The Crown Prince stared blankly at the torn divorce agreement. It was sent to Roded Island, and this was the tenth time.

“It seems there was no intention to sign?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince tapped his fingers on the desk. At this rate, divorce seemed impossible.

“Take two years’ worth of supplies and seeds for farming. And if the agreement is torn again this time, forcibly restrain and make her sign.”

“I will obey your command.”

The Crown Prince stopped the knight who was about to depart for Roded Island again. Then, with a coldly hardened face, he said:

“Not even an ant should leave that island.”

“I will keep that in mind, Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince put the torn divorce agreement in the desk drawer. It contained all the agreements Hegelia had sent back so far.

Hegelia sat on the beach, watching the approaching ship. It was due to the expectation that the Crown Prince might call her back to the palace, pretending nothing had happened.

At first, she wrote in detail about her current situation on the back of the agreement and sent it back. It was based on the judgment that, given their time together as a couple, he would at least feel pity.

When the second agreement arrived, Aron tore it to shreds. The reason was that if they divorced, support supplies would no longer come.

So every time an agreement came, Hegelia tore it up and sent it back. She was enduring in this living hell with Aron, believing that someday she could return to the palace.

“What? Another ship?”

Aron approached from the side. Hegelia moved away with a disgusted expression.

“I know men’s psychology well. You’ve already been abandoned.”

At Aron’s words, Hegelia glared.

“Do you think His Highness is like you?”

“He’s worse than me, definitely not better.”

“Shut up!”

Hegelia shouted angrily. Aron’s hand raised up, irritated by the ear-piercing scream.

Whoooo.

Just then, the ship’s horn sounded, announcing its docking. Aron cursed with his eyes and took a step back, folding his arms.

“Why are there so many loads?”

The sailors who disembarked from the ship put down several large and heavy boxes. Hegelia stood up abruptly at the different atmosphere from before.

Then she shook off the sand on her dress.

“We greet you, Your Highness.”

Even the sailor who came this time was courteous. Hegelia barely held back the twitching corners of her mouth and opened her mouth with dignity.

“I hope you’ve brought the news I’m expecting.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Your hand…”

Hegelia raised her chin, expecting a kiss on the back of her hand that she hadn’t received in a long time. She greatly liked this action filled with respect and servitude.

But what returned was the brute force of a man. She cried out in surprise as her wrist was grabbed.

“What are you doing!”

The sailor took out the agreement from his chest. Meanwhile, another sailor who had finished unloading the cargo came close and grabbed Hegelia’s other arm, restraining her from moving.

“Let go of this!”

As she struggled, Hegelia sent a pleading look to Aron for help. But what she saw was Aron slowly backing away and then running towards the ship.

The sailor placed a quill pen in Hegelia’s hand. Then he gripped his fist over hers.

Suddenly turned into a marionette doll, Hegelia tried to pull out her hand and arm that were leaving her name on the agreement by applying force, but it was a futile resistance.

“Thank you for signing, Miss Hegelia.”

The sailor who had taken out the agreement bowed.

“I am the Crown Princess of this empire! Not Miss Hegelia!”

The sailor raised his hand to signal dismissal. Then Hegelia, who had been slightly lifted in the air, was thrown onto the sandy beach.

“This can’t be… His Highness wouldn’t do this to me!”

“It would be good to move those boxes before the tide comes in. They contain two years’ worth of supplies and wheat seeds.”

“You’re telling me to be self-sufficient now…”

“Yes, it’s His Highness’s last consideration.”

Hegelia trembled.

“Tell me to die instead!”

She shouted at the backs of the retreating sailors. Aron, whether he had boarded the ship alone, was nowhere to be seen no matter how much she looked around.

Hegelia began to move the unloaded supplies to her own secret place. If she brought them to the hut, Aron would surely take them away.

Aron hid himself deep in the corner of what looked like a warehouse. If he wasn’t discovered, he could return like this.

‘Ha… what a mess.’

He stroked his disheveled hair and clothes with his hand. Still, he was grateful that Hegelia had drawn attention by quarreling with the sailor, allowing him to board the ship undetected.

“So to His Highness… an affair…”

The sound of sailors talking could be heard outside the warehouse. Aron pricked up his ears.

Click.

The sound of the warehouse door opening was heard. His body curled up tightly.

