Chapter 67

‘What the hell do you take me for, you bastard?’

I wanted to snap that at him—but I couldn’t be bothered picking another fight. So I simply scowled and whipped around on my heel.

Camilla and Lycian immediately fell in step beside me.

I took one of their hands each and started walking ahead.

Holding Lycian’s hand was habit by now….

With Camilla, though, I just felt safer this way.

‘Please. Don’t go berserk again…!’

If the same thing happened one more time, I might actually have to use my Husbandry skill on her.

A little while later, we reached the house. The moment I opened the door, the spirit who’d been waiting inside came flying out.

“Master! Are you alright? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? You told me to guard the house, so Nini held it in and waited…! Waaah—!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”

I soothed the crybaby spirit half-heartedly as I stepped inside. Even if Ninabel had jumped into that earlier mess, she wouldn’t have been much help.

I tried to seat Camilla on the sofa first, but she refused, saying she’d rather stand.

She looked far calmer now, which was a relief. It didn’t seem like she’d explode again.

‘They call her the guild’s tank, but isn’t she more of a berserker…?’

I shuddered at the sight of the bluish gleam of her axe blade over her shoulder.

When I turned around, Raul and Michelle were still lingering awkwardly in the narrow entryway.

Michelle looked slightly out of it, and Raul wore the expression of someone trapped in an inexplicable dream.

“Sir Michelle, come sit.”

I tapped a stool lightly. Michelle approached in a daze and dropped down onto it weakly.

Yeah. She’s definitely not in her right mind.

Whatever the history between Michelle and Camilla was, it was probably best not to poke at it here.

‘There will be absolutely no fighting in my house….’

Hoping the two of them would sort it out themselves later, I took out a High-Grade Potion from my inventory and carefully poured it over Michelle’s wounds.

They weren’t deep—but there were more than thirty of them. Camilla had struck human skin with the blade of her axe.

It was horrific.

“That should do it.”

“Ah… th-thank you.”

Michelle, seeming to regain some clarity at last, bowed her head.

At least she had more decency than Raul. Her gratitude looked genuine.

Michelle quickly rose and stood close beside Raul, deliberately avoiding even glancing Camilla’s way.

Whether that was fear—or something else—I couldn’t tell.

Meanwhile, Raul’s gaze was fixed on Ninabel, who floated in the air like a drifting droplet.

He frowned faintly and pointed at her.

“That is… a spirit?”

“Yes. A spirit contracted to me.”

“Contracted… to you?”

“Why? Surprised that a villainess like Muriel Tierney not only has purification powers but also a spirit contract?”

“…….”

Raul’s lips moved soundlessly before he let out a long breath. He dragged a hand down his face, his expression turning complicated.

I sat down on the sofa and gestured to the seat across from me.

Now for the real matter.

I retrieved the divorce settlement I’d briefly stored in my inventory and placed it on the table.

Then I spoke evenly.

“As I said, you only need to sign. There are no strange clauses, so don’t worry.”

I tipped my chin toward it, telling him to look.

Raul shot me a dubious glance before picking up the papers.

As he read through the few sheets, his face gradually stiffened.

Unable to believe it, he muttered without lifting his eyes from the page.

“You truly intend to divide the assets like this?”

I crossed my legs and replied coolly, chin raised.

“The jewelry given by the Tierney family—I don’t care about it. Keep it or sell it. Do whatever you want. The only thing I want is to sever ties with you completely. That’s all.”

“…….”

Raul set the papers down and stared at me, confusion swirling in his eyes.

He seemed to deliberate for a moment before speaking again.

“If you wish to divorce me, the fault lies with you. I intend to hold the Tierney family responsible.”

“Hold the Tierney family responsible? I like the sound of that.”

I clapped lightly and smiled.

Raul’s brows twitched in faint bewilderment at my reaction.

‘What, you thought I’d get angry if you blamed the Tierneys?’

Now was the perfect time to shatter his delusion.

Whether he believed me or not didn’t matter anymore.

‘I don’t need your trust.’

