2.

“……What is this, Father?”

That day was the day Stella was supposed to leave for Bexshire.

For the past week, Stella had been extremely busy.

Sending a letter saying she would work as a tutor and receiving a welcoming reply, being inwardly satisfied seeing the promised salary amount, and gradually organizing her feelings about the duke.

She had been gradually putting down what she had and now only had to leave.

“What on earth is this, Father!”

She never expected to receive something like this.

Stella swallowed her breath. When she raised her gaze to stare at her father, Count Ambrose dropped his head with a haggard face.

“Stella, calm down and—”

“How can I calm down!”

Stella raised her voice for the first time in front of her father and uncle. Her words were endlessly crushed by tears.

“How can I read this and calm down?”

What she held in her hands was a contract.

A contract filled with dreamlike stories.

A mansion for the family, proper heir education for Sanderson and a decent tutor for Mary, and even stories about a doctor for her always ailing mother.

Even content about monthly pensions being paid for the family.

It was suspicious enough to wonder if it was a scam.

If not for the very last line, she might have thought she was dreaming.

[ Collateral: Stella Ambrose. ]

It was her name written in her father’s handwriting. No matter how many times she looked again, it was definitely her name.

“Father……”

Tears began to fall drop by drop from Stella’s large eyes.

“Please explain to me how this happened.”

When she first saw the contract, she had denied it.

No way, Father put me, of all people, as collateral?

That can’t be!

Although he was an incompetent father who only spoke of dreamlike stories, wasn’t the fact that he loved her still true?

She had endured until now relying on that one fact.

“Father, please.”

Just a few days ago, she had started organizing the feelings she had harbored for so long.

In the midst of all this, she couldn’t lose the faith that had sustained her for such a long time.

“Please, say something. Please……”

Stella desperately pleaded.

“Something went wrong, right? That’s why this happened, right?”

She wanted him to say that was the case.

She wanted to believe that Father hadn’t handed her over willingly, but that something had gone wrong and this had happened unavoidably.

If that were really the case, couldn’t she somehow nod her head?

As always, couldn’t she say that this time too it was okay, that she could endure it?

“My child……”

But no matter how long she waited, no answer came. Count Ambrose, who had called her with difficulty, remained silent, and Stella could only shed tears.

“I’ll explain.”

Thinking this wouldn’t do, Baizel, who had been sitting in the middle, intervened.

“Stella, please listen to my story first.”

Baizel continued speaking in a gentle voice, as if soothing Stella.

“The two princes passed away this time, didn’t they?”

Uncle’s first words were difficult to understand.

What relation did her being put up as collateral have with the two princes passing away?

However, Uncle’s following words resolved her doubts.

“The person responsible had his head on the line and his property confiscated, and among that person’s property list is our mountain.”

Ah, I see.

“The mountain with the salt mine is coming up for auction this time.”

She had heard about it.

When the royal family confiscated the property of criminals, most of it went to auction.

She’d also heard that items sold this way often went for slightly lower prices than usual.

“Yes. This is probably the only chance we’ll have to get our mountain back.”

Uncle’s eyes shone. Father’s face also showed vitality.

Watching the two men, Stella held back a bitter laugh.

She could understand it with her head.

Uncle, of course, and Father too were longing for their wealthy past.

If they could just get back the mountain with the salt mine, which was the glory of the old past, they would feel like they could regain the wealth and honor they once enjoyed in one stroke.

But wasn’t this too much?

“To buy the mountain, you put me up as collateral…… is that it?”

Stella’s hand holding the contract began to tremble again.

“So what happens to me? Should I prepare to be sold off somewhere far away, Father?”

Unrefined thoughts shot out sharply. She could hardly bear this sense of betrayal.

“No, my child.”

Count Ambrose took his daughter’s hand, calling Stella by a pet name he hadn’t used since she was young.

“It’s not a bad story for you either. Bexshire? Raviens Estate? Tutor? You don’t have to go to such places.”

Stella blinked slowly. Each time, the tears remaining at the corners of her eyes fell down.

“You’re going to become the Duchess of Rochester.”

Count Ambrose answered with resolute eyes.

“You’re going to marry Duke Kalian Rochester.”

Her heart dropped with a thud.

Did I hear that correctly?

Wasn’t he the father who had always driven away suitors who came?

Wasn’t he the father who had sincerely told her to meet someone she loved like he and Mother did and be happy?

But why.

Why on earth was Father, of all people, saying such things?

‘And why Duke Rochester of all people……?’

Hadn’t she been desperately struggling to fold away her feelings somehow?

To the point of leaving Sanderson and Mary, and her beloved mother and father.

