Cordelia Duquesne was born in a time when everything once held noble began to fall apart—the daily rituals once cherished by the estate’s people, the graceful manners shared between gentlemen and ladies, the honor of a family with over three centuries of legacy, and just as many rooms in their sprawling mansion.

“Good day to you, my lady!”
“These are roses from the villagers, my lady. They said it’s a thank-you for the recent charity event.”
“Hadrian roses, of course. Perfectly fitting for our lady.”

Her violet eyes blankly recalled those days—days spent across the sea in her homeland, the Hadrian Empire of the Old Continent.

Ever since settling in the New Continent with nothing but faith in her businessman husband, she had deliberately never thought of those times.

‘What’s the point in reminiscing about a fallen household?’

Her family, the Count of Hastings, had once been a prestigious noble house with over three centuries of history—but went bankrupt due to a failed investment.

Her father had died early, a presence absent from her life from the beginning. Her mother, crushed by the pressure of dragging all her acquaintances into ruin, ultimately took her own life.

The ancient castle and estate were seized entirely by creditors, and at just twenty-two, Cordelia was even abandoned by her fiancé, a duke.

‘If only that had been the worst of it.’

She couldn’t even bear to recall the days when she barely scraped by as a private tutor, constantly harassed by debt collectors.

But what about her now, at twenty-four?

Glancing down at her left ring finger from the back seat of the taxi, Cordelia saw a brilliantly glimmering two-carat pink diamond. There it was, sparkling. She was dressed from head to toe like a wealthy lady, just as she had been in her days as a noble count’s daughter.

All thanks to her marriage a year ago to Lucas Duquesne, a businessman from the New Continent. How often had people whispered that such fortune was beyond imagining for a fallen woman?

They weren’t wrong. Still, Cordelia liked to believe he had proposed to her out of love.

“Time for work, Lucas.”
“Mm, after one more kiss.”

Platinum hair glowing white under the moonlight, teal eyes that gleamed like they could devour anyone they locked onto.
His elegant features radiated a strength that seemed to fear nothing in this world, and his perfect physique looked as if three-piece suits had been made just for him.

Such a man, every morning, clung to her like a boy desperate for his first love, kissing her with reluctance to leave.

‘In the beginning, I was shocked and flustered by such displays of affection more times than I could count.’

She had never been good at expressing her emotions. From the moment she came of age, she had lived as the representative of the Hastings estate, never once revealing her feelings—not even before the servants she was closest to.

She hadn’t been born with a naturally friendly or talkative nature, either, so perhaps deep down, she had resigned herself to that.

But just as a blank canvas, once stained, can never return to white, Cordelia too found herself wishing this life could last forever.

And so, on the day of their first wedding anniversary she utterly hated herself for tailing her husband.

At that moment, the taxi arrived at her destination: an unfamiliar building.

“This is it, Mrs. Duquesne. The Eisner Corporation Office, just as you requested.”

“Thank you.”

Haa.

Cordelia let out a self-mocking sigh and anxiously scanned the area. Wasn’t this place close to the slums of Hell’s Ram? Where violent gangs fought over turf, and even in broad daylight, gunshots weren’t uncommon?

To think her husband was in a place like this…
She should never have let that woman’s words shake her.

Louisa, the youngest daughter of the Vanderbilt family—major players in New Continent finance. A former university classmate of her husband’s, Louisa always acted like she knew more about him, showing up uninvited to their newlywed home whenever she pleased.

Cordelia had found the woman unbearably irritating, but she had held back for a time to adjust to this new land. She had come here with no family, relying solely on her husband—she didn’t want to start making enemies right away.

But it all went downhill after last month’s party, when that woman deliberately mocked her.

“Oh my, has it already been nearly a year since your wedding? Time does fly, but you haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what you mean, Miss Vanderbilt.”

“Just saying you’re still the clueless noble lady. I can’t believe how little you know about Lucas, even now.”

“It seems the champagne is getting to you. Perhaps your attendant—”

“That dress you’re wearing—do you know what money Lucas used to buy it? It came from ruining your own family.”

She should’ve just scoffed and walked away then. But the mention of her family caught her off guard, and she missed her chance.

Louisa had been so delighted with herself, it still made Cordelia’s stomach churn to recall it.

“Your family’s coal mine investment in the Old Continent—it should’ve been a guaranteed win, right? At least until the oil boom crushed the nobility and drove them all into bankruptcy.”

“I’ll thank you not to insult my family any further, Miss Vanderbilt.”

