Chapter 14
The man who had been waving his hand dismissively froze.
“Let’s get divorced.”
She repeated herself, this time with the strange serenity of someone suddenly granted grace.
Only then did his furrowed expression shift to look directly at her.
His blue eyes were clouded with irritation, as if accusing her of speaking utter nonsense.
There was a time when that displeased expression had terrified her more than anything. But now, it didn’t affect her at all.
“Do you even have somewhere to go?”
His voice jabbed cruelly at her situation, abandoned by the Imperial Palace, but she didn’t flinch.
The sneer in his tone, mocking her circumstances, no longer hurt.
Perhaps it was because she had finally let go of every last attachment. Her heart, which once fluttered wildly at the slightest word from him, now lay still, like something long dead.
All she felt was revulsion.
That this man, who toyed with others’ weaknesses, was hailed as a war hero in the North… it was almost pitiful.
BANG!
“Karl…!”
Just as she was about to respond, the office doors flew open, and a familiar woman’s voice rang out.
Lush pink hair swept through the air. Clinging to the Grand Duke’s arm, Sasha looked between the two of them with feigned innocence.
It was plain to see, she must have heard that Asila had gone to see the Grand Duke alone and come running.
It was a shameless display, so brazen it almost made one forget she’d tried to kill her.
Absolutely shameless.
To look at her, one would never believe she was the same woman who had fed poison to her own child in a bid to cast out the legitimate wife.
“Karl, what’s going on?”
Sasha’s voice, sweet and wide-eyed like a rabbit, echoed through the now-silent room.
The Grand Duke. Karl.
Even the way they addressed him was worlds apart.
Asila barely resisted the urge to sigh in exasperation, then curved her lips into a smile, just before the man could answer his precious mistress.
She had no desire to entertain either of these revolting people any longer.
“I’ve brought a gift for you, Sasha.”
“…A gift?”
Sasha’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s right.”
Asila stepped forward and placed the signed divorce papers on the Grand Duke’s desk.
“If you were waiting for an answer to what you said earlier, here it is, Your Grace.”
‘Now return the courtesy and say you’ll see it through.’
‘You hate me anyway.’
At those words, the Grand Duke gaped, eyes flicking between her and the papers.
‘Why the shock? You were the one who gave me those documents to begin with.’
“Wait, Asila, ”
“Karl.”
She tilted her head, watching the two of them exchange glances and quiet whispers.
“…Very well. I’ll handle it.”
At last, he gave a definitive answer.
Asila turned and walked out of the office without so much as a backward glance.
It would have been more certain to file the papers herself, but divorce procedures among the Empire’s nobility were handled by the Imperial Household.
And it was the Emperor, who had forced her into this marriage with the Grand Duke to suppress Northern power, who had commanded that union.
Despite how despicable the man was, in this situation, it was far faster to let the Grand Duke submit the paperwork himself.
And she wasn’t worried about the absurd possibility that he wouldn’t do it.
He was the one who paraded Sasha around daily, desperate to divorce her.
The office was located on the top floor, the fifth. From the railing outside, she could take in the full view of the estate.
Servants bustled about. Room after room filled the vast mansion.
To someone else, this place might seem like a dream, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To her, it had been nothing more than a suffocating prison.
Three years. She had lived here for three long years.
To someone else, it might sound short.
But to her, it had been the most agonizing time of her life.
And today, she had cast off every chain that had bound her.
The discarded princess. The ornamental duchess.
She would never again allow those words to follow her name.
A smile touched her lips, light and unburdened.
The life of a puppet, living by someone else’s will, that chapter was over.
No more letting others control her. No more submitting to circumstances she never asked for.
It was really, finally over.
***
She stood before the grand gates of the mansion.
She could feel the scornful gazes of the servants at her back, but she didn’t care.
None of them meant anything to her anymore.
“…Hoo.”
She slowly inhaled and exhaled.
— Northerners aren’t used to outsiders. Give it time, and they’ll open their hearts. So Don’t worry.
She had once believed in love.
— The one who poisoned the child… was me.
She had come to understand how cruel people could be when they harbored malice toward another.
— Sasha.
She had learned what it meant to be torn apart by betrayal.
The love that had once taken deep root inside her had shattered into pieces. Now, only emptiness and bitterness filled the space it left behind.
Her life flashed through her mind like a lantern slideshow.
She placed her hand on the large door.
Yes. I learned what love was in this place.
But that was all.
Every single person in that mansion had done everything in their power to break down her fragile recovery in the end.
She opened her eyes.
As she pressed forward, the heavy door creaked open.
May I never see this place again, she murmured to herself, stepping out of the prison of pain and misery that had consumed her mind for the last five years.
Crunch.
The grass lining the path to the main gate was crushed underfoot.
For a moment, she turned and looked back at the garden bathed in golden light.
It was the one place where, desperate to escape the suffocating people of the house, she had spent countless hours.
— Do you… see this?
— Asila!
The place where she had met Ledin and the spirits.
She found her hand rising unconsciously to her chest.
A lightness unlike anything she had ever felt before filled her heart.
The knowledge that she didn’t have to return, that she was free, swelled up so forcefully it made her breath catch.
Her steps resumed.
Slow at first, but gaining speed with every stride.
The clean wind curled around her.
