RHRD Ch 2

The moment Ines first heard the rumor, her heart sank.

Not because of her husband, but because of Saintess Elise.

Elise. Again.

Ines and her younger sister had often clashed since childhood.

Strangely enough, they always seemed to want the same things.

Ines hated arguing with her sister, and she hated getting caught and scolded by their parents even more. So she would obediently give her sister whatever she wanted.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that she would end up giving her husband away, too…

“You won’t be able to keep acting so high and mighty for much longer.”

Selena sneered as she poked Ines in the shoulder with her index finger.

Even in the face of such an insulting remark, Ines couldn’t bring herself to respond.

It wasn’t because Selena was her mother-in-law that she held her tongue.

It was because of Elise.

Whenever Ines thought about her younger sister, she always felt small and insignificant.

But…

‘No. Actually, this is an opportunity.’

If Ines had been an ordinary woman in love with her husband, she would have been devastated by the thought of her younger sister stealing him away. She would probably have spent her days anxiously trying to win back his affection.

But Ines had absolutely no desire for her husband.

On the contrary, she wanted to finalize the divorce as quickly as possible, regain her freedom, and leave this dreadful mansion behind.

‘Having another woman in his life will actually work in my favor.’

For the sake of that other woman, her husband would be all the more willing to let her go.

If she was lucky, she might even be able to secure a little alimony.

‘I don’t have to worry about anything anymore.’

It didn’t matter that her husband’s new lover was her own younger sister. Nor did it matter that this younger sister was someone who had clashed with her at every turn since childhood.

As long as Jekard Evanhart, her husband in name only, agreed to the divorce, everything would proceed smoothly.

‘My husband…’

The word sounded strangely unfamiliar, and Ines found herself turning it over in her mind.

She called him her husband, but in truth, she had barely seen him a handful of times.

Their marriage had come about unexpectedly, the result of a series of coincidences and misfortunes.

Besides, immediately after their wedding five years ago, Jekard had left for the battlefield. He had not returned even once since then.

What did he look like again?

Ines tried to recall the face of the husband she would be seeing again for the first time in five years.

Black hair and blue eyes.

Delicate, beautiful features that contrasted with his distinctly masculine jawline.

The last time she had seen him, Jekard Evanhart had been only nineteen years old. He was astonishingly handsome, but he still retained a youthful air, not yet having completely shed the look of a boy.

Had he changed much since then?

He was twenty-four now, so surely he looked quite different from the young man she remembered.

Still, she found it difficult to picture exactly how he might look.

‘I hope I at least recognize him.’

Even if she was his wife in name only, she was still his lawful spouse. If she couldn’t even recognize her own husband’s face, she would have little grounds to complain about being called a wicked wife.

Of course, what did any of that matter now?

Ines gave a bitter smile and shook off her thoughts.

‘Enough. I should stop thinking about him.’

He would soon become a complete stranger to her anyway.

It would be far more productive to think about her own future instead.

‘Divorce alone won’t be enough. I’ll need money to support myself once I leave.’

Clearing her mind of all thoughts of her husband, Ines began considering her plans for the future.

By then, she had long since stopped thinking about him altogether.

“Hey! Can’t you hurry up?”

The banquet hall, lit up for the first time in ages, was bustling with activity as people hurried back and forth.

“Stop dawdling! Do you think we have all the time in the world?”

The person directing all the preparations was none other than Ines’s mother-in-law, Selena, the former Duchess of Evanhart.

There was only one reason the servants were working so frantically.

They were preparing a banquet to welcome the return of the head of the household, Duke Jekard Evanhart.

Under normal circumstances, such preparations should have been overseen by Ines, the current duke’s wife. However, she held no authority whatsoever in this household.

‘My husband had to leave for the battlefield in such a hurry right after we got married.’

Of course, even if he had had more time, there was no telling whether he would have granted any authority to Ines, his fake wife.

The treatment was humiliating, but Ines didn’t particularly care.

She had never been ambitious about wielding power in the first place, and after five years, she had grown accustomed to being treated this way.

“You there!”

Suddenly, Selena turned her fierce gaze on Ines and barked at her.

“What are you doing just standing there watching?”

Every servant in the room fell silent.

In the stillness, so complete that not even a breath could be heard, Selena strode toward Ines.

Click, click, click.

The sharp sound of her heels echoed through the hall.

“…I was waiting for instructions.”

When Selena finally stopped in front of her, Ines calmly lowered her head and answered.

Selena was the late duke’s second wife and Jekard’s stepmother.

For a number of complicated reasons, she had despised Ines from the very moment the girl arrived at the estate.

Jekard had originally been engaged to another woman. It was a match Selena herself had chosen, one that suited her own preferences.

But one day, he had abruptly broken off the engagement and brought Ines from the capital to marry her instead.

‘If I hadn’t been here, she could have controlled this castle however she pleased. To the former duchess, my very existence must have come as a bolt from the blue.’

Perhaps that was why Selena had been hostile toward Ines from their very first meeting.

And that wasn’t all. Apparently determined to drive Ines out, Selena had spread malicious rumors about her throughout Evanhart Castle and even across the entire domain.

Ines knew little about this place, and as a contractual wife, she couldn’t act freely. She had no choice but to endure it helplessly.

“You truly are pathetic. Everyone here is working as hard as they can to welcome your husband home. And yet, you just stand around doing nothing and claim you’re waiting for instructions? How can you say something like that so shamelessly? You really have no sense of shame, do you?”

Ines knew Selena was deliberately picking a fight, but she saw no reason to respond.

After all, she had no authority as the Duchess. Even if she tried to get involved, she couldn’t give the servants instructions or offer her own opinions.

‘If I’d actually done something, she would have found a reason to get angry about that, too.’

For the past five years, Selena had found every possible excuse to criticize Ines.

Sometimes it was something as trivial as the clothes she wore that day. Other times, it was something as important as a major household event like this one.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Selena wanted to crush Ines entirely for ruining her plans.

Of course, no matter what Selena thought of her, Ines was still legally married to the duke.

There was, however, a reason Selena dared to treat her this way.

‘She’s realized that he and I aren’t close.’

Their marriage had been arranged so abruptly for the sake of securing his succession to the ducal title. It wasn’t difficult to guess that there was little affection between Ines and her husband.

The real problem came afterward.

Throughout the past five years, the duke had never once sent Ines a letter.

It wasn’t that Ines had ever hoped to receive personal letters from him. Still, the fact that he had shown so little regard for her existence could easily be interpreted as a sign that the duke did not respect his own wife.

As a result, an atmosphere of disregard for Ines had gradually taken hold within the Evanhart household.

“I’ve always known you were thoughtless. And I know that someone as ‘noble’ as yourself would consider this sort of work beneath you. But how can you say it so openly? Do you think everyone here is a joke?”

Selena was about to launch into another round of her usual verbal abuse.

That was when it happened.

“W-We have a serious problem!”

A servant suddenly burst into the banquet hall and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Startled by the sudden outcry, everyone turned to look at him.

“What is the meaning of this commotion?”

The butler, who had been assisting Selena with the banquet preparations, stepped forward and demanded an explanation.

His expression was stern, as though he intended to punish the servant for daring to cause such a disturbance.

But when he heard the servant’s next words, even the butler couldn’t help raising his voice.

“His Grace—the Duke—has just arrived!”

“What?!”

For a moment, everyone in the banquet hall held their breath.