The divorce agreement consisted of half of the content filled in by Enzo and half blank spaces to add additional content.

Seeing Peiron’s face, unsure of what to do while looking at the document, many emotions arose.

This man, desperately pleading not to divorce, was someone who wouldn’t even make eye contact a month ago for fear of exchanging words.

He was someone who didn’t cherish what he had in his hands and took everything he possessed for granted.

Peiron, who had been glaring at the divorce agreement, raised his head and his eyes met Erina’s.

Everything about him that she once loved intensely and thought was brilliant slowly crumbled in Erina’s heart.

Erina felt a dull ache in her chest.

“Your Majesty, may I speak with Count Iolls for a moment?”

Enzo, saddened by Erina’s tearful voice, softened his tone and replied.

“Go ahead. Should I leave to give you privacy?”

“No, Your Majesty. It’s not that important of a conversation.”

Seeing Peiron’s lips move as if wanting to say something, Erina asked him.

“Count Iolls, why don’t you want to divorce?”

“Well…!”

Peiron started to speak but then closed his mouth tightly. Erina, watching him, actually knew the answer.

He was someone who had misunderstood her from beginning to end, made assumptions, and never tried to see her properly.

If he had fallen in love with someone else and brought them home, surely he would have been eager to drive her out quickly.

But Peiron took for granted everything that surrounded him and all the numerous things he possessed.

The honors Peiron received as a knight standing by the Emperor’s side, everything he had as Count Iolls, were all too natural to him.

Everything that had been natural started to go awry when Erina left Iolls.

Like a tiny cog in a clock that you didn’t even know existed disappearing, causing the second hand to gradually misalign.

He might be trying to restore things because he was displeased with the daily life that was breaking down because of it.

It was clear that he was acting to regain the familiar comfort he had when Erina was in the position of countess.

This made Erina even angrier.

She was disgusted by his brazen selfishness that thought his wife’s sacrifice was natural for his own well-being alone.

“Come back to Iolls, Erina.”

“Why?”

Peiron closed his mouth again.

He wouldn’t answer.

He wouldn’t reveal his own flaws here with Enzo present.

“Tell me, Count Iolls.”

“Erina.”

“You won’t speak till the end. How could you talk about it here? You were just displeased that your daily life was disrupted, you just wanted to regain your peace. Right?”

Erina wished for Peiron to fall into the mire she had faced.

She wanted all the thread-like trust Enzo had mentioned to be cut, and even the small hope he was clinging to to be burned away so that he could no longer dream of anything.

Just as she had in the Iolls mansion.

“E…!”

“But that peace you desire existed because I sacrificed my entire life and hopes.”

Erina’s hands trembled on her knees.

The events of the past year, while Erina was staying at Iolls, began to resurface one by one.

That night when she fell in love with him who seemed emotionless, but was coldly rejected due to misunderstandings and couldn’t even consummate their marriage.

Her mother-in-law, Mirea, who constantly belittled her and stripped away her qualifications as a countess, even when she was being affectionate.

The mistreatment of the servants who realized she was a cold shoulder not even worthy of a glance.

Peiron’s coldness, giving her icy stares when she cried out that she didn’t expect love, just to be allowed by his side.

“Do you know the feeling of breathing but feeling like you can’t breathe? You wouldn’t know. How I felt and how I lived there.”

If he knew, he would never have uttered the words to come back.

Erina felt sorrowful as she recalled the painfully lonely days of the past.

But she was angry at Peiron, who sat there stupidly just uttering words to come back.

Erina, watching Peiron whose pupils were shaking uncontrollably like someone in shock, turned her head to look at Enzo.

“I apologize, Your Majesty. May I make a different request?”

“A different request? Speak.”

“I’d like to file for marriage annulment instead of divorce mediation.”

“Erina!”

Peiron suddenly stood up and called Erina’s name in an angry voice.

Divorce and marriage annulment were completely different matters.

In a divorce, if one or both parties are at fault, property is divided according to the weight of the fault.

But a marriage annulment returns things to how they were before the marriage.

Also, the party at fault cannot claim rights to anything that changed hands due to the marriage, and if there were any gains after the marriage, they must all be handed over to the other party.

Even if the other party made no contribution to those gains.

The weight of fault was that different.