She had left the house with nothing, no luggage, no belongings, but she’d never felt lighter in her life.
Her heart pounded.
‘I really left. I really got out.’
There was no one left who could control her now. No more drifting helplessly in a life she didn’t choose.
She could finally carve out a place of her own.
She never had to see Sasha or the Grand Duke again.
No more servants who changed their attitude at the drop of a hat. No more people pretending nothing had happened while they looked her in the eye.
The sheer truth of her freedom took shape in her mind, swelling until it became joy.
She had escaped the prison of the palace and the ducal estate, forever.
She couldn’t remember ever being so happy.
She didn’t know how the Emperor would react when he learned the duchess he had shackled into marriage for political gain had filed for divorce. But it didn’t matter anymore.
She glanced at the butterflies fluttering beside her.
She had power now, spiritual power.
No one could wield her life at their whim just because she had nowhere to go or because she was a powerless, illegitimate princess.
[Huh?]
A bright, familiar voice halted her steps.
She felt her lips curl into a smile.
[Asila!]
[It’s Asila!]
Tiny spirits no bigger than a finger, scattering soft green light, came flying toward her.
They were nymphs, the elemental spirits of earth and plant-life, manifestations of the continent’s land itself.
The glowing nymphs, so familiar to her now, stopped a short distance away.
Then, all at once, they clustered together.
From the beginning, these spirits had greeted her with warmth, so their sudden wariness now was unexpected.
[Eek! It’s Nyx!]
[Wasn’t he asleep?]
[He disappeared!]
[Scary. What do we do?]
[Is Asila in danger?]
[What should we do…?]
She looked at the butterflies, Nyx and his kin, now multiplied and fluttering around her shoulders.
[Nymphs.]
[They’re nymphs.]
[Asila, are they enemies?]
Even though they were all spirits, the butterflies were asking if the nymphs were foes.
Caught off guard by the sudden tension, she couldn’t answer at first, and perhaps the silence meant something to them, because the butterflies began to shed more and more light particles.
She quickly shook her head. She had a bad feeling that if this continued, something irreversible might happen.
The butterflies, whose numbers had increased exponentially, began to dwindle.
Even if she knew little about spirits, there was one truth she remembered.
“Spirits don’t fight each other.”
Spirit users drew their power through contracts with spirits, and those spirits were the true source of the power.
Spirits of the same element were essentially extensions of one another. To attack each other would be to harm themselves.
Even those of different elements would not engage in battle.
No matter how much a contractor urged them, they would never even consider it.
For a human, it would be like someone telling you to hurt yourself because a stranger asked you to.
And yet, the butterflies around her now seemed ready to do just that.
“Asila?”
A man’s voice cut through her thoughts, and she looked up.
With cheerful laughter, the nymphs parted to make way.
A familiar man stood at the wide-open main gate.
His silver hair rippled in the wind.
Even with the sunset casting everything in red, his clear blue eyes shone vividly.
Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but the scene was so beautiful she couldn’t take her eyes off him until he drew near.
She couldn’t move.
It felt like stepping into a dream, an unexplainable emotion wrapped around her entire being.
“…My god.”
What broke the moment was the direction of Ledin’s gaze, toward her shoulder.
She hadn’t seen him in nearly three months, but it was unlikely his personality had changed in that time.
“…So that lunatic really…”
He was staring at Nyx and the other butterflies with disbelief, muttering under his breath.
“Ledin?”
At last, when she called his name, he blinked and looked at her, finally snapping back to reality.
His eyes met hers.
“…Ah.”
“Is something wrong with the spirits?”
Between the nymphs’ earlier reaction and Ledin’s current expression, it felt like they were all staring at Nyx as though he didn’t belong in this world.
The last time she’d seen Ledin, she hadn’t yet made a contract with Nyx, nor had she been confident she even was a spirit contractor.
She could have brushed it off as surprise, but their focus was solely on the dark butterflies fluttering around her.
“…You’ve contracted with a spirit of darkness?”
She nodded.
Ledin, who had seemed lost in thought, was silent for a moment, then shook his head.
“There’s no issue. It’s just… astonishing. Spirit contractors who form pacts with Nyx are so rare they’re practically unheard of.”
Ah. I see.
The small bud of unease that had briefly bloomed vanished in an instant.
“I had other stops planned, but it looks like we’re going straight to the Tower.”
Ledin extended his hand to her.
She looked at the gesture, unsure what it meant, until something behind him caught her eye.
She blinked.
There was no carriage. She had been wondering how he had arrived so quickly.
Now she had her answer.
“…That’s…”
“Jin. The Tower Master lent him to me without hesitation when I said I was coming to fetch you.”
A massive silver eagle stood before her, so enormous, she wondered how she hadn’t noticed it right away.
It radiated presence.
This was Jin, the Spirit of Wind.
Ledin climbed onto Jin’s back and reached to help her up.
As she settled behind him, Jin let out a cry.
A sound like a roar echoed across the ground.
Its wings beat powerfully, stirring the dirt.
“A-Asila…”
Still dazed by everything, she looked up at Ledin.
“…It’s late, but…”
Congratulations on becoming a full-fledged spirit contractor.
Just before Jin launched into the sky, Ledin’s whispered words sent a flush creeping over her ears.
