【 Starting Today, I Am the Grand Duchess 】

It was the day of the wedding between House Valenstein and the Marquis of Lutenberg.

The torrential rain had finally eased, and at last the clear, crystalline peal of a bell carried through the stillness to her ears.

Dazzling chandelier light settled over the white marble floor.

A red carpet.

Layers upon layers of peony petals scattered across it. And upon them, the bride’s footsteps fell.

Yet the face of a bride who ought to have been smiling amid blessings was, for some reason, heavy with worry.

Fortunately, the deeply draped veil concealed it, but her steps were no different from those of someone whose fate was being altered with every stride.

There was a separate reason she was so extremely nervous, and it was none other than the identity of the man she was about to wed.

Grand Duke Caesar Valenstein.

The Emperor’s only nephew, and the third name in the line of imperial succession. He was counted among the most handsome men in the empire, and a magnate who held vast wealth in his hands.

Word had it that every last brick stacked in the capital, Tranel, had passed through his ledgers, and the mines he owned alone were enough to make counting on ten fingers a futile effort.

On top of all that, he possessed striking looks to match, so his name had no choice but to circulate perpetually at the center of high society.

That such a man was holding a wedding ceremony with the young Lady of Marquis Lutenberg, known throughout the nobility as a wild filly, made it no wonder that deep sighs rose from the young ladies seated among the guests. They stole glances at the veiled bride and murmured in low voices behind their fans.

“Is that the veiled young lady the famous noble lady everyone talks about?”

“Yes, that’s right. To think that wild filly is becoming the Grand Duchess.”

“How dreadful for the Grand Duke… an unwanted marriage by the Emperor’s command. If only the engagement had been settled sooner…….”

“Shh! They can hear us! They can hear!”

Hear them she could, and more than that, every word drove straight into her ears.

No matter how one hid behind a fan, speaking that loudly left no room for it not to be heard.

But they were not the only ones whispering about the bride.

The nobles seated among the guests exchanged hushed words with one another, speaking ill of the Grand Duke’s wedding, and no small number furrowed their brows and shook their heads.

It was a strangely discordant sight, rare for a wedding that ought to have been filled with joy.

At last, the man who drew everyone’s attention made his appearance and led the bride forward, her hand clasped in his.

The veil obscured his face from a clear view, yet his presence was overwhelming from the mere fact of standing beside her.

Hundreds of eyes among the guests fixed themselves on the man’s face and would not leave.

The brilliant platinum hair that symbolized the imperial family flowed as though it held light within it, and his silver-grey eyes, refined like the finest diamond expertly cut, carried a quiet, luminous gleam.

At the sight of a groom so dazzlingly perfect, the guests’ sense of pity could only deepen.

Amid an atmosphere so solemn that even breathing grew hushed, she stole a glance at the face of the man holding her hand.

His gaze was expressionless, his eyes dreadfully dry, holding not a single emotion within them.

Even in the steps he took, one after another, boredom seeped through.

Let this hollow formality be over soon.

The bride holding his hand was not unaware of his inconsiderate stride or his displeasure. She was simply trapped in a far deeper spiral of thoughts.

She felt like a person wearing clothes that did not fit her body. Everything was unnatural.

The dress, which only appeared voluminous beneath its many layers, pressed down on her, and whether from her stiffly locked arms and legs or something else, even matching his stride with a single step felt like an ordeal.

Slip.

She finally missed her footing and lurched, on the verge of toppling over.

At the sudden turn of events, Caesar yanked the bride’s hand he had been holding and seized her firmly around the waist. It was an instinctive, split-second reaction, her body responding before thought could.

Finding herself face to face with him in an instant, her cheeks flushed red.

At the thought that it would have all been exposed had the veil not been there, she clenched her right fist so tightly that her knuckles went red.

“Careful.”

His single, honeyed word echoed just beside her ear.

It was the most tender of scenes, a groom catching his bride before she fell. The guests pressed their hands to their mouths and let out soft, breathless exclamations.

At the same time, the face of the devastatingly handsome man fixed its gaze on Adelia beneath the veil. His eyes as they looked at her held not a shred of affection, let alone interest.

To him, the present situation was no different from moving a piece of furniture or picking up a sword he had nearly dropped. Adelia, embarrassed at having flushed for no real reason, straightened herself and stepped forward again.

At last, the pair, at least in outward appearance a perfect match, reached the front of the dais. The officiant standing upon it looked at the bride and groom with a pleased expression and began to recite the wedding address.

“On this blessed, fair day bestowed by the gods, a beautiful union has come into being. Here, before countless witnesses and under the blessings of heaven, do the two of you swear to choose one another through the changing of seasons and whatever trials a long time may bring, and to love each other eternally until the very end of your lives?”

“I swear.”

“…….”

It was the moment when the bride’s answer was due.

But an awkward silence followed in its place. Tension kept her lips from parting.

