The Son-In-Law Of A Prestigious Family Wants A Divorce

“…….”

“Princess.”

“…….”

“Princess? It’s time for you to leave.”

With her face flushed bright red and her body frozen in place, Clarice stood there.

Nevertheless, her violet eyes were chasing after Isaac, trying desperately to meet his gaze.

“Princess?”

“Ah, yes.”

Only when Isaac called her a third time did Princess Clarice finally respond. Nodding her head, she stepped back, looking as though she was preparing to flee.

No longer wearing the serious expression he’d shown just moments ago, Isaac returned to his role as her escort. Though she felt a twinge of regret, Clarice couldn’t deny the difference.

“Yes… it’s different.”

Clarice nodded and let out a quiet sigh.

“You seduced Rihanna like this too, didn’t you?”

“Aren’t you going? You said you would.”

“No, I was just thinking… I think I understand now how you ended up marrying her.”

“…….”

“Ahem! A-Anyway, I get it. I’ll be on my way.”

With that, Clarice slowly turned around. As she made her way to the banquet hall, she looked back at Isaac one last time.

“Thank you for giving me courage.”

Smiling, she headed off toward Prince Raphael.

*****

At the center of the banquet hall, Prince Raphael was receiving congratulations from numerous nobles, yet he kept scanning the room for Clarice.

Normally, on a day like this, the two of them would stay together throughout the festivities. Because of that, the nobles were eyeing the prince anxiously or offering clumsy explanations for Clarice’s absence.

At last, he spotted her.

She emerged from the direction of the garden and walked toward Raphael at the entrance.

“Ah, Princess Claris.”

Welcoming her, Prince Raphael gestured toward the seat beside him. However, when Clarice reached him, she spoke not in her usual gentle, bright tone:

“Just a moment—”

Her voice was firm, sharp as a blade.

“I’d like to have a word in private.”

Then, she retreated to the back of the banquet hall. Prince Raphael quickly offered brief farewells to the nobles around him before following her out.

Though she had said “the back of the banquet hall,” she clearly wanted a place with no onlookers, so they ended up going all the way to the far side of the garden.

‘It’s the same moon I was just looking at.’

Yet somehow it looked entirely different now.

Thinking this, Clarice turned to Prince Raphael, who had followed her.

As though something important lay before him, the prince straightened his attire and took a step closer to the princess.

“Princess Clarice, are you enjoying the banquet?”

Prince Raphael tried lighthearted words to ease the heavy atmosphere, but Clarice did not respond.

“Is Dell not here at the banquet tonight?”

“…I wasn’t really in a position to invite her.”

He hesitated for a moment, but Prince Raphael answered calmly. He wasn’t sure why she asked about Dell, but it was clear he didn’t welcome the question.

“It’s partly because Dell is a commoner, but more than that, this banquet is meant to finalize my engagement to you, Princess. I couldn’t possibly invite her.”

“Are you actually accepting our engagement now?”

“That’s what I’d like to talk about.”

Moving closer, Prince Raphael gently took Clarice by the hand and confessed:

“If there’s no way to avoid marrying you, then I will accept it.”

“…….”

Clarice slowly raised her head to meet his gaze. The subtle smile at his lips suggested he believed this was a moving, heartfelt moment.

“At first, I saw you only as a political envoy sent by your kingdom to secure an alliance.”

“And now you don’t?”

“No, I don’t. In just a few days, you’ve changed my mind.”

His impression of Princess Clarice had already undergone a complete shift. Initially, he’d thought she was a cool and calculating royal willing to do anything to empower Albion. But as he got to know her, he discovered she was nothing like that.

She was as gentle as warm sunlight, someone who empathized with his situation, who faced difficulties of her own yet carried the burden of royalty. In some ways, Clarice understood him better than Dell did.

Prince Raphael had even begun to believe that.

“Let’s marry. We will love each other for the sake of our royal duties.”

“What about Dell?”

At that, Prince Raphael’s face darkened.

Clenching his fist, he admitted quietly:

“I… will have to take Dell as a concubine.”

“…….”

“I know it’s shameless. But it was Dell who suggested it. She found a realistic compromise for our situation.”

“A compromise.”

Repeating his words under her breath, Clarice watched him as he nodded.

“Yes, exactly. So we—”

It was different.

Entirely unlike the story she’d heard about Isaac and Rihanna from the Grandmaster the day before.

She was too inexperienced to judge who was more noble or whose love was grander. Having only just begun to understand love herself, she knew she still had much to learn.

But there was something she yearned for—something she admired deeply.

“Raphael.”

When Clarice called his name, Prince Raphael went rigid at the sight of her radiant smile.

He had seen her smile many times before, yet this one felt authentic—like the first time he was seeing the real thing. With a liberated yet bold grin, Clarice spoke:

“Let’s break off our engagement.”

“…What?”

A declaration he hadn’t foreseen in the slightest.

Before he could respond, Clarice continued:

“You ran away even before I arrived. At our first meeting, you openly disregarded me.”

“……”

“You favored a woman you already had feelings for, and you even snuck out of the palace to see her while I was visiting.”

“Uh…”

“Not only that, you fled with her right before my eyes in the city—”

“……”

“And now, before we’re even wed, you’re publicly declaring that you’ll have a concubine.”

“P-Princess?”

“As a princess of a kingdom, I’ve been deeply insulted. My homeland has long since secured more than enough grounds to demand an annulment.”

