CMESD 02

Chapter 2

I’m Going to Be a Poor Viscount’s Daughter!

A beat too late, I finally comprehended the full weight of Luna’s words and recoiled in horror. Jade looked equally panicked, frantically trying to talk her out of it.

“Now, wait just a minute, Luna. If you do that, you won’t be a Preston anymore.”

I, too, shook my head in frantic disbelief.

Why on earth had I married into this family in the first place?

If I dragged Luna out of here now, the entire Grand Duchy would undoubtedly be turned upside down.

“Then what will I be?”

At Luna’s counter-question, Jade darted his eyes about awkwardly. He was undoubtedly thinking of my maiden name.

Swallowing a heavy sigh, I shoved Jade aside and dropped to my knees in front of Luna. Her deep blue eyes were trembling thinly with anxiety.

Gathering my failing resolve, I forced myself to speak.

“If you follow Mom, you won’t be Luna Preston anymore—you’ll become Luna Milton. You won’t be a Grand Duchess anymore; you’ll just be a poor, powerless Viscount’s daughter.”

“Then won’t Mom stop being the Grand Duchess, too?”

“Um. I suppose so?”

“Then does Mom become a poor Viscount’s daughter as well?”

“Um. For the time being…?”

Though Viscountess Milton would technically be the more accurate term.

Not that semantics mattered in the slightest right now.

I nodded slowly. At that, fat tears immediately welled up and spilled over Luna’s eyes.

“Then I’m going with Mom!”

“Huh?”

“I want to become a poor Viscount’s daughter with Mom! I’ll protect you, Mom!”

“No, that’s…”

“Article 2, Clause 3 of Imperial Law! If a child is capable of expressing their wishes in the event of a divorce, they can choose who will have custody of them! Right, Uncle Jade?”

I whipped my head around to look at Jade.

Is that true? Is there really a law like that?

I didn’t even need an answer. The frozen, horrified expression on Jade’s face told me everything I needed to know.

“I’m going with Mom!”

As I awkwardly gathered the child who buried herself straight into my arms, a single thought echoed in my mind.

…I think I’m completely screwed.

Liam Preston roughly stripped off his seawater-soaked uniform. His adjutant, Rikson, caught it with practiced quickness, immediately handing over a dry towel while speaking.

“How on earth did you figure out that those damn Romi bastards had planted a magic device at the bottom of the hull?”

Liam didn’t even crack a smile despite the obvious excitement in the younger man’s tone.

“I felt the vibration.”

“Vibration, sir?”

“Explosive magic devices use a baseline reference point to calculate the exact timing of detonation based on the distance from that point. In this case, it was set to blow the moment we got close enough to engage the Romi Empire’s fleet.”

“Ah… right.”

He didn’t understand a single word.

Swallowing a sigh, Liam tried to break it down simply.

“The closer we got to the Romi warships, the more intense the hull’s vibrations became, right? Unless there was something wrong with the keel or the anchor, it couldn’t possibly be anything other than a magic device. It wasn’t hard to guess.”

Just how far ahead is his mind?

Rikson swallowed back the urge to ask. Right now, he looked at Liam as though gazing upon a worshipped idol.

“We almost ended up shattered into pieces. Your Grace has saved our lives.”

Liam dragged a hand tiredly over his brow. He had done nothing more than what needed to be done, but being praised for it was something he could never quite get used to, no matter how many times it happened.

Instead of telling him to drop it, Liam naturally steered the conversation elsewhere.

“Did you find out who was behind it?”

“We’ve already initiated the screening process, so we should have results by the end of the day.”

“There’s no need to thoroughly investigate the rifle squad.”

Rikson blinked in utter bewilderment at Liam’s casual dismissal.

“Pardon? Did you just say we should skip the investigation into the rifle squad?”

Liam pulled his service pistol from its holster, checked the inside of the trigger guard, and replied flatly:

“That’s right. If anyone was planning to smuggle out a rifle, they’d naturally be a Romi spy.”

“Ah. Of course. Understood, sir.”

“As I recall, the magic-inscribed dye on this current squad’s gear is supposed to fade around today, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir, that is correct.”

“Good. For the next squad, don’t engrave the magic circles immediately; leave them on standby.”

With that, Liam tossed back the glass of whiskey Rikson had handed him in a single motion and closed his eyes. A crushing wave of exhaustion washed over him, accompanied by the familiar, bitter self-loathing that he had managed to survive yet another day.

Suffering because you failed to die. What a pathetic joke.

Liam swept a hand across his eyes and let out a long breath.

Because Luna is still young.

Familiar with the routine, Liam conjured the reason he had to stay alive and forced his body to move. The depression that had been chaining him down was brushed aside as if it had never been there.

“Any word from the intelligence asset we infiltrated into Rom?”

“A carrier pigeon did arrive just after the retreat order was issued, but… it’s a bit strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yes. They reported that the Romi bastards seem to be discussing a truce.”

