Chapter 1.1 – First Love Never Comes True  

Maia bit her lip. The divorce papers in her hand were mercilessly crumpled.  

Is this really the right thing to do?  

Maia forced her trembling body up and wandered around the office, as if lost, where he had not yet returned.  

Murmur, murmur.  

The voices of the Duke, who had returned from his outing, and his aides could be heard from outside the door.  

Maia hurriedly sat down.  

She had to hide all the turmoil inside her and sit there in the perfect image of a Duchess.  

Click.  

The door opened, and a man, his gaze as cold as ice, stepped into the office.  

His eyes, resembling an indifferent sea, took in Maia’s figure.  

“……Why are you here, Madame?”  

His voice was filled with clear displeasure.  

Nevertheless, Maia smiled as if nothing was wrong.  

“I have something to tell you, Your Grace…… Have you finished your work for the day?”  

As always, Maia swallowed the circumstances that had tormented her for a whole month, and looked up at her husband, Duke Western.  

“……What on earth has gotten you so worked up?”  

Through his monocle, his blue eyes, holding a smooth hint of sarcasm, met hers.  

He only mocked her for a moment, then leaned comfortably back in his chair across from her, and Maia gripped the papers in her hand.  

“Speak.”  

“Your Grace, please divorce me.”  

Her words overlapped with his, almost at the same time.  

Oh no.

Maia’s face turned pale.  

“……I don’t think I’m old enough to be hard of hearing. What did you just say?”  

But it was already too late.  

Even though their words had overlapped, the Duke, who had clearly heard her sentence, stared at her, his once proud face now hardened.  

He looked at her as if she had gone mad.  

Now, there was no taking it back.  

Maia tightly shut her eyes and held out the prepared papers.  

“You never said it, but I believe it’s something you have wanted for a long time, Your Grace. Maybe it’s even too late now. I, who am only from the middle class, do not belong with you, Your Grace, who has imperial blood, and above all, Your Grace……”  

Maia, who had been pouring out her words, raised her head at that point to check his expression as he listened to her.  

She thought he would have been expecting this. 

Was I wrong?  

He was looking at her with a stiff body and eyes that trembled faintly, just like someone truly surprised.  

“……You still haven’t forgotten your former wife.”  

Staring at his face as if entranced, Maia spoke.  

Former wife. The existence that was like Duke Western’s Achilles’ heel.  

As expected, the moment she uttered that title, his face twisted with an expression incomparable to before.  

Maia bowed her head in fear.  

She could not bear his anger.  

“So, let’s get divorced.”  

Her pounding heart thudded in her ears. She feared he might hear it too.  

Maia Hansberg.  

As one could guess from her only having two names, she was not a noble.  

But she was not, like the protagonist in a story called ‘Cinderella’, a poor commoner either.  

Born into a wealthy middle-class merchant family, she grew up with plenty, lacking nothing.  

However, the fact that she was not a noble meant that, no matter how much wealthier she was than most nobles, she lived in a different world.  

Because she was not a noble, she could not enter the Royal Academy, and from a young age, she had to listen endlessly to people calling her family’s wealth “money piled up without dignity.”  

Whenever nobles came to her family home for business, she was told not to meet their eyes, and even speaking a single word to them was considered rude.  

Nobles, who sat at the very top of all social classes, actually despised the middle class, who were just below them, even more than the commoners, who could never bridge the gap.  

Anyway, Maia Hansberg, born into the middle class, knew all too well that her fate was to live quietly without even looking up, just as her parents had.  

And Maia decided to obediently follow that fate.  

This man before her.  

At least until she met Lucas de Agnolis, Duke of Western.

* * *  

‘Today, Marquis Keppel, Grand Duke Adelstein, and Duke Western are visiting for business! Miss……’  

‘I know. I’ll go out.’  

There were never any good memories from meeting nobles.  

After Maia grew old enough to understand things, whenever these situations arose, she would simply leave their house.  

Maia smiled brightly at the maid who was watching her nervously as she recited the name of Marquis Keppel.  

And as always, she left the mansion and went out into the garden.  

