Chapter 07
At those words, I swallowed hard.
He saw it. The divorce papers.
And earlier, when he asked if I had nothing to say… this is what he meant.
I wanted to avoid his gaze, but the look in his eyes was so ominous that I felt I shouldn’t.
Tears threatened to spill, but I held them back and carefully clasped the hand that was gripping mine.
Then Blake’s eyes, which had been burning like blue flames, slowly lowered toward our hands.
At the same time, the strength of his grip, which had been crushingly tight, gradually eased.
But his voice was still dark and heavy.
“Tell me—why do you want a divorce?”
“That’s…”
Wasn’t it because you never really liked me?
Because things were going well between you and the heroine, Saintess Seira?
…But of course I couldn’t say that here.
Not in front of the protagonist, who had been resurrected in such an incomplete body.
After hesitating for a long while, I decided to avoid giving a real answer.
I forced a clumsy smile and added a pinch of desperate, survival-driven cuteness.
“Can’t we just… not get divorced?”
“…Ha.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound right at all.
Even I thought it was ridiculous.
It wasn’t like I was joking, either…
But I couldn’t come up with any other excuse.
If I used Ian as an excuse, like in the original story, that would be disastrous.
But I also couldn’t flat-out tell him I wanted a divorce.
To abandon the protagonist, who had come back in such an incomplete body, would be like…
Maybe it would’ve been better not to resurrect him at all.
Blake stared at me for a long while with a stiff expression, as if lost for words.
Then, looking exhausted, he let go of my hand completely and spoke.
“So now you won’t even tell me a reason, and you’re just taking it back?”
It seemed Blake no longer expected an answer from me.
He gave a self-deprecating smile and muttered, almost to himself.
“You know me too well.”
“Me?”
But isn’t my husband the one person I understand the least in this world?
Blake looked at my bewildered face for a moment, then slowly rose to his feet.
He helped me stand, since I had been practically leaning against him.
“From now on, don’t ever say the word divorce again. Those words came from your own mouth.”
“…Yes.”
Looking at that murderous face, of course I couldn’t dare bring it up again.
Still, I couldn’t help but fear that if I stayed by his side, I might die meaninglessly at the hands of wolves, just like in the original.
Maybe, if I helped him prevent destruction as in the story, I’d find a chance to just run away alone later?
I turned my thoughts toward revising my plan.
Whether he could read my face or not, his voice came out with a sigh.
“Go. I’ll tell the maids to bring you food since you missed dinner.”
“…And you?”
I knew he couldn’t feel much—pain, taste, anything.
But are you really okay?
Are you sure you don’t need to eat?
Did he understand the meaning behind my words?
Blake gave a faint smile.
“Go to sleep first. I still have work to finish, I’ll come later.”
So… does that mean we’ll be sleeping in the same bed again tonight?
Ah, well, he did say he couldn’t sleep without me next to him…
In the end, I just nodded without a word.
Blake’s hardened expression softened slightly as he watched me leave the dining room.
Once I finally made it out into the hallway, I let out a deep sigh.
“…Phew.”
On my way back to my chambers, I kept thinking.
Blake’s incomplete body seemed incapable of feeling most sensations.
A body that couldn’t feel cold or heat.
One that couldn’t sleep or dream.
A body with no sense of taste, no sense of pain… all those heightened senses were gone.
But the one exception… was me.
I suppose one could think: as long as he’s alive, isn’t that enough?
But no—
“You are just a character in a book, playing out your role. You don’t need free will. Just act like a doll and do what’s required.”
I couldn’t think that way when he was breathing and alive right before my eyes.
That would just be cowardly self-justification.
After all, I had brought him back, so it was my responsibility.
“This is insane…”
There had been nothing about this in the original novel’s side stories.
If this was the price for bringing someone back from the dead, then maybe I just had to endure it.
But Blake wasn’t only the husband I was supposed to divorce.
He was also the protagonist I cherished from the novel.
I truly, sincerely wanted him to be happy.
I had cheered him on as I read his story, felt joy as I watched him shine all the way to the brilliant ending.
And yet, that gleam of madness in his eyes earlier—
That dry, cold, lifeless look, like a dead tree.
I never wanted to see his vibrant, lively face give way to such utter despair.
“…I’ll find a way. I will.”
I’ll make you whole again.
I’ll restore you to the dazzling protagonist I once read about.
As if you had never been broken at all.
Taking a deep breath, I strode forward.
“Ah, Your Highness. Why are you back? Weren’t you supposed to have dinner with Her Highness the Crown Princess tonight?”
It was Ron, Blake’s aide, his voice muffled from being buried in a pile of documents.
He looked up, eyes full of hope, when he saw Blake return late at night to the office.
He had seemed in good spirits when he left earlier, but…
Now, Blake was back with a completely blank face, staring silently at Ron.
Uh oh. Looks like things didn’t go well with Her Highness.
Ron quickly erased the smile from his lips, sensing the mood.
Blake still said nothing.
He just approached, extended his hand, and gestured.
His cold, expressionless face was indeed the Crown Prince’s usual demeanor… but ever since his “resurrection,” there was something more unsettling about it.
“Give it to me.”
“…Sorry? Give you… what?”
“The thing I asked you to investigate yesterday.”
“Oh, you mean… about Saintess Seira?”
“Yes.”
Blake’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he spoke in that low voice.
Ever since his return, there was something chilling about him, but Ron tried to shake it off as he searched through the stacks of papers.
Thankfully, his knack for finding necessary documents quickly paid off, and Ron handed over the report without much delay.
“Here it is! But since it was just one day, there’s not much in it yet…”
“…”
“Um, does Your Highness already have some idea about the Saintess’s disappearance?”
“I do.”
“What? Really? Was it like the temple suggested—kidnapping?”
“They said there were no signs of intrusion.”
“Well, maybe magic was used… it’s possible! Or maybe like in that new German Times serial, the Atmon Hall Locked-Room Murder Case—”
“Ron. Don’t waste my time.”
His sharp glare made Ron flinch and shut his mouth.
Carefully, Ron placed the report in Blake’s waiting hand.
Blake stood there and flipped through the pages slowly, scanning them with detached eyes.
Then at last, finding something he sought, he paused, studying the report for a while before letting out a faint smile.
But it wasn’t the bright, refreshing smile Ron was used to seeing from him.
It was more like a sneer.
Cold, shadowy, heavy—a smile that made one instinctively wary.
Blake’s eyes scanned to the very end of the report, then he closed it and handed it back to Ron.
With a faint, low-voiced order:
“Burn it.”
Ron stared, hesitant, before cautiously speaking.
Why was his master, the Crown Prince, acting this way? He couldn’t understand.
“Why, Your Highness? Did something happen with Saintess Seira?”
“…Yes. This confirms it.”
Blake’s reply was brief.
But the strange smile twisting his face was less like a smile and more like wrath itself.
And disturbingly, that grim smile suited his cold, decadent features so well that Ron found himself staring at him, as though beholding some chilling masterpiece.
Until Blake spoke the terrifying words.
“Seira killed me.”
