Chapter 1 – Broken Engagement (Part 4)

Morning arrived, but Reubellina did not leave her bedroom. The ducal servants anxiously passed by her door, but the door remained closed.

Worried, the Duke urged her to come out, but she remained in her room, claiming she wanted to rest. Despite his repeated knocks, she did not open the door.

Just as the famished Reubellina was struggling to get up from the bed, the locked door suddenly opened, and her personal maid, Sandy, burst in with a flustered expression.

“My lady! This is no time to be like this!”

“What’s going on? I didn’t even tell you to come in, and you barged in and opened the door…”

“T-t-the, the Grand Duke of the North is here!”

“What?”

Reubellina responded indifferently. 

‘The Grand Duke of the North? What Duke? The ducal household and the northern duchy had never had any connection, so why would he come here?’

Reubellina wondered, but Sandy was frantically shaking the blanket Reubellina was holding and exclaimed.

“It’s true! The Grand Duke Speraum has come!”

“What nonsense are you spouting!”

Grand Duke Speraum was the one who was the cause of her broken engagement. If he had just married Bellaruse, Reubellina could have safely announced her marriage to Inferno last night. The idea of that man coming to Duke Asillious’s duchy was simply laughable.

Reubellina scoffed, raising her chin towards Sandy.

“Are you trying to lure me out on purpose?”

“My lady, he really has come! This is no time to be like this. The second round of tea has already been served.”

The seriousness on Sandy’s face made Reubellina finally realize that she wasn’t just relaying empty words. The moment she understood this, Reubellina, who had been cocooned in the blanket, flung it off and abruptly stood up.

“Is it really true?”

“Yes. It’s already too late even if you start getting ready now. He’s already seated in the reception room. The Duke is receiving him, but he said he wants to see you.”

The panic evident in Sandy’s expression made Reubellina hesitate.

“See me? Why?”

“That I don’t know. The Duke said to come down quickly.”

Sandy’s words brought Reubellina back to her senses, and she hurried.

“Go get my dress, and have all the other maids come in as well.”

“Understood!”

Sandy nodded solemnly and left the room. Reubellina quickly stripped off the dress she had worn the day before. The maids who had just arrived urged her to hurry, saying the bathwater was ready. The maids, trained in anticipation of Inferno’s sudden visits, skillfully assisted Reubellina bathe and dry her hair.

Soon, Reubellina was seated in front of the mirror, dressed in a gown. The maids moved busily in silence.

Normally, the maids would have tried to cheer up Reubellina if they sensed her mood was not good. But their faces were serious. Once again, Reubellina realized the urgency of the situation.

‘The Grand Duke must have been waiting for a while…’

If the man wasn’t very patient, the ducal household servants would have been in trouble by now. But since the butler hadn’t come rushing in, it seemed it hadn’t reached that point.

Reubellina swallowed a sigh of relief and tried not to blink. The maid who had carefully applied her makeup with long strokes at the corners of her eyes smiled brightly.

“It’s all done!”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Looking in the mirror, a beautiful woman in a splendid dress stood there.

Whether it was to showcase the Duke’s wealth or to comfort her in her gloomy state the day before, the dress the maids had prepared was the most expensive one she had ever owned. Reubellina didn’t even have time to scold them for putting her in a dress she rarely wore because it was too extravagant.

The simple reason this dress with subtle diamonds embedded all over it was stuffed in the closet was that Inferno had said it was too luxurious, and that a person wearing such clothes was a symbol of vanity.

Thanks to that, Reubellina had never properly worn this beautiful, softly shimmering dress she had bought, keeping it stored in the closet. But the maids who diligently cared for the clothes in the closet had brought it out to shine today.

“Let’s go.”

As Reubellina walked towards the reception room, the sound of the dress’s train could not be heard. Walking with the perfect etiquette of a noblewoman, she couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the refined manners ingrained in her.

All of this had also been painstakingly learned for Inferno’s sake. The Duke had tried to dissuade her from learning etiquette, saying she could live freely, but it was Reubellina who had stubbornly insisted on mastering it perfectly.

Even as she walked, she couldn’t get Inferno out of her mind. Reubellina’s brow furrowed.

Pausing for a moment to think, she was brought back to her senses by Sandy whispering next to her.

“What if the Grand Duke is angry?”

“So what if he gets angry? This is Duke Asillious’s residence.”

“He doesn’t seem like the type to get angry, though.”

“Why are you suddenly changing your tone?”

“Because he’s incredibly handsome.”

“Handsome?”

“Yes. I think you’d be surprised to see him.”

“Just because someone is handsome doesn’t mean they have good manners.”

Reubellina let Sandy’s praises of the Grand Duke’s appearance go in one ear and out the other.

‘Why on earth did he come looking for me?’

She had briefly considered the possibility that the news of the broken engagement had spread, but that alone didn’t seem like a reason for the Grand Duke of Speraum to come to visit her.

As the Grand Duke, he wielded power second only to the imperial family, so the Duke Asillious couldn’t just dismiss him unceremoniously. The fact that he had come in the morning, which was against etiquette, meant that Duke Asillious had no choice but to receive him at the duchy. Reubellina bit her lip slightly, imagining her father’s troubled expression.

The Grand Duke of the North, Tartenon Speraum, was a rather famous person.

The House of Speraum was established by the founding Emperor’s brother, and now, with the imperial bloodline thinned, it could no longer be strictly considered part of the imperial family,  as several generations had already passed. However, he was still a powerful lord who guarded the northern borders and was granted the title of Grand Duke by the King.

The Grand Duke of Speraum, who had never surrendered his northern borders to anyone else, was always busy. Naturally, he had no connection with Reubellina. She had caught a glimpse of him at social events a couple of times, but she had been too preoccupied with looking for Inferno to seek him out.

He rarely ventured into the capital unless the Emperor summoned him. Hearing that the Grand Duke Speraum was looking for her, Reubellina took a deep breath, feeling unnecessarily nervous.

The servant who recognized her paused in opening the door when she saw Reubellina smoothing her dress. As her gaze met the servant’s, the door opened softly.

As Reubellina entered the reception room, the bright light stung her eyes. Blinking a few times, she turned to face the Duke, who beamed at the sight of her face.

That’s when the man seated with his back to the door stood up as he heard of her presence.

‘Oh no.’

It was that man. The one who had witnessed all of her disgraceful behavior the night before.