To the point of deciding to leave for a place where even the climate, terrain, and living habits were unfamiliar.

She had been trying to fold away her feelings for Duke Rochester, so why had it turned out like this? Why?

“This is strange.”

Stella shook her head. She had to resist somehow. She couldn’t be dragged along like this.

“This is really strange, Father.”

“My child.”

“Isn’t Duke Rochester the husband that everyone wants? But how can I marry him?”

Although she had harbored a one-sided love for Duke Rochester for over ten years, Stella had never even dreamed of marriage.

She knew there were things that couldn’t be achieved even in dreams.

The most representative of those was her marriage to Duke Rochester.

“Father, I have nothing I can bring, let alone a dowry.”

Wasn’t a dowry one of the important factors gentlemen considered when choosing a wife, to the point where there was a saying that a wife’s virtue was her dowry?

But Stella had nothing she could bring except dust in the cupboard.

Instead, she had family members trailing behind her who needed help.

If someone married her, he would have to take responsibility for her natal family, House Ambrose, as well.

Moreover, she couldn’t play piano or instruments well like other excellent ladies, her embroidery was clumsy, and she had never learned foreign languages or painting.

She didn’t know how to manage servants or maids, or how to run the household affairs of a family.

Furthermore, she was already in a situation where her honor had fallen due to dirty rumors. The duke already firmly believed those rumors too.

A marriage between herself, who had nothing and had learned nothing, and Duke Rochester, who stood at the pinnacle of everything.

Stella laughed self-mockingly while rubbing her face.

“……The duke would never want to marry someone like me.”

“No. Duke Rochester will marry you.”

At the confident voice, Stella raised her head.

Baizel, whom she had always thought of as a kind uncle, was smiling with a face she had never seen before.

“This is a royal command.”

⁕⁕⁕

“You must know this young lady?”

Kalian, who had suddenly been summoned to the royal palace and received a small portrait, sneered quietly.

In the portrait, which was barely two spans wide, was drawn a person he had encountered several times over the past few days.

A woman with long brown hair hanging down, shining with fresh green eyes like newly sprouted buds.

It was Stella Ambrose.

However, perhaps because of her lively cheeks, confident smile, and gorgeous dress with various jewelry accessories.

She looked somewhat different from the appearance he knew.

“You do know her, as expected.”

As if he had already read the answer in Kalian’s eyes, Dukren smiled.

“Did this woman cling to Uncle?”

Kalian asked, throwing down Stella’s portrait carelessly.

“Did she throw herself at you asking to be married to me?”

“I won’t deny it.”

Dukren, who had been silent for a moment while caressing his teacup, lightly affirmed.

“She asked me to help her achieve her first love.”

First love—at those words, Kalian’s eyes narrowed.

“She seems to have held only you in her heart for a long time. She’s a remarkably chaste maiden.”

It was deliberately said.

The rumors about Stella Ambrose had already spread throughout the region and everyone knew them.

Even the passing beggars knew them, but the king of a country didn’t know those rumors?

“Is that so?”

One side of Kalian’s lips rose crookedly.

“From what I’ve heard, she has quite promiscuous rumors.”

“Would I not have looked into such things when choosing a bride for my cherished nephew?”

Putting down his teacup, Dukren stared straight at Kalian.

“They were all groundless rumors. False rumors spread by those who bore malice toward her.”

The way Dukren looked at him without wavering while speaking seemed like he was really telling the truth.

How plausible.

Kalian sneered inwardly.

“If even you believe such rumors, wouldn’t Miss Ambrose become pitiful?”

The king’s lips drew an elegant curve.

“She’s someone you’ll live with for the rest of your life. No matter what happens, please believe in Miss Ambrose.”

It was a tone as if soothing a child throwing a tantrum over something ridiculous.

“So what will you do? If you really hate it, I have no intention of proceeding with this marriage.”

Looking at the king’s seemingly gentle face, Kalian sneered inwardly.

It was a lie that even a child wouldn’t fall for.

If he refused here, he would somehow pressure Mother and push that woman into the seat next to him anyway.

“Very well.”

Running his hand through his hair, Kalian smiled. The disheveled hair fell down to cover his forehead.

“I’ll marry Miss Stella Ambrose.”

Struggling to avoid an unavoidable fight didn’t suit Kalian’s temperament.

“Since Uncle is arranging the wedding, it seems like it will be quite grand.”

He might as well charge straight in.

Both the king who was putting a leash on him trying to make him submit somehow, and that woman who had defiled the word first love.

“I’m already looking forward to it.”

He intended to make them regret it.

⁕⁕⁕