“So, I must ask, Count, will you return my wife to me soon?”

Herald let out a hollow laugh and sank deep into the sofa backrest, amused by Fredrick’s brazen demand as if Lily were his possession.

“One would think you had entrusted her to me.”

“While that was never the case, it inadvertently turned out that way.”

Fredrick smiled just as he had when he first greeted Herald.

“So I have come to take my wife back home.”

His lips were smiling, but his eyes visible through the transparent glass were as deep as the darkness that stained the world. He was serious. Fredrick had truly come here to take Lily away.

“Well, that’s for her to decide, not you. It is her will to stay here.”

“That is why I am requesting Count to return my wife to me. I hope you will tell her to come home now.”

Herald tilted his head slightly at the absurd request.

“And why should I do that?”

“Because it is the right thing to do. If you truly care for my wife, help her not to go down the wrong path.”

In other words, Lily staying at the Braden estate, precisely being by Herald’s side, was wrong. It was ridiculous but not untrue. Lily Benjamin’s legal husband was Fredrick Benjamin, not Herald Braden.

“So is it the right path for her to return to the Benjamin estate?”

But Fredrick Benjamin had no right to say such things. Recalling what he had done to Lily, Herald spat out the question. His golden eyes, filled with a tangle of irritation and anger, were as fierce as a predator confronting an enemy who had fearlessly invaded its territory.

“Do you really think it’s the right thing for her to go back to a place with a deranged man who not only plays around with different women every day, but also uses his mother as a hostage to threaten her and even dug up his father’s grave? Not to mention his family members who are desperate to get their hands on her?”

Although Herald sarcastically referred to him as a deranged man, Fredrick spoke unwaveringly with a smile.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding. I am not the culprit who dug up my father-in-law’s grave. I hope you understand that I, too, am working hard to find the culprit.”

Herald wanted to tell him to stop pretending, but he remained silent for now as there was no physical evidence that Fredrick was the culprit.

“And I have never used my mother as a hostage to threaten my wife. I merely reminded her of our contract. The contract where she would give me the title of viscount in exchange for taking full responsibility for my mother’s hospital bills.”

Fredrick calmly continued his excuse.

“As for playing with other women… As you know, Count, adultery is a common occurrence between politically married couples. Just look at His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress, who keep separate lovers.”

There was nothing he could say about the previous issues as there was no evidence and he had not seen or heard it directly, but adultery was different. It was a well-known fact that Fredrick Benjamin warmed the beds of noble ladies, so Herald thought there would be no excuse for that, but he didn’t expect him to cite the Emperor and Empress as a justification. Bold but definite response left Herald sticking out his tongue.

“Moreover, my dealings with numerous noble ladies are purely for the sake of making money. The more money I make, the more affluent my family’s life will be. I can also pay for the hospital bills of my mother, whom my wife loves very much.”

“I suppose you have no confidence in making money without using your body?”

“That’s not the case, but it’s simply the method I’m most confident in and sure of. There’s no need to take the long way around when there’s a shortcut, is there?”

Even those who made a living by selling their bodies felt a hint of shame about their work and did not try to justify it. But Fredrick boasted about it, leaving Herald dumbfounded. He scoffed and asked.

“If you’re so confident, why didn’t you tell her before you got married that you make money by selling your body?”

“That’s…”

“I bet you couldn’t bring yourself to reveal it.”

Herald provided the answer before Fredrick could say anything.

“Because she would never have married you if she knew that fact. So you approached her while pretending to be a gentleman, didn’t you?”

Fredrick didn’t say anything in response to the question that came flying back. He couldn’t possibly do so. Answering yes would be admitting that what he does is shameful, and denying it would be an outright lie.

As if pondering how to answer, Fredrick stared blankly at the embroidery on the tablecloth before raising his head again. Having sorted out all his emotions and thoughts, he spoke impassively.

“Regardless of how it started, we got married and became husband and wife. In other words, the place she should be is by my side as her husband, not by Count’s side.”

“Then if you two are not husband and wife, if you are not her husband, does that mean she can be by my side?”

