Chapter 1
Episode 1.
Snap……!
The sound of breaking human bones echoed eerily all around. Agatha, who was slumped in a place splattered with blood, flinched and trembled.
It was a night like any other. There had been a large-scale assassination attempt, and her seventh husband, a skilled knight, had defended against them with practiced ease.
The only difference was that one of the intruders had laid a hand on her.
The moment she was dragged from the bed, thrown onto the cold marble floor, and a gleaming sword was raised above her head.
Swoosh-
Her husband, who had returned at some point, cleaved the intruder’s body. It was the first time she had been doused in pulsing, hot blood.
Ever since then, her husband, Enoch Aratus, seemed to have become slightly strange. His large hand brushed her blood-soaked face, then he turned and slaughtered the intruders.
When no one else remained standing.
The man returned and stomped on the neck of the assassin who had dragged her out. Agatha could only stare blankly up at Enoch.
“I told you I was different from your previous husbands.”
“……!”
A visible scar slashed across his handsome features.
His vivid gray eyes seemed to pierce right through her.
“I will take this opportunity to eliminate your relatives. So.”
Clang, the man carelessly tossed his sword aside and extended his hand to Agatha.
“Come here, Agatha.”
Don’t drive me insane here.
Agatha Nobilis, the heiress of immense wealth known throughout the Roxbard Empire and even in foreign lands, had a marriage history as follows.
After losing both her parents and two older brothers at the age of five, she had her first wedding ceremony with Duke Gregory Frogus, following the will of the Emperor who became her godfather.
Agatha still remembered his first words to her at the wedding hall.
‘Five years old?’
‘…….’
‘Wow, you still have over ten years until you’re an adult. Well, it doesn’t matter since you’re a golden infant. Hahaha!’
It was a political marriage with an age difference of over thirty years.
The Emperor expanded the border with this marriage, and for her, it added another knightly order as a safeguard against the Nobilis relatives who were always eyeing the young heiress.
The marriage seemed to be going well until Agatha turned ten.
‘Die!’
‘Aargh!’
The marriage met its ruin when the Duke, who gambled a lot, was stabbed in a gambling den and became impotent.
If Agatha could not bear an heir, the succession would pass to another relative in a foreign country, and the Emperor absolutely could not allow that.
Her second wedding was to the Second Prince of the neighboring Mainyucore Empire. This was because the Emperor coveted that country’s succession rights.
Second Prince Fernand Mainyucconti was young, handsome, and had no sexual issues, but…
‘Quick, hide! Today I will spend the night with women who haven’t been caught by me!’
‘…….’
‘Ah, of course, Agatha is still young, so no. Sit there and watch. Understand?’
He was an extreme womanizer.
He already had ten concubines when he married Agatha.
When an illegitimate child even appeared, Agatha, unable to bear it any longer, demanded a divorce from the Emperor, leading to its ruin. Agatha was only thirteen years old at the time.
Her third wedding ceremony was held because the Emperor decided to wage war, coveting a new port.
Her third ex-husband at the time, George Fortis, was known as the greatest knight in the Roxbard Empire.
However, his skill was matched by his inferiority complex, low self-esteem, and he was so ugly that it was difficult to even look at his face.
He could not stand anyone looking directly at him.
‘Don’t look at me! Do you think I don’t know you’re staring because you’re curious about how ugly I am!’
‘…….’
Agatha, feeling like she was eating garlic while crying, went through with her final pre-adulthood third wedding ceremony, mediated by the Emperor.
And they divorced in an instant. George, who had ambitiously gone to the battlefield, suffered a crushing defeat, and Agatha, realizing she could divorce anytime if the circumstances were right based on her past experiences, immediately demanded it from the Emperor.
‘I’ll find my own husband from now on. Thank you for your concern until now, Your Majesty.’
‘…….’
She was sixteen years old then.
Upon reaching adulthood and gaining full rights as the heiress of the Nobilis family, Agatha could not be easily manipulated, even by the Emperor.
‘……Very well. I acknowledge your independence regarding marriage. However, I remain your godfather and the ruler of the Empire. Given the serious interests tied to the Nobilis family, you must acknowledge that I may intervene if necessary. Do you understand?’
‘That’s sufficient. Thank you, Your Majesty.’
Thus, after 11 years, Agatha secured her independence in marriage from the Emperor.
