I Am Trying To Divorce My Villain Husband, But We Have A Child - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Richard’s departing date was set a month after the royal decree. It was shorter than the normal allocated time for the preparation for the departure, but the Emperor hurriedly set the date earlier, under the excuse that it was an urgent situation.

Richard went into rigorous training to prepare for his departure. His ability was too destructive to be used in the training ground inside the Duke’s residence. Therefore, the forest on the outskirts of the island, which was full of monsters, was used as his training ground instead to ensure public safety.

After Richard opened his eyes in the morning, he went to the forest as soon as he finished his meal. He only returned to the Duke’s residence when it’s practically time to sleep.

Thus, Elisha only saw Richard before going to bed or in the morning. Though, most of the time, she couldn’t even see him because she often fell asleep before his return.

Today was no different than usual.

Grayson, the butler, greeted Richard, who returned to Duke’s residence at 10 p.m. “Welcome back, Young Master Richard.”

The blood of the monsters on his outing robes and his tired look proved how hard Richard had been training. Richard handed the dirty robe to the butler and headed straight to the bathroom. The bathwater in the bathroom was already preheated upon his return. Since Richard hated being served during his bath, the servants were already out before he entered.

As he took off his clothes, all the small and large bruises and scratches on his body were revealed. Though the bathwater caused him to feel the pain when it came in contact with his injuries, he just went to the room with an indifferent look after taking his bath.

Elisha, who was leaning against the headboard while reading a book, pretended to be indifferent when she saw Richard. “Have you been well, Richard?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going to sleep right now, right? Turn off the lights if you’re going to sleep.” Elisha closed the book she was reading right away.

Richard approached the luminous stone on the bedside table. And when he was about to put out the light by covering it up…

“Wait a minute!”

Richard looked at Elisha inquiringly.

Elisha, who approached Richard in a jiffy, grabbed his arms and rolled up his sleeves. The scratches and bruises, which were half-covered, were clearly revealed. Surprised, Richard tried to pull out his arm out of her grasp, but Elisha didn’t let him go.

“What’s this?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“What do you mean it’s not a big deal?! There are so many wounds. Don’t you feel hurt?” Elisha dragged Richard by his arm toward the dressing table. Being dragged, Richard reluctantly followed her.

Elisha, who rummaged through the drawer of the dressing table, found a case containing ointment without much difficulty. She spread the ointment evenly on the wound while groaning. “How can you be so silly…”

“…….”

Richard felt ticklish as her thin little fingers passed over his arm, but he held back because he didn’t hate her touch.

Elisha, who finished applying the ointment on his arms, didn’t close the case immediately. Instead, she tried to pull up his shirt and take a look at his back.

Surprised by the sudden revelation of his back, Richard backed away from Elisha. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“There must be some wounds on your back too. Let’s apply the ointment.”

“Hey, that’s good enough. It’s just-”

“No, stay still.”

Embarrassed, Richard tried to avoid Elisha’s touch and stammered unexpectedly, but this time, Elisha did not back down. In the end, Richard had no choice but to turn his back toward Elisha. Elisha rolled up his shirt without noticing the red tip of Richard’s ears.

Then all his big and small bruises on his back were clearly visible. Elisha grimaced as she saw them. Elisha found another ointment for bruises from the drawer of the dressing table and began applying it on Richard’s back. “Richard, can you come back a little early tomorrow? Before dinner?”

“Why?”

Elisha paused before answering Richard’s question. “Well… I haven’t finished looking around the mansion yet. I want to go to the northern annex, but I heard servants and maids aren’t allowed to go there. But I’m a little scared to go alone….”

The Rubelin residence had three annexes around the garden in the backyard. The east annex was where the servants and maids live and the west annex was where the knights live. And finally, the northern annex was a place where only Rubelin family members could enter.

“…I’ll try.”

Elisha, who had finished applying the ointment, put down Richard’s clothes again and said, “I hope you won’t overdo it.”

She understood the fear ahead of the war, but she was worried that overly intense training would have an adverse effect because Richard could possibly become overworked before he even went to the war.

Richard looked at Elisha’s worried eyes and said while turning his eyes away. “Let’s go to bed.”

*****

With the night sky as the backdrop, two swords clashed with a sharp sound. Richard clenched his teeth to overcome the knight commander’s attack, but was helpless against the ensuing attack.

