01.

Rosaline thought. Is this a dream or reality? Is now reality, or were the things until just now a dream? But then she shook her head. What does it matter, right now.

Rosaline raised her trembling hand and stroked her abdomen. Her belly, without any excess fat, was smooth without any curves.

Yes, it was fine. It wasn’t swollen, nor was it punctured. That was enough.

Rosaline Marte was an ordinary noble lady. Born as the third daughter of Count Marte, who had moderate wealth and power, she was engaged in a political marriage as an ordinary lady, not an heir.

The only difference between her and others was that she had an exceptionally outstanding appearance that everyone acknowledged, and thus her marriage partner was quite high-ranking.

‘I am pleased to make a good connection, Lady Marte.’

Kallen Addis. A handsome man with sparkling blonde hair and violet eyes, Marquis Addis was Rosaline’s fiancé, whom she got engaged to when she was eighteen. He was twenty-one years old.

Both the Count Marte family and the Marquis Addis family were part of the Emperor’s faction, and it was a highly political union. Even so, Rosaline felt satisfied with her life.

A childhood where she was loved, a marriage partner everyone envied, and a future as the wife of a marquis. She believed she had grasped all the happiness a noble lady could enjoy. She genuinely thought so. At least until the early days of her marriage.

Rosaline did not have high expectations for a political marriage. Since it was a marriage of necessity, she only matched the conditions, believing that love at first sight or a friendship-like love that slowly soaked in like spring rain were stories from novels. She thought they should simply keep faith and fidelity as they had vowed before the Lord.

Her thoughts changed after the wedding night.

‘Marquis?’

‘Speak freely, my lady. We are now husband and wife, aren’t we?’

‘Ah…….’

Kallen Addis showed the passionate side of a man in his honeymoon. He sought Rosaline every night and exuded endless desire.

Everyone looked on happily at the little masters overflowing with love. Even when she couldn’t get out of bed until late morning, skipping breakfast, no one blamed the lovely newlywed who had been tormented by her husband all night.

So Rosaline dared to misunderstand. That Kallen loved her. That he cherished her immensely.

‘Congratulations, madam. You are pregnant.’

That misunderstanding shattered when she became pregnant. At first, she was simply happy. Both families, including Kallen, were delighted and proud, saying that the future of the Marquis family was secure.

Kallen treated the pregnant Rosaline carefully, but they no longer spent nights together. Rosaline did not desire the bed, but only hoped to fall asleep in his arms, feeling his warmth, as she had grown accustomed to.

However, after hearing from the doctor that marital relations were impossible for a while, Kallen stopped coming to her bedroom.

Rosaline consoled herself, thinking he was being considerate of her and the child, but she couldn’t hide a certain uneasy feeling. It was an intuition. And while she was trying to ignore that unease, an incident occurred.

That day was sunny. Her belly, which had grown significantly, made her pant even when she was still, but she was simply satisfied. It was soon. Once the child was born, her position as the marquis’s wife would become more secure, and she could sleep with her husband again. She was dreaming of such things.

While drinking tea in the garden, she was startled by the sudden commotion around her and asked her personal maid, Amy. Amy, who had left to check the situation, returned with a pale face and told her to leave as someone was causing a disturbance.

Just as she was about to ask more details out of curiosity, ‘someone’ intruded into her garden.

“Oh my, the Marchioness?”

The seductive voice she heard for the first time belonged to a young woman. The woman, with a confident smile, irritably brushed off the servants trying to stop her and boldly stood before Rosaline.

“Nice to meet you, Marchioness. I am Amelia Cerda.”

“Lady Cerda? What is…….”

She was about to snap, ‘how rude.’ It was unimaginable rudeness for an uninvited guest to intrude into the hostess’s garden and cause a disturbance. Especially if she was a noble. However, the words Rosaline couldn’t utter were swallowed by Amelia’s next words.

“I am also the marquis’s mistress.”

Amelia Cerda was Kallen’s mistress. Rosaline’s pupils, shaken by the shock, wandered without finding a place to settle and then focused on Amelia’s lower abdomen. Her belly was slightly swollen. Rosaline’s vision darkened.

“Kallen, what on earth is this―.”

“I am truly sorry, my lady.”

That night, Kallen, who visited Rosaline’s bedroom after a long time, spoke, looking troubled. He said that Lady Cerda had been in such a relationship with him for several months and that the child in her belly was indeed his, and that he felt he should take responsibility for impregnating an unmarried noble lady.

“I apologize to you, but please show generosity as the hostess. It is only natural for us to take in a child who carries the Addis blood.”

There was no one on her side. She was the only one who didn’t know about his mistress. Not only the servants of the marquis’s household but also her family, the Count Marte family, knew about Amelia’s existence. Only her brother, the young Count Marte, had voiced some complaints, but since having a mistress was natural for noble men, it was brushed aside.

However, regarding the illegitimate child, even the Count Marte family did not take it lightly. Having a mistress was acceptable, but they could never acknowledge an illegitimate child who might threaten Rosaline’s position. It was help in a direction she absolutely did not want. She would rather accept the illegitimate child than the mistress.

But a brief misunderstanding turned into betrayal, and that betrayal wore her body down. Due to her weakened state, a bad situation almost occurred.

The elders of the Marquis Addis family outwardly scolded Kallen for not properly managing his mistress and endangering the legitimate heir at such a critical time. But subtly, they disapproved of Rosaline, considering her a sensitive and fussy woman for causing a fuss over such a matter.

In fact, Kallen, seeing how things had turned out, planned to quietly bring Amelia into the annex while Rosaline was busy with childbirth. But since the situation had escalated, it was impossible.

Kallen vented all his accumulated dissatisfaction in front of his mistress. He subtly shifted the blame, saying that the reason he couldn’t formally bring her in was all because of his main wife, Rosaline. He was a truly pathetic man.

Amelia, too, was a noble lady. Although not of very high status, she was a beloved youngest daughter and quite wealthy. Growing up treated like a princess within her barony, the situation of being just a mistress and pregnant with an illegitimate child, unable to enter the man’s house, was unbearably miserable and humiliating for her.

Putting aside the minor fact that she had humiliated Rosaline through an affair, her resentment towards Rosaline, who had brought her such shame, only grew. And her unstable mental state due to the pregnancy led her to make an irreparable mistake.

In a completely deranged state, she broke into the marquis’s residence and swung a knife at the heavily pregnant Rosaline. Kallen was away meeting another mistress, and the butler of the annex had accompanied him. The servants and attendants could not lay a hand on Amelia, their master’s mistress, and the maids could not stop the crazed Amelia.

Thus, at the young age of twenty-one, Rosaline’s life ended, stabbed in the chest and abdomen by her husband’s mistress.

Or so she thought.

* * *