I Supported My Fiancé for 10 Years After He Said, 'Let's Get Married When I Succeed,' but When He Finally Did, He Dumped Me. By the Way, I'm a Witch and Turning 30 Next Year!! - Episode 26

The two of them kept showing off their affection right in front of me.

Saint Sui, perhaps noticing my exasperation, spoke to me.

“You are using the room I used before.”

“Isn’t it a bit small for the great Saint?”

“No, the rooms in the Holy Church are too spacious, and I find them unsettling.”

What is this rich noblewoman talking about? She grew up in one of the wealthiest families in the country.

Not only that, but she also seems to be wearing my old nightclothes.

“Wait a minute, is that really okay?”

“But silk clothes are too slippery and uncomfortable to wear!”

I have to admit, worn-out clothes do feel softer than silk. But that’s a commoner’s perspective—certainly not one a marquis’ daughter should have.

Something feels off.

Saint Sui’s atmosphere, speech, and behavior are all different from before.

It also bothers me how she acted like we were meeting for the first time.

“Hey, you—”

Just as I tried to speak to Saint Sui, there was a knock on the door.

When Rymer opened it, a beautiful woman stepped in—her brunette hair neatly tied up, her mysterious purple eyes giving her an ageless look.

“Lady Alyssa, we’ve been waiting for you!”

Saint Sui ran toward the woman, Alyssa, like an excited puppy.

The moment she stepped into the room, the air seemed to tremble slightly.

And then I realized—she was the same as me. A witch.

“Let me introduce her. This is Lady Alyssa from the Duke of Strolt’s family.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m the herbal witch, Rei.”

“Alyssa von Strolt.”

It seems she has no intention of revealing she is a witch.

A witch’s full name, given by their mentor, can be used as a spell. Only those in a master-disciple relationship know each other’s full names.

Witches can recognize each other anyway, so she could have just told me. But maybe she’s hiding her identity to live in peace.

After all, witches were despised just a few centuries ago.

That only changed about fifty years ago.

The Holy Nation of Heilig was protected by a barrier created by the Saint. But when a fake Saint appeared, the World Tree—the foundation of the nation—began to wither.

In that crisis, the ones who helped were the very witches who had long been persecuted.

The witches healed the World Tree, found the true Saint, and even successfully summoned the Divine Beast.

The Holy King was so grateful that he declared any future persecution of witches would be punishable by death.

Since then, the witches’ status improved.

Now, fifty years later, witches are respected and relied upon in daily life.

But that doesn’t mean discrimination and persecution have completely disappeared.

Even now, some still believe witches are evil.

Because of that, many witches keep their identity a secret.

Alyssa is probably one of them, choosing to hide her identity to live peacefully.

Honestly, witches don’t usually interact much with each other, so this situation feels awkward.

“She is the one who made the herbal soap.”

“Oh, I know. That soap is quite famous.”

Herbal soap is popular among commoners, not nobles. I never expected her to recognize it.

“Lady Alyssa was the one who suggested this competition.”

So she was the one pulling the strings!

I felt a wave of irritation.

It must have been her idea for Saint Sui to sell silk foam soap to my regular customers.

She’s the mastermind behind this strategy.

As I was thinking about what to do, Rymer and Saint Sui left the room to greet the participants.

I thought Alyssa would leave too, but she stayed behind.

The room fell completely silent.

I really didn’t want to be left alone with her.

Just as I was searching for a topic to break the silence, she spoke first.

“Did you really intend to marry that man?”

“Well… I suppose…”

Maybe I was just in love with the idea of love for ten years.

And I probably got caught up in the idea of supporting Rymer.

But why did I have to talk about such a personal matter with someone I just met?

“I was married about eleven years ago, but we separated soon after I gave birth to my child.”

“Oh… I see…”

I didn’t want her to start prying into my past, so I tried not to extend the conversation.

But Alyssa started talking about herself anyway.

“It seems my ex-husband had feelings for someone else before we married. Even after we were wed, he remained in love with her.”

“I see… that must have been difficult.”

Alyssa’s ex-husband was the second son of the Grand Duke of Kleeburg.

He once came to my territory to hunt wyverns—he was a benefactor.

Before marrying Alyssa, he had actually proposed to me, asking me to be his fiancée.

Maybe he only came to me because his first love rejected him.

Perhaps he had his own reasons for wanting to avoid marriage with Alyssa.

“Believe it or not, my ex-husband even tried to avoid our wedding night.”

Apparently, her pride wouldn’t allow that, so she drugged him, let him sleep through it, and then declared their wedding night had gone as planned.

“Oh, you should have seen his face back then! Just thinking about it makes me laugh!”

“Ha… ha…”

Why am I even listening to this?

I don’t want to hear this, and I’m not interested.

But I can’t just tell someone I just met, “Let’s stop talking about this.”

“To get his attention, I even tried seducing his older brother.”

“Wow…”

This sounds like something straight out of a messy romance novel.

“And then, just one time, I ended up sleeping with his older brother. And I got pregnant.”

That sounds familiar…

But maybe this kind of thing is common among nobles.

“When I told my ex-husband that the child was his, he believed it without question.”

Alyssa had hoped that having a child would create love in their marriage.

She wanted both her and her daughter to be loved.

“But reality was cruel—”

She was caught cheating and immediately asked for a divorce.

“After the divorce, I didn’t think I could love my daughter, so I gave her up for adoption right away.”

Now, she says, her daughter is living happily with a loving family.

A happy ending…?

Something about this doesn’t sit right.

When the conversation paused, I asked the question that had been bothering me.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Oh, I had heard that my ex-husband’s first love was just some nobody he met while hunting wyverns.”

That’s me, isn’t it?!

She stared at me so intensely that I felt pinned in place.

“I’m looking forward to your soap competition with Saint Sui.”

That sounded more like, “I’m going to crush you socially,” than an actual friendly remark.