I Want a Divorce, Please Stop Obsessing Over Me!

Episode 3 – I Have Come To Keep My Promise (3)

“That can’t be,” Edelis said, opening the book and showing it to the maid. “Look, there’s text here, right?”

But the maid said, “What are you talking about? I can’t see any words.”

Edelis couldn’t believe the maid, so she took the book outside and showed it to the other maids she passed by.

But to Edelis’ surprise, no one could read any words from the book.

Edelis ordered the maids to keep quiet about what had happened that day and decided to think about it in her room.

When Edelis returned to her room, she sat down at her desk and tapped the cover of the book with her fingertips.

The book was not glowing like it had been before. Edelis muttered softly as she looked at it.

“Only I can read the words, same name and same face as me.. Even if the similarity in looks could just be a coincidence, why are my name and family the same in this book?”

The first page of the book, which was blank a moment ago, now has text read as ‘characters’.

Edelis held the book up close and read it, as if she were about to enter the book, to see what had changed

There were four main characters in the book, and only Edelis Brill’s name was listed.

『The only daughter of the Brill Earldom becomes the Empress after Emperor _____ ascended to the throne. She becomes jealous of _____ who appeared later in the story, she then commits all sorts of evil deeds, and soon was stabbed to death by _____’s sword. 』 

Edelis was washed with a strange feeling when she read ‘Edelis Brill’.

Because the woman who was stabbed by the Emperor’s hand was the same as her name, even the family name.

‘This can’t be true, it’s a fantasy. It’s impossible.’

Even as she thought that, her heart was beating fast, wondering if it could be real.

‘What if… it is real?’

She took a deep breath and turned her gaze to the other character who appeared in the story, in order to gather information first.

He was not named, and only a brief description of him was written.

Edelis skimmed the sentence with her fingertips and read it aloud in a small voice.

“He was a man with red hair and golden eyes, who was kidnapped in his childhood and known as ‘Lehan’, fighting as a gladiator in the arena without knowing his past.”

Only one sentence was written. She was sorry, but there was nothing she could do about it.

“What should I do about this… I guess I’ll just have to check.”

Rather than living in constant fear of being stabbed to death as she had seen in the book, Edelis decided to do what she could do first.

She slammed the book shut and hid it under her pillow.

Then she pulled the bell rope and instructed the maid to help her get ready to go out.

After completing her preparations, she got into the waiting carriage.

Edelis got into the carriage and instructed the coachman.

“Take me to the arena.”

She had to go and see if the book was showing the future, or if it was just fiction.

* * *

Edelis arrived at the arena with a trembling heart and sat down in her seat following the usher’s instructions.

Watching the arena was a popular hobby among bored nobles.

Therefore, many nobles filled the seats, even though they were the best seats that only nobles above the rank of an Earl could sit in.

In the arena, the staff dragged the ankle of a gladiator who seemed to have already died and dragged him out.

The floor was full of blood that had been there since the beginning, and a new bloodstain appeared in the place where the gladiator passed.

Edelis, who was cursing in her heart, wondering why she came to see such a thing, was sitting firmly, enduring the bloody sight.

“The red Lehan and the white Jack are up next!”

When the announcer called out “Lehan,” Edelis stood up without even realizing it. The person sitting next to her looked at her in confusion.

“Miss, the last match is the most exciting, but you’re getting up now?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Edelis felt like sweat was running down her back.

She couldn’t believe that a gladiator named Lehan actually existed in the arena!

Edelis was sitting in a good spot to see the fight, but she couldn’t tell if the gladiator in the helmet was the same person as the main character in the book.

“Please, let it not be him…!”

The two gladiators, one in red and one in white, exchanged blows, each leaving deeper and deeper wounds on the other.

Blood gushed from their wounds, and the crowd cheered with each new wound.

The floor was gradually covered in a pool of blood.

‘Gold? No? What color are his eyes?’

Edelis was desperate to see the color of the gladiator’s eyes. But at that moment, he closed his eyes as a bright light reflected in his eyes.

The gladiator, who had been waiting for that moment, struck the other man in the chest and stomach, and he fell to the ground, bleeding.

“No!”

Edelis shouted without thinking to the falling Lehan.

Her voice was drowned out by the cheers, but Lehan suddenly got up and stabbed Jack’s stomach with the sword, who was laughing in confidence of victory.

And finally, Lehan lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

Jack, who didn’t understand what was going on, looked back and forth at the sword that was stuck in his stomach and Lehan a few times, then tried to pull out the sword that was stuck in his stomach, but he fell to the floor.

“Wowwww!”

“Lehan! Lehan!”

“Jack! Jack!”

The audience cheered excitedly, chanting the names of the gladiators they had bet on.

The announcer climbed onto the arena and looked at both men.

Lehan had a faint breath, but Jack’s pulse had completely stopped.

“Th,the winner is!”

The audience held their breath and waited for the announcer’s next words.

“…It’s Lehan! Lehan is alive!”

As soon as the announcer’s words were over, the ushers who climbed onto the arena pulled out the swords from Jack’s body haphazardly, and grabbed his ankles and dragged him out of the arena.

This was not so different from Lehan.

The two men were dragged away by the ushers, each with their ankles and wrists bound. It was impossible to tell who was the winner and who was the loser.

The ground was covered in fresh blood where they had passed. 

The spectators cheered and shouted themselves hoarse at the gruesome scene.

Edelis held her ears, trying to block out the noise, and picked up the bag she had prepared just in case. She turned to the usher who was waiting in the VIP seat and said,

“Take me to the manager.”

The usher smiled brightly at the thick bag Edelis was carrying and led her to the manager. 

As Edelis followed him, the name of the gladiator, Lehan, kept running through her head.

‘There really is a gladiator named Lehan. Does that mean I’m going to be stabbed to death like in the book? No, that can’t be… It could just be someone with the same name.’

As she repeated to herself that it would not be, she found herself in front of the manager’s office.

Inside, the manager, wearing a black mask that covered more than half of his face, smiled and greeted her.

“Welcome, Miss Brill. What can I, a humble servant, do for you?”

The manager tried to hide the pounding of his heart with excitement as he greeted her.

As she saw the manager’s greedy smile, she felt a chill run down her spine.

“There’s a gladiator named Lehan.”

When Edelis mentioned Lehan’s name, the manager gave a cry of joy.

If Lehan is sold out today, there will be no cost to remove the body.

“Can I see him now?”

“Um, I’m sorry, but he’s an important ‘product’.”

“You wouldn’t sell that ‘product’ without even showing it to the ‘buyer’, would you?”

The manager’s smile grew wider as Edelis spoke of ‘purchase’.

“Of course not.”

They left the office and went down to the basement, which had a musty smell.

The manager knocked twice on the door, then opened it without waiting for an answer.

As soon as the door opened, the air was filled with a metallic smell.

The door opened, and the guard led the gladiator who had been exercising in the room out of the room, following his instructions. 

Two people were lying on the bed, both of whom were lying there, dazed, not knowing what game they had played.

The guard led Edelis to the inside bed.

There was a gladiator with red hair on the bed in front of him.

It was Lehan. The main character in the book.

It was clear that he was a person who was directly related to her death.

This made Edelis undeniable.

The fact that what she saw in the book was her future, and that she would be killed by the emperor’s sword.

Luka: …and we are finally back to the past! If you were Edelis, would you be able to watch at the arena without fainting? I don’t think I could last a minute! LOL