I Am Trying to Divorce My Villain Husband, But We Had a Child - chapter 64

Chapter 64

‘As expected, I shouldn’t have taken this child in.’

Aiden hurriedly approached and extinguished the fire that had caught on the logs in the fireplace.

Only then did the child notice Aiden’s presence, turning towards him with wide, round eyes.

Aiden grabbed the child’s hand, intending to scold him, and turned him around.

“Leon. I told you not to play with fire, didn’t I?”

At Aiden’s reprimand, Leon looked confused but quickly noticed Aiden’s stern expression and shrank his shoulders. Then, in a small, mumbling voice, he said:

“I wasn’t playing with fire…”

“If it wasn’t playing with fire, then what were you doing?”

“If you sleep in the cold, you’ll get hurt. Mommy got hurt because of that too. That’s why I lit the fire.”

Aiden stared blankly at the child who said this.

The child hadn’t been playing with fire. He had lit it to keep himself warm.

At that moment, Aiden recalled something Elisa had once said.

“It’s still a small flame. One day, it could become a fire that consumes lives, or it could become a flame that shares warmth with people.”

At the same time, a face that he had longed for all his life came to mind.

The image of the woman he would love for a lifetime, who had always cared for those weaker than herself.

Julia would have likely said the same thing.

That this child had done nothing wrong.

That Aiden should take care of him.

‘Perhaps my final task is to raise you to be different from your grandfather.’

Still staring blankly at Leon, Aiden gently took the small hand of the child who was nervously watching him.

There were bits of bark stuck to Leon’s small hand from holding the firewood.

Aiden used his water magic to wash the child’s hands and apologized.

“I’m sorry, Leon. I got angry at you without fully understanding. Thank you for lighting the fire for me.”

At his apology, the child smiled shyly, as if he had never been intimidated.

Aiden, seeing the child smile like that, couldn’t help but chuckle softly. Then, as he added new logs to the fireplace, he asked:

“Shall we light the fire again?”

“Yeah!”

The child promptly lit the fire in the fireplace.

Aiden quietly watched the small flame from Leon’s hands gradually catch the logs and begin to burn.

It was small, but the most precious flame in the world.

Elisa, who had returned to the duke’s estate, found herself deep in thought.

‘How do I find proof that Roze tried to kill Leon?’

Elisa pondered the situation. She knew that whoever was behind the attempt to kill the child suspected of having royal blood wouldn’t be doing it themselves; they would have assigned the task to someone else. However, moving close associates would quickly raise suspicions, and the nobles would be unlikely to take on such a task.

Even if the nobles were loyal to Roze, they would be reluctant to use their own private soldiers to kill an imperial heir. They would fear being labeled as traitors if caught. Moreover, the nobles were not Roze’s people but rather Raymore’s.

Roze couldn’t have involved Raymore, either. In the original story, Raymore was shown to be indifferent to his daughter, the empress, despite the fact that her bearing an heir would solidify his power. Because of this, Roze acted unilaterally in trying to kill the heir, which eventually exposed Leon’s abilities and revealed him as the true heir.

As a result, Roze was deposed as empress, and Raymore turned against her.

‘So, Roze must be using mercenaries.’

Mercenary guilds were driven by money, not loyalty. This made them easier to manipulate with bribes.

Elisa smiled with a sense of ease. Things were turning out easier than expected. However, there was one problem.

‘It’s too dangerous for me to go personally.’

The fastest and most reliable way to find out which guild is colluding with Roze would be to catch mercenaries in the act of targeting suspected imperial heirs. But moving Rubellin’s knights might not be seen as a significant threat to mercenaries.

She needed someone with more power and authority.

‘What should I do?’

At that moment, one person who fit the bill perfectly came to mind.

Someone reliable enough to be entrusted with this task, and who possessed both power and authority.

Elisa stood up with a resolute smile.

*

The mercenary guild was located in a back alley on the outskirts of the city.

At first glance, it looked like a tavern or inn, but the patrons were all guild mercenaries.

Inside, the noise of drunken laughter from the mercenaries filled the air.

Then, suddenly—

Boom!

With a loud crash, the door of the inn burst open, and the doorman was thrown to the floor.

The once-boisterous inn fell silent in an instant.

“What, what’s happening?”

The mercenaries looked towards the broken door in confusion.

Among them stood one of their comrades, who had been given orders to kill all suspected heirs, trembling with fear.

Behind him, a tall man in a black robe entered with a calm stride.

