The Returned Husband Refuses to Divorce - Chapter 35

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

Ines flinched without quite meaning to.
“Well, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?”
Zoe had been uncommonly quick to warm to Ines from the very first meeting.
“This place reeks of nothing but sweat. Hardly ideal for a stroll, is it?”
“I was just passing through.”
Ines offered a small smile.
“I’m sorry — it seems I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”
A flicker of discomfort crossed Zoe’s face.
“Oh, don’t say such things!”
She recovered at once, her bright expression returning as though it had never faltered.
Then she spun toward the knights behind her and barked suddenly.
“You lot are making her uncomfortable! If you’ve nothing better to do, then clear out!”
“Now you’re blaming us?”
“But a moment ago, you were the one who—”
“Enough! Be gone!”
The knights grumbled their way out, drifting away one by one.
On the surface, it looked like a kindness toward Ines.
But.
‘…There it is again.’
Ines studied Zoe quietly.
Dark aura clung to Zoe’s form as well.
Malice.
Not overwhelming, but unmistakably directed at her.
Yet strangely, that malice carried almost no aggression.
It read more as a preference—if forced to define it—to keep distance. Nothing more.
Even driving the knights away had not been an act of consideration toward Ines, but quite the opposite.
‘She’s making sure the knight order doesn’t collide with me.’
Zoe had separated them preemptively, lest the knights say something careless in Ines’s presence and invite trouble.
“Come now, let’s head this way, shall we?”
Zoe’s smile was perfectly innocent, as if she knew nothing at all.
“There’s no point lingering near these sweat-soaked fools.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
Ines acquiesced, moving with her.
As they walked side by side, Zoe chattered ceaselessly.
About today’s weather, about repairs needed at the Training Ground, about the temperamental new horse they’d recently acquired.
She had such natural charm that tension melted away simply from listening.
‘On the surface, one would never suspect a thing.’
Without Divine Power, Ines would have missed Zoe’s dislike entirely.
If even Zoe, who smiled while addressing her, harbored this, the rest hardly needed explaining.
‘The knight order will never regard me with favor.’
At this point, she was genuinely curious what tale they’d heard in the Capital about her.
But there was something else troubling her more right now.
Ines glanced back over her shoulder.
The knights receding into the distance, with faint black miasma clinging stubbornly around them.
Something different from malice.
Demonic Energy.
‘Why does so much of it remain?’
The Evanharte Knight Order had been exposed to Demonic Energy for years.
Surely the Temple had checked them far more rigorously than they would during a standard Purification rite.
‘It’s too odd to dismiss as mere oversight.’
Ines’s brow narrowed fractionally.
“What are you thinking, miss?”
“Nothing at all.”
Ines’s expression settled back into its usual calm.
“Thank you for showing me the way, Zoe.”
“Please, think nothing of it!”
Zoe beamed.
That smile alone would convince anyone she was the most well-meaning person alive.
“I’ll return to the Training Ground now. Mind yourself!”
“I will.”
Zoe bowed her head in greeting, then turned to leave.
Ines watched her figure recede in silence.
Zoe, too, had carried something with her.
Fainter than the other knights, perhaps, but Demonic Energy lingered deep within her body.
‘That’s strange.’
Much stranger than she’d expected.
* * *
“Ugh.”
Zoe, back at the Training Ground, planted both hands on her hips.
“I told you not to let it show.”
One of the knights protested, wounded pride evident in his tone.
“What did we even do?”
“Your faces did it for you, idiot.”
“You hate her too, don’t you?”
“At least I smile about it!”
Zoe gestured sharply toward her own face.
“Smile in front of nobles! Does it cost anything to smile?”
The knights dispersed with expressions of resignation.
Zoe clicked her tongue.
‘They’re no help at all.’
Not that she particularly liked Ines Evanharte herself.
But after meeting her in person, Zoe had stopped thinking of her as the terrible woman rumor painted.
She was quieter than expected and didn’t needlessly meddle in the Order’s affairs.
From recent events, she hardly seemed like an incompetent woman.
Still.
‘Whether she’s suited to be the Northern Territory’s lady—that’s another matter entirely.’
Zoe had known Zeckard Evanharte since childhood.
He had always been perfect.
