“How can dropping Lady Litania to injure her so she can’t go to the tower, and allowing her to be kidnapped so she can’t escape alone, be actions for her benefit?”

It felt like I had been hit on the head.

Dropped from the tower?

Allowed to be kidnapped?

Suddenly, memories come flooding back.

After hearing about the Farewell Gate from the knights, curiosity arose and I explored the eastern tower with Snow. Sneaking in and climbing the tower, the stairs collapsed and I fell. Litania injured her shoulder and had to receive care from Orbis for a while.

“Orbis. Perhaps… did you collapse those stairs?”

It was an old tower. It clearly showed signs of not being maintained, so it wouldn’t be strange for it to collapse under the weight of two people.

Right. That was just an accident. Snow must be misunderstanding something.

Must be misunderstanding…

“I thought it would make you not want to go again.”

“……”

My fingertips grew cold.

What did I just hear?

That Orbis dropped me from those stairs?

If Snow hadn’t protected me, I could have been seriously injured.

Just to prevent me from going to the tower again?

“Orbis. You’re joking, right?”

Orbis often made jokes that were easy to misunderstand. This must be another one of those tasteless jokes.

It had to be.

“I, I would not have gone if you had seriously warned me not to. Back then I thought it was just a light concern.”

“You would have gone later.”

“…Did you really collapse the stairs for that reason? Even knowing I could get hurt?”

Orbis did not answer.

Silence is affirmation. A chilling truth crept up the back of my neck.

“What do you mean by allowing the kidnapping?”

The spring festival hunting competition.

Frightened by Orbis slaughtering monsters in an instant, I asked for some time alone to calm down while taking a walk.

That’s when I encountered the lost white horse, and while chasing it, fell into a trap and was kidnapped by foreign mercenaries.

“Ah, so you knew?”

“A dragon’s perception is not so sloppy.”

“If you knew, why didn’t you come rescue me right away? I was so scared……”

I could have died.

If Herna hadn’t arrived first and picked a fight, I might have really died. After all, the request from the foreign country was for my death.

“I would have saved you before it led to death.”

“……”

It means he was watching to see if it was truly a critical situation or not.

If he had been concerned about how scared I would be, he couldn’t have acted that way.

“Why, why did you do that? Why did you just watch?”

“To warn you so that Lady Litania would never think of leaving my side again, I suppose.”

“Snow?”

“That’s the kind of person he is.”

“……”

That can’t be. Orbis is so kind.

Isn’t he the one who always smiled and let it go no matter how clumsy my nonsense was? Even when learning horseback riding or swimming, he never frowned at me for being slow to learn.

Orbis was always a kind friend and lover. So much so that I doubted if I was worthy of receiving his favor.

He was a man who was unbelievably gentle.

……Unbelievably so.

“Orbis. That’s not true, right? Snow must have misunderstood?”

“……”

“Orbis, say something……”

Something was going wrong. Maybe I’m still dreaming? Yesterday I had too many experiences, with Herna’s matter and the divorce papers, I was under a lot of stress.

It must be a dream.

“Lady Litania. If you don’t receive an apology until the end, you should reconsider this marriage.”

“You’ve become quite presumptuous since I started indulging you.”

The moment Orbis’s cold voice fell, Snow’s form was torn in half.

“Eek! Snow!”

Litania reflexively called Snow’s name and reached out her arms. But Snow’s form faded away like smoke.

As if it had been an illusion created by magic from the beginning.

“What, what is this?”

Boing. Something white and round bounced on the floor and rolled into a corner.

Something that looked like a small furry ball wriggled.

Two long, protruding ears.

It was a small rabbit.

“A rabbit? Where on earth did it come from……”

The rabbit that had sprung out from where Snow’s form had disappeared seemed to have hurt itself while rolling on the floor, unable to get up and just wriggling there.

When the small rabbit blinked and opened its eyes, bright red irises were revealed.

A white rabbit with fluffy fur and red eyes.

Its appearance reminded of someone who had just disappeared.

“Snow…?”

The rabbit’s ears twitched. As if answering yes.

