The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 16

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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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Her expression was desperate.
“I, I, I’m so very sorry. But, but there’s something I needed to tell you…….”
May had always found it difficult to speak even a single word to Ines.
She was hardly affectionate or loyal for a dedicated maid.
That she had sought me out to speak in such circumstances…….
‘It must be something truly important.’
Ines glanced down at the Pendant still clutched in her hand.
“May Blanc.”
At the soft summons, May flinched visibly.
“Leave the Pendant with the Head Maid, and you can collect it later.”
“But, but that’s my possession. Really, it is.”
“I know.”
“……What?”
To May’s bewilderment, Ines turned the question back to her.
“Would it matter to you if others thought I had helped you? Though I doubt you’d want that.”
May’s face flushed crimson as understanding slowly dawned on her.
She realized that Ines had known everything all along.
“I, I wasn’t deliberately avoiding you, I…….”
“Enough.”
Ines spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, neither accusing nor reproaching.
“It’s better to observe proper procedure. Troublesome as it is, go through the Head Maid. That way there won’t be any gossip.”
In truth, May’s conduct had not been entirely without fault.
She had intentionally neglected her duties as a dedicated maid for her own safety, after all.
‘But she’s only a girl, still so young.’
Seeing how she was shunned by her peers, May’s behavior suddenly made perfect sense.
She must have been struggling to survive.
Ines was not the only one fighting alone within these castle walls.
“What a tiresome way to live. Both you and I.”
Ines let the words fall like a sigh, then continued on her way.
May could not bring herself to call after her.
* * *
“I heard what happened. Here, take it.”
The Head Maid pressed a familiar object into May’s hands.
It was the Pendant.
May quickly accepted it and bowed her head repeatedly.
“Thank you so much, Head Maid.”
“Don’t thank me. If you wish to show gratitude, then express it to your mistress.”
Your mistress.
May flinched at those words.
“Your mistress explained the situation clearly. Those girls violated discipline, so they will face punishment. You won’t have any reason to meet them again.”
The Head Maid continued with a few more details, but May heard none of it clearly.
‘She…….’
May’s grip on the Pendant tightened.
In truth, she had harbored ill feelings toward her mistress.
Everyone cursed and despised Ines.
Despite her committing no real fault, once prejudice takes root, it does not easily fade.
Such was the terror of preconception.
‘Yet she took my side.’
At first, May hadn’t noticed. But now she understood.
Ines had stepped forward to help her.
May’s chest grew tight.
“……I understand. I’ll certainly offer my thanks to her.”
May bowed respectfully to the Head Maid before stepping outside.
‘Why did she help me.’
There was nothing in it for Ines.
She had been a careless maid who never gave her mistress her best…….
She felt ashamed.
With her head bowed, May lingered for some time before she could bring herself to leave.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that very moment, in the Maid Quarters.
“Bad luck!”
Maid Yulia cried out, her face twisted with indignation.
“What is that woman, anyway?”
Another maid beside her tried to calm her down.
“Settle yourself, Yulia.”
“Do I look settled to you?”
Yulia gnawed at her thumbnail, grinding her teeth.
“Her expression—as if that little nothing matters for anything…….”
“But thanks to her, things went according to plan, didn’t they?”
At those words, something sinister flashed in Yulia’s eyes.
“……That much is true.”
Yulia stopped her fuming and slowly allowed her excitement to settle.
“There were plenty of people passing by just now, weren’t there?”
“Yeah. Quite a few. They were all whispering about it.”
A faint smile bloomed at the corner of Yulia’s mouth.
In truth, all that commotion just now had been orchestrated deliberately.
An unidentified plague had been spreading through May’s hometown for a long time.
And that wasn’t all.
When the sickness proved stubborn and failed to improve even after a Priest was dispatched, rumors began to circulate among the servants—ominous whispers that the village had been abandoned by the divine.
The truth hardly mattered.
‘What matters is that people believe it.’
That’s why she’d deliberately provoked May.
She had personally witnessed Ines recently taking the side of some scrawny kitchen help.
‘Always putting on airs of kindness.’
It had often been that way before.
Ines had an odd compulsion—she couldn’t simply pass by the weak without intervening.
So she wouldn’t be able to ignore her own personal maid being tormented in front of everyone, would she?
And predictably enough.
Ines had stepped in.
Though not quite as openly in May’s favor as Yulia might have hoped…….
‘No matter.’
The Duchess had sheltered a maid from a plague-stricken village.
And she had personally confiscated an object the maid had brought from her hometown.
That alone was enough.
“We don’t need to spread the word about witchcraft ourselves.”
Yulia said this in a low voice.
The maid beside her blinked.
“Then what?”
“Think about it.”
Yulia smiled with a bitter edge.
“Everyone’s terrified of that village. Yet she doesn’t cast out May—who comes from such a cursed place—instead she shelters her.”
“Ah…….”
“And on top of that, she even tried to punish us for talking back to her.”
Of course, the truth was somewhat different.
But such details hardly mattered.
People believed stories they wanted to believe far more readily than what they’d actually witnessed.
“We just need to tell the truth as we saw it.”
The maid beside her opened her mouth.
“But that alone isn’t really such a grave offense, is it?”
Yulia looked at her with barely concealed contempt.
“Who’s going to think that deeply about it?”
“…….”
“Just a handful of people who were there need to get their story straight. The rest will embroider the details on their own.”
Yulia spoke with complete confidence.
Already, rumors about Ines were rife—that she was a jealous shrew, a witch who enchanted men, murmurs dark and sinister.
And now, a Holy Maiden candidate abandoned by the divine.
There was no need to fabricate stories from nothing.
She only needed to take the tales people already believed and layer a single new suspicion atop them.
‘Why would she shelter a maid from a village marked by curse?’
‘Could the Duchess herself have some connection to that village?’
Once suspicion took root, everything else followed easily.
Someone would inevitably be the first to speak the word “witch.”
And once it left someone’s lips, there would be no stopping its spread.
“Don’t do anything for now.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t draw attention. Just wait.”
Yulia’s lips curled upward.
“Let the people frighten themselves.”
Though many of the internal staff had changed, people were fundamentally the same regardless.
Stupid, easily swayed, incapable of distinguishing their own thoughts from those of others—fools, all of them.
Give them even a small spark, and they would ignite of their own accord.
And once the fire grew large enough.
Then a final push would finish it.
‘I’ll destroy that woman completely.’
Yulia harbored no doubt whatsoever about her victory.
* * *
‘This is exhausting…….’
Ines came to a halt, her brow furrowed in concentration.
The Magical Energy accumulated in May’s Pendant had been far thicker than anticipated, requiring far more effort to purify.
Not enough to knock her down completely, but it seemed moving about immediately would be impossible.
‘I should rest a moment.’
She happened to be outside, having just left the Pendant with the Head Maid.
But…….
After glancing about for a suitable place to sit, Ines found nothing and released a weary sigh.
‘I’ll just have to head back directly.’
Even if it means walking much longer.
Having surrendered to necessity, Ines made her way back toward her room, moving at a measured pace.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, something entered Ines’s field of vision.
‘A flowering tree?’
There stood a single tree in brilliant bloom—incongruous with the harsh climate of the Northern Region.
The moment Ines recognized what it was, her expression hardened.

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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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