The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 3

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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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The moment Ines heard the rumor, her heart plummeted.
Not because of her husband, but because of the Saint—Elise.
‘Elise again.’
Ines and her sister had clashed frequently since childhood.
Strangely, they always seemed to want the same things.
Ines hated fighting with her younger sister and dreaded being caught and scolded by their parents, so she’d grown accustomed to yielding, giving her sister whatever she desired.
She’d never imagined she’d have to surrender her husband as well.
“Your days of acting so stiffly are numbered,” Selena said, jabbing Ines’s shoulder with her forefinger.
The taunt was venomous, delivered with a sneer.
Yet Ines found herself unable to respond.
Not because her interlocutor was her mother-in-law. That too was Elise’s doing.
Whenever she thought of her sister, Ines became small.
But…
‘No. Actually, this is an opportunity.’
Had Ines been an ordinary woman who loved her husband, she would have been devastated at losing him to her sister, would have fretted endlessly trying to win back his affection. But Ines wanted nothing from her husband.
In fact, she harbored no attachment to him whatsoever.
All she craved was to finalize the divorce quickly, reclaim her freedom, and escape this suffocating Manor.
‘For that, it’s far better if my husband has another woman.’
For the sake of that other woman, her husband would readily let her go.
If fortune smiled on her, she might even extract some alimony in the bargain.
‘I don’t need to care about anything anymore.’
The fact that this other woman was her blood sister meant nothing—nor did the fact that this sister had clashed with her since childhood over every small thing.
Once Zecarde Evanhardt consented to the divorce, everything would proceed without a hitch.
‘My husband…’
The word felt strange on her tongue, and Ines turned it over in her mind.
Though she called him her husband, the truth was she had seen him only a handful of times.
Their marriage had come about through a tangle of chance and misfortune, almost by accident.
Five years ago, immediately after their wedding ceremony, Zecarde had departed for the Battlefield and had not returned since.
What did he look like again?
Ines tried to conjure the face of the ‘husband’ she would see for the first time in five years.
Black hair and blue eyes.
Delicate, beautiful features offset by a masculine jawline.
When she’d last seen him, Zecarde Evanhardt had been merely nineteen—strikingly handsome, yet still bearing the softness of youth, not quite shed of his boyish charm.
How much would he have changed?
At four-and-twenty now, he would surely look entirely different from then.
Though she found it difficult to imagine precisely how.
‘I shouldn’t fail to recognize him.’
Even if it was only a marriage in name, she was his lawful wife; being unable to recognize her own husband’s face would earn her the title of a terrible wife.
Of course, what did it matter now?
Ines smiled wryly and pulled herself free from her reverie.
‘Enough. I won’t think about him anymore.’
He would soon become a complete stranger.
It was far more productive for Ines to focus on her own future.
‘Divorce is only the beginning. I need money to survive on my own.’
With her mind cleared, Ines began to consider her next steps.
Any lingering thoughts of her husband had long since vanished.
* * *
“There—move faster, will you?”
In the Banquet Hall, illuminated for the occasion, servants bustled about in disarray.
“Don’t dawdle! Do you think we have all the time in the world?”
Commanding all this was none other than Selena, Ines’s mother-in-law and the Dowager Duchess of House Evanhardt.
The reason for all this frantic activity was singular.
They were preparing a banquet to welcome the return of Duke Zecarde Evanhardt, the head of the household.
Ordinarily, such a task would have fallen to Ines, the current Duke’s wife. But she currently possessed no authority in this household.
‘He had to rush off to war right after our wedding.’
Of course, even had he been free, it was doubtful he would have entrusted responsibilities to a ‘wife in name only’ like Ines.
It was a humiliating state of affairs, yet Ines gave it no thought.
She had never harbored ambitions for great authority, and over five years, she had grown accustomed to her powerlessness.
“You there!”
Suddenly, Selena turned her sharp gaze upon Ines and called out.
“Why are you all just standing there watching?”
Every servant in the room held their breath at once.
In the profound silence where not a single breath could be heard, Selena approached Ines.
Tap-tap.
Only the sound of her heels echoed sharply through the space.
“……I was waiting.”
As Selena finally came to stand before her, Ines lowered her head composedly and answered.
Selena was the late Duke’s second wife and Zecarde’s stepmother.
For various complex reasons, she had detested Ines from the moment the latter first arrived at the castle.
Originally, Zecarde had been betrothed to another—a woman Selena herself had chosen, one suited to her tastes.
But one day he had abruptly broken off the engagement, brought Ines back from the Capital, and married her instead.
‘Had I not existed, she could have wielded this castle as she pleased. To the Dowager Duchess, my presence must have felt like a bolt from the blue.’
Perhaps for that reason, Selena had shown her fangs from the very first meeting.
Unsatisfied with that alone, she seemed determined to drive Ines out entirely, spreading vicious rumors about her throughout Evanhardt Castle and even into the surrounding lands.
Ines, unfamiliar with this place and unable to act rashly as a contract wife, could only suffer helplessly under the onslaught.
“It’s pathetic, really. Everyone here is working their absolute hardest to welcome your husband. And yet you do nothing and merely wait? How can you say such a thing so brazenly? The audacity is almost impressive.”
Ines recognized it as a baseless accusation, but she chose not to respond.
After all, Ines held no authority as the Duke’s wife. Being here meant she could neither direct the servants nor voice any opinions.
‘If I had acted, she would have found fault with that just the same.’
Thus, over the past five years, Selena had found fault with Ines through every conceivable means.
From the dress she wore that day to matters as significant as the grand household events now unfolding.
Clearly, Selena wished to see Ines completely ruined for having thwarted her plans.
Of course, no matter how she felt, Ines remained a woman formally married to the Duke.
Yet there was good reason for Selena to act this way nonetheless.
‘She’s noticed that he and I are not intimate.’
Since the marriage had been arranged hastily for the sake of Title Succession, it was entirely conceivable that the relationship between Ines and her husband was not a deep one.
The problem lay in what came after.
In the five years that had passed, the Duke had not sent Ines a single personal letter.
Ines had never desired to receive intimate correspondence from him either. Yet such complete disregard for her existence easily gave the appearance that the Duke did not respect his own wife.
As a result, a quiet atmosphere of disdain toward Ines had gradually taken root within House Evanhardt.
“I’ve always known you lacked sense. And that your ‘noble’ station makes you unwilling to engage in such work, I understand that too. But how can you state it so openly? Do you find everyone here amusing?”
Selena was about to launch into her usual barrage of insults.
It was at that very moment.
“P-Pardon me, but something urgent has occurred!”
A servant suddenly burst into the Banquet Hall and cried out.
At the sudden loud noise, every eye turned toward him.
“What commotion is this?”
The butler assisting with the banquet preparations from beside Selena stepped forward to inquire.
His expression was stern, as though he meant to hold the servant accountable for such an outburst in this place.
But at the servant’s next words, even the butler found himself raising his voice involuntarily.
“The Duke, Your Grace, has just arrived!”
“What?”
In that instant, everyone in the Banquet Hall stopped breathing.

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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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