The Full Story of an Incomplete Divorce - Chapter 31

Some of the Valentin estate’s employees worried about the overly close relationship between the two, but she paid them no mind. It wasn’t as if they were engaging in any illicit affair. They were both still too young for that, and neither had much interest in carnal desires themselves. At least, Charlotte didn’t.

One day they would stroll through the gardens, another they would discuss various topics about characters from books. Some days they would lazily nap in the shade of a large, old tree. Even without doing anything special, simply being together was enjoyable.

But just as all things have a beginning and an end, a change came to their seemingly eternal, peaceful routine.
“I heard. The wedding date has been set.”
“Yes. We decided to hold the ceremony next spring.”

Lucius looked down with a gloomy expression. Whether it was the chill rising from the marble floor or not, his face looked even paler. After a long, heavy silence that was quite unlike their usual interactions, he finally moved his lips.
“Charlotte, do you love my brother?”

Charlotte shook her head.
“No.”

It was a question that required no lengthy contemplation. She did not love Linert. And she doubted that would change, even after the wedding ceremony made them officially husband and wife. It would be the same even if they spent countless nights together and a child was born between them later on.

For a moment, that fact felt somewhat hollow, but Charlotte continued indifferently.
“But it’s fine. How many people in noble families marry for love anyway?”
“…It’s fine?”
“What can I do? The adults decided it that way, and following that is my duty.”
“…….”

Lucius’s eyes shook slightly, as if he couldn’t understand. He didn’t offer any further rebuttal, merely pressing his lips tightly together, but Charlotte could vaguely sense the frustration and disappointment underlying his silence.

After that, Charlotte rarely saw Lucius smile. It was around that time that she could no longer read what was going on inside him.

Not long after, Linert passed away in an accident, and though it was delayed by a few years, Charlotte became the mistress of the Valentin family as originally planned.

As the wife of Lucius Valentin.

***

“Spouses must be each other’s greatest supporters and understanders. An emotional bond based on understanding is paramount.”

It was advice she had heard during her third meeting with the counselor.

At one time, Charlotte had believed without a doubt that she was that person for Lucius. She thought that despite the complications surrounding Linert’s incident, there wouldn’t be any major problems. That just as new flesh grows over a healing wound, time would resolve everything.

…How arrogant and complacent that thinking had been.

Throughout nearly a year of marriage, Charlotte had failed to truly understand Lucius. It was only recently that they had grown somewhat closer. So, with this progress in their relationship now, could she consider herself Lucius’s understander?

The reason she couldn’t feel confident in her own question was that she still couldn’t completely shake off the sense of dissonance between the past year of married life and Lucius’s recently changed behavior.

Then, one day, while sightseeing in the bustling streets with Lucius, it happened. As she was holding up a piece of jewelry from a stall to a mirror, Charlotte felt a strange gaze and met a man’s eyes in the reflection. Hiding half his body behind a building, the man kept glancing furtively in their direction.

At first, she didn’t recognize him. It had been years since she last saw him, and he was the last person she expected to encounter here. It was only when she noticed him standing with a crutch that Charlotte realized the man was ‘Ben’, a servant who had worked for the Valentin family long ago.

She remembered hearing that the former Duke Valentin had held Ben, who was Linert’s sparring partner at the time of the accident, responsible, breaking his leg and throwing him out of the estate, leaving him a cripple.

“Lucius, over there…”