It seemed like the sobbing voice wasn’t even heard. The rage of someone still wounded and stuck in some part of the past flared up like flames.

“When I close my eyes, I still see you falling down the stairs in front of me. You, bleeding profusely. My love. My life. And my child who has now vanished from this world.”

The food he wouldn’t eat was miserably crushed under the knife Reynard was holding.

The anger ultimately exposed each other’s wounds that shouldn’t have been brought to the surface. It burst out and poured forth like a violent explosive, as if wondering how they had managed to hold it in without speaking until now.

“…I feel like I’m still living that day.”

It was a harsh voice like a dry wasteland. Reynard, barely suppressing his boiling resentment, swallowed red wine down his dry throat. The sight was like a beast drinking its own blood rather than wine.

The terrible memory of that day clung to Valentin again. Pus and fluid flowed again from the wound he had painstakingly stitched up. As if wiping and stopping the bleeding, Valentin pressed his hand firmly against his chest.

‘Sharon. We made a promise, didn’t we…? Give me strength…’

He closed his eyes tightly then opened them, calling in his heart the name he had given his daughter a few days ago. As he secretly repeated it, his heart calmed and settled as if the baby, who had now truly become an angel, had given him strength. Valentin immediately cleared his throat and spoke to his husband.

“Don’t do that, Reynard. Don’t seek revenge.”

At those words, Reynard, who had been holding his head in both hands with his elbows on the table in a manner unbefitting etiquette, jerked his head up.

“How can you say that? Not to seek revenge?”

Reynard looked at Valentin’s calm and firm face as if he couldn’t believe it. The bloodshot veins in his eyes stood out as if about to burst.

“Have you already forgiven everything? How can you forget it all like that…?”

It was no longer the gaze of looking at an ally. A strange atmosphere flowed between them, as if looking at a being beyond understanding, like encountering a creature from another world for the first time.

Valentin recited one of the things Meyer had said to him.

“…Do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…”

Maybe he would realize something like I did…

“Oh my God, Valentin.”

At those words, Reynard burst into laughter as if he had gone mad. As if witnessing a scene too ridiculous and unbelievable. A sharp and hollow laugh filled their small dining room.

Should he have said the Chinese proverb about not taking revenge on those who have harmed you, but sitting quietly by the river and the corpse of your enemy will float by? Seeing that laughter, it seemed the shock and realization Valentin had received from Meyer hadn’t been conveyed to him at all. The persuasion had failed.

After laughing for a while like that, Reynard stiffened his face as if he had never laughed and stared intently at Valentin. It was still the gaze of seeing something strange.

“My love. My beautiful, kind, and good companion above all else in the world, my Valentin.”

“……”

“I didn’t know you would make such a childish argument in this situation.”

“I…”

“I understand. I really do understand. You’re an artist who grew up loved. So it’s fine. I accept it because it was me who wanted to protect that purity.”

Reynard spoke at length, still with a faint smile while looking at his pure white companion. It seemed mixed with the inner thought that the purity was so transparent, clear and light that it was foolish like a child who had just learned to walk. But even that was with a look of love.

“You can just stay like that. I’ll do everything.”

“…Revenge ultimately solves nothing.”

Valentin bravely confronted him.

But Reynard shook his head firmly.

“Our honor that has been trampled on the ground might be restored.”

“The name of Dennox has not been pressed down and dirtied. We just lost a child. It’s something that many people, including noble families, experience countless times.”

It was actually true. This was a world where medicine was less advanced than the modern world Valentin had lived in his past life. Miscarriages were common, as were premature births, and there were many children who didn’t live even a few years. It was that kind of era.

“…I didn’t know you still thought what we went through was just losing a baby.”

Coldness dripped from Reynard’s voice. Valentin hesitated for a moment, having never received such treatment from him before, but soon faced his husband squarely again. This isn’t anger directed at me. Reynard hadn’t shown any normal pheromones since the child disappeared. So he couldn’t grasp subtle words and feelings through emotional pheromones like others, but Valentin still had faith. That Reynard would never do that to him.

“What happened to us was an attack. A well-planned operation and meticulously prepared assault.”

It seemed much investigation had been done while Valentin was covering his ears.

“Dennox, the Dales people, never ignore an attack that’s been made. We are sea people and sailors. We’ve always lived facing fierce waves. No matter how big the wave, we overcome it.”

“……”

“We’re almost there now. Just a little more and the mastermind will be fully revealed and we can have complete revenge.”

“……”

“I’ll make them pay for what they did to you and for taking away my only child.”

