When she returned to her quarters, Oz was pacing anxiously in front of the door.

“What did he say?”

She approached Melly immediately and asked.

Melly gave a bitter smile instead of answering.

Oz realized that Edric had hurt Melly once again.

But there was a limit to what someone with such simple emotions like her could understand.

“Did he threaten to cut off your allowance again if you associate with servants like us?”

If only it were that simple. Melly spoke the truth with a weary expression.

“He said I can live however I want from now on. He’ll support me as much as I need.”

For a moment, Oz’s expression became bewildered. Then she let out a sigh of relief and burst into laughter.

“What? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“…”

“It seems His Excellency has realized how much he’s been constraining you, madam, because of this incident.”

Oz was someone who took words and actions at face value, like Crown Prince Lucius.

Her empathy was too crude to sense the subtle nuances hidden beneath. Melly considered how to make Oz understand this subtle criticism, that Edric’s consideration was a hundred times crueler than cutting off her allowance, but gave up.

She didn’t have the energy for it.

Meanwhile, Oz spoke excitedly.

“Anyway, that’s great news. From now on, live as you please. Invite guests to the house whenever you want.”

Invite guests to the house…

Melly had no one to invite.

“Go shopping too.”

Shopping…

The house was already overflowing with things, what more could she buy?

“Just enjoy your life. As you do, you’ll find things you want to do and things you’re good at.”

Oz’s words were simple but had a point.

Melly decided to think positively as she suggested.

She would take this crisis as an opportunity and make the most of it. Then she would find something she was good at… and surely her sandcastle-like self-esteem would stop crumbling.

But habits are terrifying things.

Due to the habit of conforming everything to Edric’s preferences, deeply ingrained over the past five years, Melly automatically considered Edric’s attention whenever she chose something she wanted to do.

Even when shopping, she worried about whether he would like it, and her choice of hobbies was similarly constrained.

“Um, I’m thinking of going to the gallery today. They say a new work by Flot, a living master of the art world, is on display? I’ll tell you how it was when I get back.”

She even reported her schedule to Edric meticulously.

“One of the ladies I met at the last review sent me an invitation to a tea party. It seems like it will be a worthwhile gathering, so I’m planning to go.”

But Edric’s response was always the same.

“Do as you please.”

He would only say that in a dry voice.

Receiving no interest from him, Melly soon lost interest as well.

The things she had ambitiously prepared were quickly pushed down the list, and she sought something else.

It was a constant repetition of this state.

She felt like she was facing an eternally unsolvable problem. She couldn’t figure out what went wrong or where. It seemed wrong from the very beginning.

Edric headed straight for the entrance after coming out of the dressing room, without stopping by the dining room.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

Melly asked, following him with quick steps.

“I’m having breakfast with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Breakfast with His Highness? Doesn’t he always have breakfast with Her Highness the Crown Princess?”

“Her Highness is with child.”

Melly’s steps lagged a bit behind.

“She can’t eat anything due to morning sickness, so he has to have breakfast alone for a while.”

Melly barely mustered the strength to catch up with him.

“That’s… wonderful news.”

She did her best to keep bitterness from seeping into her tone.

Crown Princess Juliana.

She and Melly had a sort of kindred spirit relationship. They married around the same time but both struggled with difficulties conceiving. The two women with the same deficiency quickly became close, occasionally having tea time to comfort each other.

But now…

‘Now I’m really the only one left.’

Melly felt even more dejected at the feeling of being the sole dropout.

But it’s not right to frown at good news. Especially now, when she had lost trust due to the incident a few days ago, she shouldn’t do that.

She said with a genuinely happy face.

“When you go to the palace, please convey my message to Her Highness the Crown Princess. Tell her I sincerely congratulate her on her pregnancy.”

At those words, Edric suddenly stopped.

Slowly turning around, he stared intently at Melly as if to check whether her words matched her expression.

Melly smiled even more. She thought she could never force a smile, but surprisingly, the corners of her mouth lifted naturally.

“Take care on your way.”

Melly bid him farewell with a rather affectionate attitude.

Edric stared at her for a few more seconds with an indifferent gaze before turning his head.

Then… Melly’s smile faded.

Back in her quarters, Melly stared blankly out the window for a while.

The late summer sun scorched the garden.

The leaves armed themselves with a deep blue-green color to withstand the blazing sunlight.

Though just looking at it made her feel suffocated by the heat, to Melly now, it only seemed like the fifth summer that had come after losing a precious treasure.

