Chapter 76
Divorce (2)
“I’m trying to help Meursault and Daphne get together. Do you know where I should start?”
“...Haydam.”
The Commander sighed and lowered the documents he had been reading.
“You haven’t forgotten that I’m still Daphne’s husband, have you?”
Of course I hadn’t. That was precisely why I had come to him first.
“Do you still have no intention of divorcing her?”
Instead of answering, the Commander folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.
Then, with his one remaining eye, he quietly stared at the white cat nestled in my arms.
“Is that the cat Meursault mentioned?”
After revealing Luna’s existence to Bones and Lucas, I had started showing her to the people around me, including Meursault.
I thought that if the Commander heard about Luna from others first, he would not find it too strange when he finally saw her.
Just as I expected, he did not seem particularly surprised to see me holding a cat.
If anything, he looked at Luna with curiosity.
I whispered softly to her.
“Go to Father.”
Luna flinched and hesitated for a moment, but soon leaped lightly from my arms onto the Commander’s desk.
After staring at him for a while, she stretched out her head as though asking to be petted.
The Commander gave a quiet laugh.
“You’re fearless.”
“Treat her as though she were me.”
The Commander looked at me as though I had said something uncharacteristically sentimental, then casually stroked Luna’s head.
Luna purred and promptly sprawled across the documents he had been reading.
“I see... You do resemble him in some ways.”
After scratching beneath Luna’s chin for a while, the Commander looked at me with his one eye.
“You’ve been visiting my office often lately. Is it because of the promise you made to Lunamoon?”
Hmm.
When I woke up in the hospital before, I had said that because of my promise to Lunamoon, I would continue protecting the Commander with my life.
Apparently, he thought I had been visiting so frequently because I wanted to make sure he was safe.
I can’t exactly tell him that his real son seems to miss him.
Until now, I had brought Luna here in the form of the ring.
But I did not like the idea of forcing her to remain trapped inside a jewel, merely watching the Commander forever.
That was why I had brought her in her cat form this time.
Of course, Luna had initially refused to reveal herself in front of the Commander.
—Is there any reason you need to hide only from the Commander? Unless you really are Haydam...
I had deliberately trailed off at the end.
Luna immediately insisted that she was not Haydam and therefore had no reason whatsoever to hide from the Commander.
That was how she had ended up coming with me in her cat form.
Just because I was pretending to be Haydam did not mean Luna had to be deprived of the Commander’s affection.
Anyway...
“You keep asking me questions, but you still haven’t answered mine.”
At that, the hand petting Luna paused.
“...Haydam. Even I cannot answer every question.”
My question had been whether he still had no intention of divorcing Daphne.
If he doesn’t know the answer himself, isn’t that practically the same as saying he still has no intention of divorcing her?
Come to think of it, the Commander had always been lukewarm whenever divorce was mentioned.
Did he not want to divorce Daphne?
Or was there some reason he could not?
Until now, I had assumed he was delaying the divorce to avoid conflict with the pro-Daphne faction.
However, the pro-Daphne faction had already been weakened as much as possible by Anton’s retirement and the incident involving Lieutenant General Max.
There would never be a better time for the Commander and Daphne to divorce.
The Commander had to know that too.
“Is there some problem? Is there a reason you can’t divorce her?”
The Commander stared at me for a while, then slowly shook his head.
“...Lunamoon never knew when to back down when she wanted an answer either. You probably inherited it from her, but at times it can be rather irritating.”
According to this man, every bad trait I had came from my mother.
“More importantly, are you properly preparing for the entrance examination? There should only be a few days left.”
The question sounded like something an ordinary father would ask his son before an entrance exam.
However, I was not the one taking the examination.
I was the one administering it.
There was one week left until the military academy entrance examination.
My goal was to secure a definite promise of divorce from the Commander before then.
“You don’t need to worry about the examination. The preparations are complete.”
“Oh? What kind of test are you planning?”
“Even if you’re my father, I can’t leak the exam questions.”
“Meursault seems to know what you prepared.”
...For some time now, the Commander had been avoiding my questions by changing the subject.
Did he simply not want to discuss divorce with his son?
But I needed to know exactly what he was thinking so I could decide on my next plan.
I still had three rewards remaining.
The best outcome would be to make him divorce Daphne without using any of them.
“Do you dislike the idea of Lady Daphne getting together with Meursault?”
“...It seems you came here determined to get an answer today.”
Realizing that changing the subject would not make me retreat, the Commander fell silent.
After a fairly long pause, he spoke.
“Perhaps it is true that I don’t approve of Meursault.”
...Was he really hesitant to divorce Daphne simply because he did not like Meursault?
Fortunately, what followed was a reasonable explanation for his hesitation.
“Daphne is a woman Lunamoon entrusted to me. Therefore, I have a responsibility toward her. I cannot simply hand her over because Meursault wants her. To begin with, she is not my possession.”
I realized my mistake.
I already knew that Meursault was Daphne’s favorite person, so I had been strongly pushing for her to remarry him.
However, the Commander knew absolutely nothing about Daphne’s feelings.
From his perspective, Meursault was the only one who wanted the marriage.
Having married Daphne at Lunamoon’s request and spent more than ten years with her, it was understandable that he would hesitate.
He must think that if he divorces Daphne now, I might pressure her into marrying Meursault against her will.
Just as Daphne had spent all these years unaware that Lunamoon had left the Commander a letter asking him to marry her...
The Commander likewise had no idea that Daphne had already asked Lunamoon long ago to help her live with Meursault because she did not want to marry the Commander.
If Daphne and the Commander learned each other’s circumstances, both the divorce and remarriage could probably be settled easily.
