Chapter 1

This work is currently being serialized on another site from the end of July 2024.

If there are any omissions due to the different formatting of italics, I would be grateful if you could let me know.

"Flora, I'm sorry..."

Eliott, who had just returned from the battlefield, began speaking with a bitter expression and tone, without even a moment to share the joy of his return.

Behind him stood several of Eliott's subordinates who had fought alongside him, and behind them, a woman with a delicate appearance.

The subordinates, dressed in the formal attire of knights, looked at me with serious faces, their smiles gone.

– Is it just my imagination that I feel as if they are glaring at me?

Eliott, a low-ranking knight in the Order, received orders to set out to slay the undead beasts that had invaded the northern part of the kingdom about a week before our planned wedding.

Many people in the north had lost their homes, and there were numerous casualties, spreading unease even to the capital. It was a time when a wedding was simply not feasible.

We had a minimal ceremony with only a priest in attendance at the church, and I sent my husband off to his important mission.

Since then, I spent each day praying to the goddess for my husband's safety, while donating most of my money to the church as aid and living as frugally as possible.

I was born into a viscount's family in a poor but modest southern rural area, and I am the niece of Viscount Cadilla, who serves as the lord of the estate.

Thanks to my uncle's arrangements, I came to the capital three years ago to study, where I met Eliott, the second son of a baronet from the same southern region, at the Royal Academy.

When we first met, Eliott was well-mannered and unassuming, a hardworking and serious man who remained grounded despite the somewhat frivolous atmosphere of the city.

We had a modest and peaceful courtship, and he proposed to me when he had established himself as a knight.

Although I was a relative of a viscount, I was a commoner, and after graduating from the academy, I worked as a seamstress in the capital.

I looked forward to our wedding day, saving my wages to buy fabric and sew a wedding dress for the big day.

The news of a large number of undead beasts invading the northern part of the kingdom came during this time.

– And so, the one year and eight months until my husband returned safely.

"Flora, are you listening?"

Raising my face at the hard, accusatory tone in his voice, I met Eliott's eyes, which were furrowed in a stern expression I had never seen before we parted for the mission.

"...Yes."

I managed to respond with a single word, trying to keep my voice from trembling.

After an awkward silence fell over the room, one of the subordinates standing behind Eliott stepped forward.

"Deputy Commander Eliott, would you like me to persuade her?"

Indeed, Eliott, who was a low-ranking knight when he set out, received the blessing of the goddess on his sword, transforming it into a holy sword, and was granted the title of Holy Knight. He became the deputy commander of the kingdom's knight order in less than a year during the mission.

According to what I've heard, Eliott's performance on the front lines after becoming a Holy Knight was remarkable, and he is now called a hero of the nation.

"...No, I'll handle it."

Pushing back the subordinate who stepped forward, Eliott turned to me again and placed a scroll he had been holding since he arrived at the house on the table.

If I'm not mistaken, the wax seal is from the royal family.

Eliott then silently broke the seal and unfolded the document in front of me.

"As you can see, this is by royal decree. ...But it is also my sincere intention."

To avoid being noticed, I lowered my head and silently stared at the paper in front of me, trying to hide the tears that were welling up.

There were two sheets of paper. One was a divorce decree already signed by Eliott, and the other was an imperial edict bearing the king's seal.

'The divorce will be processed, and then the marriage between Eliott Wolf Tris and Flora Cadilla will be declared null and void retroactively, and the marriage between Holy Knight Eliott Wolf Tris and Holy Maiden Emily will be recognized.'

– Since we have already sworn an oath to the goddess in the church, a divorce decree is necessary as a formality. To then retroactively declare it as if it never happened, the king is truly merciless.

As I read the text, a detached thought crossed my mind. Perhaps I haven't fully accepted this as reality yet.