so openly, Mei could never have remained in the castle.
‘These servants would have fled first.’
They wouldn’t linger near Mei, tormenting her like this.
No matter how much one might despise another, few would stake their own lives on it.
‘But it’s not unusual, really.’
People naturally pushed the weakest among them to the margins, reassuring themselves of their place.
Ines had experienced it many times.
Now it was simply Mei’s turn to be that target.
“Give it back…….”
Mei reached out with trembling hands, tears streaming.
One of the servants was holding a necklace high above her head, laughing scornfully.
Ines’s gaze naturally drifted to the Pendant.
In that instant, her eyes changed.
‘What is that?’
A dark crimson Magical Energy enveloped the Pendant.
It was far from ordinary contamination.
The concentration of Magical Energy was so high that even in the Northern Region, where it was considerably denser than elsewhere in the Empire, such a thing would be rarely seen.
‘How could such a thing….’
Magical Energy was invisible to those without Holy Power—such was the natural order.
Ordinary people could only perceive the ‘aftermath’—objects corroded and decayed by its touch.
‘Surely… they don’t realize what state that Pendant is actually in.’
It was a troublesome situation.
Left unchecked, there would inevitably be victims of the Magical Energy.
‘That can’t happen.’
Though she had become nothing more than an ordinary woman now—no longer even a candidate for the role of saint—the Temple’s teachings, drummed into her since childhood with something close to indoctrination, still lay embedded deep in Ines’s heart.
〈To purify Magical Energy is the duty and responsibility of those born with Holy Power.〉
It wasn’t some grand sense of justice.
Simply, as a member of the Holy House, she could not stand by and do nothing upon discovering such a thing.
And.
‘……it’s too severe to simply look away.’
That was all.
A meager scrap of sympathy set Ines’s feet in motion.
“You want it back? Then beg for it.”
Titter-titter. A small laugh rippled among the servants.
Mei’s face drained of all hope.
In that very moment.
“How noisy.”
Everyone’s heads snapped toward Ines.
Ines approached them with a cold expression.
“What exactly are you all doing here?”
The servants hastily straightened themselves and bowed their heads.
Regardless of whether she was acknowledged, Ines was officially the Head of House’s wife.
Common servants were in no position to defy her.
“No matter how remote this place is, causing a scene in such an open area like this? Discipline has grown lax.”
Ines deliberately scolded Mei and the other servants without distinction.
If she appeared to be helping Mei, the result would only be Mei’s further isolation among the servants.
Ines spoke with even greater severity.
“I’ll have to see that the head maid provides retraining. You there—give me your name.”
“Y-yes, madam…….”
“Your name.”
The servants exchanged glances, then reluctantly confessed their names.
“Sally, madam.”
“Julia, madam.”
“……Mei, madam.”
Ines committed all three names to memory.
“Give me what you’re holding as well.”
“Pardon? Madam, this is…….”
“You were fighting over that Pendant, weren’t you? Hand it to the head maid. She’ll render a fair judgment, so there’s no need for further commotion.”
The new head maid had a reputation for being exacting.
‘She’s not on my side, but she’s not on anyone else’s either.’
The servants realized that if this matter reached the head maid, their position would become precarious, and they quickly relented.
“We’re t-terribly sorry. We were simply playing among close friends and didn’t mean for it to become such a disturbance. We’ll return the Pendant to its owner.”
But Ines did not withdraw her outstretched hand.
Eventually, the servants, their faces twisted in displeasure, handed the Pendant to Ines.
“Go on.”
With the order to leave finally given, Mei and the other servants bowed respectfully and hastily departed.
Of course, it was obvious that the ‘malice’ within them had only grown deeper.
In the darkness, the eyes of the servant Julia glinted with veiled intent.
Shortly after, Ines found herself alone as she’d wanted.
‘……Did I overstep?’
Truthfully, it hadn’t been a particularly wise choice.
In a situation where she wasn’t even properly recognized as the duchess, using power to suppress them was likely to breed resentment.
‘But if I’d simply pretended not to see, I would surely have regretted it.’
Back when Selena had been the sole, undisputed ruler of Evanhardt Castle.
Under the weight of endless persecution, Ines had longed desperately.
Please, let someone—anyone—help me.
Don’t turn away from me.
It was thanks to a handful of people who had appeared like a miracle back then, who had helped her in secret, that Ines had managed to endure this long.
This was merely returning that favor.
It was simply what she had to do.
Ines gazed down at the Pendant in her palm.
‘Now that I’m looking at it up close, it’s worse than I thought.’
This level of Magical Energy was something she hadn’t encountered in quite some time. Even at the Temple, where all manner of contamination was purified, such a sight was rare.
How could it possibly have become so corrupted?
‘I’ll purify it and then leave it with the head maid.’
It seemed safer to attempt this in a secure location rather than waste Holy Power carelessly here.
To purify it on the spot would risk exposure — the courtyard lay open on all sides — and judging by the degree of contamination, it would require considerable Holy Power.
But it was precisely as Ines rose to leave.
“M-my lady…!”
Mei, whom Ines had thought had left long ago, suddenly seized her arm in urgent distress.

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