It was during the day when a banquet hall was held at the center of the palace.

For Erin, palace events meant days and weeks or suffering.

People loved the event, but Erin, who was in charge of the palace, had to prepare and organize things for days beforehand.

She hadn’t had a moment’s rest since that morning, and her head was aching so badly.

As the banquet drew to a close, Erin stepped out into the palace gardens to clear her head.

She was resting at the foot of a sparsely populated pavilion overlooking a small lake. When she suddenly heard a shout.

She turned and saw Einz coming towards her. Erin tried to wave in greeting, but could barely make a sound.

As he approached her, he collapsed to the ground in a heap.

‘Einz!’

Erin screamed, whille rushing to his side. He was out cold and was sweating so profusely. Erin pulled him to his feet. Her ceremonial skirt was soiled, but she couldn’t care less.

‘Einz? Einz, wake up!’

Einz didn’t wake up.

It wasn’t until later that Erin smelled the foul odor of blood on his body. That she realized that something was wrong. Upon closer inspection, she found that he was bleeding from his right shoulder. Erin pulled down Einz’s robe, exposing his shoulder.

‘This is…’

On Einz’s right shoulder was a cut so deep you could see the bone. It looked like an ordinary cut, but it was not ordinary.

The wound was centered around a blackened, poisoned blood vessel, branching out like tree roots. Black blood gradually oozed from the gaping wound.

Erin knew what it was. It was impossible not to know.

‘Demon poison.’

It was a poison that poisoned creatures with evil energy. If left untreated, it would consume a person’s entire body and kill them.

‘Einz….’

‘I’d noticed that something was wrong with his complexion sometimes, but I’d always assumed that it was because he was tired. I didn’t realize Einz was hiding a secret.’

The wound smelled so terrible.

There was a damp, dark, cold odor that seemed to rise from the very bottom of the earth. It was the smell of death.

She could tell by the smell alone that it was indeed a demonic poison.

If one were found poisoned by a demon, they would be quarantined immediately. They would also be taken to the temple for purification.

Infected ones are quarantined, practically imprisoned, and then burned to death.

The poison is not contagious in itself. With time and consistent treatment, it was possible to recover.

However there are times when an infected person would die and a new beast would arise from their corpses.

To prevent this, the temples sought out and destroyed the infected, for whatever reason.

It was cruel, but it was Imperial policy.

I could understand why Einz had kept this from me. Erin didn’t want Einz to meet that end either.

‘If you stay here, you’ll be found out.’

It was the day of the banquet, and the palace was full of people. It was off a deserted path, but she could still see nobles wandering around in the distance.

‘What can I do? What should I do…’

It was an embarrassing and frightening situation.

All the while, Einz continued to fidget and break out in a cold sweat.

There was no time to think. So Erin dragged Einz through the bushes.

As they ducked into the shrubbery, the blades of grass surrounding them shieling their bodies.

Erin dipped her handkerchief into the water of a nearby lake and wiped Einz’s face, which was now covered in a cold sweat.

She could have abandoned him, but she didn’t. She stayed and protected him until the end.

After a while, Einz woke up.

‘Erin…?’

‘Einz? Are you awake?’

Einz slowly opened his eyes and froze at the sight of his bare shoulder. Erin reassured him.

‘It’s okay, Einz.’

“I’m sorry… I was getting better and then suddenly…’

Einz struggled to sit up and covered his shoulder with his shirt.

He was sorry that he hadn’t told Erin before and that he had caused her so much trouble.

Erin would have reassured him and comforted him, had it not been for the sudden sound of footsteps.

The pounding of horses came from the path beyond the flowerbeds.

Without warning, the grass was cleared and people instantly appeared.

‘Your Highness? Oh, my…’

Serena, with her handmaidens, looked at them in surprise. It didn’t take long for the bad rumors to spread.

『At Midnight in the Palace gardens, A man and woman was caught hiding in the grass. It was the duchess who was ignored by her husband and a young, handsome knight captain. It was rumored that they were close friends since childhood.』

It was a perfect setting for such a dirty rumor. Within a week, there was no one in the palace who didn’t know what had happened. Rumors became even more colored and embellished, until some said that Erin and Einz had taken off their clothes and were even embracing.

‘Can you explain what happened?’

Eventually, exactly a week after it happened, the Emperor summoned Erin and asked.

‘…….’

But Erin couldn’t answer.

Nor could she say, ‘Einz suddenly fainted and I was taking care of him.’

If it was a normal situation, she would have called for a servant to take him back to the palace, not to hide in the grass with a man who had collapsed alone.

‘I didn’t do anything that wasn’t… Honorable.’

That was all she could say.

Without further ado, the emperor sent an order for Einz to join the battlefields of the south, and shortly afterward, he himself traveled south.

Some time later, Raymond, who had been in the south, returned to the capital.

And as soon as he heard the rumors, he demanded a divorce from Erin.

‘On second thought, this is definitely weird.’

‘Was it a coincidence that Einz had a seizure at that time of day, and that the maids and Serena were there as well?’

‘Absolutely not.’

Einz doesn’t remember how he ended up there. He just accepted a drink as a formality at the banquet and drank it, and then he doesn’t remember anything after that.

“I should have just told them the truth back then.”

The miserable voice made Erin turn her head to find Einz staring at her with pained eyes. His light purple eyes reflected clear pain and guilt.

“I should have stayed here and told them the truth instead of going south, and then you wouldn’t have to suffer like this.”

It was Erin who had asked Einz not to say anything.

‘It’s okay.’ she said, ‘Just go to the south as the Emperor ordered.’

‘Trust me, I’ll take care of things here.’

At the time, Erin didn’t realize it would come to this. The emperor kept the matter quiet in the palace and believed Erin’s innocence.

In fact, affairs were commonplace among the nobility.

Just look at Raymond, who is now living with Serena in his palace, even though Erin lives in the palace next door.

She hadn’t expected him to use it as an excuse to ask for a divorce.

‘He just wanted to take a chance and kick me out.’

My parents are dead now anyway. She didn’t have to put up with this anymore. Erin was relieved that things had come to this, but Einz was not.

“I’ll tell them the truth. I will go before the Duke and explain what exactly happened, I’ll tell them that you were only involved because you were trying to help me, and that all the other rumors are a misunderstanding…”

Erin looked at him with calm eyes.

“No. You don’t have to do that.”

It was a trap in plain sight.

And it wasn’t aimed at Einz, it was clearly aimed at her. Erin couldn’t let Einz fall victim because of her.

It’s better to just get a divorce.

‘Actually, I feel so much better now that I’m divorced. Even if Raymond begged me to come back, I’d never go back.’

Erin didn’t care anymore if the truth came out or not. Only one thing bothered her.

‘Did the man who plotted against them know that Einz was in such a state?’

‘Did he know he was infected with demonic poison and used a drug to amplify it?’

‘Or did they just set the two of them up to start a rumor, give Einz some sort of elixir and send him to Erin alone, and the elixir’s side effect was causing the demon’s poison to rampage?’

It was impossible to tell at this point.