Chapter 36
“Madam, a letter came from Count Arden.”
It was the butler, Grayson.
At his words, Elisha’s face shone with happiness.
Anne went over to get the letter in Elisha’s place and brought the letter over to Elisha.
After she ripped over the envelope, a postcard with a scenery of the seaside and a summerhouse, along with a letter tumbled out.
[To my dear friend, Elisha.
Everything that you requested is ready. The repairs to the summer house finished last week as well.
The postcard is a drawing of the summer house that I requested a painter to paint.
If you see it in real life, it’s even more beautiful, so you’ll like it a lot.
If you set a date, I’ll send a person over there to get you. Let’s see each other at Sornetti soon.
I hope everything is going well for you.
From Sornetti, Ansel.]
Ansel, who had been quiet and cold as a child, was now a skilled businesswoman, and on top of that, she had even inherited the county in the east, which she was now living in.
It was thanks to her that the Roengrin’s villa was able to be repurchased, which had previously fallen into another person’s hands.
Elisha looked closely at the enclosed postcard.
In the postcard, there was a small summer house with the sea in the background. The light blue sea blended with the white summer house, and it was pretty even when she looked at the scene through a painting.
“It’s so pretty…… .”
Elisha placed her hand on her stomach and started to think.
‘I should start to prepare.’
It had to be done before her stomach started to show.
Just then, there was another knock at the door.
“Elisha.”
It was Richard. At his unexpected appearance, Elisha cocked her head. On a normal day, he shouldn’t have come home yet.
“You can come in.”
Elisha put down Ansel’s letter and postcard.
When he came in, Richard was still wearing his suit as if he had just returned from work.
“You came pretty early today?”
“I finished my work early today, so I wanted to know if you wanted to eat dinner together.”
“Oh…… .”
“I heard that you always eat in your room lately. Are you eating properly?”
Elisha felt her conscience prickle.
She was scared that her pregnancy might be discovered, so she had only been eating in her room.
And since Richard left for work pretty early in the morning, she had thought that he wouldn’t notice, but it looked like the butler or some other servants had told him about what she was doing.
Elisha started to stutter.
“I- I was just too lazy to go all the way to the dining room. I’d be eating alone anyway.”
“Then let’s eat together today.”
At Richard’s words, Elisha’s face darkened.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like his suggestion, but right now, she was unable to eat anything.
If she showed any signs of her pregnancy, he would start to suspect something. She had to avoid eating with him in whatever way possible.
Elisha contemplated the matter for a few seconds and then thought of a brilliant idea.
“Sh- Should we? Then go wash up. Let’s eat.”
After she sent him off, Elisha was going to lie down in bed and just fall asleep. He wouldn’t wake a sleeping person up just because he wanted to eat together.
Richard, who couldn’t possibly know of Elisha’s plan, turned around to leave the room right away.
But, just then, a letter and a postcard caught his eye.
He laid his eyes on the postcard, with a drawing of a summerhouse by the seaside on it, for a moment and then left the room.
A few days later, Richard, who had investigated the Rohas Viscounty, found the owner of the badge.
The owner of the badge was the illegitimate second son of Viscount Rohas, Phillip Rohas.
‘Oh, but my father! My father said that if I can pull this off, he’d accept me into the Rohas family! I- I don’t even know what happened in that place. I was really only following my father’s instructions!’
After he had gotten Phillip’s confession, Richard took the demon’s soulstone and made his way to see the Emperor.
It was the first time seeing the Emperor in exactly 8 years.
The last time he had seen the Emperor was 8 years earlier, when he had left to go fight in the war.
In these past 8 years, Richard had grown from a 15-year-old boy to a 23-year-old mature adult, and the Emperor had become a middle-aged man with whitening hair.
The Emperor felt a sense of danger as Richard lumbered over to him.
Richard’s presence felt as threatening as the increasingly influential Rubelin family.
The Emperor pushed down his upset feelings and looked up to face Richard.
“Well, long time no see, Little Duke. No, no. I should call you Duke now.”
“I greet Arensia’s blazing flame.”
Richard bowed his head politely.
The Emperor stared down at the polite Richard and asked him a question.
