how to divorce the male lead - chapter 6
The once peaceful Duke's residence was filled with the sounds of breaking and tidying up from morning to afternoon.
The servants were so busy that they couldn't even take a break, and it was exhausting work.
Nevertheless, this cleaning was an exceptional occasion. Finally, they were cleaning up the gifts that the followers, whom the Duchess had picked up here and there, had brought.
The small gift room quickly emptied out, and the last remaining remnants of gifts were thrown into the trash bin.
Yuliana wiped her forehead, looking at the now pristine gift room with a satisfied heart. While most of the work was done by the servants, Yuliana had also lent a hand in the cleaning. It was merely clearing away bits of paper, but for her, who had lived without lifting a finger, it was quite an achievement.
"My, my, Duchess. You didn't have to do this..."
The servants were at a loss, shuffling their feet.
They had no idea why the Duchess suddenly ordered them to clean up the gift room, but her intentions were always unpredictable and her mood swings, frequent.
Yuliana Oben, the Duchess, was a very demanding mistress. When she got angry, she often took it out on the servants for no reason.
Ignoring the servants who were fidgeting, Yuliana spoke.
"Quickly, leave. I have work to do."
"Oh! Yes, yes!"
The servants rushed out as if fleeing, and Yuliana, watching them leave, walked over to a hidden stack of papers between the walls.
"Rustle, rustle!"
Even though she had haphazardly stashed these documents into a dusty hole, Yuliana's handwriting had left its mark all over the papers.
It would be nice to remember all the men she had met under the name 'lover' in her usual encounters, but Yuliana usually lumped passing men into one category in her mind.
Blaming her past self for not remembering those who had given her gifts, Yuliana looked at the documents with a sinister grin.
"All right. With these, I might be able to remember which fool I led on."
She chuckled wickedly.
****
"Ugh, darn it..."
Yuliana almost let out a cry but quickly bit her lip and sealed her mouth shut. She attempted to copy the documents she held in her hand one by one but soon became frustrated.
"I, I can't make sense of this, recording things like this!"
The papers she arrogantly spread out were mostly filled with self-praise and self-flattery.
"I thought I had written something useful..."
Well, in the past, Yuliana had simply recorded things for self-satisfaction, jotting down things like who gave her what, or how this guy gave her something decent. It wasn't her style to keep records of what special people had given her.
The Yuliana of the past, who had not yet remembered her past life, despised her former self to the point where she wanted to pay her a visit and punch her.
"You're really not helping, Yuliana Oben..."
She used to be the kind of person who would insult her husband in front of anyone she met. She might have cursed or wished for her husband to be obnoxious, or said anything like that.
"Yeah, I should've lived a better life. Why did I have to make a fuss with the lead actor and end up being misunderstood later? I was too bold for an extra role."
Was it due to her weak body or because she had never done physical labor in the first place? Yuliana sighed deeply and buried her face in the table.
However, her regrets did not dissipate.
She was exhausted.
It had only been two days since she remembered her past life and started working in her own way, but her small world was collapsing in a whirlwind.
In the end, overwhelmed by fatigue, Yuliana succumbed and closed her eyes.
***
"Gasp!"
Yuliana woke up to the nearly fading twilight outside the window. She had used the messy papers as a makeshift pillow and had fallen asleep.
"Dinner!"
She remembered persuading her husband to push back dinner to a later time. She had convinced him to let her have some more time and ended up oversleeping.
Yuliana, not in her right mind, slapped her chest as if trying to wake herself up, then hastily got up and rushed down the stairs.
The servants blinked in confusion, muttering, "The Duchess seems strange today..."
In her disheveled state, Yuliana flung open the door before she even had a chance to fix her appearance.
"Pant, pant..."
"You're late."
The food had gone cold, and her husband, who was sitting in the center of the table as usual, had an inscrutable expression, which could be attributed either to Yuliana being late and upsetting him or to him being genuinely surprised by her tardiness.
"I'm, I'm sorry. I just dozed off for a moment."
Evan mumbled something and looked somewhat dazed.
Before gauging his expression, Yuliana desperately suppressed her panting breath, fanning herself with her hand. She drank some cold water and tried to calm her embarrassment.
Seeing the couple, the servants who had been nervously observing them quickly pulled themselves together to bring fresh dishes.
As the cold dishes disappeared, replaced by freshly cooked warm ones, the hall filled with the delicious aroma.
In the midst of this, without even glancing at the food, Yuliana took another sip of water, trying to steady her nerves. Then, she cautiously looked at Evan.
"Did you wait long?"
"Not too long. Just a couple of hours..."
"In other words, you waited a long time!"
Yuliana stopped herself and then spoke, her eyes sparkling as much as possible.
"Really. I spent the whole afternoon doing something..."
"I heard. You said you cleaned your room, right?"
Evan calmly cut the meat with a knife.
Yuliana followed suit, holding a knife, and rambled on.
"That's right. I should have cleaned it faster. I took too long."
Yuliana was about to start speaking, sounding as if she were making excuses, but Evan beat her to it, continuing the conversation they had started in the morning.
"Can I sincerely believe what you said this morning?"
While Yuliana was chewing her food meticulously, searching for the right words, Evan emphasized his point.
"That your feelings have changed."
Yuliana, unable to avoid an answer, swallowed hurriedly and said,
"Ah, well, if you mean that, then yes, it's sincere. I mean, I don't have any intention of insulting you anymore."
"So, does that mean it's sincere for me too?"
Evan smiled wryly.
The sight of a handsome man smiling had a remarkable effect. It even made Yuliana, who was hanging on to survive, flutter with excitement.
But Yuliana tried to calm her fluttering heart as she answered,
"The context is different, but the sincerity in this situation is true. It's like a means to prove to the heavens and the earth that I have no intention of tormenting you anymore, just like I cleaned the gift room to settle my messy past life. Yes, in that sense, it's sincere!"
As Yuliana continued to babble while poking at her food with her knife, Evan quietly spoke.
"What do you want to say?"
"Well, um..."
Yuliana glanced at him cautiously.
Even in the midst of her scattered thoughts, she started to decorate her hair.
Soon, some guy would cause a poisoning incident, and I would get caught up in it, leading to a struggle for power and involvement in the assassination of an imperial duke.
Breaking up with lovers is important, but for now, escaping and hiding somewhere like a convent is even more critical.