When I Asked My Husband for a Divorce, He Said He’d Be Bringing Home a Young Woman, So I Left - 2

This land has always been forced into battle against monsters.

Emerging suddenly from dark holes, these calamities attack people and animals, trample the earth, and pollute the waters.

The only way for humans to fight back is to accept heavy losses and overwhelm them with numbers.

This is how humanity has endured—fighting endlessly, surviving the brink of destruction time and again.

Then, one day, a single god took pity on the humans who struggled against the monsters. This deity bestowed a fragment of divine power upon a vessel—a human capable of bearing it.

And so, that human gained the ability to wield a portion of the gods’ might.

Though humans could already conjure fire and water with the aid of spirits, such powers were ill-suited for combat. Until then, battles against monsters had been fought with swords and axes, brutal melees where the frontlines were nothing but a war of attrition.

But then came those who could unleash arrows of divine light, striking down the monsters with the power of the gods.

These vessels, clad in divine radiance, were called Duels.

The light they wielded did more than slay monsters—it healed the wounds of any touched by its glow.

With the arrival of the Duels, the war against the monsters, which had been a desperate struggle to hold ground, finally turned. The frontlines pushed back, and humanity secured its borders.

Now, with the nation at their backs, the people stand ready—if the monsters come, they will be struck down. If they do not, so be it.

With soldiers and generations of Duels holding the line, the people behind them have found peace.

A Duel is not a role one is born into—it is a calling.

One day, regardless of gender, age, nobility, or common birth, a person receives divine revelation. Without being told, they simply know their purpose and journey to the frontlines.

There, they fight as vessels of divine power, enduring the strain until their bodies can no longer bear the burden of godly might.

While serving as a Duel, they exist apart from human time—connected to the gods, they do not age, fall ill, or die unless their head is destroyed.

At first, Duels required neither sleep, food, drink, nor even excretion. They could not bear children. But when the earliest Duels pleaded with the gods, saying, “We do not wish to forget our humanity,” sleep, hunger, and bodily needs were restored. Though they still could not conceive, a Duel could now relinquish their role if they willed it—even if their body still endured the divine power—and return home to seek a family.

Yes, a Duel may step down if they so choose.

From the first generation onward, Duels have always existed. Sometimes there are only a few, other times over a dozen. They take turns resting, and it is not uncommon for some to use their leave to visit their hometowns.

Those who receive the divine revelation abandon their family names, taking instead the title of Duel.

My husband, Ixel, is no longer Viscount Ecklund—he now lives as Ixel Duel.

He received his revelation ten years ago—the day after our wedding.