What crazy noble would wander around a merchant’s garden, which was much shabbier than their own? That’s why the garden felt comfortable to her.  

Rustle, rustle.  

The hem of her dress brushed against the grass.  

The pleasant sound of rustling leaves lingered in her ears.  

Maia exhaled slowly.  

Splash.  

Amid the peaceful noise, a strange sound suddenly intruded.  

Water. The sound of splashing.  

Maia blinked and looked up.  

A scene she hadn’t noticed before was reflected in her violet eyes as she raised her head.  

Not too far, but not too close from where Maia had stopped, there was a small lake.  

And in front of it stood someone Maia had not noticed.  

Judging by his appearance, he was clearly not a member of the household, and Maia held her breath.  

Was it a twist of fate? Until then, the sun that had been hidden was suddenly poured down onto the earth by the clouds.  

The afternoon sunlight struck the gently rippling surface of the lake, scattering dazzlingly.  

The man who gazed down at such a fantastical scene was even more brilliant.  

The silver embroidery on his deep navy uniform sparkled like the surface of the waves.  

His long blue hair, tied back, fluttered softly, more delicate than the finest silk.  

His eyes, the same shade, held a gentle smile, contrary to their cold light.  

As if he welcomed the warm sunlight shining on him, he stood there for a long time.  

Maia also remained there for a long time.  

Not because of the warm sunlight, but because the man was beautiful.  

He shone so brightly, like a fantasy she had only dreamed of.  

‘Duke Western! Sorry to keep you waiting so long.’  

The dreamlike, hazy moment shattered at the sudden voice of a young man.  

……Duke Western?  

As Maia tried to hide behind the bushes, she froze at the name she heard.  

Maia stared at the man who turned to look at the young man who had just arrived.  

‘……Your Highness. Have you finished the contract?’  

At his question, the young Imperial Prince replied in a grumbling tone.  

‘Yes. That’s why middle-class women are so troublesome. And really, is it proper for a man and a woman to be alone together in one room? Just wait. In this session of the assembly……’

His words trailed off.  

At that moment, Maia felt as if she had been doused with water and awakened from a dream.  

The warm sun had long since set.  

Standing in the darkening center of the garden, Maia was lost in heavy, silent thoughts.  

Duke Western. Commonly called the Young Duke Western.  

The only surviving son of the previous Imperial Princess, who was His Majesty the Emperor’s cousin, and a member of the Imperial Family, personally raised by the Emperor.  

……A man rumored to be engaged to the First Princess of the Empire.  

At that moment, Maia thought.  

She must bury this feeling that had just arisen.  

A Duke favored by the Emperor and the daughter of a lowly merchant. It was a combination fit only for the novels she had naively read as a child.  

Maia wore a faint smile.  

She would lock it away in a black coffin and bury it in her red heart.  

So that this feeling would never crawl out of the coffin again.  

‘Miss! Miss Maia! Huff, why are you here, is something wrong?’  

‘……No.’  

Maia looked toward the lakeside where he had been.  

‘It’s nothing.’  

The seventeen-year-old girl whispered softly, and thus choked the breath out of her first love.  

The news that the Young Duke Western would marry the Empire’s First Princess came two months after that.

***

Returning to the present, Maia fiercely regretted having spoken those words without even being able to meet the Duke of Western’s gaze.  

She must have been crazy. She had definitely decided to give up back then—so why did she make the absurd choice of becoming this man’s wife!  

Stifling a surge of frustration, Maia clenched her fists tightly.  

She had never even dreamed of the ambition of becoming a Duchess.  

It was that man, now glaring at her so fiercely, who had suddenly proposed to her.  

“……I’ve already consulted with a lawyer and finished all the procedures, so all you need to do is sign here,Your Grace. Then, I’ll take my leave.”  

Maia spit out her words like a rapid-fire gun and sprang to her feet.  

She walked quickly, and until the door closed behind her without a sound, the Duke of Western said nothing.  

……Was it my own selfishness to wish he would stop me here?  

Maia quietly pressed down the sorrow rising within her with her foot.  

The door closed.  

In the severed space, as always, only silence lingered.