The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 26

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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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“So you’ve come after all, Ash.”
Hans’s eyes widened at the measured voice that drifted across the room.
“What…?”
Ash’s brow furrowed as well.
The tone suggested she’d known he would follow.
Yet with Hans pinned beneath his blade, he made no further move.
Ines peeled herself from the wall and brushed away the wrinkles from her clothes with casual indifference.
She carried herself with such composure that one would never guess she’d been gripped in Hans’s hands moments before.
“Let go of me! What the hell is this—agh!”
Ash drew his sword closer, and Hans choked back a cry.
The sharp blade grazed his throat, drawing a thin thread of blood.
“Watch your tongue.”
“Ngh…”
Hans clenched his teeth.
Ines moved slowly toward him.
“Did you really think I came alone without any contingency?”
“What are you…”
“It doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Ines tilted her head slightly.
“That you made it this far inside.”
Hans’s face went rigid.
“What are you talking about?”
Watching him, Ines smiled bitterly.
‘Did he truly believe it was mere luck?’
He’d orchestrated something this grand, yet hadn’t questioned how smoothly everything had unfolded.
She found his naiveté almost enviable.
In her own life, matters had never resolved so cleanly—not once.
“Do you know what Evanhardt is?”
Ines spoke quietly.
“It’s a fortress where the Duke who ended the war now resides, filled with some of the finest knights in the Empire.”
She stepped closer to Hans.
“Did you truly believe you could slip inside undetected?”
Hans’s lips twitched.
“Nonsense…”
“No.”
Ines cut off his words.
“I let you in.”
The color drained from Hans’s face.
Ines had first sensed something amiss days ago.
After the commotion surrounding May’s Pendant.
She’d noticed the aura emanating from the people had shifted subtly.
‘The Dark Energy had grown thicker.’
Someone was deliberately stirring people’s emotions.
Yet her Sensory Power could only reach that far.
She couldn’t discern who, what purpose they served, or what scheme they were hatching.
Which left only one course of action.
‘If I can’t find them, I’ll make them come to me.’
And today had been the perfect opportunity for them.
The Victory Banquet.
After tonight, Selena would lose even the pretense of preparing the festivities.
Moreover, key vassals from the North, the Imperial Court itself, and even members of the Temple were gathered in one place.
There would be no better chance than this.
So days ago, Ines had sought out Jecart.
“I think something will happen during the banquet. It’s likely under Selena’s orders.”
Only then did Jecart reveal that Selena had been exchanging letters and agents with the imprisoned woman.
That she intended to target Ines and draw the Temple into it.
But.
“There’s no need for you to involve yourself directly, madam. I will handle it.”
He had refused to allow her interference.
“Then use me as bait.”
Jecart’s expression froze in an instant.
“That won’t do.”
“They’re after me. If I don’t move, they won’t show themselves.”
“Which is exactly why it won’t do.”
“But once we get past that day, the Temple people will leave as well.”
“I’ll find a way to catch them without putting madam in danger.”
‘I understand.’
Ines had no martial ability whatsoever. Though she didn’t know the specifics of what her enemies were plotting, if it came to a physical attack, she couldn’t respond directly.
‘But how does he intend to solve it?’
In truth, punishing Selena was entirely possible even now.
The only reason Jecart refrained was to draw out the remnants of her faction and deal with them all at once.
Yet if Jecart kept Ines under iron guard at this banquet, they’d miss the chance to identify them.
‘It’s bound to happen eventually anyway.’
So wouldn’t it be better to let them make their move within a range she could anticipate?
Better than waiting for them to devise some new scheme.
That’s why Ines had told May: if anyone tried to approach her through May, she should simply comply.
May had been terrified, but ultimately yielded to Ines’s wishes.
The matter of safety did trouble her, admittedly—but given how firmly Ines had insisted, she was certain Jecart wouldn’t leave Ines defenseless on the day of the banquet.
Hadn’t Ash appeared on the scene immediately, after all?
