The Returning Husband Refuses to Divorce – Chapter 16

Author: isuzuuy

May looked desperate.

“I-I-I’m really sorry, My Lady. B-But there’s something I need to tell you……”

Even under normal circumstances, May had struggled to say a single word to Ines.

For a personal maid, she had been neither particularly warm nor especially loyal.

For her to approach Ines of her own accord in a situation like this……

It must be something important to her.

Ines glanced down at the pendant still in her hand.

“May Blanc.”

At the quiet call, May flinched violently.

“I’ll leave the pendant with the head maid. You can retrieve it from her later.”

“B-But…… it really is mine. I swear.”

“I know.”

“……Pardon?”

Ines asked the bewildered girl a question in return.

“Would you be all right with the others thinking I took your side? You wouldn’t, would you?”

May stared blankly for a moment as she processed the meaning of those words. Then her face quickly flushed bright red.

She had finally realized that Ines had understood everything.

“I-I wasn’t deliberately avoiding you, My Lady……”

“That’s enough.”

Ines spoke calmly, neither blaming nor reprimanding her.

“It’s best to follow the proper procedures. I know it’s troublesome, but go through the head maid. That way, there won’t be any gossip afterward.”

Strictly speaking, May’s behavior wasn’t right.

She had deliberately neglected her duties as Ines’s personal maid to protect her own position, hadn’t she?

But she’s still just a young girl.

Seeing her being ostracized by her peers had made May’s behavior suddenly understandable to Ines.

May must have been struggling desperately to survive.

Ines wasn’t the only one fighting a lonely battle in this castle.

“What an exhausting way to live. Both you and me.”

Ines let the words slip out like a sigh before resuming her walk.

May could no longer bring herself to stop her.

“I’ve heard what happened. Here, take it.”

The head maid held out a familiar object to May.

It was the pendant.

May quickly accepted it and bowed repeatedly.

“Thank you so much, Head Maid.”

“You have nothing to thank me for. If you truly wish to express your gratitude, then thank Her Ladyship.”

Her Ladyship.

At those words, May flinched.

“Her Ladyship explained the situation clearly. Those girls violated the rules, so they’ll be disciplined. You won’t have to deal with them again.”

The head maid went on to explain a few more things, but May barely heard any of it.

Her Ladyship……

Her fingers tightened around the pendant.

In truth, May hadn’t held particularly favorable feelings toward her mistress.

Everyone cursed and despised Ines.

Even though she hadn’t done anything in particular to deserve it, once a prejudice had taken root, it was difficult to get rid of.

That was how frightening prejudice could be.

And yet her Ladyship actually took my side.

May hadn’t realized it at first, but now she understood.

Ines had deliberately stepped in to help her.

Her stomach churned with emotion.

“……Understood. I’ll be sure to thank Her Ladyship properly.”

After bowing respectfully to the head maid, May stepped outside.

Why did she help me?

There was absolutely nothing for Ines to gain from it.

May was a troublesome personal maid who hadn’t even done her best for her mistress……

For some reason, she felt ashamed.

With her head lowered, May remained rooted to the spot for a long time.

Meanwhile, in the maids’ quarters—

“How infuriating!”

Yulia, one of the maids, exclaimed with a furious expression.

“What the hell is wrong with that woman?”

Another maid beside her tried to calm her down.

“Calm down, Yulia.”

“How am I supposed to calm down?”

Yulia gnawed viciously at her thumbnail.

“Look at that attitude of hers. She acts like she’s somebody important……”

“Still, things went according to plan, didn’t they?”

At those words, a sinister gleam flashed in Yulia’s eyes.

“……That’s true.”

She stopped fuming and slowly brought her emotions under control.

“There were plenty of people passing by earlier, weren’t there?”

“Yeah. Quite a few. They were all whispering about it, too.”

Only then did a faint smile spread across Yulia’s lips.

The commotion earlier had been entirely deliberate.

A mysterious illness had been spreading through May’s hometown for a long time.

And that wasn’t all.

The illness showed no signs of improving, and even after a priest had been dispatched to the village, the problem remained unresolved. At some point, ominous rumors had begun circulating among the servants that the village had been abandoned by God.

Whether the rumors were true didn’t matter.

What matters is that people believe them.

That was why Yulia had deliberately targeted May.

She had already witnessed Ines stepping in to defend a little errand boy recently.

That woman just loves pretending to be kind.

She had done the same thing on other occasions, too.

Ines seemed strangely incapable of walking past someone weaker than herself without getting involved.

If so, surely she wouldn’t turn a blind eye to her own personal maid being bullied in front of everyone.

And just as Yulia had expected—

Ines had intervened.

Although she hadn’t sided with May as openly as Yulia had hoped……

It doesn’t matter.

The Duchess had defended a maid from a village plagued by a mysterious illness.

She had even personally confiscated an item the maid had brought from her hometown.

That alone was enough.

“There’s no need for us to go around calling her a witch ourselves.”

Yulia spoke in a low voice.

The maid beside her blinked.

“Then what?”

“Think about it.”

Yulia smiled maliciously.

“Everyone is terrified of that village. And yet that woman not only refused to throw May out because she came from there, but actually defended her.”

“Oh……”

“On top of that, she tried to punish us for defying her.”

Of course, that wasn’t quite what had happened.

But that didn’t matter.

People found it much easier to believe stories they wanted to be true than what they had actually witnessed.

“We just have to tell the truth.”

The maid beside her opened her mouth.

“But that alone doesn’t make it such a serious offense.”

Yulia looked at her as though she were an idiot.

“Who do you think is going to examine the matter that closely?”

“……”

“A few people who were there just need to get their stories straight. The rest will embellish things on their own.”

Yulia was confident.

Ines was already surrounded by all kinds of ominous rumors. She was supposedly a jealous, spiteful wife and a witch who bewitched people.

And now there was the matter of a Saintess candidate who had supposedly been abandoned by God.

There was no need to make up anything new.

All they had to do was add one new suspicion to the stories people already knew.

Why would she defend a maid from a supposedly cursed village?

Could the Duchess herself have some connection to that village?

Once people started asking questions like that, the rest would be easy.

Someone would inevitably be the first to call her a witch.

And once that word escaped someone’s lips, it would spread beyond anyone’s control.

“Don’t do anything for the time being.”

“Huh?”

“Just wait. Don’t make it obvious.”

Yulia curled her lips into a smile.

“We need to make people frighten themselves.”

Although many of the castle’s staff had changed, people were essentially the same wherever you went.

Idiots who were foolish, easily swayed, and incapable of distinguishing their own thoughts from those of others.

All it took was a tiny spark, and they would set everything ablaze themselves.

And once the flames had grown large enough—

All that remained was to give them one final push.

I’ll destroy that woman completely.

Yulia had not the slightest doubt that she would win.

This is exhausting……

Ines stopped for a moment, her brows drawing together ever so slightly.

The demonic energy accumulated in May’s pendant had been denser than expected, forcing her to expend more holy power than she had anticipated to purify it.

She wasn’t quite on the verge of collapsing, but it seemed she had underestimated how difficult it would be to keep moving immediately afterward.

Should I rest for a bit?

Unfortunately, she was outside, having just returned from leaving the pendant with the head maid.

But……

Ines glanced around briefly before finally letting out a sigh when she failed to find anywhere suitable to sit.

……I should just head straight back.

Even if she still had quite a long way to go.

Having quickly given up on the idea of resting, Ines began walking slowly toward her room.

How much time passed like that?

Suddenly, something caught her eye.

A flowering tree?

There stood a single tree covered in splendid blossoms, utterly unsuited to the cold climate of the North.