“I apologize. I couldn’t find Madam’s key. However, while looking for the key, I found something different from before.”

“Something different? What?”

“The lock has been replaced with a new one.”

“A lock?”

“Yes, it looks the same, but it’s different in words.”

I didn’t understand why the lock had changed. The head maid also tilted her head.

“The room should be empty, so I don’t know what it means. Did the owner bring something new?”

“Well, I don’t know either.”
At that moment, I saw Mild Kyeong bringing Blancq from the other side. Marboro, Lyla, and Domingo also came out to see them off around the same time.

“Anyway, it’s time to depart now.”

After exchanging farewells with everyone who came to see me off, I boarded the carriage heading to the capital.

“Yah!”

As Mild Kyeong urged, the carriage began to sway lightly.

While brushing Blancq’s head, I bid farewell to all the scenery passing by the window.

Just as I was leaving the mansion gate, I saw another carriage entering.

I opened the side window at the front of the carriage and asked Mild Kyeong, “It wasn’t our mansion’s carriage, was it?”

“It’s Sor Yeongae’s carriage.”

It seemed like Philip wasn’t there, and yet they came to visit without notice.

I opened the window and looked back, smiling quietly.

‘What is there to care about?’

Now that the woman has remarried Philip, I should just come out and live my own life.

I picked up a folder prepared on one side.

This fairly thick folder was the result of the recruitment notices I had posted during that time.

Milga, who quickly posted the recruitment notices, interviewed applicants with the Polter couple. They then selected a few who passed the interview and handed them over to me as candidates.

If I approved, they would be officially employed and start working.

I began to carefully review the resumes.

A considerable number of them were refugees who settled with the Polter couple. They all reapplied when the notice was posted, and among them, those with abilities seemed to have passed the first interview.

They were very cooperative, treating my work as if it were their own, so there were no objections to employing them.

“Most of them can be selected here, and…”

While progressing with the work, I thought of those who had helped me during that time and selected them first.

“This one is approved, this one too, um, this person is a bit… disapproved. Huh?”

Then, my gaze lingered on one document.

“…It’s Heid, right?”

Heid, who had been fired, applied to work as an employee in my boutique.

The applied position was in the surrounding landscape management.

Naturally, Heid would be accepted. His skill in garden management was excellent.

Moreover, seeing Heid in the talent pool made me think of the possibility of expanding a new business.

‘Alright, I should discuss with him, and if he works as he wishes, I should raise his salary a bit.’

After finishing the document review, I turned my eyes to the outside.

The carriage had passed through the middle of a bamboo forest without me realizing.

“There was a bamboo forest in a place like this.”

The bamboo forest was so vast that it seemed endless even after a while.

As I watched the straight and long bamboo branches whisking by, I suddenly had an idea.

When I opened the side window facing the bamboo seat, Mild Kyeong looked back at me.

“What’s the matter, Madam?”

“Let’s stay here today and head to the capital later.”

“What?”

“See if there’s a suitable campsite.”

“Philip.”

In the meeting room, Fred, the judge, sighed heavily, facing Philip.

“Difficult to say such words between us, but I can’t check the finalized divorce papers in advance, sir.”
Philip had requested a meeting with him for a reason.

The reason was to find out in advance what Ellen had chosen between the finalized divorce and divorce cancellation.

“It’s quite awkward for someone who can live without laws to be in such a situation.”

In response to Fred’s firm words, Philip swallowed a sigh.

“I know that, but…”

“Even if the wife insists on canceling the divorce, it’s clearly a divorce. What’s the worry? After all, you must have stamped the finalized seal.”

Despite Fred’s assertion, Philip hesitated and changed the subject.

“Is it difficult to make the wife’s documents pending?”

Since pending indicates divorce cancellation, Fred doubted his ears.

“Do you… have a weakness exposed to your wife?”

Even without Philip saying it explicitly, Fred knew well that he disliked Ellen.

So naturally, the reason for divorce cancellation that naturally came to Fred’s mind was that.

“No, not really.”

In response to Philip’s answer, Fred lowered his voice even more.

“Then, did the truth of the affair come out? Did you get caught on the same ship?”

“I don’t know about that… and that’s not the reason either.”

“But why would you want to cancel the divorce?”

“Well… it might seem absurd.”

Philip, after hesitating several times, gathered the courage to confess to his longtime friend.

Fred was taken aback after hearing the story.

“Love? Reconciliation?”

“…”

“Have you gone mad?”

Fred let out a long sigh as if confirming.

“Well, if divorce is confirmed on one side’s document, the divorce is established. Canceling it after the seal is stamped is impossible.”

“Isn’t there any way?”

“Except for remarriage… But apart from that, if you undo the divorce, your honor will be…”

“So, I want to make it as if it never happened…”

Fred was dumbfounded by Philip’s cold laughter.

“His Majesty the King thinks divorce is natural. But canceling the divorce?”

“I’ve denied it many times. But my conclusion is the same. I’m planning to request His Majesty. I’ll ask him to give Ellen another chance.”

“It won’t be easy. The probability of you losing trust might be higher.”

“I know.”

Philip calmly replied, thinking about the king’s condition.

The condition was stable enough to allow for brief external activities, but the king would soon die anyway.

Marboro would take over from there. In that case, the hardship caused by this would be only temporary.

On the other hand, Fred was so frustrated that he was on the verge of bursting.

This divorce had to be finalized.

The king knew that Ellen was a historic villainess who ruined the finances of the count’s family.

So the king had given instructions to several aides around Philip regarding Ellen.

In case Ellen seemed to live in the royal palace, even if secretly, they were to prevent it, even if it meant killing her.