At first, she thought about traveling to enjoy her freedom, but…
‘Attack!’
Seeing her relatives, who had taken advantage of the reduced imperial protection upon her adulthood, sending assassins in earnest, she gave up.
Agatha chose her husband herself for the first time in her life. That man was Henry Insidio, Agatha’s fourth ex-husband.
‘I love you so much I think I’m going to die.’
Her married life with the devoted husband, who seemed like he would pluck the moon for her, seemed to go beautifully for a while, both before and after marriage.
‘Do you truly love Agatha Nobilis?’
‘What nonsense are you talking about? I’ll kill her once she bears a child. I will become the proxy for the next Nobilis family head and seize power to live in luxury.’
The fourth marriage ended when Agatha learned his true intentions.
With her accumulated experience, Agatha immediately chose a man who would be her sword in her stead and disposed of her fourth ex-husband, Henry.
That man was her fifth ex-husband, Leonard Sinjer.
Although it was a political marriage based on matching conditions, the fifth marriage was not bad.
It seemed they were living reasonably well, but…
‘I am congenitally impotent.’
‘What!’
During the examination for not being able to have children, Leonard had a slight, no, a major problem.
The fifth marriage also ended in ruin when the Emperor raged about the possibility of succession rights passing to a foreign country.
As she was about to face her sixth marriage, Agatha pondered.
‘If I marry someone from a family that has everything, I won’t die at least, will I?’
Thus, she accepted the proposal from Theodore Neuta, the young Duke of the Duke Neuta family.
Indeed, her sixth husband did not plot to kill Agatha.
He cherished her like a gentleman and ensured her safety through his powerful knightly order, but…
The problem lay elsewhere.
Seven months before the previous attack, in the ancient and magnificent mansion of Duke Neuta.
Agatha Nobilis strode down the historic corridor, filled with anger. Soon, she saw her husband’s study, with knights standing before it.
“Greetings, Duchess.”
“Open it.”
“Your Excellency. The Duchess has arrived.”
“Bring her in.”
A deep voice emanated from within. The anger in Agatha’s violet eyes deepened.
Seeing Agatha enter somewhat roughly, her husband, Theodore Neuta, rose from his seat.
“My dear? What brings you here?”
“I have something to say. Could you spare me a moment?”
Agatha, who sat on the sofa first, gestured to the seat opposite her. Theodore, having removed his glasses, quietly sat on the sofa.
“What—”
“I can’t stand it anymore.”
Agatha gazed at her sixth husband.
A handsome face. A high status as a Duke.
He was capable as a foreign minister, young, and possessed wealth, power, and honor, lacking nothing, but there was just one thing. He had a fatal flaw.
“Send your grandmother, mother, and sister away from this mansion immediately, and let’s live just the two of us.”
“My dear? But—”
“Answer me carefully. Depending on your answer, this might be my last request.”
Though taken aback by the sudden demand, Theodore solemnly shook his head. He could not send his grandmother, mother, and sister away from the mansion.
He mistook this for a typical spat between women.
“What did Grandmother, Mother, and Sister say this time?”
“Is that your answer?”
“Agatha. Haven’t you handled things well so far? You’re surprising me by acting like this all of a sudden—”
Agatha raised her hand to stop Theodore.
“I have handled things well. I’ve deflected, endured, and I did it because I considered them your grandmother, mother, and sister, but I’ve judged that I can’t anymore.”
Was accepting his proposal, when he had everything, another mistake?
Her husband’s family had not welcomed her, who had divorced five times.
‘Your dress is truly vulgar. As expected, the history of marrying five times doesn’t just disappear.’
His great-grandmother and mother-in-law looked at her as if she were a stain on the Duke Neuta family;
‘Is it that difficult to give me a portion of the territory?’
His sister-in-law was displeased that she, who had so much wealth, did not give her extravagant gifts.
If they felt that way, they should have opposed it from the start.
Deflecting and enduring only went so far; it was reaching a point where it was detrimental to her mental health.
“But I can’t send Grandmother, Mother, and Sister elsewhere—”
“Theodore.”
“Yes?”
There was no other way if her husband, who blindly viewed women’s issues as strictly domestic matters and merely stood by.
“Let’s divorce.”
Theodore’s face went blank as he saw her smile brightly.
The Roxbard Empire’s greatest heiress.
It was Agatha Nobilis’s sixth divorce.