If the child had been born, it would be romping through that bright green foliage by now. Melly would follow anxiously, worried the child might fall, and Edric would occasionally give the child a piggyback ride to let them touch the fruits high up in the trees.

She could almost hear the child’s giggles as they touched the fruit with their tiny hands. Then her heart ached as if it would tear. Melly pounded her chest hard with her fist.

‘Endure it. If I endure, someday I’ll forget.’

That thought alone had kept her going until now, but she could no longer be certain.

The memory of the miscarriage would continue to weigh heavily on her, reminding her of her fault.

And every time, she would lie awake at night from the heartache.

Even when she felt happy and cheerful, news of someone’s pregnancy like now would plunge her back into the depths.

Melly sighed and removed her hand from her chest. Suddenly, something caught her eye.

“…”

There was a porcelain teacup filled with a dark brown liquid on the side table.

It was the fertility medicine that Anna had left earlier.

She hadn’t taken the medicine for a while. Because she had resolved to focus on her husband rather than a child.

But was her resolve not earnest enough? Or was she beyond salvation? Her determination crumbled at the news of another’s pregnancy.

She recalled the child she had once seen in a dream. The voice of the small boy smiling brightly and hugging her still echoed in her ears.

‘Mom.’

Melly wanted to meet that child again. She wanted to happily watch her belly grow day by day.

She wanted to endure the pain of childbirth and finally hold the baby in her arms. She wanted to sing lullabies until her voice was hoarse to a child crying all night.

Melly brought the cup to her lips.

‘This is tedious.’

Edric thought as he let Lucius’s chatter go in one ear and out the other.

About how worried he was because his wife’s morning sickness was so severe, how curious he was about the gender of the child to be born. As always, everything he said was not worth listening to at all for Edric.

He wished Lucius would just shut his mouth.

But the cheerful Crown Prince, completely oblivious to his friend’s feelings, said,

“You should have a child soon too. It would be so nice if our children could be paired up if they’re of different genders.”

“That would be fine.”

Edric responded indifferently and added inwardly.

‘As long as the child doesn’t take after you, who has no sense of tact whatsoever.’

Edric had no particular desire to make his child royal.

This wasn’t an era where royalty held power over life and death of other nobles, and rather than wearing the hat of royalty to take responsibility for policy failures, he thought it more profitable to gain prestige under the name of a respected grand noble while avoiding responsibility.

Therefore, the Crown Prince’s suggestion, like his nonsense, was not worth considering seriously at all.

Edric finished breakfast and returned to his office, thinking of Melly.

He felt deeply disappointed seeing Melly fooling around frivolously with the servants a few days ago.

He had tried so hard to instill the dignity of a duchess in her for the past five years, but it all seemed to have been a waste of time.

He could have spoken to her in a way she would understand.

Or he could have gotten angry and told her he would never see her again if she did it again.

But Edric chose a more effective method.

As if letting go of the leash of a dog he had been holding, he stopped pressuring Melly.

Shocked by the realization that he had given up on her, Melly voluntarily submitted.

‘I’m going to the art museum today. I’m thinking of looking at some paintings that might suit the mansion.’

‘I’m thinking of inviting some ladies for a tea party. I’ve been neglecting it for too long.’

For a while, she will do her utmost to please him.

That was exactly what Edric wanted.

‘You should have been like this from the start.’

Edric returned to his office in a good mood.

A mountain of today’s work was piled on his desk. And he took great pleasure in chipping away at that mountain little by little.

One of his pleasures was also slightly adjusting the direction to his advantage in the process of handling work.

Suddenly, his smile faltered briefly at the document sent by Duke Albert of the royal family.

Previously, he had consulted Edric about ways to reduce the enormous alimony incurred in the process of divorcing his wife. He knew that no one could match Edric when it came to maximizing profits and minimizing losses.

Edric told him to collect even the slightest fault of his spouse. And he followed Edric’s instructions with almost stupid faithfulness.

Edric chuckled at the materials recorded in such detail that even the Duke’s own faults were fully exposed. Then he recalled Melly’s words.

‘If I ask for a divorce, will you grant that too?’

The sunlight passing through the window smoothly caressed his glasses. He opened the drawer with calm eyes and took out the spare divorce papers he had prepared for Duke Albert.

‘If that is what you desire. Gladly.’

That’s what he had said. And to check if he could do as he said, he picked up his pen.

Edric Ryan Pelton.

He managed to write it down.

Though it looked as unfamiliar as someone else’s name.