He never let emotion sway him and chose the most rational course in any situation.
He had the roughness of a Northern man, yet was simultaneously more noble than anyone she knew—worthy of unflinching loyalty.
And it should be made clear: what Zoe harbored for Zeckard was far removed from romantic feeling.
Merely admiration for strength.
Which was why she couldn’t understand it.
‘How could that woman make him…….’
Around the time the Terminus War was winding down, Zeckard changed one day.
Zoe didn’t know what had been the catalyst.
But his eyes had changed first.
The cold, composed man suddenly looked hunted by something.
After the war ended, he rushed back to the Northern Territory like a madman, ignoring the Capital’s protests.
Since his return, it had only intensified—he was making all his decisions with his wife as the central measure.
‘Is that woman really worth that?’
Honestly, Zoe was skeptical.
But a mere knight had no place questioning her lord’s marriage.
In the end, there was only one answer.
‘It would be simpler if she’d just leave on her own.’
But that would never happen. Not from ‘him’—not from Zeckard Evanharte.
Even during those brief days he’d spent in the Capital, noble ladies came seeking him daily, though not one ever crossed his threshold.
What woman would willingly leave a man who honored her like that?
“……Nn.”
Just then, a sharp throb at her temples made Zoe wince.
‘Here we go again.’
Lately, these headaches had been coming too frequently.
Her sleep wouldn’t come properly, and her body felt unlike itself.
But she’d already received Purification at the Temple—there shouldn’t be anything wrong with her body.
‘It must be exhaustion.’
Zoe dismissed it lightly and headed back toward the Training Ground.
* * *
Back in her chamber, Ines immediately unrolled the Ledger.
‘Could I have misread it?’
Divine Power from the Temple is authority granted by the gods.
Purification was what they did best.
So it seemed more plausible that Ines had misread the situation than that something was actually wrong with the Temple.
‘And yet…….’
She had seen with her own eyes Demonic Energy lingering in the bodies of not one, but several knights.
Could that really have been mere illusion?
Ines pondered for a moment, then retrieved the records of expenditures related to the knight order.
Medical records from recent months.
As Ines checked the figures one by one, her expression hardened gradually.
‘The consumption of sedatives is abnormally high.’
The same held true for calming herbs.
By contrast, the number of knights with serious injuries was surprisingly low.
‘There are many who cannot sleep.’
The conversation the knights had exchanged earlier came back to her.
The end of a war did not erase the wounds it left behind.
But Demonic Energy that remained in the body kept those wounds from healing, forced them open again and again.
‘This is dangerous as it stands.’
Ines’s gaze grew heavy.
There was personal concern for the knights, but it was not merely that.
The Subjugation season was approaching.
If they fought Demonic Beasts without proper recovery, someone could die.
If the knight order collapsed, the territorial subjects would be next.
If the Demonic Beasts were not stopped in time, the damage would reach the villages.
And then, suddenly, one person came to mind.
Zeckard.
He too always went out on Subjugations himself.
Ines pressed her lips together without realizing it.
‘…….’
Her heart felt strangely uneasy.
There was also her own problem to consider.
If the Subjugation failed, she could predict exactly what would be said.
That calamity had befallen the Northern Territory since the Duchess abandoned by the Divine arrived, that the Territory had declined due to the wickedness of its mistress.
By now she was used to such rumors.
‘But that is a problem for later.’
This time, she could see a way forward.
At the very least, purifying Demonic Energy was not difficult for Ines.
The problem was…….
‘How do I approach this?’
She would have to inform Zeckard, certainly, but there were parts of the situation she could not explain to him, so ultimately Ines would have to act directly.
It would be helpful to have someone within the knight order who could serve as a bridge.
Just as Ines was resting her chin in her hand, lost in thought,
the door burst open.
“My lady!”
May rushed in with an unusually bright expression.
“What is it?”
“They’re here!”
“Who?”
May’s eyes sparkled.
“The jeweler from the Capital has arrived!”
“…….”
Ines fell silent for a moment.
Then, very slowly, she closed her eyes.
‘Zeckard…….’
He really did call for them.

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