Duke Siegfried smiled faintly at that. She couldn’t tell why.

That smile looked even better than she had expected, and Lionette found herself staring at his face in a daze. She knew it was rude, but she did it anyway.

When the smile faded from his face and his usual impassive expression returned, she kept stealing glances at Duke Siegfried, the way someone keeps looking back at a mirage they’re not sure they really saw.

From that day, which felt like a dream on a midsummer night, the marriage of Lionette Wagner and Dante Siegfried moved along remarkably smoothly.

She had no idea how she made it back to the estate, but Count Wagner’s reaction confirmed it wasn’t a dream.

“Of all people, why does it have to be that Siegfried, tsk.”

“But it is that Siegfried, Father.”

Even after receiving the proposal letter, Count Wagner was disappointed that it had to be the Siegfried family, of all families, the ones he didn’t get along with. Soothing him fell to Lionette. But since refusing the marriage was out of the question given the extraordinary lengths Dante Siegfried had gone to, the soothing was effectively Duke Siegfried’s doing, not Lionette’s.

For instance, he sent over crates of spirits from across the continent that the count favored, or carved off a portion of his own territory and transferred it to the Wagner name “in gratitude for raising such a precious daughter to give to him.” Someone else might have waved it off as excessive, but Count Wagner was a man who absolutely lived for being treated well, and he agreed to hand over his daughter in a manner that said he had “no choice.”

“Lionette is not in good health, so I will see to her care at the ducal residence until the wedding.”

With those words, Lionette took up residence at the ducal estate in perfectly fine health.

“So when do you leave for the ducal residence?”

“A carriage is coming for me tomorrow. Sally already helped with the packing.”

“Behave yourself when you get there, and don’t say anything strange.”

Her father knew Lionette had a somewhat eccentric streak compared to most women, and he warned her firmly, but Lionette simply laughed it off. She could already picture exactly how furious he would be if he ever found out that the very “strange talk” he was warning her about was what had made this marriage happen.

What Lionette could bring to the Siegfried household was a few dresses from her maiden days and one or two of her closest maids. As for the dresses, the Siegfried side had more or less indicated she should only bring what she truly cherished. Things like keepsakes from her mother, for example.

Lionette gave a quiet nod and chose only a maid. It was Ephine, a maid who had practically grown up alongside her. They weren’t particularly close, but Ephine had an even temper and knew Lionette’s peculiar ways well enough to serve her without trouble.

Their easygoing natures suited each other well, too. She only had to recall that when told she was being brought to the ducal residence, Ephine had done nothing more than blink once.

“Miss, should I pack this as well?”

“No, leave that.”

After finishing all the packing, Lionette looked around her room.

She wasn’t especially attached to it, but it was still the room where she had been born and raised. She had used this room from her earliest memories without ever moving. And now she was leaving it to go to a residence owned by a man she barely knew.

……She probably should have been frightened, but somehow she wasn’t.

She just felt like everything would be fine. Even if someone called her reckless.

“Miss, the carriage has arrived.”

“Alright, I’ll be right there.”

Lionette took one last look around her room and walked out. It was goodbye to a house she had long grown tired of.

The coachman helped her up as she approached the carriage bearing the Siegfried crest engraved in relief. The interior seemed two or three times more spacious than the Wagner family’s carriage. Whatever mechanism had been installed, every road to the ducal residence felt smooth, like traveling on silk. Perhaps because the ride was so steady, the carriage was stocked with drinks and light snacks.

“I could live in here.”

Lionette took a bite of a financier and thought exactly that. The coachman knocked twice on the opaque partition separating him from the cabin and called out warmly.

“We’ve arrived at the ducal residence!”

Curiosity got the better of her, and Lionette lifted the curtain covering the window just a little.

Plane trees spread their dense shade, heralding the coming summer. A rose-draped wall swept past. At the far end of the white walls stood the main gate.

At last, Siegfried.

The moment the Siegfried gates opened, Lionette was shown to a reception room. Or at least, she thought it was a reception room. Something this vast and lavish, and it wasn’t the main hall? The Siegfried wealth showed itself plainly.

Duke Siegfried appeared a short while later. He looked every bit like a man who had barely carved out a moment between a packed schedule.

“Have a read of the contract.”

Drawing up a contract had been Lionette’s idea. She had suggested it because she would be the first to suffer if Duke Siegfried started changing his terms, and she had steeled herself for the possibility that it might be handled as nothing more than a verbal agreement. But Duke Siegfried had written out a contract in his own name.

There was one thing that nagged at her, though. The contract period had not been clearly specified.

Lionette pressed her finger to the blank space just above the signature line.

“Please add the contract period here.”

“A period, meaning?”

Duke Siegfried tilted his head. His expression asked what specific timeframe she had in mind. Lionette opened her mouth slowly.

“For us to perform as a happily married couple and have that impression take hold in society, we need at least a year, at the very minimum.”

“Ah, that period.”

Duke Siegfried looked mildly displeased for a moment, then relented. He picked up his pen and began writing the clause into the blank space in his own hand.

This man even has pretty hands……

Lionette stared blankly at the elegant movement of his hand and the flowing cursive script before catching herself. Duke Siegfried had already finished writing all the necessary clauses and was holding out the quill pen.

“Check it. Make sure it’s correct.”

“……Yes, it’s correct.”

Lionette read through the contract from beginning to end and nodded. There were no clauses that particularly disadvantaged either party, nor any that gave one side an unfair advantage.

She hadn’t expected him to write it this fairly. She had assumed he would tilt it in Siegfried’s favor. Something like a clause requiring a quiet divorce once a child was born, for instance. Maybe she had read too many novels. Keeping that thought to herself, Lionette wrote her name.

Lionette Wagner. She had the feeling this would be the last time she ever wrote the Wagner name.

Life at the ducal residence was nothing short of comfortable. Within the estate, Lionette was already treated no differently from the duchess. They had prepared not a guest room but the duchess’s own chambers as her room.

On top of that, the room was already furnished in lavish style. Even the maids addressed her not as a visitor but as “my lady,” again and again.

Lionette started to wonder how long this life would last before it became obvious that she and Duke Siegfried were quite awkward with each other after the wedding, then stopped herself. She preferred not to worry about things before they happened.

“Have you eaten?”

“I ate a little while ago.”

“Good. How did you spend today?”

Dante made a habit of coming to Lionette’s room after finishing his schedule each day to ask what she had been up to. Since Lionette had little to do, her answers never varied much from one day to the next.