“Anyway, so they say he decided to divorce.”

One sailor said as he put down something right next to the pile of boxes where Aron was hiding. He covered his mouth with his hand and even held his breath.

Meow.

“Leo, what are you looking at?”

At the sailor’s words, Aron turned his gaze towards the sound. There was a cat looking at him through the gap between the stacked boxes.

“Leo?”

The sound of the sailor approaching was heard. Aron inwardly cursed.

“What’s there?”

The sailor began to take down the boxes one by one. Finally, only one box remained between him and the sailor, which would reveal him if moved.

“Damn it!”

Aron made the first move. He jumped out, pushed the sailor’s shoulder, and went out of the warehouse. With the vague thought that he could survive if he held a knife to the captain’s neck if necessary, he ran recklessly towards the captain’s cabin.

But the sailors on this ship were knights who had received regular training, only outwardly appearing as sailors. Of course, there was no way Aron could beat them.

“Damn it! Let go!”

Caught not long after, he knelt on the deck. A knight disguised as a sailor pointed a sword at his neck and asked.

“You dare to sneak onto the ship like a rat?”

If they had passed by without knowing, the knights who had participated in this mission might have all died for failing the mission.

The knight pointed to Roded Island visible in the distance with his scabbard.

“We won’t turn the ship around for you. So find your own way back.”

At the knight’s eye signal, the sailors lifted Aron up. Sensing danger instinctively, he twisted his upper body wildly.

“Are you crazy? If I fall from here, I’ll die for sure!”

No one seriously listened to his cries. Aron was driven to the edge of the deck.

“I, I’ll stay as if I’m dead. I won’t even look at the empire. So please…”

“What are you doing?”

The knight said with an expressionless face. One of the sailors stepped forward. He unhesitatingly kicked Aron’s back.

“You, you bastards!”

Splash.

The cold seawater rose in a circular shape. The ship didn’t give the leisure to watch him fall into the sea. It only quickly moved away from him, who was flailing his arms and struggling with all his might to stay afloat.

Hegelia rather wished Aron had taken the ship and left. If he wasn’t here, this Roded Island wouldn’t be so bad.

As she moved things, she saw there were wheat seeds and chickens, so although she would be lonely without someone to talk to, it seemed she wouldn’t starve to death.

Leaving the last box, she was heading to the sandy beach when she discovered a person washed up by the waves. Thinking anyone would be fine as long as it wasn’t Aron, she quickly moved her steps.

But heaven did not take her side. Aron, whom she had wished would just leave, was coughing and vomiting seawater as if he had just regained consciousness.

Hegelia sat down in despair, saying God had abandoned her. Aron staggered towards her. His appearance, spewing painful curses, was like Tartarus, the god of the underground prison.

The Crown Prince submitted the divorce agreement with Hegelia’s signature to the Emperor.

He also presented evidence of how much luxury she, as the Crown Princess, had indulged in until now and her affair with another man. But the Emperor accepted the agreement without much inquiry, saying, “You must have handled it yourself.”

The Crown Prince considered it fortunate that his father, the Emperor, had no interest in state affairs. Above all, he liked the idea that this time he would select a Crown Princess from among noble ladies, not a commoner daughter-in-law.

It was a choice that perfectly matched his principle that the royal family should reign, not coexist.

‘The Commoners’ Assembly will never open their mouths about Hegelia again.’

How much had they praised her, who rose to the position of Crown Princess from a commoner status.

Now that she had become like a pendant with a broken string, all that remained was to make the power of the royal family solid.

Among them, the first thing to do was to put Artenbach under his feet.

He could never forget the attempt to intimidate him, a royal, with force. It was something he had vowed on the day Askal had thrust his sword into the floor of the office.

He opened the safe under the desk. Inside were letters exchanged with spies from the Eastern Empire.

The Crown Prince took out more letters with similar content. All the spies planted in the Eastern Empire were saying the same thing.

‘Perhaps this might be the opportunity.’

If he started a war with the Eastern Empire, Artenbach couldn’t just sit still.

If they lost the war, he could blame Artenbach for the responsibility of losing, and if they won, he could claim it as the merit of the royal family.

‘It would be even better if he dies and returns.’

The Crown Prince raised one corner of his mouth crookedly. Then he was very satisfied to see that the national seal, which should rightfully be in the Emperor’s possession, was in his hands.