The man, wearing black leather gloves, pushed back the hood of his robe.

With jet-black hair and blood-red eyes, he looked like a demon.

Richard surveyed the room with cold eyes and spoke.

“I’d like to meet the person in charge here.”

Despite being alone, Richard’s presence was enough to deter even the most hardened mercenaries. Those who had lived rough lives and had an animalistic sense of danger felt an overwhelming aura of a top-tier predator from him.

The mercenaries, intimidated, could only stare wordlessly.

But a newcomer, not yet attuned to the danger, tried to confront him.

“Who does this arrogant bastard think he is, demanding to see the Master?”

Richard regarded the approaching rookie with indifference, as if watching a small insect crawl toward him.

“How dare you!”

Offended by Richard’s gaze, the rookie charged at him with his sword drawn.

Richard easily dodged the attack with a slight movement and kicked the rookie in the abdomen as he lost his balance.

“Ugh!”

The rookie was sent sprawling backward from the impact.

“Y-you crazy!”

The rookie tried to retrieve his dropped sword, but Richard was faster. Richard swiftly kicked the mercenary’s sword away and stomped down on his hand.

The rookie screamed in pain as his bones were crushed.

“Argh!”

Richard, who had been coldly observing the rookie writhing in pain, turned his gaze to the mercenaries and spoke.

“I won’t say this more than three times. Bring me the person in charge.”

One of the mercenaries, who had been exchanging nervous glances with the others, hurriedly turned and went deeper into the inn.

Richard then removed his foot from the rookie’s hand.

In truth, he didn’t want to be involved in this matter.

What did it matter to him what happened to Christian’s son?

If anything, the death of Christian’s son, who held the power of the imperial family, would benefit Rubellin.

But he couldn’t go against Elisa’s earnest wishes.

‘Seeing that child reminded me of you, and I couldn’t turn a blind eye.’

He didn’t like the idea of her caring for someone else, but he didn’t mind that she was concerned because of him.

It meant she thought of him even in her daily life.

That was why he had embarked on this troublesome task late at night.

At that moment, the mercenary who had gone inside returned.

“The Master says to come inside…”

The mercenary, who had started speaking confidently, faltered at the end, intimidated by Richard’s gaze.

Richard followed the mercenary’s guidance into the inn.

After walking for a while, he reached a staircase leading to the second floor. Turning left at the top of the stairs, a long corridor stretched out.

At the end of the corridor was a single room.

It was an ordinary guest room.

Inside sat a thin man with a sharp expression, smoking a cigarette.

Four mercenaries, presumably his subordinates, surrounded him.

Richard frowned slightly at the sight of the cigarette but quickly ignored it and sat in a chair placed in front of the man.

The man, seemingly unfazed by Richard’s disregard for the dangerous situation, looked at him with interest and asked.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Are you the guild master?”

The guild master took a puff of his cigarette, exhaled, and responded with a slight delay.

“Yes. What’s the matter?”

“By order of the Princess, you are to immediately withdraw your guild members who are spread throughout the system.”

“What is this sudden—”

“If even one of those children is harmed, all of you will die.”

At Richard’s words, the guild master dropped his cigarette.

Typically, guilds would use codes rather than directly mentioning the names or identities of clients. The fact that this intruder knew that the princess had commissioned this guild, and knew the details of the request, was alarming.

However, he quickly masked his surprise and handed the cigarette to a subordinate.

“An order from Her Highness the Princess? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

As he finished speaking, one of the subordinates on the left threw a dagger at Richard.

Richard remained calm even as the dagger flew towards his heart.

The guild master, puzzled by Richard’s demeanor, was caught off guard when—

Crash!

The window next to them shattered, and a strong wind surged into the room.

“Ugh!”

The wind was so powerful it shoved the guild master and his subordinates to the corners of the room.

When the wind finally subsided and they managed to open their eyes, all the furniture in the room was disheveled. The table was overturned, and the dagger thrown by the subordinate was embedded in it.

In the midst of the chaos, Richard remained seated in the same position, his long legs crossed.

It was only then that the guild master and his subordinates recognized Richard’s identity.

“Duke Rubellin…?”

Richard, looking at the guild master and his subordinates with indifferent eyes, spoke.

“I believe you’re mistaken about something.”

A weak wind still surrounded the guild master and his subordinates, as if warning them that it could subdue them at any moment.

The guild master and his subordinates huddled in fear, swallowing hard.

Richard dispersed the surrounding wind and added.

“This is not a suggestion; it’s an order.”