Listening to Reynard’s seething words, Valentin suddenly felt like he had been doused with cold water and returned to reality. He hadn’t meant to bring this up now, but since it had come up, he felt he should. He didn’t want to share such raw emotions like this again next time.

“…Maybe we should separate after all.”

At Valentin’s softly spoken words, Reynard’s head jerked up. It was a suggestion like a bolt from the blue to Reynard.

“What do you mean?”

A reaction as if he had heard something unbelievable. Valentin lowered his eyes to the plate and continued explaining.

“Actually, that day, at the Imperial Palace. I heard you and them talking in the presence of His Majesty and the palace physician.”

It was around the time when Valentin had just woken up after giving birth at the Imperial Palace.

*

Everyone told Valentin, who had just opened his eyes, not to move. It was a plea or request from someone’s mouth, and a threat from someone else.

“You must lie still in bed without moving.”

It wasn’t the young palace physician who had been suddenly called in and took charge of Valentin’s delivery on the day of the accident.

The person making the threat was a middle-aged doctor who was the representative of the palace physicians responsible for the Emperor’s health and a professor at the medical school of Kingsford University, the largest prestigious university in the Empire.

“It’s a miracle that you’ve regained consciousness.”

The doctor, who introduced himself as Lord Mulberry, was in the process of hardening the plaster cast on Valentin’s broken left arm.

Reynard nodded at those words too. Saying that Valentin’s condition was too poor to even move him to their residence. That’s why he was still lying in the Imperial Palace instead of Lution House.

Valentin nodded blankly.

But the next day, he cried and cried until he fainted again at the news that their poor daughter had died.

A little later, he woke from a light faint but had no energy to do anything. Just as he was lying with his eyes closed in a daze like a deranged person, loud voices were heard from the next room.

Even in his drowsy state between sleep and reality due to the sedative he had taken, his mind became strangely clear because of that noise. Perhaps because they didn’t want to disturb Valentin’s rest, which had barely been calmed by the power of the medicine, there was no one in the room.

Valentin miraculously raised his ragged body as if truly possessed by something and headed towards the source of the sound. The unique structure of the Imperial Palace where rooms continued one after another. Voices of people were coming from the room next to the one across from where he had been, and then the room next to that.

Through the slightly open door, the Emperor’s shouting voice could be heard.

“So is what I’ve just heard true?”

He asked, pacing in place as if he couldn’t believe it. It was close to yelling rather than asking. To that question, Lord Mulberry, the doctor who had been treating Valentin, carefully answered.

“…Yes, that’s right. There was too much bleeding and damage to the uterus was also confirmed. His Highness the Grand Duke Consort will have difficulty conceiving in the future. I’m truly sorry.”

He bowed his head as if Valentin’s unfortunate reality was his own fault for diagnosing it. He looked quite accustomed to bowing to the Emperor.

“Why are you saying this now? Do you find the Dennox Grand Ducal family amusing?”

Reynard raged at the doctor with a force that seemed like he might push him down. Valentin had never seen his husband like this before.

“I’m just trying to clearly convey the facts as part of my duty…!”

Before the doctor could finish speaking, there was a crashing sound, and servants rushed in to restrain Reynard. After several people rushed in to barely calm the situation, this time the Emperor flew into a rage.

“This cannot be!”

“……”

“It was disappointing enough that the child born was an omega girl instead of a dominant alpha, but now they can’t have any more heirs in the future! What are we going to do from now on!? Are you planning to abandon the crucial responsibility of continuing the lineage!? Dennox has a duty to protect the sea with their ability!”

Valentin couldn’t understand well what Reynard answered to the Emperor’s words with his dazed mind.

His brain, which had barely understood that he could no longer become pregnant, seemed to stop functioning for a moment. Amidst the chaos and confusion like a scene from hell, only the Emperor’s final words as he panted heavily stuck in his mind.

“Divorce immediately.”

*

The Heston Empire has adhered to monogamy according to the strict doctrine of Catholicism since before the Middle Ages when it was under the Pope in terms of religion. Except for the Imperial family, which tacitly recognizes the concubine system due to the importance of the heir’s bloodline based on ancient culture, all imperial citizens legally follow the monogamous system.

This was an equally strict law even after the Anglican Church was designated as the state religion following the Reformation, and it applied equally to commoners and nobles alike. In fact, even in the Imperial family, only the institutional aspect remained alive, and for the past 200 years, it had continued with only one Empress or one Imperial Consort.

This means that only children born through a legal marriage system can become legitimate heirs.

‘The Emperor must have told Reynard to divorce for that reason…’