And so, at last, today had come.
The opposition had taken the bait far more easily than expected.
“So what I was really waiting for wasn’t you.”
Her gaze fixed on the darkness beyond Hans.
“It was the person who let you in here.”
In that moment, a rustling sound came from somewhere in the shadows.
“Who’s there!”
Ash cried out sharply.
Soon after, commotion erupted in the distance.
“Let go! Drop it!”
“Stay still!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Moments later, a knight appeared, restraining a struggling maidservant.
“Vice-Captain! We found someone hiding and watching this area.”
“Let me go!”
The maidservant thrashed desperately, trying to wrench free.
‘So it was her.’
A familiar face.
One of the maids who had tormented May while stealing her Pendant.
“I-I didn’t do anything!”
Julia cried out urgently.
“I was just passing by!”
“A person just passing by was hiding and watching this place?”
The knight pressed hard.
Julia’s face turned ashen.
‘This can’t happen.’
Her heart pounded wildly.
‘At this rate, I’ll die.’
This was no mere theft or blackmail.
She had tried to assassinate the Duchess of Evanhardt.
The moment that crime came to light, it would be over.
No—if it ended with death alone, that might be a mercy. If something went wrong—
Then Julia’s gaze fell to the ground.
The bundle Hans had dropped earlier.
‘…Yes.’
Her eyes flashed with purpose.
“Please, save me!”
Julia suddenly shrieked.
All eyes turned toward her.
“What are you doing!”
The knight pressed down on Julia.
Yet she remained on her knees.
“Sir Knight, please—listen to me!”
‘Just a little longer.’
Then the Temple people would arrive, and Julia would have an opening to slip away.
“Be quiet!”
“I’m a victim too!”
“What?”
“I was coerced!”
Julia crawled toward Ash’s feet, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I only did what I was ordered to do. I swear it!”
Hans stared at Julia in disbelief.
“You’re saying what, exactly—”
“That man coerced me!”
Julia quickly pointed at Hans.
“He saw me running an errand and blackmailed me. He demanded I help him get revenge on the Duchess!”
“This is insane—what the hell are you talking about!”
Hans tried to rise, but Ash’s blade pressed coldly against his throat.
“Don’t move.”
“That little rat is lying right now—”
“Quiet.”
Ash gave the command in an icy tone, then turned his gaze to Julia.
“What errand are you talking about?”
Julia forced herself to breathe, her voice trembling.
“I… this bag.”
Everyone’s eyes dropped to the floor.
The bag Hans had dropped lay there.
“That was originally—”
Julia spoke through her tears.
“An object the Duchess ordered me to retrieve.”
Silence fell.
Ash’s face twisted with fury.
“That’s absurd.”
“It’s the truth!”
Julia cried out desperately.
“I only followed the Duchess’s orders. But Hans discovered me bringing the object back… and he used it as leverage to blackmail me.”
“You—!”
Hans thrashed against the blade.
“You gave that thing to me! You told me to kill that woman!”
“That’s a lie!”
“You—!”
“Enough.”
Ash’s cold word silenced them both at once.
He gestured with his chin toward the bag.
“What’s inside?”
Julia swallowed hard.
“A Dagger used in Heretical Rituals.”
The air froze.
Ines’s eyes narrowed.
She could guess what Julia was thinking.
If she were captured as things stood, Julia was finished.
Death itself would almost be a mercy.
So this was her final act of spite—to drag Ines down with her into the mud.
‘If my plan hadn’t succeeded, that accusation would have worked.’
But there was a way to refute it.
Hans’s testimony didn’t align, and an investigation would quickly expose the holes in her story.
‘First, I need to examine that object.’
But then Ines was about to speak.
“How tedious.”
A familiar voice emerged from the darkness.
Ines’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
‘…Ah.’
Her heart plummeted.
Every eye in the room snapped toward the same point.
She didn’t need to turn and look.
…Ines knew that voice.
“Is something the matter?”
Helien Bron emerged from the darkness.

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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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