The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 29

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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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As the silence stretched on, a cautious voice called from beyond the door.
“Should I send her away?”
It was a worried question.
Ines slowly unclenched her fists without realizing she’d tightened them.
Helien.
Merely hearing that name was enough to set her body on edge.
But.
‘No. It’s fine.’
She hadn’t fled yesterday either.
She had said what needed to be said in front of Helien and held her ground to the end.
Above all, she was no longer a young Saint Candidate.
Ines exhaled slowly.
“No.”
“My lady?”
“Show her to the Reception Room.”
Ines added one more thing after a brief hesitation.
“And inform His Excellency that Helien has come to call.”
This time she wouldn’t hide it.
‘This should be enough.’
With her resolve settled, Ines made her way to the Reception Room without hesitation.
Helien looked exactly as she had yesterday.
Hair perfectly arranged without a single strand out of place, priestly robes immaculate, spine rigid and straight.
And that cold, penetrating gaze that made people tense instinctively.
A moment of silence fell between them.
The two regarded each other as if searching for something.
Ines spoke first.
“Have you come because of what happened last night?”
“Partly, yes.”
Helien answered while sipping her tea with practiced grace.
“First, there’s something I should tell you.”
“What is it?”
“It concerns your maidservant, Julia.”
Ines’s eyes narrowed.
“Julia?”
“Yesterday afternoon, that maidservant approached someone from the Temple.”
Ines’s expression hardened in an instant.
“More precisely, she approached Mariel.”
“What did she say?”
“That your maidservant came from a village where the Plague runs rampant. That you’re sheltering her in a peculiar manner. That you took something she brought from the village.”
Helien paused briefly.
“She also mentioned that you kept something the maidservant brought from the village separate.”
Ines’s fingertips grew imperceptibly rigid.
May’s Pendant.
So it had come to that after all.
“She also rattled off various other useless accusations—that the Duchess employs strange powers, that you’re hiding cursed objects.”
“…She called you a witch too, I take it.”
“Something along those lines.”
Julia hadn’t suddenly hurled the accusation of witchcraft at her yesterday.
She had been spreading such stories to the Temple people all along from the beginning.
‘She meant to drag the Temple into this.’
It appeared Julia’s plan had been more than simple assassination.
Whether Ines died or survived, she intended to leave suspicion lingering afterward.
“And yet yesterday you didn’t accept Julia’s accusations.”
Helien’s eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
“Why should I have?”
She spoke gravely.
“What that maidservant said was merely one-sided assertion, no evidence whatsoever. The name of the High Priestess is not so fragile as to be swayed by such talk.”
It was a principled statement, and on the surface, entirely sound.
But Ines understood there was more to it than that.
‘If Helien had sided with Julia yesterday, things wouldn’t have ended so cleanly.’
It was none other than Helien.
The Pope’s direct cardinal.
If she had deliberately sided with Julia and attacked Ines, Julia’s argument would have instantly gained the standing of “an opinion worth considering.”
That was the Temple’s power.
Ines, who had been lost in thought, spoke again.
“Thank you for telling me about the maid. I’ll keep it in mind for future questioning. Did you come all this way to tell me that story?”
Helien regarded Ines for a moment.
“I did hope that my testimony might help punish a wicked criminal, but that’s not my primary purpose. I came today for another reason.”
Just as I thought.
Ines’s spine stiffened imperceptibly.
Helien had always been a difficult person to contend with.
There was a reason why Ines tensed and worried every time she saw her.
Yet despite bracing herself, Helien’s next words came entirely without warning.
“It is a message from His Holiness.”
“From His Holiness?”
Ines echoed the words without thinking.
The Pope.
Those two words sent her heart plummeting.
“…What did he say?”
Helien fixed Ines with a steady gaze.
Her heart quickened as she held that stare.
“He says you must return.”
……
“To the place where you belong.”
Her breath caught.
‘The place where I belong?’
The words were familiar.
Those born of the Blood of Chartier are people of the Temple.
From the moment one is chosen as a Saint Candidate, one must live forever in service to God’s will.
Her entire life, Ines had carried the Temple’s teachings in her heart.
Once, she had believed it was the only truth.
But it was the Temple itself that had cast her out.
“Why?”
Ines couldn’t help asking, her voice trembling with emotion.
“Why does he ask me to return now?”
Helien’s gaze faltered for an instant.
“Ask His Holiness directly.”
……
“If you do return.”
It was an odd way to end a sentence.
Yet Helien’s expression revealed nothing.
Naturally, a long-buried memory surfaced in Ines’s mind.
Her childhood, when the Temple was still the whole of the world.
“Have you been crying again, Ines?”
“…No, I haven’t.”
“Yet your eyes are red.”
When young Ines wore an aggrieved expression, the Pope would laugh and slip her a piece of candy.
“It’s our secret.”
In those days, Ines had adored him.
She wanted his approval and longed to be a child he could be proud of.
But everything changed after Elise entered the Temple.
And when it finally became clear that Ines fell short of his expectations, the warmth vanished entirely from his eyes.
‘But why now…’
Her stomach twisted with indescribable emotion.
Ines steadied herself and spoke slowly.
“…But I am already a person of this place now. How can someone who once left the Temple ever return?”
Helien remained utterly unmoved.
“Marriage does not sever one’s bond with the Temple.”
……
“At least, that is how His Holiness sees it.”
Ines understood at last.
Helien was forcing her to make a choice right now.
The Temple.
A place she had once called home.
More precious to her heart than even the household where her parents dwelt.
Even after being cast out for failing to become a Saint Candidate, Ines had yearned for the Temple for a long time.
She had resented those who abandoned her, yet that resentment was closer to bitter affection than pure hatred.
And yet.
“I understand.”
Zekard’s voice, unfaltering.
That single small word from yesterday had shaken her awake.
“No.”
Ines lifted her head.
“I won’t go back.”
A subtle shift flickered across Helien’s eyes.
“Is it because of Duke Evanhardt?”
“No. It isn’t that.”
Even if the year she’d promised Zekard came to an end.
Even if she truly had to leave this castle someday.
“I won’t return to the Temple. Regardless of him.”
It was the first time she had spoken this thought aloud.
Far from frightening her, her heart felt lighter for it.
‘That place isn’t where I belong.’
Once, the thought of being cast out from the Temple had terrified her.
She had believed that if even there rejected her, she would have nowhere left to go.
But now she knew better.
Zekard, May, Leo.
‘Somewhere in this world, there are people who don’t hate me.’
If a year passed and she had to leave Evanhardt Castle, surely with effort she could find another place that would accept her.
So she would not go to the Temple.
No—she must not.
Helien regarded Ines in silence for a long moment.
“You’ve changed.”
“Have I?”
“The woman you were before would never have answered so.”
Ines smiled bitterly.
“I suppose you’re right.”
And she spoke with clarity.
“Tell His Majesty I’m grateful, but I cannot return.”
She hesitated a moment, then added:
“I am no longer a child of the Temple.”
Helien said nothing.
After a long pause, she rose from her seat.
“I understand. I will convey your words to His Majesty exactly as you have spoken them.”
That was the end of their conversation.
At the door, Helien paused briefly.
“Ines.”
“Yes?”
“I hope you will not come to regret the choice you made today.”
Ines’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“What do you mean?”
Helien did not answer.
The door closed.
Left alone, Ines sat still for a time.
Helien’s final words weighed on her mind.
‘Regret…’
But even so, she did not regret her answer.
She would not go back.
She had said nothing more than that.
Yet it felt as though she had broken free from something that had held her captive for so long.

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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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