The Son-In-Law Of A Prestigious Family Wants A Divorce - Chapter 58



57 – 57. Sword Saint (4)

“So Isaac is convinced Galenia Helmut is the traitor, then?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Hearing Isaac’s words, Clarisse presses her lips tight. His words, on one hand, could be called reasonable.

And in truth, Clarisse judged it to be quite likely, but.

“I’m sorry, but I have one question.”

Clarisse brings up a specific point, deliberately.

Knowing Isaac’s current state, she didn’t particularly want to argue with his opinion, but.

In these matters, personal feelings shouldn’t come into it.

Especially when it involves the Helmuts.

The Helmuts were called the kingdom’s war deterrent; even the royal family couldn’t recklessly poke at them, and

So, certainty upon certainty was needed.

“Before the Sword Saint ceremony, I came as a guest of the Helmuts at Blackthorn.”

“……”

“He was Blackthorn’s eldest son. But, do you know how it happened? Arandel killed him himself. Brutally.”

Blackthorn still hasn’t spoken a word about it. Nor did he attend the Sword Rite.

Clarisse, crossing her legs, asks again.

“Right? Even with my superior brain, something’s off. It’s weird they showed up so blatantly in the first place. If they’re colluding, why would he kill him? Trying to throw off suspicion, maybe? Is his eldest son really worth sacrificing for that? Blackthorn’s got only his second son left now.”

Clarisse sounded frustrated, but Isaac answered far too easily.

“You misunderstand.”

“Huh?”

“Galenia Helment is the one who’s a Transcendent, not Arandel.”

“……”

Clarisse fell silent.

The name Helment naturally led to the conclusion of Arandel, so it seems she was briefly stunned.

“It makes even less sense the other way. If Arandel were a Transcendent, then okay, he’s betrayed humanity! He’s plotting a coup! A national overthrow! You can think like that, right?”

Words a princess shouldn’t be saying came tumbling out without hesitation.

If anyone overheard, they’d be startled, and a strange rumor wouldn’t be surprising.

“But what good does a noble lady becoming a Transcendent do?”

“…I guess, she wants to save someone.”

“Huh? Who?”

Isaac felt that some of the puzzle pieces were starting to fit.

In his past life, Arandel died of illness.

That must have been connected to the Transcendent in some way, and Galenia must have crossed over to the Transcendent to save Arandel.

‘That’s just their kind of family.’

“Ha, whatever. So, you’re saying Arandel isn’t colluding, right? That’s a relief, I guess.”

If Arandel, their top asset, hasn’t turned, it’s not a huge concern for the royal family.

Though, men’s hearts can change anytime because of their wives, that’s how things are.

Just seeing how Arandel dealt with Blackthorn’s eldest son was enough for Clarisse to figure out which way his heart had turned.

“We need to move fast.”

Clarisse stood up abruptly, slowly rising from her seat.

“This Sword Rite will be the most tumultuous one yet.”

The emotion held within her violet eyes was anticipation. Clarisse smiled to herself, thinking they’d finally caught the tail of things, and muttered.

“If we still can’t figure it out, we can always stab ‘em in the gut, I guess. Heard that Transcendent folks can regenerate from that kind of thing.”

“……Princess?”

“It’s no joke.”

Usually, wouldn’t you call it a joke in times like this?

“It’s bigger than that. That a human can change into a transcendent being means we don’t know who turned traitor and from where.”

“Perhaps it’s not so easy.”

As far as Isaac knew, no human had ever truly become a transcendent being.

He had often encountered things that were on the fringes of being transcendent.

For example, Alois, who had been subjected to subjugation.

And the Grand Master, a half-breed of a transcendent being and a human, was another such case.

Isaac was currently speculating that some specific change had occurred to Galenia’s body through magic.

“I truly hope so. I can’t live my life suspecting each and every noble.”

Claris passed by Isaac with quick steps.