Especially Heyrad had worked very hard to gather it all.

Even so, the reason they’d avoided using it was because the two people’s arranged marriage brought them so many benefits.

“Before fulfilling your royal duties, you need to take responsibility for your own actions first, Prince Raphael.”

Seriously.

Was this truly the same woman he had spent nearly an entire week with?

Struck speechless, Raphael couldn’t respond at all. Yet somehow, this side of her suited her even more.

And so, he could only accept it in silence.

“You mentioned earlier that you’d thought I was just a political figure sent here to secure an alliance.”

With a sly grin, Clarice nodded, praising Raphael.

“You saw me quite accurately.”

Watching Clarice’s radiant smile, Raphael hastily asked:

“W-Why are you doing this all of a sudden? If you were going to break off the engagement, you could have done so from the start.”

“Tsk, you’re right. I didn’t expect things to turn out this way either.”

Suddenly, Clarice recalled what she had once said while riding the carriage to Brentariion:

Because I don’t know what love is, I’m not sad at all.

If I, like Isaac back then, had someone I liked enough to give up everything for—

I’m sure it would have been difficult.

How can I be so perfectly self-aware that everything lines up so neatly?

Smiling wryly at herself, Clarice tried to break the heavy atmosphere.

“To be honest, I still think there are plenty of advantages to going through with the marriage.”

“In that case—”

“But!”

Pressing a hand to her chest, Clarice quickly rattled off her words, sounding both confident and defensive:

“I can still be of real use to the Kingdom of Albion. If I give it my all, I can do enough to be worth more than just an arranged marriage.”

“In fact, that person will be by my side, so I’ll be even more efficient. It’s going to be fun. I’ll make sure to keep him right next to me while I work!”

“……”

Seeing the blank expression on Raphael’s face, Clarice burst out in a small laugh.

Then suddenly, a thought came to her.

“Oh, right. Remember what you said at our first meeting? You asked if I knew what love was.”

[Do you know what love is?]

[If you did, you’d understand why I’m acting like this.]

“I know now, Prince Raphael.”

With a wave that felt almost like a farewell, Clarice turned without a moment’s hesitation.

“So this time, I want you to understand me.”

Watching Clarice walk away, Raphael felt his heart grow heavy.

He had thought taking a realistic compromise—loving two women and keeping both—was the right thing to do.

But in the end, he was only closing his eyes to keep himself comfortable.

He had simply gone along with Dell’s kindness, telling himself there was no other choice.

“Ha.”

Staring at Clarice’s retreating back, Prince Raphael slowly crouched down on the spot.

“If it hurts this much, I guess that means I was dumped.”

He buried his face in his hands, trying to hide his tears.

Tomorrow, he would go see Dell.

He would kneel before her and apologize—then take clear responsibility for everything that had happened.

****

“Sniff.”

The capital was brimming with the elegant ambiance of autumn, but here—

Atop the perpetually frigid northern wall.

“Sniff.”

Even today, Silverna Caldias stood guard.

A spear slung over her shoulder, she noted her hair was getting a bit long in the back—she was planning to cut it soon.

“Miss! Miss! Look at this!”

“Huh?”

It was Anna—both a maid and a soldier—climbing up to the top of the wall.

“Why weren’t you at your post? Where did you go off to?”

Grumbling, Silverna asked, but Anna thrust a newspaper at her and cried out:

“They say Princess Clarice’s engagement has been canceled. Apparently the Prince of Brentariion already had a lover in his heart.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Really! The royal family’s furious about it. Look, it even says Princess Adeline nearly started a war over it.”

“Hmm…?”

Surely they wouldn’t start a war at a time like this. Perhaps it was just an empty threat, or something Brentariion and they had already worked out behind the scenes.

“But the gracious Princess Clarice made a benevolent decision, and in the end the Kingdom of Brentariion has to pay reparations—”

Fsssh!

“Huh…?”

“Hmm?”

A sudden strong gust of wind ripped the paper apart, except for the part still clutched in Anna’s hands, sending it flying into the sky.

The wind was so fierce that both women hunched down against the wall, bracing themselves—when suddenly:

“…!”

Silverna’s eyes, surveying the area beyond the wall, went wide.

Something was kicking up a whirlwind within the stark-white fog, and it was drawing nearer to the wall.

“Enemies attaaaack!”

At Silverna’s shout, the alarm bells began to clang.

The Transcendents, is it!?

They had shown great restraint for quite some time now—it must have been five months or so.

They certainly took their time!

With a fierce grin, Silverna braced herself. The wild gale felt strong enough to lift her right off her feet, so she jammed her hand into the gap between the wall’s stones for support.

A raging tempest conjured by their sorcery seemed strong enough to sweep people away, but—

The northern warriors responded gracefully, well-prepared for any attack from the Transcendents.

This was the Malidan Wall, always on high alert, fully prepared for any Transcendent incursion.

They won’t breach it so easily.

So thought Silverna, a grin curling across her lips. Just then—

“Huh…?”

She saw something that left her speechless.

Leading the enemy forces marching upon the wall, as though he were some grand general commanding his troops—

He gripped a weapon that was hard to categorize as either a spear, a sword, or a staff.

But even more striking was—

“Red…?”

From hair to eyes, he was drenched in a blood-red color.

He looked remarkably like Helmut.

– – The End of The Chapter ––

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