CHAPTER 04…………………………………
“But the root cause is still Your Highness, isn’t it? She must have been deeply hurt to cry so hard while asking for a divorce. When she ran out of your study in tears, even I, a bystander, felt heartbroken watching her.”
“That’s not what it was,” Leonhardt muttered with a short, incredulous scoff.
It really wasn’t like that. She didn’t cry because of him—if anything, he was the one attacked.
“You know that thing under your bandages? That’s all from not washing. It’s atopic dermatitis. Do you even know that? Being handsome doesn’t make you clean, you know. Sorry, but I’m rejecting you. I’m the one rejecting you! Let’s just get a divorce! I can’t live here anymore!”
“The position of Crown Princess isn’t something you can just throw away so easily.”
“So what? Why should I care?”
He seriously wondered if this was the same Rosennelly Ferdi he had known. Until just a few months ago, she was a woman he rarely even saw outside of formal occasions.
It had been a loveless marriage from the start. She herself had said she didn’t need to be treated as a woman—just to remain as Crown Princess—and he had agreed. So now, suddenly demanding a divorce… was she trying to get his attention? Playing some kind of push-and-pull?
“…If you talk like that, do you think I’ll try to stop you—”
“No. Don’t stop me. You really don’t have to. Please don’t. I seriously can’t live here anymore. This place is too filthy and irreverent.”
“Are you insulting the Imperial Palace of Rovea right now?”
“I’m just stating facts. There’s no bathhouse, people barely wash, they stink, and then they drown themselves in strong perfume to cover it up. People should wash to live properly. Even pigs bathe in mud!”
“Are you saying I’m worse than a pig, Rosennelly?”
“Oh wow, you’re quick. Then you must also understand that I’m completely serious about wanting a divorce, right?”
So suddenly asking for a divorce—if anything, he felt like he’d been slapped out of nowhere.
After that day, Rosennelly came to him every single day, demanding a divorce.
“I didn’t cheat on you or fool around with other women. You were fine for the past four years, so why suddenly bring up bathhouses and demand a divorce?”
“Stop assuming I’m the same person I was four years ago! I can’t stay here anymore! Let me go!”
“There’s no grounds for divorce.”
“Then let’s do a mutual divorce!”
“I don’t have any reason to agree to that. If I divorce you, I’ll just have to go through the trouble of choosing another Crown Princess. Or is it you? Did you find another man and now you’re using ridiculous excuses to leave? Adultery in the Rovea Empire is punishable—even for royalty.”
“Adultery…? Sorry, Leonhardt—”
That was strange. She had always addressed him formally as “Your Highness.” Hearing his name from her lips for the first time in four years made him wonder if something was truly wrong with her.
“You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. Just looking at you makes all my anger melt away. That’s how attractive you are, Leonhardt.”
“….”
“You’re tall, powerful, wealthy, and still young. You’re considered the most handsome man in the Empire. Who would I even cheat with?”
Objectively, that was true. Unless she had lost her mind, there was no one in the Empire better than him.
“Then why—”
“—And yet, even looking at that handsome face, I still want to leave. Honestly, you’re handsome, but you’re not exactly my type. It’s like admiring a beautiful piece of art—not something I’d cling to no matter what.”
“…What?”
“I prefer muscular, strong-looking men. But you’re always wrapped in bandages, and you look so frail… like a tall, wobbling birch tree sometimes.”
“….”
Leonhardt froze, as if struck in the back of the head.
“…A big, sturdy tree would be much more exciting, don’t you think? I’m not saying I’m cheating—just that your looks aren’t enough to make me cancel the divorce.”
“…What are you even talking about? So why do you want a divorce?”
“I told you. I can’t live here. I want to leave and live my own life. Think of it as pioneering something new. You don’t love me anyway, right? You can just choose another Crown Princess. It’s not like we have a child together.”
Her calmness left him speechless.
In his life, Leonhardt had only understood the word “confusion” in theory—never in practice. His life had always been about certainty and precision.
But now, at nineteen, he finally understood what it meant to be completely bewildered.
And so, in his confusion, he granted her the divorce she wanted.
Even now, after she had left the palace, it still didn’t feel real.
In truth, Leonhardt was the one attacked, the one confused, and the one who was ultimately divorced.
While the nobles believed Rosennelly had gone mad from heartbreak and was rambling about building bathhouses, in reality, he had suffered just as much from her absurdity.
“So she’s really building a bathhouse in the Voltamir region?”
“Oh, changing the subject like that? You’re worried about her, aren’t you? Why not go and bring her back now?”
Dalton smirked slightly. Leonhardt shot him a sharp glare, and Dalton immediately lowered his head.
“Why would I go after her? She abandoned her responsibilities as Crown Princess. I hate irresponsible people the most.”
He told himself he was only curious about what she was doing with that useless land she took as alimony—nothing more, nothing less.
With irritation, Leonhardt flipped through his documents.
Dalton also fell silent and focused on work.
But after a while, Leonhardt’s hand stopped.
His brow furrowed deeply as he clutched his forehead.
“Your Highness…! Is it another attack? Someone, call the royal physician—!”
“Dalton. Be quiet. It’ll pass.”
His voice was strained.
Dalton could only watch anxiously.
His hands trembled from the pain. Red patches spread across the parts of his neck not covered by bandages. When he tugged at them, claw marks from scratching were clearly visible.
The unbearable heat, the itching, the suffocating tightness around his throat—no royal physician had ever been able to identify the cause.
An unknown illness was like a curse.
Leonhardt clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms until they bled, trying to endure.
“You don’t love me anyway. You can just choose another Crown Princess. We don’t even have a child.”
Choose another Crown Princess?
Easy to say.
Rosennelly Ferdi must have filed for divorce just to spite him.
Otherwise, how could she say such things knowing his situation?
The emperor was bedridden, unlikely to recover. And if the crown prince were to die soon, ambitious nobles would rush in, eager to seize regency power.
All Leonhardt could do… was endure.
As always—
There was no one by his side.
