THDAD prologue

Prologue

“Madam. The weather is lovely. Shall we get a divorce?”

I stopped walking and turned my head.

What on earth was that supposed to mean?

Where did that even come from?

When our eyes met, Shite smiled.

His brown eyes shone clearly beneath the sunlight, while his ash-gray hair swayed in the breeze.

Despite his gloomy coloring, his smile was bright and cheerful.

Shite Honeyswald was looking at me with an expression perfectly suited to a beautiful spring day.

…Unfortunately, the words coming out of his mouth were the exact opposite of the gentle-looking face he wore.

So this is why he suddenly asked me to go for a walk.

And after all that, he had to say what?

Let’s get divorced? Ha! I was speechless.

“What does the nice weather have to do with getting divorced?”

“If we divorce while the weather is nice, wouldn’t it feel a little less unpleasant?”

“No, it wouldn’t.”

“Or perhaps, since the weather is nice, we could get into the spirit of things and have a divorce?”

“What the hell does that even mean…? What kind of spirit are you talking about?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps the mood to get divorced?”

Was he trying to make a joke out of this?

I barely swallowed down the anger rising inside me and lifted the corners of my lips into a smile.

“I’m not in the mood for that.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

He said it, but Shite didn’t look unfortunate in the slightest.

“Madam. If you ever wish to reclaim the surname ‘Rutschild,’ let me know. My divorce papers are always stamped and ready.”

Shite turned away without a trace of hesitation.

Then, as if he had never suggested going for a walk in the first place, he casually walked straight back into the mansion alone.

Left standing in the garden by myself, I let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha! Seriously… Hah!”

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even find the words.

I repeatedly ran both hands through my hair, trying to cool my head, which had grown hot with anger.

My wavy, pale-blue hair slipped between my fingers.

For a moment, the unobstructed feeling made me feel a little better…

…Yeah, right!

“Why the hell is that man acting like this?!”

The anger boiling all the way to the top of my head refused to subside.

And of course it didn’t.

Because every conversation I’d had with Shite over the past few days had gone exactly like this!

What on earth happened to him?

Shite Honeyswald.

He had originally never even spoken to me.

Whenever necessary, he would mumble only the bare minimum, so quietly that I could barely hear him.

His tall frame was always hunched over, making him look shorter, and his eyes would blatantly sneak glances over my body.

He was a gloomy, unsettling, downright unpleasant man.

The only fortunate thing was that he rarely left his room, so we hardly ever crossed paths.

But the man who had lived like a stranger to me suddenly changed after the day of the storm.

All of a sudden, he began showing up faithfully at every meal and saying things like—

“Breakfast is wonderful. It seems the chef put a great deal of effort into it. Shall we get divorced, if only to honor his hard work?”

Was he seriously spouting nonsense like that out of nowhere?

And then—

“I wrote this with great care. Please accept it.”

He handed me an envelope.

When I opened it, it contained divorce papers.

Then there was—

“I heard that you enjoy horseback riding, so I wanted to give you a good horse. I brought one here for you.”

And when I went to see it, I discovered that the horse’s name was Parting.

On top of that, engraved on the back of the pendant of the necklace he gave me were the words:

For you, who are more beautiful when alone.

At this point, it felt as though Shite Honeyswald’s every inhale said divorce, and every exhale said please do it.

As I recalled all the outrageous things Shite had done over the past few days, my anger reached its peak.

There’s a limit to how much you can torment someone. Isn’t this taking things a little too far?

I couldn’t just sit there and take it anymore.

I marched into the mansion.

I climbed the stairs, walked down the hallway, and flung open Shite’s bedroom door.

Despite my sudden intrusion, he showed no sign of surprise and calmly lifted his head.

“What is it?”

“I simply cannot understand. I haven’t been unfaithful, nor have I brought shame upon your family. Until a few days ago, there was no particular problem between us! So why do you keep asking for a divorce?”

Shite turned over the papers he had been reading and set them down.

His unwavering gaze landed on my face.

As my anger faded slightly from embarrassment, I realized that I had been speaking much more loudly than usual.

My expression probably wasn’t very pleasant either.

I must have been frowning so fiercely that I looked fierce and threatening.

I became conscious of how undignified I was behaving.

Almost reflexively, I checked whether anyone else was watching.

Thankfully, there was no one there besides Shite.

Calm down. Calm down.

There was nothing to gain from letting my emotions get the better of me.

I desperately cooled the anger that had risen to the top of my head, then pulled up the corners of my lips into a smile.

In the gentlest tone I could manage, I tried to reason with Shite.

“Don’t just suddenly ask for a divorce. Tell me why. If there’s a problem, I’ll put my head together with yours and try to find a solution.”

Shite still didn’t take his eyes off me.

Slowly, he rose to his feet.

He walked around the desk and approached me at an unhurried pace.

One step.

Then another.

Shite’s shadow stretched long across the floor and climbed up my body.

The backlighting obscured his expression. His atmosphere was completely different from when he had been smiling.

The pressure he gave off made me feel as though my body might shrink back on its own.

I can’t let him see that I’m intimidated.

I straightened my shoulders and forced my feet, which wanted to retreat, to stay where they were.

When I raised my chin, I found Shite’s face directly in front of me.

He was close enough that I could feel his breath.

His brown eyes slowly moved over my eyes and cheeks, as though tracing every feature.

Then he smiled.

There wasn’t a trace of warmth in it, yet it was the perfect smile of an authority figure.

Was Shite even capable of making an expression like that?

No.

Absolutely not.

A smile befitting an authority figure?

He was a man who didn’t even know how to smile.

And yet this man was naturally radiating an intimidating presence, as though he had been born to rule?

If it were the Shite I knew, he wouldn’t even have been able to imitate something similar.

I could swear to it.

Just as I tilted my head at the strange sense of incongruity, Shite gently pushed me back.

“You said you would put your heads together and think of a solution. That is a kind and adorable offer, Madam, but the only way you can help me is—”

“……”

“By getting a divorce.”

The door slammed shut right in front of my face.

I was so utterly dumbfounded that a hollow laugh escaped me.

No, seriously. This was driving me insane.

Why had he suddenly become obsessed with getting a divorce?

He was the one who proposed to me first!