HGOS 01

[“You have at most three months left.”]

Baroness Kacia Greze quietly closed her eyes as she recalled the physician’s words.

It had been four months since she was diagnosed with an incurable illness of unknown cause. She had stubbornly survived an entire month longer than expected.

During that time, she had accomplished more for the people she would leave behind than she had throughout all twenty-seven years of her life. It would have been nice if, at the very end, she had lived for herself.

But she had no regrets.

Even what she had done was still not enough if she wanted to leave behind a prosperous territory for her son and daughter. Now, all she could do was trust the butler, Paul, to serve as the estate’s steward after she was gone.

Had I ever lived for myself during those twenty-seven years?

At seventeen, she had been sold as little more than a trophy to Baron Greze, the war hero burdened with the disgraceful title of the Emperor’s “dog.”

Her father, Count Ruberno, had been unable to resist what was essentially the Emperor’s threat disguised as a suggestion. As he married his daughter off, he had said:

“If only you had been just a little less beautiful.”

Blessed with extraordinary beauty and noble birth, she had been praised as one of the Empire’s finest brides.

Yet in the end, she had merely been sold off to a newly appointed noble who had once been nothing more than a common mercenary.

Even then, she had accepted it.

She had stepped into the Greze estate with a heart full of excitement, dreaming of a happy marriage.

But there had been no fluttering romance.

Her husband was not merely the Emperor’s dog.

He was the dog of anyone wealthy enough to hire him.

Whether he was a war hero or simply a mercenary was difficult to tell. From civil wars both large and small, to national wars, to reinforcing distant territories, he accepted any battlefield that paid well. He was almost never home.

Was it because he had grown up poor as a commoner and had become obsessed with amassing wealth?

Or did he simply enjoy beating, cutting down, and killing people?

Whichever it was, Baron Jester Greze was never a good husband.

Even during the rare occasions when he remained at the castle, their relationship never went beyond—or below—that of husband and wife in name only.

Needless to say, throughout ten years of marriage, he had never once said he liked her, let alone loved her.

Even for a political marriage, that was far too much.

“M-Mother… Please… don’t die…”

“M-Mommy… Waaaah…”

Baroness Kacia swallowed her grief as she looked at the two children sitting beside her bed, their faces drenched in tears and snot.

The only reason she had been able to endure that hellish marriage was because of the children she cherished more than life itself.

Her eldest son, Rael, looked exactly like his father but possessed a completely different personality.

Her youngest daughter, Lucy, was so adorable that everyone in the castle adored her.

They were only eight and five years old.

Far too young to leave behind.

Everything she had exhausted the last of her strength doing before her death had been for their sake.

She had found a tutor for Rael and a nanny for Lucy.

She had trained the servants to treat the young masters with the utmost respect.

She had even left what would likely be her first and last request to her husband.

“Please… love… our children…”

“M-My babies… Even without your mother… Cough!”

“Aaaah!”

“Mother! Mother!”

Just as she tried to leave behind one final heartfelt farewell, a mouthful of blood burst from her lips.

Rael and Lucy cried even harder as they clung to her.

“My lady… You can’t leave us like this…”

“My lady! Please don’t speak anymore! Save your strength! Please!”

Her beloved maid Clara and the butler Paul were both in tears as well.

Only four people remained to witness the Baroness’s final moments.

Her heartless husband was absent until the very end.

He had been away for over a month, serving as reinforcements in Viscount Biche’s territorial war, and had yet to return home.

If I had told him I was dying… would he have abandoned the campaign to stay beside me?

The Baroness silently shook her head.

She already knew exactly how he would have responded.

“That’s unfortunate.”

Then he would have added,

“I’ll soon be joining the war. By the time I return, you’ll already be dead. Let me say goodbye in advance. You’ve worked hard all these years.”

It was only her imagination.

But it sounded entirely believable.

Anyone who knew Baron Greze well would probably nod and say,

“Yes… that sounds exactly like something he’d say.”

The Baroness smiled bitterly to herself.

Not telling her husband she was terminally ill had been the best decision she had made in her brief twenty-seven years of life.

She already disliked him enough.

She had no desire to spend her final moments remembering his cold, infuriating face.

“Was I… a good mother… to my children?”

“Motheeer!”

“Mommy!”

“O-Of course you were, my lady! There isn’t another mother in this world who loved her children as much as you did!”

Clara hugged Rael and Lucy tightly as she answered through sobs.

“Was I… a good mistress… to all of you?”

“Without question, my lady. You’re the only noble lady who even remembers the name of the newest cook in the kitchen. If you pass away, countless servants will leave this castle. I… I would too, if it weren’t for your final wishes…”

Unable to hold back any longer, Paul removed his monocle and wiped away his tears.

The gesture looked strangely unfamiliar.

“And… to the people… was I… a good… acting lord…?”

“My lady! Acting lord? What are you saying? You know the people all call you ‘My Lord,’ not the master!”

“You were the one who ruled the Greze territory!”

Clara and Paul finally collapsed to their knees beside the bed, clutching it as they cried like children.