The night before I returned to the farm, I had dreamed of Muriel again.

In that dream, ‘I’ had been desperate for Raul’s pity.

Even when he wouldn’t look her way, she clung to him again and again….

Endlessly doubted, falsely accused, wounded—over and over.

But I don’t have to do that anymore.

I know how foolish it is to grovel before someone who insists on seeing you through a warped lens.

The world is wider than I thought. There are people who look at me without prejudice—people who stand on my side.

‘If only I’d realized that sooner….’

Then ‘I’… wouldn’t have died.

“Protest as much as you like. I’m curious myself how the Tierneys will respond.”

“…What are you saying?”

“You don’t understand? It means I’m completely unrelated to the Tierney family.”

Raul’s eyes widened.

He slowly knit his brows, scrutinizing me as if searching for some hidden agenda.

Sorry to disappoint—but there isn’t one.

I let out a short laugh and drove the nail in.

“The Tierney family abandoned me a long time ago. And you still didn’t know?”

Then I burst into laughter, loud and unrestrained.

As if I might die of amusement. As if the whole thing were absurd beyond belief.

I must have looked utterly insane.

The confusion in Raul’s eyes deepened as he watched me.

Still smiling, I continued.

“So now you’re curious? When I tried so hard to tell you before, you wouldn’t even pretend to listen.”

“Have you lost your mind? What incomprehensible nonsense are you—”

Ah. How tragic.

Foolish Raul Winterberg.

If he ever realizes he’s been venting his anger on the wrong person all this time, how badly will it wound that obsessive moral rigidity of his?

I met his eyes steadily and spoke calmly.

“Once upon a time, there was an orphan named Muriel.”

“…An orphan?”

“Yes. With no one to rely on, she clung to life doing menial chores in the Duke of Tierney’s household.”

Perhaps he sensed something ominous in the story I began to tell.

Raul’s lashes trembled.

“One day, she caught the duke’s eye. She couldn’t do much of anything—but even at a young age, she had a pretty face.”

“…….”

“The duke cherished his biological daughter, Juliet, dearly. He didn’t want to use her as a pawn in a political marriage. But for the sake of the family’s interests, he needed at least one child he could exploit and sell off.”

“…….”

“This is a secret, but at the time, the Duke of Tierney suffered from erectile dysfunction.”

I leaned forward slightly and whispered it.

Raul’s eyelids twitched.

The room was silent. Only my steady voice filled the space.

“So he thought it over. If he couldn’t easily produce more children, he would adopt that girl and raise her as his own.”

“…….”

“So she could be used in Juliet’s place whenever necessary.”

Treating children like chess pieces was common in noble society.

If anything, the Duke of Tierney had been unusual.

He truly cherished his own children.

Even if he treated his adopted daughter—me—as a tool.

“A famous astrologer who happened to visit the Tierney estate told the duke that if he wanted the family to prosper further, he needed to adopt a daughter to shoulder all the family’s misfortune.”

“…….”

“He warned that the sins accumulated over generations were too great—and that a terrible calamity would soon befall them.”

I don’t remember his name, but that astrologer had apparently been highly trusted among the nobility at the time.

The Duke of Tierney believed him.

And adopted me, just as planned.

“So I was transformed into the frail daughter the duke had supposedly kept hidden and cherished since birth. After that, well….”

I trailed off, then briefly recounted a few episodes.

How I had been treated in the Tierney household. What the eldest son, Kabil, and his sister Juliet had done to me.

The scars had faded, but they were still there.

I pulled the hem of my blouse from where it had been tucked into my skirt and lifted it abruptly.

Raul and Michelle both flinched sharply at the sudden movement.

Camilla remained expressionless.

And Lycian—

“…….”

He didn’t have to make that face.

He had seen the faint scar on my side before.

He hadn’t asked what it was. Or how I got it.

I reached out and clasped his hand tightly, my other hand still holding my blouse up just below my ribs.

Raul’s gaze was locked on the scar across my abdomen.

It didn’t waver.

In a flat voice, I told him,

“It’s where an arrow pierced through.”