“You didn’t even come when I held a banquet in your honor, so for what reason did you come now?”
The Emperor’s words weren’t just merely talking about the banquet, but were full of scorn for Richard, who had declined to attend the banquet celebrating his achievements and went immediately back to the Rubelin Estate after the war instead.
But Richard responded in an indifferent manner.
“I found something that would put Arensia into danger, so I came to give you a report on the matter.”
“Danger? What danger?”
“Do you remember the infected land that our ancestors sealed up in the northwest?”
“Of course I do. Did something happen there?”
“Recently, the monsters near the estate had gotten increasingly violent, and through my investigation, it was found that somebody had injected the demon’s soulstone into the monsters. And the knights that had been guarding the canyon were also attacked as well.”
“Oh dear, what a bad guy. Do you know who did it?”
“We’re close to finding the culprit.”
Richard stared intently at the ‘hidden culprit’ sitting right in front of him.
But the Emperor acted as if he didn’t know anything and asked him the questions quite naturally, and it was disgusting to see how calm the Emperor was.
The Emperor probably already knew that Richard knew about the truth.
No, the Emperor was probably not even trying to hide his involvement in the first place. Because even if Richard knew, the Emperor was aware that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
“Although I fully understand where you’re coming from, I don’t think we should make a big deal out of this. It’s just going to make the people of Rubelin anxious.”
“Or they can do exactly the opposite of what you’re thinking.”
Richard spoke while looking at the Emperor with chilly eyes.
“Rubelin is so dangerous and powerful that someone felt the need to do something as vulgar as this.”
“…… .”
“So be fearful and envious of Rubelin.”
At Richard’s words, the Emperor’s face hardened in an instant.
It was because the emperor knew that the ‘someone who felt the need to do something as vulgar as this’ was him.
Richard stared at the Emperor’s hardened face without a sign of agitation.
“So once we find the culprit, I will punish them in Rubelin’s name.”
Although Richard couldn’t punish the Emperor directly, he could cut off the Emperor’s limbs.
The Emperor only silently looked down at Richard.
Richard stared back at the Emperor with indifferent eyes and left the room after paying his respects to the Emperor.
At that moment, he felt a pain in his back that felt like something was shredding into his skin.
‘…… What is this?’
But as he was wondering about what the pain was, the pain suddenly vanished.
Richard stopped for a second, but didn’t think much of it and went along his way.
Richard, who had left in the early hours of the morning, only returned back to the dukedom late at night after meeting with the Emperor.
The Rubelin dukedom’s butler and the servants greeted their master politely.
“Greetings, Your Excellency.”
Richard nodded towards them and proceeded to his bedroom.
Only one servant followed him to take off and receive his jacket and leather gloves.
Richard, who had been striding towards his room with his long legs, suddenly stopped in front of his room.
The servant who had been following Richard almost crashed into his back.
Puzzled, the servant looked towards the scene that Richard was looking at and saw that he was looking at Elisha.
“You’re still awake.”
“I have something to say.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
At Richard’s question, Elisha didn’t answer but just stared at the servant standing behind Richard.
The servant, who already understood what her gaze meant, bowed and excused himself.
“Please have a good night.”
Both people went into Richard’s room.
Now that he was in a brightly lit room rather than the dimly lit hallway, Richard was clearly able to see Elisha, who was wearing a thin nightgown.
Richard furrowed his brows and turned away from Elisha.
“It’s pretty late. Let’s just sleep for now and talk tomorrow morning.”
“But you’re not here in the mornings. And when you come home, it’s late at night just like today.”
Richard couldn’t say anything to refute Elisha’s words. Because what she said wasn’t wrong.
Elisha’s voice didn’t waver but it was confident as she spoke to him. Because Richard being busy wasn’t her fault.
And him being busy wasn’t the thing that she wanted to talk to him about.
“I wanted to talk to you about this quickly. You should prepare for this too.”
Elisha stared up at Richard with a confident face.
“Let’s divorce, Richard.”
After 8 years of marriage, she was finally able to follow through with the plan that she had been formulating for the last 8 years.
And she asked Richard for it with a child in her stomach.