“Y-You son of a b****!”

As she watched Henry’s back turn coldly, the anger she had been suppressing exploded.

At that moment, all that remained for Camilla was a sense of betrayal.

‘That cowardly bastard! I’ll end his life right here and now!’

Camilla’s eyes flashed with murderous intent.

“Camilla…!”

At that moment, sensing something amiss, Henry hurriedly turned around.

Quickly dodging, he immediately grabbed Camilla’s hand tightly.

“Let go of this! Won’t you let go?!”

Having failed in her plan, Camilla gnashed her teeth.

“Camilla, you! How could you try to stab me in the back?”

Henry shouted with a face that had suddenly turned pale.

However, Camilla only sneered with a face stained with sweat and fatigue.

“We may not be married, but I’ve spent countless nights with you. And you turn your back on me?”

Camilla struggled to free her hand from Henry’s grip and snarled.

“How can you do this to me!”

“Camilla, please come to your senses!”

Henry shouted, gripping Camilla’s wrist even tighter.

“Let go! I said let go!”

Camilla shouted fiercely, trying with all her might to plunge the blade into Henry.

Once again, a murderous glint flashed in her eyes.

The moment he met that gaze, Henry truly understood what it meant to have one’s knees go weak.

He even began to think that if he wasn’t careful, he might really die in this shabby inn room.

He hurriedly raised one hand and slapped Camilla’s cheek hard.

Smack—!

“Come to your senses, you crazy woman!”

Henry’s shout echoed loudly through the inn room.

The slap was so hard that Camilla rolled on the floor the moment she was struck, and the kitchen knife in her hand did the same.

“Haa, haa…”

Henry, who had been breathing roughly, picked up the kitchen knife that had fallen to the floor.

Then he immediately stuck it into the wooden wall and shouted.

“Camilla! Were you really going to stab me with that knife? You’re insane, you’ve really gone too far now. You’ve clearly lost your mind!”

Sharp invectives and contemptuous glares poured out incessantly.

After a while of silence with her head bowed, an eerie laugh finally escaped Camilla’s lips.

“Kuk, kukuk… Hahaha…!”

She even threw her head back and burst into laughter.

Just as Henry’s face was contorting once again, Camilla glared at him and continued speaking.

Her voice was so calm it seemed ominous.

“So you want me to bear all this humiliation alone? Why… just me?”

“Camil…”

“Who made me start all this in the first place?”

Camilla, who had been sprawled on the floor until then, struggled to get up.

“It was all because of you.”

Her face, drenched in sweat, twitched unnaturally.

“And now you’re trying to return to Robelia with a clear conscience…?”

Camilla grabbed Henry’s collar in one swift motion and thrust her face close to his.

“…You’ve ruined my flower garden.”

“…”

“And you think I’ll just stand by and watch as you leave without a care in the world, pretending to be innocent?”

Kukuk, kuk…

Another unpleasant laugh escaped from Camilla.

Henry’s expression was one of utter disgust as he looked at her.

After a moment, Henry tried to compose himself and gently grabbed Camilla’s wrist.

“Listen to me…”

“Don’t touch me, let go!”

“Camilla, I have a plan too.”

“Do you think I’ll believe anything that comes out of that snake tongue of yours?”

“If Robelia finds out about us now, it’ll make things even worse, you know that!”

Henry’s shout momentarily stopped Camilla’s resistance.

Taking advantage of this, Henry gripped her wrist tightly and continued speaking in a persuasive tone.

“Now that you’ve lost all your personal assets, if I get kicked out by the vassals of the Bart Count family without even receiving proper alimony… we’ll truly have no hope left, Camilla.”

Camilla’s expression began to soften slightly at his gentle voice.

The Bart family was originally Robelia’s maiden family.

Although Henry was the current head of the family, the powerful vassals in the family were naturally on Robelia’s side.

If Robelia found out about the affair, Henry might not only fail to receive alimony but could even lose all the personal assets he had accumulated so far.

That meant there was some truth to Henry’s words.

Camilla narrowed her eyes, half in doubt.

“So you’re saying… you plan to take all the assets of the Bart Count family and then divorce? And then you plan to remarry me…?”

Henry nodded slowly.

“Hoo… Yes. I only want to be with you somehow, Camilla.”

Camilla glared at Henry for a moment as he said this.

But even that vicious mask soon crumbled into tears.

It was the first kindness she had felt from another person in a very long time that made Camilla react this way.

Henry held her in his arms and gently patted her back.

“Trust me and wait just a little longer, Camilla. I’ll proclaim you as my woman to the whole world, no matter what.”

“…”

“…Even if I have to kill Robelia.”

“Hic…”

Camilla finally burst into tears.

Henry, holding her even tighter, immediately kissed her cheek.

Camilla wiped away her tears and looked up at Henry.

“Really… can I trust you?”

“Of course, absolutely.”

Henry answered with an angelic smile.

“Camilla, who else can we trust if not each other?”

As Camilla slowly nodded, Henry immediately looked towards the grandfather clock.

“I have to go now. Robelia will be waiting.”

“…Robelia?”

Camilla’s eyes shook uneasily.

