This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Chapter 7

Caesar looked at me warily, but then he seemed to realize that he had no reason to refuse. Also, he probably didn’t want his beloved little brother to see him fighting with his new wife.

He sighed. “Fine. Let’s go see Harvey.”

“Yay!” Noah was delighted, and his arms shot into the air. When I saw that, I was sure that Noah had to be at least a hundred times cuter than Harvey.

And so, we headed for the first prince’s palace. Once we were halfway there, we called a carriage because Noah said his feet hurt. This was good for me, since I didn’t like moving around very much. The closer we got to the prince’s palace, the faster my heart raced.

I loved—no, I adored furry animals. Especially dogs.

Come to think of it, I’m a princess. I live in a large palace with many people who can take care of a dog. Why have I lived alone this entire time? I’ll adopt a dog or a cat this week.

The carriage soon arrived at the prince’s palace, and I practically stomped my feet in excitement. A white dog! A cute, furry dog! I’m so excited to pet it.

But then, a voice shattered my reverie.

“Your Highness! Where have you been?!”

It was the head lady-in-waiting of the first prince’s palace. She was dressed in a maid’s uniform, and she ran over to meet us. This woman had been recently added to the staff at the palace after the change in personnel, and she was obviously Evgenia’s pawn.

Why’s she rushing over here? Has the empress already heard that I took Noah to see Caesar? I wondered if she was here to rebuke me, and I was rather scared.

Before I could even open my mouth, Caesar spoke. “I made it clear that I wouldn’t attend Baron Alphonde’s lessons.”

“Your Highness, there is something else...”

The head lady-in-waiting looked uncomfortable. She glanced at me. No, it was more like she looked at Noah standing beside me.

What does she want to say? My curiosity was soon satisfied.

“Um, today is... the day when you are bed-sharing...”

Caesar and I fell awkwardly silent. The empire had a strange rule—imperial males and their spouses were required to spend a night in the same bed at least once a month. And since it had been one month since our marriage, it was time for us to share a bed.

It didn’t really matter since all we were going to do was sleep. I was about to joke about it not needing to be so awkward when Noah butted in.

“What’s bed-share?”

This time, the silence was so awkward that I wanted to run away. The head lady-in-waiting’s eyes were trembling as if they were experiencing a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

After a moment, I responded. “Erm, it’s something Caesar and I have to do. You’ll understand when you grow up.”

“Can Harvey and I do it?”

We once again fell silent. I had a feeling Noah had misconstrued bed-sharing to be some fun activity.

I looked at Caesar, and he evaded my gaze—it was like he was implying that this was my responsibility now since I had been the one to speak.

Ugh, Prince! Why?!

* * *

The room was furnished entirely in red again—red blanket, red curtains, red flowers. Even the ground was scattered with rose petals.

Uh-huh. You all just get worse and worse.

A head of black hair peeked out from under the red blanket. I didn’t need to check to see whose head it was. On the first night, he had sat up to wait for me. Apparently, he was already too lazy to do that the second time.

“Um, Your Highness. I’m here now. Will you not even look at me?”

“I’m sleepy... Don’t talk to me.”

I sighed. So this is the conjugal bliss of a one-month-old marriage.

Others seemed to dote on each other fine, even if their marriages had been arranged. Why were we like this? I wouldn’t have said no to being doted upon by the main character of a novel, but that also sounded tiresome.

I crawled under the blanket. Thank goodness the bed is roomy. We lay far enough from each other that I couldn’t reach him even if I squirmed around.

“Are you asleep?” I muttered.

“Mhm.”

How fascinating. He’s asleep, yet he responded. To be fair, I wouldn’t have wanted him to be doing anything besides sleeping.

Soon, I heard even breaths of sleep beside me, and I started to doze off too. After a few moments, I was in dreamland.

Our second night of sharing a bed passed uneventfully.

* * *

There was exactly one rule I maintained while cozying up to Caesar: never would I be so clingy that he would find me annoying.

It was natural to find a person annoying, no matter how nice they were, if they sought you out every day. So, I strategically showed my face to him once every two weeks—that was an acceptable range of time. By now, it had been two weeks since I’d last seen him. That had been the day we’d shared the bed.

I had shaken off all the ladies-in-waiting and was yawning in the prince’s palace’s backyard. Obviously, I was waiting for Caesar. I figured that it was necessary for us to jump the fence in the prince’s palace together at least once to solidify our amity. After all, I couldn’t use Noah as an excuse to visit him every time.

It was already my third day of waiting for him here. I wanted to insist that we venture outside the palace together. However, waiting with no end in sight would be difficult for anyone. If he didn’t show up today, I decided I would give up on this plan and think of another event to bring us closer.

Still, my sixth sense told me that today, he would come. Caesar had an economics lesson in the afternoon. He and Baron Alphonde didn’t get along at all, because the baron disparaged his mother’s background during nearly every lesson.

Naturally, he skipped every time. He would either spend the hour playing up in the trees like last time or leave the palace grounds.

Caesar had last left the palace about one month ago. I knew because the empress had told me. He was bound to come today. He had to. If he didn’t, these three days would’ve been for nothing...

Luckily, Caesar appeared in the afternoon. It was past the lunch hour. When he found me sitting at the foot of the stone wall, he had the most indescribable look on his face.

“Hi?” I asked as he stared at me.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to leave the palace too.”

“So you’re asking me to take you?”

“Mhm.”

Caesar looked at me as if I were the most annoying customer in the world. Uh, I guess it is a bit annoying. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this... I felt myself deflate.

“I mean, if it’s annoying, you don’t have to...” I muttered cheerlessly. “I just wanted to see what it was like outside the palace. I promise I won’t be a nuisance... but if you really don’t want to, that’s okay.”

Caesar was silent for a long time. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but his silence made me tense. His reluctance made sense in a way. It would be trouble if he went out—not just alone, but with a burden—and something bad happened.

However, Caesar said something entirely unexpected.

“How long have you been waiting here?”

“About three days?”

“Three days?!” He looked dumbfounded. “What have your ladies-in-waiting been doing for three days? They just let you be here?”

“I just told them not to follow me because I wanted to be alone. They listen to me these days. It’s also not like I’ve been here all day. Just between lunch and dinner—”

Caesar cut me off.

“That woman has probably heard that you’ve been here for three days. So, she’s either accepting it, or you’re doing this because she ordered you to.”

Wow, I guess it does seem suspicious.

I was amazed. That was all my credibility amounted to in Caesar’s eyes.

Hmm, I need to try harder. He’s already thinking this—if I press him harder, it’ll only have a more negative effect.

I stood up. By now, I had already half given up. My three days of effort had been in vain. I was disappointed, of course. But then...

“Promise you won’t cause trouble,” said Caesar.

“Huh?”

“If that woman has accepted it so far, it should be okay to at least show you around. You told me she already knows I’ve been leaving the grounds.”

That’s a surprise. I was just about to give up. I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, yeah. Duh. I’ll be quiet.”

He grazed me with a distrustful look, then brushed aside a thicket next to where I had been sitting. There was a hole behind it.

It was exactly as I had read in the novel. This hole—which had been dug by a dog—didn’t just lead to the other side of the wall. That would be silly, since you would still be on palace grounds even if you left the prince’s palace. Might as well leave through the front door on the other side.

No, this wall was unique in structure—the inside was hollow. I doubted this was the case for the entire wall of the prince’s palace, but at least it was hollow in this area.

You can guess the next, can’t you? Inside the wall, there was a passageway that led underground. It was so narrow that only one person could fit through at a time, but it was still a passageway.

As you might have predicted, this passageway led outside the palace. I followed Caesar underground.