As a princess, she must have things to prepare, and she likely needed to verify things in her own way to be certain.

Left alone in place, Isaac surveyed the garden for a moment.

Helmut’s rose garden was a spectacle to behold, no matter how many times you saw it. Roses blooming beautifully on a vast plot.

Even the thorns hidden beneath, Isaac felt it was truly Helmut-like.

“……”

A few nobles were seen strolling in the garden. Laughing and chatting with each other, marveling at the scenery unique to Geom-Oje.

Following the butterflies fluttering on the scent of the fresh roses.

Before he knew it, Isaac had arrived at a familiar place.

Among the roses, a flowerbed where purple lilacs had been mischievously planted.

And.

There, looking down at the lilac, was Rianna Helmut.

Rianna’s confinement had been lifted due to the assassination attempt on Galenia, so it was not unusual for her to be walking about freely.

Rianna was not exactly the most robust, but it seemed she had become even more fragile, as if she would break at any moment, since her confinement.

“……”

A single lilac in bloom, even though the season had passed.

Rianna was silently staring down at it.

“……Today.”

How she noticed Isaac, he didn’t know.

She speaks, flatly delivering the words,

“Can we leave?”

Why does she not turn back?

Perhaps it is guilt, or maybe she finds her own state ridiculous.

Whatever it is, she does not seem to want Isaac to see her now.

More than ever, Rianna seems so very small.

“Don’t worry about the Obsidian Guard. I’ll go in your stead.”

“……”

“I’ll stop the pursuers, so how about heading north? Silbern is bound to-.”

“Rianna.”

He had deliberately avoided her gaze.

Rianna was purposefully staring down at the lilac,

but before she knew it,

Isaac stood beside her.

“What was our biggest problem, do you think?”

“…I, without any-“

“Haha, I’m not asking to make you blame yourself. Just to look at the truth with cool heads, that’s all.”

Rianna’s words, which she was about to shout while clutching her chest, catch in her throat.

The small smile that blooms on Isaac’s lips resembles the lilac.

“Because I’m inept.”

“Isaac, no.”

“From the beginning, the target Helmuth wanted was a man fit for them. I was just a common oarsman.”

“Isaac-!”

“Seduced a clumsy noblewoman, not knowing love, nor how to express it-.”

“Stop it!”

Rianna urgently grabs Isaac’s arm. Her hand trembles.

“We loved each other… don’t, don’t say it was wrong.”

Rianna desperately pleads, feeling that, in the end, their love was as good as a sin, from what Isaac was saying.

“Alright, my words went a little haywire.”

Isaac readily admits.

The conversation, it’s true, had taken a rather sharp turn.

“But Rianna, you need to see the truth. If I was the kind of son-in-law that Helmut would be happy with, if I had that kind of ability. We would have dated without any hardship.”

“It’s cruel to expect that of you.”

“Maybe it is.”

A brief silence settles.

The warm breeze that blows in calms them, a subtle scent of lilac intertwining with the roses, enveloping the two.

“Why didn’t you tell me that your mother brought Blackthorn’s guests?”

He tries to shift the conversation a bit.

Isaac glances at Rianna, and her expression darkens again.

Still, she doesn’t hide it, and answers honestly.

“Because I didn’t want you to be connected to Helmut anymore.”

“……”

“I wanted you to not be connected to anything, to leave quietly and start anew.”

Rianna speaks to Isaac, as if she’s spewing out a rush of emotion.

“In the end, I messed up again. If I had told you sooner…”

“Millie wouldn’t have ended up like that?”

Rianna doesn’t answer.

The truth is, Rianna thinks so, and that’s why she’s blaming herself.

“Did you kill her?”

Rianna’s body flinches.

Isaac’s voice, like a chill, pierces her skin; it’s a voice she’s never heard before.

“Wh-what…?”

“Did you kill Millie, or not?”

“That’s not it, but—”

If she’d said something sooner, maybe she could have saved her.