A truce?

Wondering what kind of absolute nonsense he was hearing, Liam let out a dry, incredulous huff. But before he could voice his thoughts, he noticed the sudden commotion outside the command tent and shut his mouth.

Liam shot a glance at Rikson. The adjutant nodded sharply and hurried toward the entrance. The moment his hand touched the door latch, the door flew open amidst a flurry of noise.

“I’m telling you it’s the truth! That guy is a lawyer, I’m a Count!”

Jade Hickston.

Faced with the appearance of a man who had absolutely no business being out here on the front lines, Liam let out a heavy sigh.

“Liam! Ow—will you let go of me already?! What, you don’t even recognize Count Hickston? If you’re Imperial citizens, you ought to know the Hickston Law Firm at least!”

“Let him go.”

That a lunatic walking around a combat zone dropping his aristocratic title happened to be his personal friend was a tragedy.

Sighing deeply, Liam gave a brief nod to the guards. The soldiers, caught in the impossible dilemma of neither being able to chase away nor properly admit a sitting Count, retreated with visibly grateful expressions.

The moment the soldiers vanished with a crisp salute, Rikson slammed the door shut, his posture radiating a fierce determination to keep any conversation inside from leaking out. Given that Count Hickston had personally dragged himself all the way out here, Rikson clearly assumed it must be a matter of grave importance.

Liam, however, merely asked in an icy tone:

“What brings you all the way out here?”

“Wha—what brings me here? Did you seriously just ask what brings me here?”

“If you’ve come all this way yourself… well.”

Liam zeroed in on the most statistically probable scenario.

“Did my uncle cause trouble again?”

Jade nearly gave himself whiplash at the sheer realization that Liam genuinely had no clue.

“If it were just that, I would’ve handled it myself!”

“If His Majesty sent you to drag me back by the scruff of my neck…”

“Did you seriously forget? Or do you treat a divorce with the exact same utter lack of emotional response as a marriage?”

“Divorce?”

At the utterly out-of-left-field word, Jade let out a sharp, incredulous groan of disbelief.

“Do you not remember the contract period you stipulated in our prenuptial agreement?”

He did.

He had drafted it with meticulous care, so there was no way he could forget. After all, the stipulations surrounding the marriage had mattered far more to him than the institution itself.

Frowning, Liam mentally calculated the timeline.

If that was the case, the final clause must have…

“…Three years have already passed?”

“Yes.”

Chewing on the word as if it tasted like ash, Jade poured himself a full glass of water and chugged it down in one go.

Looking at Liam’s entirely blank, shell-shocked expression, Jade found himself running out of anger, leaving him to mutter in a deflated tone:

“When you didn’t even show up on the day we were supposed to sign the divorce papers, I cursed you out as a cold-hearted bastard, but I suppose you genuinely didn’t realize.”

“I didn’t.”

“I sent you a dispatch letter last week.”

Rikson tentatively intervened in the exchange.

“Your Grace has been out at sea for the past two weeks, My Lord Count.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Jade spot a familiar envelope nestled among the towering stacks of paperwork cluttering the massive desk.

So that was how it was.

“Well, then. Delivering this news is going to be rather awkward, isn’t it?”

Despite his words, Jade swiftly moved to execute his duties with a rigid, professional tone.

“As of April 12th in the 284th Imperial Year, the divorce paperwork between His Grace the Grand Duke of Preston and the Grand Duchess has been officially finalized and sealed. Please review the documents, and contact the Hickston Law Firm should any issues arise.”

Rikson stared at Jade in absolute bewilderment. Liam, however, showed no surprise; he had spent years witnessing Jade’s borderline pathological dedication to separating his personal life from his professional one.

“Here are the relevant documents.”

Liam peered inside the envelope handed over by Jade. Right beside his own signature—which looked aged even at a glance—was a seal that still looked as though the ink had barely dried.

Isabella Milton.

As he silently stared at the elongated, sweeping curves of the capital ‘I’, Jade cleared his throat awkwardly and continued.

“Additionally, I must inform you that during the drafting of the divorce settlement, Young Lady Luna Preston exercised her legal prerogative. The primary custody has been successfully transferred from the Grand Duke of Preston to the former Grand Duchess, Isabella Milton. The relevant legal filings are attached in the back, so do review them at your leisure.”

Liam, who had been momentarily lost in sentiment, snapped his head up as if a bucket of freezing water had been dumped over his head.

“What?”

As brilliant blue eyes flashed with chilling intensity, Jade self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck.

“Turns out Luna knows her Imperial law quite well. Hahaha…”

“Are you telling me right now that the child meant to inherit the Grand Duchy of Preston just followed my wife out the door?”

“Well. I suppose that is technically what happened. Though I did tell you to drop by more often and spend some time with the kid.”

A man who had managed to lose both his wife and his child in a single breath sat frozen in place, letting out a hollow, shell-shocked laugh.