[Save that child for me]
When the god of another world spoke to me, I accepted without emotion.
And so…….
“……Please grant me a divorce.”
I decided to break the ‘death flag’ of getting caught between a future disaster couple and losing my head.
***
Clink.
The only thing filling the emperor’s office was the faint sound of a teacup settling. Within that suffocating silence, fingertips drained of color rustled across the table, pushing forward a single document envelope.
The red eyes of Kirian Eckart, master of the Arje Empire, narrowed.
His gaze, chin propped at a crooked angle, swept over the unusually pale and trembling hand gripping the envelope — then fixed on the man standing before him.
Luanisiel Requies. His spouse, whose face he could barely recall, having lived as though already dead and buried.
It was strange. Wasn’t this the person who would tremble violently at the mere brush of his shadow under normal circumstances? The one who had shut himself away in the Empress’s palace, living like a ghost, had suddenly crawled here of his own accord. And as if that weren’t enough — he dared to present documents.
“What is this.”
A low, scraping voice resonated through the office. A murderous intent pricked at the skin — sharp enough to make one feel their head might fly off at any moment. Yet the reply that came back was disarmingly calm.
“It is a draft divorce agreement. Your Majesty.”
The words that slipped from between those small, pallid lips were clear and precise, not a single syllable slurred. Kirian snatched up the documents roughly and skimmed through them, then let out a hollow laugh. After that, his gaze drifted absently down the man standing before him.
The partner forced upon him through a political marriage. That descriptor alone was irritating enough — yet the man standing before him grated on Kirian’s nerves in a way that was uniquely his own.
The fine-featured face was breathtakingly precise. The razor-sharp bridge of his nose and the coolly sunken lavender irises bore the unmistakable blood of arrogant nobility. But that was all. That terrible beauty held no warmth.
Beneath the skin — so pale it was nearly translucent — it felt as though dried kindling had been packed in where red blood ought to flow. Fingers that extended precariously, as if they’d snap at a single tap. And a thin chest that rose and fell in the faintest increments with each shallow breath.
Kirian’s gaze lingered on that slender ribcage. A man like a taxidermied doll. From those precarious lips that looked as though they’d shatter with one rough grip — the word divorce had just audaciously slipped out.
“Luanisiel.”
When he called the name of the Empress who still bore the Requies name, the man’s lashes curled upward. An appearance devoid of humanity, as though watching a mechanical device. Kirian’s eyes twisted sharply.
“A servant of God would break a marriage vow of their own accord? Has the faith of Requies always been this shallow?”
He bit out Luan’s name as though chewing on it. The disdain was likely more directed at the Requies name that followed. But Luan was not startled by Kirian’s reaction. It was the reaction he had anticipated. The murderous intent that seemed ready to take his head at any moment pricked at his skin — but murderous intent alone didn’t actually kill anyone, so.
Luan arranged his expression into one of someone barely holding on after nearly fainting from fear and cast his eyes downward. Inside, he was chanting: Ah, don’t panic. That’s just a barking dog. That’s just a loud complainer.
“Your Majesty, please do not misunderstand.”
He began quietly and calmly reciting the content he had prepared. His manner was sorrowful, like a confession — yet the substance was mercilessly businesslike.
“According to Chapter 4, Article 12 of the scriptures…… ‘To neglect mutual suffering is a sin that gnaws at the soul.'”
“…….”
“What God taught is love and patience. There is no teaching anywhere that says we must forcibly cling to a relationship stained with hatred.”
And God is busy. Busy enough to dispatch a temporary worker just to save His favorite. There’s no time to review our divorce papers.
When Luan raised his weakened hand and placed it over his chest, Kirian’s expression stiffened. He could clearly see the man’s body seizing up in fear as usual — yet the words coming from his mouth were strangely logical. Was it an illusion, the feeling that there was somehow a sense of I can’t even be bothered to say more behind them?
Luan seized the opening and pressed a finger with faintly trembling fingertips to a section on page 3 of the document.
“For now…… would you review this part?”
“…….”
“The purification procedure under temple law…… and the negotiation of asset division and grounds for fault. A total deliberation period of six months under the Arje legal code will suffice.”
“……What.”
“After six months, I will disappear from before your eyes.”
A body that looked ready to collapse at any moment leaned against the desk. Empty lavender eyes looked up at the emperor.
“The stigma of the…… at-fault spouse — I will carry it myself. I only wish for Your Majesty to find freedom.”
Having finished speaking, Luan closed his mouth and thought. What a devoted resolution this is — even I might be moved enough to consider paying alimony.
But instead of picking up his pen, Kirian fixed him with a cool gaze, staring intently. This alien attitude — neither frightened nor pleading — only grated on his nerves further.
“……Amusing.”
After a long pause, he opened his mouth.
“That someone who can’t even hold their own body upright would spout such nonsense.”
“It is…… nothing more than loyalty for Your Majesty’s wellbeing.”
“Loyalty.”
He laughed lowly. To hear the word loyalty from that Requies — it was laughable beyond measure. He wore an elegant smile on the surface, but the veins on the back of the hand Kirian had pressed to the desk were visibly raised. The sound like a beast rumbling in its throat sent a chill running down Luan’s spine.
“Fine. Those six months — let’s see how they play out.”
Success?
“Luanisiel. Let’s see how long you can wear that pitiful mask and keep clicking away at your calculations so coolly.”
……Success……?
With the sudden feeling that something had been entered incorrectly just now, Luan slowly closed his eyes and opened them. His long lashes trembled faintly, making him look quite pathetic — yet Kirian’s red eyes were cold beyond measure.
He was confused. The reaction was different from what he had imagined. In a relationship like this, wasn’t the normal response to stamp the papers and throw him out with a “How laughable, get out of my sight!”? Why Kirian Eckart’s gaze was…… sinking with such cold, relentless intent — he could not fathom.
***
The moment Luan staggered out of the office, the amusement vanished entirely from Kirian’s expression. He stared at the closed door and murmured coldly.
“Luanisiel Requies.”
The inconspicuous second son of the viper-like Requies family — a spineless man who couldn’t defy his father even once — had brought forth a strange proposal. A spouse in name only, with whom nothing resembling a married couple’s life had occurred throughout five years of marriage.
The reason he had accepted him was simply that the man had lived in silence, without a single opinion of his own. As though he couldn’t even withstand the pressure of the Requies family, he had tucked himself into a corner of his own accord. Like a decoration that was mildly irritating but not worth the trouble of removing.
“Irritating.”
But the man he had seen today was someone who had the legal code at his fingertips and could still state his piece rationally even in the face of an emperor’s pressure. He had seemed somewhat tense — but this was not a man capable of speaking so plainly before his aura.
“A person cannot change overnight.”
Then that reputation up until now — the image of the willless, spineless second son of Requies — must itself have been a disguise. Befitting someone with the blood of the serpentine Requies family in his veins. All of it must have been a cover to conceal the Requies family’s larger scheme.
In that case, even the divorce demand would not be a baseless tantrum or idle proposal. There was certainly something behind it.
“Kael.”
Kirian’s eyes gleamed like a beast’s. He issued a low command to Kael, his escort knight who had been silently present.
“Put surveillance on him.”
“…….”
“Every breath he draws, the angle at which he lifts his teacup, every person he meets. Report it all.”
Kirian’s lips curved into a cold smile.
“Whatever the true blade Requies is hiding…… I intend to uncover it completely.”
He had assumed he was a spineless puppet — but it seemed he was far more dangerous than expected.