At that silence filled with regret, Isaac gets even angrier.

“Then? Conversely, I was closest to Millie. Does that make me the one who killed her because I didn’t notice anything strange sooner?”

“……”

“This has already happened once, but does that make me the one who killed her because I didn’t suspect her back then?”

“……”

“No, Millie, she killed herself out of guilt. Your mother was the cause.”

“That’s right.”

Rianna’s voice shrinks.

She was admitting that her mother had committed an act she shouldn’t have.

“Rianna, don’t apologize to me. Don’t frame it as if it’s all your fault, because that’s an insult to me too.”

“Okay.”

Rianna apologized honestly.

“Helmut…the word ‘love’ doesn’t suit him at all. And because of that, so much is collapsing.”

The words suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Rianna was caught between the love she had for her family and the love she had for Isaac.

Galenia, because she loved her husband, had brought the transcendents into this.

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Alois, because of his forbidden love for his sister, had shattered Isaac’s legs, his brother-in-law.

“Rianna, I won’t tell you to help me oppose your mother.”

Isaac warned calmly.

“I know how cruel it is to tell a daughter to swing a sword against her own mother.”

That’s what the relationship between parents and children is, isn’t it.

A love that logic cannot explain.

Everyone prioritizes their own life above all else, but family is often an exception.

“But if you stand in my way, I will cut you down, too.”

It wasn’t a matter of whether he could.

It meant it was that genuine.

Millie’s death had changed many things for Isaac.

Rianna closed her eyes tightly. In her ears, the voices of the past lingered like regrets, holding her body captive.

[Our Rianna, she’s so beautiful.]

[Huh? A gift for mommy? Really?]

[Do you want to sleep with Mommy? Shhh, it’s a secret from daddy?]

Ghostly touches.

Those memories that could belong to anyone were the few warm memories Rianna possessed within her desolate mansion.

[Why is our daughter so beautiful? Is it because she looks like her mother?]

[It’s alright, though that’s what she says. In truth, she must hold Rianna dear.]

[A child like a rose. More than anyone, a beautiful child like a rose.]

Amidst the lilac’s scent and the gentle breeze brushing by, her mother’s warm words flowed.

[Rianna, you are like me.]

The last words were.

[The way you cling to love.]

[Knowing it will lead to ruin, yet unable to let go.]

Too late, they became thorns, piercing her heart.

Now that she knew what Galenia had done, the words ‘like me’ weighed heavily on Rianna’s shoulders.

“Rianna.”

As she sank deeper, Isaac’s call startled her head up.

In her face, even more haggard in the brief moment, lay worry.

“Don’t be blind in love.”

A sensation of her heart shattering.

It felt like something was beating hard.

Because.

The reason for such a great tremor.

Was probably that the person she loved most, denied her love.

“You’re right, Isaac.”

Rianna’s breathing steadied. Her eyes slowly regaining their color.

The moment the red faded and settled, it was not Rianna Helmun but.

The kingdom’s next generation swordswoman.

The blood rose leading the next generation stood there.

“I won’t stay still anymore.”

“Rianna.”

“Because I was ignorant and incompetent, I lost you.”

It was a wound too painful.

But wounds accompany growth.

In action.

The reason, there can be many.

For instance.

Because of the threats from Mother, a distance was kept from Isaac.

Protecting Isaac from the brothers risked greater harm in return.

If she told Isaac about all of this.

He, not being able to bear being Rianna’s burden, would leave.

Swallowing it all down.

To nitpick and give reasons for each of these things was an insult to Isaac, the victim.

To justify actions with reasons.

Was the same as Mother.

“Trying to hold everything was a greedy desire.”

Even if she didn’t want to, she had to accept it.

“In the end, like that.”

The responsibility of having closed her eyes followed.

The time to lose everyone she loved had come.

Rianna closed her eyes gently and accepted it.

“I lost it all.”