However...
Even if I told him now that Daphne also had feelings for Meursault, he would not believe me.
The Commander believed I could accomplish anything.
At the same time, he also knew I would use any means necessary to achieve my goal.
In that sense, perhaps he trusted my abilities but not my words.
Daphne had to confess her feelings herself.
Only then would the Commander believe it.
Wait a moment. Come to think of it...
Hadn’t Daphne said she would gather the courage to confess once Meursault returned from the subjugation campaign?
Surely she had not confessed while I was lying in the hospital?
“It seems Lieutenant General Max will be promoted to captain.”
The moment I visited Meursault, he immediately began talking about work.
That is definitely not the face of a man who was confessed to by the woman he has loved his entire life.
If they had confirmed their feelings for each other, he would not be behaving exactly as usual.
More importantly...
Lieutenant General Max was going to be promoted to captain?
“Was that His Excellency’s decision?”
“Half of it was.”
“What do you mean, half?”
“All the other officers besides Lieutenant General Max refused the position.”
“They deliberately rejected the promotion? Why?”
“Why do you think?”
Meursault stared intently at me as he asked.
“...Why are you looking at me like that? Is it because of me?”
“What are you talking about? Of course it’s because of you, Lord Haydam.”
“Why is that the obvious conclusion?”
“All the other officers know what happened to Anton and Josef after they became captains. At this point, the captain’s position is no different from a poisoned chalice. No one wanted to step forward and drink from it.”
“Then Lieutenant General Max...”
“Was pushed into it. Considering the previous incident, they decided he should take responsibility.”
I had not expected things to unfold this way.
Still, I had no objection to Lieutenant General Max being promoted.
He had no obvious flaws in his character.
He was also connected to me through Bones, so he would probably be favorably disposed toward me.
“Then who will replace Josef?”
At my question, Meursault’s expression became deeply miserable.
“...It appears it will be me.”
“Weren’t you a major general?”
“That is His Excellency’s decision.”
Was this what a country ruled by a dictator was like?
“Why are you surprised? Wasn’t the possibility of this happening the reason you intended to keep Josef alive?”
“Ah... Right.”
I could not exactly admit that I had never intended to let Josef live from the beginning.
So I nodded and smiled.
Meursault smiled back.
“Still, this incident reassured me that you are human after all, Lord Haydam. Even someone like you cannot control natural disasters.”
“......”
Since that belief reassured him, I decided to let him keep it for a while.
“By the way, have you seen Lady Daphne recently?”
“Lady Daphne...?”
Perhaps the question seemed abrupt, because Meursault tilted his head.
“It’s strange for you to ask me that. It isn’t as though I have any reason to meet Lady Daphne privately.”
“So you haven’t seen her?”
“No.”
Daphne had previously raised what could only be called a death fla—
No, a love flag.
She had said she would confess her feelings once Meursault returned from the subjugation campaign.
The matter involving Lieutenant General Max was also nearing its conclusion.
I had assumed she would have found some way to meet Meursault at least once by now.
Had Daphne still not taken action?
I don’t know whether she simply lacks courage or whether she has some other reason...
Either way, I had promised to help Daphne get divorced.
It seemed I would have to intervene.
“Meursault.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to visit Lady Daphne tomorrow. You’re coming with me.”
“Pardon?! M-Me too?”
Meursault immediately began rattling like a broken machine.
“W-Wouldn’t that be inappropriate? I don’t think I should...”
Where had he even gotten the idea of marrying Daphne when he lacked the courage to visit her?
Daphne did possess some bizarre item called the Bewitching Violet Eye.
However, although she had been wearing it, the Commander still loved Lunamoon.
That suggested it merely made the wearer appear beautiful and did not actually influence other people’s emotions.
There was one week left until the military academy entrance examination.
At the very least, I had to make Daphne and Meursault meet before then.
Anton complained constantly, but he already seemed to have come over to my side.
Lieutenant General Max, who would succeed him, had also become favorably disposed toward me because of the incident involving Bones.
If the Commander and Daphne were going to divorce, this was the perfect time.
It would be even better if Meursault, who would soon be promoted to captain, then remarried Daphne.
At that point, factions such as the pro-Commander faction and pro-Daphne faction would lose all meaning.
Everyone could simply become part of the pro-Haydam faction and live peacefully.
“I’ll get Lady Daphne’s permission, so don’t worry.”
“Lord Haydam... Thank you! I will make sure to keep my promise as well!”
...Promise?
“What promise are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Did I not promise that I would do everything in my power to help you establish an ideal family of your own?”
“Ah...”
Was he referring to when I had pretended to be someone who understood him?
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I will definitely find you an excellent spouse.”
“No, I’m only eleven years old...”
“If there is no suitable candidate in this district, I will search every other district until I find one. You need only trust me, Lord Haydam.”
There was no reasoning with him.
While I was trying to calm Meursault down, a soldier hesitantly approached us.
“What is it?”
Meursault immediately stopped making a fuss and questioned the soldier.
The soldier gave Meursault only a brief greeting before looking at me instead.
“I believe you should go see His Excellency immediately, Lord Haydam.”
“Is His Excellency looking for Lord Haydam?”
Meursault asked on my behalf while I stood there blankly.
The soldier shook his head.
“No. An envoy has arrived from the Love District.”
“What? The Love District?”
Why would anyone come from the Love District?
An envoy?
As I wondered whether I had heard correctly, the soldier continued.
“She says she came to meet Lord Haydam. It’s a girl around your age.”
I immediately realized who it was.
The shaman of the Love District.
The player known as God had come to see me.