Richard’s breath, who was barely holding out, became shorter and heavier. His arm holding the sword was showing signs of losing strength, but Richard still persevered.

“That’s all for today. If we continue training with the Young Master, the Young Master will definitely get hurt.” The knight commander said as he saw Richard’s grip on the sword getting weaker.

“…Not yet.” Using the gap, Richard attacked the knight commander.

The knight commander dodged the attack and pointed his sword at Richard’s neck as soon as he found a gap. It was a counterattack that took place in a blink of an eye. “If I was in Young Master’s place, I would’ve easily avoided it.”

Richard, who was staring at the sword pointed at his neck, pushed the knight commander’s sword away with his hand lightly. “Let’s do it one more time.”

“This is already the tenth time.” The knight commander grabbed the sword again and stepped on the opponent while preparing to attack.

“….” Richard collapsed helplessly as he stabbed the ground with his sword. And he watched the drops of sweat on his forehead fall and wet the ground. He wanted to argue that he could do more, but he couldn’t even get up on his legs. He could only rely on the sword with the remaining strength of his arm strength.

“Continuous training is good, but it’s not good to use up too much energy before we leave. We don’t even know what’s going to happen on the way, so we have to prepare in advance.”

“……”

“Before we depart, it’s best to do nothing and rest well.”

Richard then dropped the sword and sank to his seat. “Let’s take a break.”

Rubelin’s knights, who barely stopped training and expected Richard to urge them to continue anyway, were stunned by his words.

Having trained himself using his storm ability against the nearby monsters, Richard even polished his swordsmanship skill in preparation for the inevitable melee. He has an outstanding swordsmanship skill, and the knights already noticed it since they saw his spar with Thompson.

But now, they realized that his mental perseverance was more amazing. ‘Is he even a human mentally?’ His physical strength had long been exhausted from the harsh training that lasted from morning to late night, and yet he’s still holding on in high motivation.

Thompson, who broke through in the midst of tongue-tied knights, approached Richard, who was breathing heavily. “Please wet your whistle.”

Richard drank the water from a leather bottle handed by Thompson.

Thompson asked while sitting next to Richard. “Why is Young Master training so hard?”

After drinking the water he took a short breath, and then Richard answered a beat later. “…because I want to live.”

Richard, who grew up close to death’s door from an early age, was afraid of death. So, he never thought that he wanted to survive because he wanted to live. He just tried his best to survive because he was afraid of death.

However, for the first time in his life, he wanted to live. He wanted to come back alive and meet someone. He had a person that he wanted to live with and protect. “Isn’t everyone like that?”

“Yes, everyone does.” Thompson agreed to Richard’s question and added. “But most of the knights who will join the war would prefer spending time with someone precious rather than training.”

“……”

“Because even if we don’t die, we can’t predict how long we’ll be away.”

“…….”

“So, please don’t be too hung up on the training and have a meal with His Grace…”

Suddenly, Elisha’s voice overlapped Thompson’s voice.

[Richard, can you come back a little early tomorrow? Before dinner?]

Listening to Thompson’s words in silence, Richard suddenly jumped up from his seat. He was so absorbed in training that he forgot what Elisha said.

Thompson paused in surprise and looked at Richard.

“Let’s call it a day.”

“Pardon?” Thompson, who was anxious Richard would scold him for indirectly saying “I want to train moderately and play,” was wide-eyed at the unexpected words.

“I’ll go back to the Duke’s residence first.” Richard mounted his horse, which he had tied nearby, while Thompson was looking at it with a puzzled expression. Time had already passed ten o’clock at night. It was time for Elisha to sleep. Richard hurried to the mansion.

*****

Arriving at the mansion, Richard headed straight to the bedroom instead of the bathroom.

“Eli-”

As he entered the bedroom, Richard, who was about to call Elisha, closed his mouth. As expected, Elisha was already asleep. But she fell asleep while leaning on the sofa, not on the bed. She seemed to have fallen asleep while waiting for him. Richard approached Elisha, holding his rapid breath from running up the stairs.

‘…A cake?’

There was a small cake on the table in front of Elisha. There was also a small card placed next to it. Richard looked alternately between the card and Elisha, who was asleep. Then, he opened the card.