Chapter 2: Electra’s Dream

“Sigh…”

Electra, who had become Baroness Carlson.

The day after their marriage, her husband Harid departed for the battlefield.

Her husband was not at fault in any way.

It was a royal order calling up and dispatching knights.

There was no option to refuse for a mere baron.

The wedding ceremony had been canceled, and there had not even been a kiss of vows, making it a lonely marriage indeed, but that too could not be helped.

Rather, with the people in crisis and many men being driven to the battlefield, had they wished for a lavish wedding, they themselves would have been criticized for it.

In truth, the two of them were supposed to be joined yesterday… to share a bed.
It was their wedding night, after all.

And yet, why had she asked for a white marriage?

To suddenly refuse the wedding night and still manage to convince her husband, Electra could not help but smile wryly at herself.

Even Electra, though she had many thoughts about how this marriage had come to be, had steeled herself.

So, even if she felt some fear toward the act itself, she had intended to go through with it.

But…

“What was that dream, I wonder?”

Before the marriage, Electra had begun to see an unpleasant ‘dream’ several times.

It was after the royal order had been issued for Harid to deploy to the borderlands.

In the dream, Harid returned from the battlefield with another woman at his side.

And then came the scene where he asked Electra for a divorce.

It was an impossible anxiety that had merely appeared in a dream.

Perhaps it was what people called pre-wedding jitters.

Still, the dream had been strangely realistic and vivid.

The fact that the woman beside Harid was someone Electra had never seen even once made it feel like some kind of ominous premonition.

Why had she been able to see so clearly the face of a woman she had never met?

Had it been a prophetic dream?

Or perhaps something else entirely…

Electra could not simply dismiss that dream as nothing more than a dream.

And yet, even if she told Harid or those around her about it, nothing would come of it.

As a desperate measure, Electra had proposed a white marriage, avoiding being joined with Harid.

“…She was a cute woman.”

It was a memory from within the dream.
She had looked at Electra with an apologetic expression, but…

Toward Harid, she had directed a gaze full of affection.

Judging from the situation, Harid had gone to the battlefield, met that woman there, and the two had grown close and fallen in love.

That was why, upon returning home, Harid had demanded a divorce from Electra so that he could be with her.

“…At least, that’s how it looked.”

However, the place Harid had gone was a battlefield overrun with monsters.

Would he really meet such a woman there?

It was true that those capable of using healing magic were also dispatched to the battlefield.

They were mainly clerics under the care of the church.

There would be far more women among them than among the knights.

Perhaps she was one of them?
That much, Electra could not tell.

“It’s a dream, I know.
But what if it wasn’t just a dream?”

At the very least, her husband Harid seemed to return home safely.

As far as she remembered, he had all his limbs intact.

That was a good ‘premonition,’ but…

“How far in the future was it, I wonder?”

There was no doubt it was after his return from the battlefield.

From what she could see, Harid had not aged much.

If so, it must have been within a few years.

She did not know whether her dream-self had a child.

But if she were to be served divorce papers, it would be better for her to have remained chaste.

“Sigh…”

Electra spent her days deeply troubled by the contents of the dream that would not leave her mind.

Even so, she resolved to conduct herself flawlessly as a baroness.

If she were divorced due to her husband’s infidelity, she would be the victim, but if she were divorced for her own shortcomings, it would be unbearable.

As a wife whose husband was not at home, she made sure to always be accompanied by a maid so as not to invite unnecessary suspicion.

For now, managing the affairs of the estate was Electra’s responsibility.

Though she did not wish to think about it, she decided to properly fulfill her duties as a baroness while keeping the possibility of divorce in mind.

For now, she would listen for news from the battlefield, pray for Harid’s safety, and consider what lay ahead.

With that resolve, Electra immediately began her work at the estate.