Fredrick’s face was etched with deep bewilderment at those words. Herald looked at that face as if appreciating it.

“Did she… say she wants to divorce me?”

Fredrick, who opened his mouth after a long time, had a face frozen cold like the day Lily held Herald’s hand and left the sanatorium.

“Or is that what you want, Count?”

“It doesn’t matter whose idea it is. Whether she wants it or I want it, you will end up divorcing her.”

“…Are you threatening me now?”

“Of course not.”

Herald continued with a sneer.

“A threat is used when forcibly taking something away, but there’s nothing I need to forcibly take from you.”

Herald was far above Fredrick in status, position, reputation, connections, and even wealth. Not to mention appearance. He had even taken Lily’s heart away.

“…”

That fact trampled on his self-esteem brutally, and his face also distorted unsightly, but Fredrick soon regained his composure and asked.

“Then how about a deal?”

“A deal?”

The sneer on his slanted lips deepened. Although Herald looked at him with eyes that seemed to ask where the dog was barking, Fredrick continued, undeterred.

“I’ll divorce right away without going to trial, so I hope Count will also grant my request.”

Even if Lily desperately wanted a divorce and Herald helped her, if Fredrick stubbornly resisted, the situation would not be easily resolved. As he had said, they would have to go to trial, argue over each other’s faults, and unnecessarily waste time.

On the other hand, if Fredrick readily agreed, they could divorce immediately after a week-long deliberation period.

“I refuse.”

That part was certainly tempting, but Herald didn’t want to make a deal with him, so he spoke firmly and stood up. He no longer wanted to have a nutritionless conversation with Fredrick. The very act of mingling words with such a man was unpleasant.

As he walked briskly towards the door, thinking the ridiculous thought that he should wash his ears with water before going to Lily’s bedroom, Fredrick shouted from behind.

“Do you know that the fire at the Benjamin estate two years ago was not an accident but arson, and that Madison Benjamin was murdered?”

Herald, who had stopped abruptly at those words, only turned his head to look at Fredrick. Seeing his calm face despite hearing a tremendous fact, Fredrick gave a hollow laugh.

“You already knew.”

Herald answered with silence. Fredrick, who stared at him silently for a moment, seemingly flustered that the card he had ambitiously presented was useless, opened his mouth again.

“Then do you also know that the culprit is the Second Prince, and why the Second Prince killed Madison Benjamin?”

The fact that he was asking such questions meant that Fredrick knew everything, conversely.

He had found out that the Second Prince was the one who killed Madison Benjamin, but had not yet revealed the reason. He only speculated that it was to hide something, and that something would be related to the Herta Kingdom.

But Fredrick knew that reason. If he could just find the reason, not only would the task Austin, the Crown Prince, had asked of him be completed, but he could also save Lily from the Second Prince’s clutches.

And he could help her find complete freedom by divorcing Fredrick.

Herald thought for a moment, then fully turned his body towards Fredrick.

“What do you want?”

At the question that was tantamount to agreeing to the deal, Fredrick strode up to Herald.

“What I want is simple. Accept me as a vassal of the Braden family.”

Accept him as a vassal. It was absurd but understandable. If Fredrick divorced Lily, he would lose his noble status and return to being a commoner. If he remarried, he would become a noble again, but it would be difficult to find a family willing to take him as a son-in-law with a divorce history. Unless it was a special case like Lily, there would be no noble woman who would want to marry him.

So as an alternative, he wanted to become a vassal of a noble family. Even if he couldn’t receive a title, he could be treated as a quasi-noble if he became a vassal.

Moreover, if he became a vassal not of an ordinary family but of the Braden family, whose patriarch was the hero of the empire, Fredrick could wield even greater influence than when he was the Benjamin viscount. Except for the lack of a title, all conditions would be better for him.

He had thought as far as becoming a vassal in that brief moment. His quick wit and shrewdness were worthy of recognition. That’s how he must have survived so far. Like a cockroach.

Herald turned around, mocking himself for being momentarily tempted by the insect’s proposal.