This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Chapter 6

Caesar watched Carnelia go back to her palace. His guard walked up to him.

“What did you two discuss?”

This guard had been relegated to the prince’s palace after talking back to the empress, so he had nothing to hide from Caesar.

“She claimed to be on my side.”

“The empress probably told her to say that.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Caesar rubbed his left ear—the same ear the girl had whispered into. He could still feel the phantom brush of her warm breath.

Isn’t it enough that the empress paired me up with a temporary princess? Why is she now forcing me into a badger game? What a heinous woman.

He furrowed his brow when he thought of the empress. A few months ago, Caesar had heard that they’d begun talking about his potential marriage. He’d understood then that what was coming next was inevitable.

He wasn’t interested in the throne. In all honesty, he was rather loath to join such a tiresome fight. Yet he couldn’t help the fact that he was first in line for the throne, at least superficially, so he’d been swept into the fight. The empress had probably found out that Duke Lancaster had made contact with him.

The House of Lancaster was one of the most renowned families in the empire, and even the empress could not ignore their influence. It just so happened that the Lancasters had a daughter around his age—the duke had probably been intending to offer his daughter’s hand in marriage in return for some other condition.

Of course, the empress could not let this happen. She’d sent a lady-in-waiting from her palace to give Caesar notice about who his future wife would be.

Carnelia Easter, daughter of Baron Easter—the future princess.

As Caesar had suspected, her family had nothing but its meaningless title and mounds of debt. The empress would never let the first prince ally with a powerful noble family, and Caesar was made to recognize this.

Before the betrothal, the House of Easter had been in tremendous debt. After, all of it had been written off. It would not have been dignified if a house joined to the imperial family by marriage had debts. That was the gift they received for selling their daughter off to the imperial family.

Caesar felt a fleeting sympathy for the girl sold off for a few coins, but he shook this off quickly. He hardly meant it.

What is she really thinking? Is she the empress’s pawn with dark intentions, or a poor sacrificial lamb who knows nothing?

Caesar remembered the young girl’s face as she’d lain prone in her sickbed. She had groaned as she’d sought out her mother. He then thought about how she had looked when she’d whispered that she would always be on his side.

The girl recommended to me by the empress is on my side? How am I supposed to believe that? What was the point in taking that kind of risk, when instead she could do everything the empress said and be guaranteed a cozy life?

“I am your wife, so I am on your side?” They’d met each other for the first time on their wedding day, and that’d been just two days ago. They hardly knew each other—why would she whisper lies like that to him? She had to either be an expert at deceiving others with sweet words or a complete novice.

“But I’m on your side. You can be sure of this. I’m your wife. I’ll always be on your side.”

“Why do you have to overthink it? You only have one thing to remember.”

“I will always be on your side.”

He would sooner believe that the empress would relinquish the throne to him than believe those words. Caesar scowled as he walked.

Two days later, he sensed someone following him the moment he stepped off the imperial grounds.

* * *

“Oh my goodness. What a cutie you are, Prince.”

“I’m too old for this...”

“Of course you are. Our little prince is already ten!”

I pinched Noah’s chubby cheeks. Evgenia’s son, Second Prince Noah, was truly a lovable child. He had red cheeks, light brown hair, and his eyes were a warm green.

How had that terrifying empress managed to birth a kid like him? It was a mystery.

The empress had introduced us two weeks earlier. She’d asked me to look after him because he was lonely—after all, there was no one else his age in the palace.

Uh, but he has a brother just two years older than him. Is Caesar just no one to you? I didn’t say these thoughts out loud. The empress treated Caesar like nobody every single day.

Regardless, Noah and I were playing together.

“Shall I read a picture book to our little prince?”

“Ugh, stop treating me like a child! You’re a child too!”

Well, maybe in this world, but my real age is twenty-five. I’d liked children when I was in my old body too. Especially cute children.

Perhaps because Caesar had the main character buff, he didn’t feel at all like a child. But Noah was different. Most baby mammals were cute—no one could argue with that.

I kissed Noah’s cheeks again and again.

“You don’t like picture books, huh? Do you wanna play dolls with me?” I asked.

“Ugh, no!”

