Chapter 83 – Divorce (9)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“-and so, the funerals for the fallen soldiers have all been completed.”

Commander Hayden blankly stared at Second Lieutenant Plato, who was giving him the report.

Normally, anyone would be nervous if the commander stared at them silently, but Plato only looked back with eyes glistening with a clear light, as if asking if he had anything to say.

‘I can see why Haydam wants to make him his adjutant.’

He had left the funerals of the soldiers who fell in this subjugation battle to Plato, who had just been commissioned, as if telling him to try his hand at it, but Plato finished the funerals without any noise.

Perhaps because he had watched what his father, Anton, had been doing all this time, he was more familiar with military affairs than anyone.

‘He is certainly something special, but…’

Separated from Plato’s ability, the fact that he was Anton’s son of all things weighed on the commander’s mind.

No matter how much of a screw-loose child Plato was, he would eventually choose his father at a critical moment.

The problem was that there was no way Haydam would have asked to make him his adjutant without knowing that.

With what thought did he make Plato his adjutant and even drag the already retired Anton into Lieutenant General Max’s business?

Although it was surprising that Anton personally stepped forward to play along with Haydam’s act, considering that his son was a regressor, he assumed that Haydam knew Anton’s weaknesses that he himself didn’t know, so he did not think it too strange.

However, after a bolt of lightning struck Josef.

A strong thought began to rise that Haydam had something more than just being a regressor.

He could not ignore the presence of the cat that suddenly started following Haydam and the young girl who came from another zone either.

‘That child did not look ordinary either… but there is indeed a difference from Haydam.’

If the girl from the Love Zone gave the feeling of not being an ordinary person.

He felt that Haydam… was so out of the human realm that he could hardly believe he was his own child.

Yet that son of his, who was close to non-human, had recently been hell-bent on divorcing him and Daphne.

‘He is my son, but I have absolutely no idea what he is thinking.’

Judging by the way he handled Lieutenant General Max’s affair alone, his son was far from righteous.

There way no way such a Haydam would try to divorce him and Daphne simply because ‘she is pitiful.’

While thinking about that, Commander Hayden noticed Plato still in front of him and asked.

“Did you also contribute to spreading the rumor that I would get divorced?”

Receiving such a question, Second Lieutenant Bones or Second Lieutenant Lucas would have been busy pretending otherwise in embarrassment, but the answer that came back from Plato was clean.

“Yes.”

“…”

The commander narrowed his one remaining eye, looked at Plato, and then asked.

“Then, do you also think I should get divorced?”

“That is not it.”

“It’s not?”

Because Plato’s answer was unexpected, the commander asked once more.

“Then why are you helping with the work to get me divorced?”

“Because Master Haydam wishes for it.”

“Would you kill even your father if Haydam wanted it?”

“…”

Although it was a question that could make him quite indignant, Plato answered without any agitation.

“If Master Haydam wished to kill my father, it would be more than enough without having to borrow my hands.”

“Your answer is a complete disqualification as a soldier. Do you know that?”

“I am sorry.”

“But I wonder how it is as an adjutant.”

Commander Hayden, whose interest was slightly piqued, asked one more thing.

“Come to think of it, you were also close with Daphne, weren’t you? I remember you two getting along like siblings.”

“Yes, I haven’t been able to meet her for a while, but she is like a real sister to me.”

“In your eyes, do you think your sister and Meursault look good together?”

To that question, Plato could not return an answer right away either.

Plato, hesitating for a moment, asked back carefully.

“Why are you asking me such a thing?”

“You must know too. After Haydam divorces me and Daphne, whose hand he intends to place her in.”

“Ah…”

Plato spoke with a face of understanding.

“So Your Excellency did not know.”

“…Know what?”

“It is nothing. It does not seem to be a matter for me to interfere in.”

Commander Hayden knitted his brows slightly.

“…Meursault.”

“I am Plato, though.”

“Where did Meursault go?”

Sensing a mismatch belatedly, Commander Hayden began to look for Meursault.

“Why did you come to report? It should have been Meursault’s job.”

“I was told that I only needed to deliver the report myself, though.”

“Who said that?”

“Major General Meursault did…”

“Meursault?”

Just as the commander’s expression was becoming unusual, a soldier ran inside.

It was a face the commander knew as well.

Because he was a soldier who guarded Daphne’s mansion.

The moment he saw that soldier’s face, the commander intuitively knew that the absent Meursault had committed some act.

Sure enough, the soldier approached with a face of not knowing how to say this and spoke.

“Y-Your Excellency… Major General Meursault is…”

“Major General Meursault?”

“That is… to Lady Daphne…”

Commander Hayden immediately knitted his brows.

“Did he visit her despite the fact that Daphne must have refused to meet?”

“H-He didn’t just visit…”

At the words that he didn’t just visit, one of Commander Hayden’s eyebrows was about to shoot all the way up.

The soldier added.

“He is proposing right now.”

“…What?”

“I mean, he is proposing in front of Lady Daphne’s mansion right now. I clearly saw him sitting inside a heart made of candles with one knee bent.”

The commander was momentarily dumbfounded, even forgetting to close his mouth.

“I… will head back now.”

No matter how much Plato did not care about the reactions of those around him, he must have instinctively realized that now was the time to leave, quickly slipping out of the office before the commander could snap out of it.