As the silence stretched on, a subtle ripple moved through the wedding hall. The nobles gathered there began to murmur once more.

Coming to her senses belatedly, she managed to open her mouth in a trembling voice.

“I, I swear.”

“Bride and groom, please share the oath’s kiss.”

Caesar then slowly lifted the bride’s veil.

As the thin fabric drew back, her fair face was revealed. A slightly stiffened expression and a flush spread across her cheeks. It was plain to see that her face was burning from nerves.

He gazed at her face for a moment, then lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, which had parted slightly.

It was a brief contact, and perhaps for that reason it left all the more of an impression. The thought that she had now truly crossed a river with no return brought a rush of mingled feelings.

“With this, I declare the union of two houses.”

Amid a blend of splendor and a strange, lingering feeling, the magnificent wedding finally drew to a close.

* * *

After the wedding ended, the bride had been dressed and prepared by the hands of the attendants.

A negligee that seemed to reveal her fair skin yet not quite, with a silk gown draped over it. The scent of the alluring fragrant oil applied all over her body struck her nostrils with a dizzy sharpness.

She, who ought to have been welcoming her new husband with excitement, was pacing restlessly about the room in a manner unbefitting a bride on her wedding night.

Clutching her throbbing head, she turned and looked at the mirror beside the sofa.

Just as she had feared.

“What am I going to do?”

It was not the flushed cheeks that looked feverish, nor the suggestive state of her dress suited to a wedding night.

The face reflected in the mirror was the problem.

Adelia.

Because she herself was wearing that face, she had not been able to relax for a single moment throughout the entire wedding.

Countless thoughts chased one after another, but no matter how hard she thought, no way to break free from this absurd situation came to her.

She was not Adelia.

To be precise, the soul inside the body, the inner self of Adelia, was not Adelia at all, but Luna Ellen, the maid who had served Adelia.

Luna had no idea whatsoever how she had ended up inside her mistress’s body.

All she could remember was this: the day before Adelia’s wedding, Luna had simply finished her usual tasks as she always did, then shared tea and snacks that Adelia had offered her while the two of them talked, after which she returned to her own quarters.

Adelia, who had cherished Luna like a younger sister, often made time to spend with her, and it was nothing more than an utterly ordinary part of their daily lives.

The only thing that had been different from usual was……

‘Yes. It feels like… wearing clothes that don’t fit me. I’ve always wanted to go somewhere far away, Luna. But if I become the Grand Duke’s wife… I’ll have to live watching every move I make around my husband and the imperial family.’

She had always lamented her own circumstances, saying that her life, which looked glamorous on the outside, was in truth nothing but an empty shell with no substance inside.

Adelia’s discontent had reached its peak, and she had gone around meeting one man after another, mixing lightly with people, and at times causing trouble, until she had finally earned herself the nickname “the wild filly of high society.”

Someone looking on might have condemned her as a spoiled girl who had grown up in comfort and didn’t know how good she had it, but Luna, who had always watched Adelia from close by, knew well that the feelings Adelia expressed were genuine.

Even so, the fact that Adelia’s behavior had been somewhat strange did not make the current situation any easier to accept.

Was the body swap Adelia’s doing? But then, how could anyone swap bodies, and who in their right mind would think to steal someone else’s body just because they didn’t want to get married?

In any case, Luna was at her absolute wit’s end. Not only had she stood in for Adelia at the wedding, but now it seemed she was going to have to spend the wedding night with Grand Duke Valenstein as well.

‘To think I’m actually married to the most handsome man in the empire.’

Under ordinary circumstances, that might have been how Luna would have marveled.

Luna thought back to Caesar, who had caught her when she had nearly stumbled ungracefully on the aisle of the wedding hall.

And the brief kiss they had shared after the officiant’s address.

The straight line of his nose and the clean definition of his jaw. The sharp set of his eyes resting above them.

His face, sculpted with such precision it seemed carved from stone, was less a human face and more a work of art completed with a craftsman’s soul poured into it.

Even the faint scent that had drifted past when he drew close, every single moment of it still remained vivid and clear.

But it was not only that memory stirring through Luna’s mind.

The reality that he was Adelia’s husband, and that she would soon have to face him while pretending to be Adelia, sent waves of anxiety crashing over her.

Bringing it back to mind again, her heart leapt wildly out of control, whether from nerves or something else.

“I, I have to… stay calm.”

It was a marriage formed under imperial decree.

The union of the two houses had already been set in motion like an irreversible course of events.

The moment she refused, it was clear that misfortune would fall upon the Marquis’s house, the family that had taken her in since childhood. And if she revealed the truth, rather than being believed, she would surely be locked away as a mad woman.

In the end, Luna had had no choice but to step into the wedding hall wearing Adelia’s face, unable to do anything else.

Now that it had come to this, there was no running away, and no undoing the wedding.

It was while she was fretting in that state that what entered her field of vision was the refreshments and the nuptial wine set out inside the bridal chamber.