Erina was now saying she would put all the weight on the scale placed before the two of them onto Peiron alone and undo the marriage as if it never happened.

“Do you have valid reasons?”

When Enzo asked, Erina stared at Peiron, who was still unable to recover from the shock, and said.

“He made a big misunderstanding on his own and has never once accepted me as his wife from the wedding night until now.”

“What?”

Erina spoke indirectly, but there was no one who didn’t understand the meaning contained within.

“Also, he refused to have children with me saying he absolutely couldn’t, then one day brought home an heir without a word.”

Everyone in the reception room inhaled sharply in surprise.

“Peiron, is this true?”

Strangely, Enzo’s voice asking about the terrible facts was excessively subdued.

Peiron couldn’t look at Enzo.

Erina, watching Peiron like that, had to try hard not to mock him.

“Speak.”

He must know that what he did was not very honorable.

Erina found it ridiculous that he couldn’t even raise his head.

Feeling all the gazes in the reception room focused on him, Peiron bowed his head deeply.

“Now!”

No one answered Enzo’s voice full of anger.

A chilling silence fell over the reception room.

Enzo, who had been quietly watching Peiron, frowned deeply and said to Delas.

“Delas, go change the documents.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Delas gathered the divorce agreement placed in front of Erina and Peiron and left the reception room.

Another long silence passed.

Erina’s expression was calm, unsuited to the tension lightly spread throughout the reception room, while Peiron still stood unable to raise his bowed head.

Enzo didn’t hide his discomfort and pressed his fingers against his temples.

“My intuition wasn’t wrong. It seems my eyes were wrong too. Such a person…”

Enzo trailed off as he glared fiercely at Peiron.

But Peiron knew what Enzo was going to say without hearing it, so he couldn’t say anything.

He could only hide his desire to confront Erina angrily.

Not long after, Delas returned.

Returning again, Delas placed two documents in front of Enzo.

Enzo began writing something on the front page of each document.

When Enzo put down his quill, Delas approached and picked up the documents again to place in front of Erina and Peiron.

At the very top of the documents placed before the two of them was a different title than before.

Erina’s name was written as the plaintiff and Peiron’s name as the defendant.

“The lawsuit will proceed formally and will be ruled in favor of Lady Medelia.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Peiron Iolls!”

Surprised by Enzo’s words, Peiron raised his head and shouted, but his mouth closed at the frosty roar that followed immediately after.

“Did I not clearly tell you?”

Peiron was dazed by Enzo’s anger directed at him.

It was the first time.

Not once had he incurred his anger since he began serving him as his lord and giving his loyalty.

“Did I not say not to disappoint me any further.”

Peiron’s pupils shook uncontrollably, startled by Enzo’s piercing gaze.

“But… the facts haven’t been verified.”

“Ha.”

Enzo couldn’t hide the sigh that burst out, beyond anger to disbelief.

The emperor always had to maintain a neutral stance on all matters.

Because he had to look at everything objectively, Enzo tried hard to prevent emotions from being added.

The first thing Enzo did as soon as the founding festival banquet ended was to verify the exact facts.

He investigated the matters between the two using all available means.

Enzo didn’t want to believe the investigation results because he cherished and trusted Peiron in his heart.

As a result of interrogating the butler and head maid of the Iolls mansion using artifacts under imperial order, what Erina went through was even worse than what he had heard.

Not only did he misunderstand on his own and reject his wife, he brought an orphan to be his heir and a mistress to the mansion and turned a blind eye to Mirea’s violence.

Unbelievable things were happening behind closed doors in the mansion, blinding others’ eyes and covering their ears.

Enzo actually didn’t want to believe it.

At first, he thought the artifact that had been activated after a long time might have malfunctioned.

Then he thought that if Peiron sincerely apologized to Erina, saying it was actions done out of misunderstanding and ignorance, he should view it somewhat differently.

But Peiron blinded himself with his own selfishness, made up reasons on his own, made excuses, and only looked out for his own well-being.

As if that wasn’t enough, he was throwing a tantrum saying he couldn’t divorce.

“You truly looked down on me.”

Enzo’s eyes, which had trusted his vassal enough to open his heart to him until just before the founding festival banquet, turned red with anger at losing that trust.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.