The first words the commander spat out after finally regaining his senses a long while later were as follows.

“Haydam… this brat again.”

* * *

“That, that crazy bastard!!”

Daphne’s butler spat out curses while looking at Meursault out the window.

Because of the rain that had started falling a moment ago, Meursault as well as the candles lit in a heart shape were soaking wet and pitiful beyond measure, but Meursault had been sitting in that posture with one knee bent without moving a muscle.

“What does that fellow think of Lady Daphne’s honor! Not returning after doing it moderately, even when it’s raining…!”

The butler muttered that it was an ominous sign for early rain to fall, even if it was spring.

Daphne, unable to even look out the window due to whatever she feared, sat at the tea table with a troubled face and let out a sigh.

I sat opposite that Daphne and sipped black tea.

Daphne’s butler, perhaps frustrated by my behavior, stopped spitting out curses out the window and clung to me.

“Master Haydam! Is this really the time to be drinking tea so leisurely! Please take that man and go back…!”

I gently placed down the teacup I was drinking on the tea table and spoke.

“I will do so.”

“Master Haydam!”

The butler’s expression brightened as I seemed to agree, but darkened again at my added words.

“If Lady Daphne wants that, that is.”

“W-What?”

“Lady Daphne, what shall we do? Should I send Meursault back?”

“…”

Daphne looked at me resentfully and bit her lips tightly.

“Haydam… why are you doing this to me?”

“I am trying to fulfill what was promised. Didn’t you want to divorce my father?”

At the reply I spat out in a flat tone, the butler flew into a rage and shouted.

“What kind of slander is that! Divorce! There is no way Lady Daphne would have wanted such a thing!?”

Although the butler vented his anger, Daphne spoke as if the butler’s words did not even enter her ears.

“The order… is wrong.”

“L-Lady Daphne?”

Since the statement that the order was wrong sounded as though Daphne also wanted the divorce just as Haydam said, the butler looked at Daphne in no small amount of embarrassment.

While she was busy pretending to know nothing when I visited with Shin Eun-jo before, her composure seemed to have collapsed when Meursault’s proposal actually rushed in.

“I haven’t divorced Hayden yet. But to suddenly propose like this…!”

Daphne, as if forgetting that she had to act like a virtuous wife anymore, placed her hand on her forehead and shouted passionately.

“What if something goes wrong with Meursault like that…! What if Hayden punishes Meursault…!!”

At the sight of Daphne pouring out protective statements instead of telling Meursault to leave, the butler was astounded and did not know how to close his mouth, but I was relieved by Daphne’s words.

If Daphne had thought of her own safety first even up to this moment, she would have simply taken Meursault and gone back.

“L-Lady Daphne, what on earth are you saying right now…!”

“Butler.”

I spoke to the butler with consideration in my own way.

“If you do not have the confidence to handle what happens here, you may excuse yourself. I promise there will be no harm to you.”

“I, I… that is…”

The butler conflicted while looking at me and Daphne, then soon excused himself while unable to hide his apologetic expression.

Daphne let out a small, hollow laugh and stared at me with eyes full of resentment.

“Indeed, you did not come to help me.”

“Then?”

“You were trying to get revenge on me. From the very beginning.”

I smirked at those words.

“Why would I seek revenge on Lady Daphne?”

“Because I did that to Luna Moon… no, if this isn’t revenge, then what is it?! You made Anton, who even prepared a portrait for you, retire on the spot, and framed Max with an absurd accusation…!!”

Common-sensically, Anton’s retirement or Max’s framing was done by a mere ten-year-old… is he eleven now?

Anyway.

It would have been difficult to think a child of such a young age led it.

It seemed that surviving in the apocalypse worldview for over ten years despite being possessed via a dating sim was not just due to luck.

But thinking that those actions were committed by me to get revenge on her was a bit of self-consciousness overload, perhaps.

Well, since a dating sim player must have been the protagonist of this world, maybe it was inevitable.

While I was having such stray thoughts, Daphne, whose voice had momentarily risen, lowered her voice again out of concern that it might leak past the window.

“Isn’t it you, Haydam, who made Meursault propose to me when I haven’t even divorced yet? Or are you going to say that Meursault is currently proposing to me out there in this rain solely by his own will? As far as I know, Meursault is absolutely not that kind of person. He is a person who would never do such a reckless thing…!”

I waited for Daphne to finish speaking before opening my mouth.

“First… it is true that I advised Meursault to propose.”

“Haydam!”

“When I told him it was necessary to get you divorced, he said he would willingly do it.”

Daphne was breathing heavily, unable to hide her anger.

“Did you… have to go this far? Even standing that blade-like man in the middle of tacky candles?”

“I’m sorry, but the candle heart is Meursault’s taste.”

“…”

I was startled when I came and saw it earlier, too.

If roses were common in this era, that bastard Meursault might have even prepared a million roses.

“Actually, there was an easier path. A way to solve it peacefully without causing this kind of commotion.”

At my words, Daphne gathered her brows as if she did not understand.

“Then why on earth this commotion…!”

“Because it was exasperating.”

“W-What?”

I rested my chin on the tea table and smiled gently at Daphne.

“I mean, both you and Meursault… I found it exasperating that you were just waiting for someone else to divorce you.”