Seeing her like this, Henry let out a small snort.

“You fool, I just told you. Robelia can’t know about us until I completely take over the Bart Count family.”

“But…”

“If I linger here any longer, Robelia will get suspicious. I really have to go now.”

Camilla finally nodded.

Henry left a light kiss on her cheek and opened the door of the inn room.

“I’ll see you at the imperial banquet, my love.”

With those words, Henry left the shabby inn room without a backward glance.

As soon as he left, Camilla’s face, which had been smiling for a moment, began to darken.

“…My love?”

A sinister smirk gradually seeped into Camilla’s lips.

Kukuk. Camilla, who had been holding back her laughter, wiped away the tears that had spread to the corners of her eyes.

“Henry, do you think I’m as naive as Robelia who keeps falling for your tricks?”

She knew better than anyone how materialistic a person Henry was.

For such a man to risk murdering his wife for the sake of Camilla, who had nothing left but debts?

‘Even a passing dog would laugh at that.’

The reason Camilla, a daughter of the impoverished semi-baron family, had been able to rise to her current position was none other than her cold ability to judge situations.

Henry would never abandon Robelia for her sake.

‘Kill Robelia? You’re just a man in name only, without the guts to do it without me.’

Camilla bit her nails nervously, her face clearly showing signs of anxiety.

“Robelia, Robelia, that damned Robelia! Why do you always get everything without even trying, why!”

Even screaming to her heart’s content while pulling at her sweat-soaked hair didn’t quell her anger.

“In the end, this is all… because of those two b****es.”

Grind.

The sound of grinding teeth echoed eerily in the shabby inn room.

Camilla finally pulled out the kitchen knife that Henry had stuck in the wall earlier.

After glaring at the blade with crazed eyes for a moment.

She nervously stabbed the sharp tip of the knife into the table.

Pak! Pakak—!

Each time she did so, she kept muttering two names ominously.

“Robelia, Rebecca, Robelia, Rebecca, Robelia…”

The murderous intent in Camilla’s eyes gradually deepened.

“Do you think I’ll just stand by and watch you two be happy while I wallow in this mire?”

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Henry, who had left Camilla’s inn room, went down the stairs with an irritated sigh.

Arriving at the pub on the first floor of the inn, he immediately approached the long counter and raised a finger.

“Here, one glass of rum.”

Although all one could expect from a shabby pub was cheap rum, at that moment Henry desperately needed alcohol, whatever it might be.

Soon, the ordered rum was placed on the table.

Henry emptied the glass in one gulp.

“One more.”

Then he leaned on the counter and bowed his head deeply.

If others saw Henry now, he would look like a man plunged into deep despair.

However, right now he was trying hard to hold back his laughter from escaping.

‘Kukuk… Camilla, at this point, do you think I’d take care of you?’

The last time he visited the gift exchange with Camilla.

Looking back now, it was a stroke of luck that Camilla had insisted on investing in her own name unexpectedly that day.

‘If I had invested in my name that day… Whew.’

Henry shuddered as if the mere thought made his knees weak.

Of course, losing the investment was regrettable, but thanks to Camilla, he had avoided being buried under an astronomical pile of debt.

Now there was only one thing left to do.

To shake off Camilla who was sticking to him like a leech, and to safely maintain his position as the head of the Bart Count family.

‘To do that, I need to firmly grasp Robelia’s heart.’

Henry’s brow furrowed slightly at that thought.

It was because of the subtle coldness he had been feeling from Robelia lately.

“Tsk, it’s really strange…”

Robelia had always happily accepted his occasional affectionate gestures.

He had thought she was just such a bright and obedient woman…

Could it be that Robelia had noticed his affair with Camilla?

It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered this possibility.

However, even when he tried to probe with his words, Robelia remained silent.

As if she had not the slightest interest in Henry.

At that point, Henry’s heart began to grow anxious.

Now that his path with Camilla had been ruined.

The only person Henry could rely on was his wife, Robelia.

“Damn it, why are all women so complicated?”

Henry irritably scratched his short blonde hair and downed the rum in front of him in one gulp.

Henry frowned as he swallowed the bitter cheap rum.

But soon he exhaled lightly with an indifferent expression.

‘Robelia, I don’t know what you’re thinking to throw such a tantrum these days, but turning your heart back is easier for me than twisting a child’s wrist.’

He was Robelia’s first man.

Not only that.

It was also clear as day that he would be the last man in her innocent life.

He took out a few coins from his pocket and carelessly threw them on the counter.

“Innkeeper, you’d better use some better quality rum.”

He didn’t forget to give an annoying rebuke to the pub owner.

Snort. Henry put on his hat again with a leisurely smirk.

And he left the pub, reminding himself of the commitment he had momentarily forgotten under the pressure from the two women.

‘Let’s stop worrying about unnecessary things and make plans to leave a strong impression on His Majesty the Emperor at this imperial banquet.’

However, at that moment, Henry could not possibly know.

That from the day he had been so eagerly anticipating, the fate of many, including himself, would be turned upside down.

The day of the Emperor’s birthday banquet.

That fateful day was already just around the corner.