Could it be that Orbis used magic to turn Snow into a rabbit?

As she looked at him, Orbis lightly shrugged his shoulders.

“It has lived for a long time. Normally, it would have returned to the earth long ago.”

“What… do you mean?”

“The lifespan of an ordinary rabbit is much shorter than that, Litania.”

The lifespan of an ordinary rabbit is about 4 or 5 years. However, Snow had been taking care of Litania in the imperial palace since she was very young.

Litania thought Snow was younger than her, but come to think of it, there was only one attendant in the Cold Palace where the princess originally stayed.

Snow had been taking care of Litania from the beginning, not aging, remaining in the form of a boy.

‘…Snow wasn’t human after all.’

Even though she felt it was strange, the reason it felt strange was too unrealistic to even imagine.

Who could have guessed that the attendant who had been taking care of her long before she met Orbis was actually a rabbit transformed by dragon magic?

“I was the one who kept that thing alive until now. So it’s up to me to take it back.”

“Th-That’s impossible… Don’t touch Snow!”

Fearing that Orbis might harm Snow, Litania hurriedly ran and picked up the small rabbit. Snow, who was small even as a human, was now tiny and fragile enough to fit in both of her hands.

The soft touch of fur and the warm body temperature of the animal in her hands. Despite wriggling in pain, the red eyes looking up at her made Litania feel strangely nauseous and her arms trembled.

She had to protect Snow.

Litania hugged the small rabbit to her chest and stepped back.

“Don’t hurt Snow….. Don’t come any closer!”

“I was the one who ordered it to take care of you, yet why do you reject me and cherish that pitiful thing?”

Orbis tilted his head as if he truly couldn’t understand.

A strange light flashed in his blue eyes. Pupils slit vertically. Facing the dragon’s eyes that she rarely saw, Litania gasped as if her breath would stop.

A prickling sensation ran through her entire body as if being stabbed by needles.

“You’re insane.”

A cruel and ferocious dragon.

A being who, while being the guardian deity of the Beriberbium Empire, mercilessly tramples the empire for the reason of wanting to obtain one woman he has set his heart on.

A being beyond human understanding should rightfully be feared and guarded against, but she had completely forgotten that.

“I, I… I don’t want to be with you. I’m leaving.”

“Husband and wife are one body and cannot be separated, my bride.”

“We are not husband and wife!”

The divorce papers stamped by her half-brother, the Crown Prince. No, now the Emperor.

No matter how noble the divine dragon may be compared to the Emperor, marriage is a contract that only applies in the human world. The marriage of imperial descendants always required the Emperor’s permission, and divorce was the same.

Just as the previous Emperor could marry Litania and Orbis without the consent of the parties involved, the current Emperor could also divorce Litania and Orbis at will.

Now they were, at least under the laws of this empire, perfect strangers.

And unless an objection is filed within a month, they will continue to be so.

“My bride, the empire’s laws do not apply in this dragon castle.”

“Then I’ll leave. I’ll pack my bags, no, I’ll leave with just the clothes on my back. I don’t need any alimony or anything.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t follow me. If you follow, I’ll bite my tongue and die.”

She didn’t really intend to die, but she had no choice but to say so.

The only means Litania had to threaten Orbis was to bluff with her own life. She felt like crying at her miserable situation, but Litania bit her lip and glared at Orbis.

Whether her threat worked or he was just watching to see how far she would go, Orbis did not approach.

“I’m going. Thank you for everything until now.”

She wasn’t grateful at all, but Litania said so and quickly ran out into the hallway with Snow in her arms, descending the stairs.

She saw the butler Simons standing in the first floor hall.

“Simons, call a carriage for me. I’m leaving.”

“……”

The butler said nothing.

Could it be that he was trying to confine her in the dragon castle on Orbis’s orders?

Still, hadn’t they become close during her stay in this castle? If she begged, he would listen.

To appeal to his sympathy, Litania swallowed hard and approached with trembling steps.

“Simons, please, I beg you. Let me leave.”

“……”

It was when the butler silently put his hand on the doorknob to open the door.

His neat hand swelled up bulbously.