“Aren’t you curious just how brilliant Lucas was in all that? How Eisner—a company no one had ever heard of—managed to skyrocket by monopolizing the oil industry?”

“……”

“Oh dear. I’m sorry. You really had no idea, did you? You knew even less than I did.”

With a sweet smile, Louisa handed her a note. On it was the address of the company called “Eisner.”

“Think of it as an apology. Try visiting here. Lucas holds meetings with his closest aides every Thursday morning.”

“Thank you for the unsolicited help. I do hope you recover quickly from your champagne hangover.”

Back then, she hadn’t even accepted the note—she had turned away with dignity. Would she, with a gentle face yet firm heart, be swayed by a woman clearly desperate to sleep with her husband?

Of course, she knew that the company her husband managed wasn’t called Eisner. Even though she loved him very much, wouldn’t it have made her uneasy if he had been involved in coal or oil?

But that woman—clearly out of her mind—was disturbingly persistent. Not long after, she even sent Cordelia a news article about Eisner.

It accused the company of spreading malicious rumors about a coal mine, though the case had been dismissed due to lack of evidence. And yet, when Cordelia saw the accompanying photo, her breath caught.

‘The men in this photo…!’

The ones named as suspects were the very same subordinates of her husband who had attended their wedding. She remembered their menacing faces clearly.

Hadn’t she even been introduced to them as people who had worked with Lucas for years?

‘This… this is impossible.’

If this was nothing but a petty, vulgar stunt, then she wanted to crush all doubts about her husband once and for all. And yet, the moment she stepped into Eisner’s lobby, a staff member immediately came out to greet her.

“I’m here under Miss Vanderbilt’s appointment.”

“Yes, this way, Mrs. Duquesne. Your husband has already arrived.”

“……”

Her heart pounded, slow and hot with a dreadful weight.

‘No. This must be one of Vanderbilt’s cruel pranks. If anything feels off, I’ll leave immediately.’

She had wanted—so desperately—for this anniversary to be perfect. She wanted to express, for the first time, the gratitude and happiness she had carried in her heart for the past year.

‘Lucas, even though I came to you with no proper dowry, you always treated me with warmth. Because of you, I found the courage to live in this land.’

‘And though I may not have the right to say it—truthfully, I love you very much.’

But the closer she came to the meeting room, the colder and stiffer her steps became. It was the voices leaking through the door—voices she now recognized all too well.

“Haha! Who would’ve thought this day would come? Noblemen, broke and helpless like children—what a joke!”

The ones laughing so vulgarly were her husband’s subordinates. The same men who always acted impeccably in front of her—she’d never heard them speak this way before.

“Honestly, that coal mine? If it hadn’t collapsed, things would’ve been trickier.”

“But thanks to Lord Lucas’s groundwork, the mine went under. Half the nobles in Hadrian were wiped out, didn’t you hear?”

At that last praise, her heart sank as if it had hit the floor.

And worse—what followed was a soft chuckle that unmistakably belonged to her husband.

“That pathetic thing? What was so difficult about it that they had to make such a fuss?”

“By the way, Lord Lucas, how long do you plan to keep your wife around?”

No—surely not. Were they… talking about her?

“She lived like a maid after her family went bankrupt, didn’t she? Yet at the goddess’ banquet, Lord Lucas… ha ha!”

“Well, she was pretty, sure, but honestly? She looked desperate. It was kind of pitiful.”

Cordelia covered her mouth with her hand.

It was true that she’d been desperate when Lucas came to the Empire. At the time, the head of the household she was indebted to had been pressuring her to become his second wife, telling her she was already used goods, no longer worth anything.

That’s why she had no choice but to attend the banquet wearing a used dress, a size too small, borrowed from someone else. So to them, she must have looked like a woman desperate to catch a man’s attention.

The shame she had felt back then surged back as vividly as if it were happening now, making her skin crawl like ants were crawling all over it.

Then came the voice of William Seymour, Lucas’s closest university friend. Though a peer in school, he now worked under Lucas in business.

“I heard you deliberately spread the word to the Count’s family—told them it was a guaranteed win, even worth betting their entire fortune.”

“Adults make their own investment decisions. How is that my fault?”

“Still, did you really have to bankrupt the Count’s family?”

“…I had to.”

Unlike the others, who were high with excitement, Lucas answered in a tone that was detached—almost bored.

“They needed to hit rock bottom. That’s the only way a lowborn bastard like me could even dream of touching a noble lady.”