“You don’t like playing with dolls either? Then how about we go see your older brother?”

Noah froze. He stopped struggling.

Like I said, Noah was still ten. He was at an age where he should have been playing and running around with other kids his age. And yet, there were no other kids his age in the palace. Only one—his brother, who was two years older than him.

This was why the second prince liked his brother. No matter how hard his mother tried to separate the two stepbrothers, they got along quite well. The novel depicted flashbacks of the two brothers playing in grassy fields together.

In some ways, I pitied Evgenia, who felt so much hatred for the first prince. But still, she was able to live because her son was on good terms with Caesar. Wasn’t that a good thing?

I smiled mischievously and whispered, “You want to go see him, don’t you?”

“I-I do, but he’s in his economics lesson...”

Caesar was on especially bad terms with his economics teacher. I highly doubted that he had attended the lesson.

“You have no idea how often he skips his lessons! I bet he’s off on his own playing somewhere. I think I know where he might be.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m his wife.” Of course, I actually knew because I had read the original novel—not because I was his wife. “All right. How about we go see your brother?”

“Okay.”

Noah took my hand and quietly followed me. So cute. So, so cute! He possessed a cuteness not of this world.

A group of ladies-in-waiting trailed behind us. This was the annoying part of living in the imperial palace—you had no choice but to let others in on your personal conversations. I waved at them to take ten steps away from us.

After it’d become well-known that the empress had taken my side, my position had improved markedly. The ladies-in-waiting were no longer rude to me, and they’d stopped acting like they couldn’t see me. In the past, they would have given me all sorts of explanations about why they had to follow me, and they would’ve treated me like a child who didn’t know the palace rules well. Yet now, they did as I said without another word.

I was glad I’d made sure to discuss the matter with the empress. The imperial palace was going to be my home for years to come, and it would be extremely aggravating if even the ladies-in-waiting looked down on me.

Noah and I reached the yard behind the building that housed the servants. A large tree grew there—it was impossible to miss because it was so much bigger than the trees beside it.

I stood beneath that tree and loudly called out, “Cae-sar—!”

There was no response. I’d expected as much.

Too bad I’d already spotted him.

As soon as we’d entered the yard, I’d seen him hiding among the numerous leaves of the large tree. I was relieved to find him here. We would’ve had to try some other spots if he were absent.

Unfortunately, Caesar was unwilling to come out.

Oh well. I looked at Noah.

“Noah. Try calling your brother’s name. He’s up there.”

“Really? How’d he get up there?”

“Hmm... well, it’s because he’s amazing.”

Soon enough, Caesar would be strong enough to beat up ogres with his bare hands. Climbing up a tree was no problem.

Noah’s green eyes sparkled. It was like he wanted to yell out, “Caesar’s amazing!” His innocence was so lovable.

“Caesar!”

He might be able to ignore me, but he won’t ignore his beloved brother.

Lo and behold, the tree branches began to shake, and Caesar started to climb down. Large leaves floated down over our heads.

Caesar quickly jumped down from a low branch. His small frown indicated that he was somewhat confused. I could almost see the words written on his face: “Why are you here?”

I decided to use Noah as an excuse. “Your brother said he wanted to see you.”

“Caesar!” Noah shouted and ran into his brother’s arms.

So cute. Too cute.

Caesar patted his little brother’s brown hair. I want to touch his hair too. Let me touch.

When Caesar saw me staring, he wrapped a protective arm around Noah. “Stop looking at him like you’re some kind of pedophile.”

“I’m a kid!” I exclaimed. “That’s so mean.”

But Caesar did not let down his guard. Did I look that perverted?

I decided to quickly change the topic. “You’re skipping your lessons anyway. Why don’t we play together? Isn’t it boring being up in a tree?”

Caesar scoffed. “You want me to play dolls with you?”

“Noooo, think of your cute little brother.” I gestured toward Noah, who was nestled in his arms.

Noah looked up. “Caesar, I wanna pet Harvey.”

Caesar didn’t reply.

Harvey was Caesar’s pet—a large white dog. Noah loved Harvey.

It’s rare to find babies who don’t like cute white dogs. Well, Noah’s not exactly a baby, but still.

“I want to see your dog too,” I said.