“Now that I think about it… I don’t remember… ever living… for myself…”

“M-My lady…”

“Mommy!”

Even if she had never been truly happy, she believed she had lived a respectable life.

She had faithfully fulfilled every duty placed upon her.

Her only regret was that she had never once cared for herself.

Perhaps if she had been just a little lazier…

A little more selfish…

A little worse…

She might have been happier.

But her life was already rushing toward its end.

What good were regrets now?

With nothing left but emptiness filling her heart, Baroness Kacia Greze quietly accepted the death approaching her.

She closed her eyes.

“…Kacia!”

At that moment, an unexpected intruder burst into the quiet deathbed scene.

“…Master?”

Paul’s eyes widened.

It was Baron Greze.

Anyone could tell he had only just returned.

Still clad in armor, his face was covered in dirt and dried blood.

He must have heard about his wife’s condition the instant he arrived and rushed here without even changing.

His reaction, however, was strange.

Like a man who had lost his soul, he staggered forward with vacant eyes before dropping to his knees beside her bed.

He looked utterly devastated by her impending death.

That made no sense.

“Why…”

Everyone understood the words he had swallowed.

Why didn’t you tell me you were dying?

It sounded as though he wanted to ask exactly that.

Yet he forced the rest of the sentence back down.

“Cough!”

“My lady!”

Kacia coughed up blood once more.

Panic swept through the room.

“My lady! The master is finally here! Tell him everything you couldn’t say before! You always told me there was so much you wanted to say!”

Clara could tell death was only moments away.

She wanted the Baroness to leave this world without regrets.

Deep down, she even hoped her mistress would summon enough strength to slap her worthless husband across the face.

“Go ahead.”

The Baron muttered blankly.

“Say whatever you want.”

“…Anything?”

“Yes.”

“Then…”

The Baroness slowly closed her eyes.

A tear gathered at the corner before quietly falling.

“I… always wanted… a pearl necklace…”

“What?”

The Baron shouted in disbelief.

“Why would you ask my permission for that? If you wanted one, you should’ve just bought it!”

“Y-You worked… so hard… to earn money… How could I… spend it… on luxuries…?”

Raised in a wealthy noble family, Kacia had never lacked for anything before marriage.

But after seeing her husband obsess over accumulating wealth, she had constantly worried about spending money.

Even though fashion changed every year, she had lived with only the five dresses and two coats she had brought with her when she first married.

Everyone knew just how unlike a noblewoman she had lived.

The Baron’s bloodshot eyes widened.

“How is one necklace a luxury? Damn it! Do you even know why I worked myself to death earning money in the first place?”

“Cough!”

“Aah! My lady!”

She vomited blood again.

Her face had become so pale she looked no different from a corpse.

Blood stained the corners of her lips from coughing it up over and over.

“And… I wanted… to visit… the capital… just once…”

“Then we should have gone!”

“You were… always at war… If I left… who would… manage… the territory…?”

“…”

“And… there’s… one more thing…”

“Tell me.”

“If I die… and… you bring… another mistress…”

“There won’t be one!”

“…If you do… I’ll haunt you… forever. Live alone… for the rest of your life… you awful man…”

She must have been holding in these feelings for a very long time.

Seeing his normally timid wife speak so honestly for the first time left the Baron completely stunned.

“You’ll… grant… all my wishes?”

“I will.”

His voice trembled.

“I’ll buy you a hundred damn necklaces if that’s what you want. I’ll take you to the capital myself. And in the name of House Greze, there will never be another wife besides you.”

“…It’s nice…”

She smiled weakly.

“…That you’re… finally kind to me… now that… I’m dying…”

“Then… grant me… one last wish…”

“Anything.”

The Baroness stretched out her skeletal arm toward the parchment lying on the bedside table.

For years…

She had wanted to hand it to him.

But she had endured.

For her beloved children.

For the people of the territory.

For her position as Baroness Greze.

“S-Sign it…”

The Baron hurriedly accepted the parchment.

The instant he read it, his expression froze.

It was a divorce agreement.

The worn, weathered paper showed it had been hidden away in her drawer for a very long time.

Even though she knew it no longer had any meaning…

She still looked at him with desperate eyes, silently asking for his permission.

It was probably her way of asking him to understand.

To understand that every bit of unhappiness in her life had begun with him.

“Cough…”

“M-Mother!”

Kacia vomited blood once more.

Rael grabbed her shoulders, suddenly sensing what was about to happen.

“…Mother?”

“M-My lady!”

“Sob… My lady! You can’t leave us like this!”

“Mommy!”

It was a heartbreaking death.

Unable to hear the answer she had sought from her husband until the very end, she couldn’t even close her eyes.

And so…

Baroness Kacia Greze’s short life of twenty-seven years came to an end.

The Baron stared silently into the lifeless eyes of his wife, still frozen open.

As everyone else collapsed to the floor, weeping over her tragic death…

He slowly rose from his knees.

Riiip.

The divorce papers in his hand tore cleanly down the middle.

Then, in a voice as cold and final as ever, he answered his wife’s last request.

As he always had…

He turned his back first and walked away.

“I can’t do that.”