“Strategic marriages?”

Hearing the words strategic marriage left me feeling somewhat dazed.

Then, Eden had broken off a strategic marriage to become engaged to me…

“Yes. Strategic marriages have been arranged once every six generations to avoid consanguineous unions. According to that, this year is when the master should have done so.”

“Eden… you mean?”

“When it was first announced that he would be getting engaged to the prospective mistress, the ducal residence was turned completely upside down.”

“Because the marriage with the Herrmann family was broken off.”

“That is the simple explanation, but it was also because no one had imagined that a custom upheld for so long would be broken.”

“……”

“However, our master is someone who makes such things possible. We have arrived while we were talking. This is the eastern garden, where the acacia blooms beautifully.”

Whether he had sensed my troubled state of mind, Alb said he would stand at the garden entrance despite my insistence that he need not.

The servants of this household are generally quite perceptive.

Before entering the garden, Alb had said the eastern garden was the most beautiful among the four directional gardens, and indeed it was just as he had said.

White acacia bloomed densely across the ceiling of the garden. The most beautiful spot among them was a dome-shaped pergola standing beneath an open ceiling, bathed in artificial moonlight.

The pergola standing among the white acacia was a soft silver that did not stand out but blended in harmoniously.

If one stood here, even love that did not exist would come into being…

‘……?’

The reason I could not finish the thought was because I had spotted Siobhan standing inside the pergola.

In the novel, Eden received the male lead’s buff and was portrayed as somewhat more handsome, but my preference was for Siobhan with his eyes that seemed to hold back tears.

To put it more bluntly, he was what you might call a big, lovable keychain type of man… you would need to explain him from start to finish, but once you fell for his charm, there was no way out.

Siobhan’s physique was also just as impressive as Eden’s. He spent more time on the training grounds than Eden did. Of course, Eden had many duties as a duke.

I was gazing at Siobhan and cataloguing my impressions in my mind when he seemed to sense my gaze, and those brown eyes that had been directed toward the artificial moonlight turned toward me.

“Duchess!”

“Sir Siobhan, is your confinement over?”

“Yes, fortunately the master ended it quickly.”

“I feel needlessly sorry on your behalf.”

“Not at all. It was my fault for failing to protect you properly.”

Goodness, those are words worthy of my favorite character! Everyone in the world, please look at my favorite character.

“I was under confinement, so my congratulations are late. I sincerely congratulate you on your engagement to the master. I too… hope to find true love someday.”

Siobhan… there is one thing you have wrong. Eden and I are not in a relationship of true love either.

“Do you have someone you love, Sir Siobhan?”

Before my question had even finished, Siobhan’s face began to flush red. Even without him saying who it was, I could tell.

This was the reason I had loved Siobhan in the novel. Not his face or his physique, but the convictions and sincerity he held.

He may have loved Hesse Herrmann more than anyone, perhaps even more than Hylus did. He had prioritized her love over his own. If she could be happy, it was alright for him to be unhappy, and if she found someone she loved, he was prepared to give up his own feelings.

Right, I had loved Siobhan’s bittersweet emotional depth. Ah, I really must marry Siobhan.

“Sir Siobhan, I have a favor to ask.”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“Would you call me by my name rather than my lady or Duchess?”

Upon hearing my request, Siobhan’s expression shifted to one of considerable surprise.

“Since we have each saved the other’s life, I thought it would be alright to be on friendly terms.”

Watching Siobhan deliberate, a wave of embarrassment suddenly washed over me.

What was I thinking. If anyone saved anyone, it was Siobhan who saved me, so what was I doing making such a request!

“If it is uncomfortable or you do not wish to…”

“I would be glad to.”

“Pardon?”

“I would be glad to. I also owe you my life, so we are each other’s benefactors, in a sense.”

As Siobhan accepted my request and smiled brightly, a halo seemed to appear behind his face.

“Then… allow me to introduce myself properly first.”

“Pardon?”

“It seems that last time, I heard Sir Siobhan’s name but did not introduce myself.”

Before Siobhan could say anything, I took hold of both sides of the dress I was wearing, lifted them carefully, and bent my knees slightly before straightening again. It was the customary greeting of the ladies of this country.

“I am Eloa Rumania, the daughter of Count Rumania. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Whether this was unexpected, Siobhan’s eyes had grown quite wide.

“Please feel free to call me Eloa. Sir Sio.”

“Haha, Eloa really does seem to catch me off guard.”

His unexpected laugh made my heart feel as though it were being tickled.

“Pardon?”

“To be honest, I never imagined that you would be the one to save my life in the forest.”

“……”

“I feel at ease knowing that the master has brought home such a remarkable young lady.”

It is not Eden Cler Hylus but you, Siobhan Akane, who is my favorite character. You are the person I truly want to marry.

I swallowed those words I could not bring myself to say.

Showing no sign of your feelings in front of your favorite character is the fundamental quality of a fan!

“Eloa, then I will take my leave.”

“Yes, it was a pleasure talking with you, Sir Sio.”

Only after Siobhan had left the garden first was I able to turn over the things Alb had told me.

Eden, who had broken off the engagement with the Herrmann family… wait, Herrmann? The female lead’s name in the novel is Hesse Herrmann?

Then, was the engagement Eden broke off the one with Hesse Herrmann?

Good heavens. The story of the novel is changing.

Of course, it had likely started changing from the moment I did not marry Marquis Ter Giuo.

Hesse Herrmann and Eden were supposed to meet two years from now.

By then, Marquis Ter Giuo would have likely ruined his family.

As the frequency of drunken people causing disturbances in the capital’s streets at night increased, the imperial knighthood began cracking down directly. The one Siobhan had apprehended at that time was Ter Giuo, and that was likely Siobhan’s first appearance in the novel.

That was why I had planned to divorce Eden two years later.

The occasion on which Eden and Hesse Herrmann officially met was when Hesse Herrmann, after making her social debut, had not appeared in social circles for a time and then appeared for the first time. In the novel, Eden and Hesse Herrmann had fallen for each other at first sight. There had been no mention of this sort of family alliance.

While I was raking my hands through my hair in anguish, Eden had entered the garden at some point and was standing beside me.

“Eden?”

“I heard my fiancée seemed to be in low spirits.”

“Pardon?”

“Alb told me.”

“Ah…”

“What is troubling you? Is it Ter Giuo?”

“No, it is nothing. I was just wondering whether the divorce could be moved up sooner.”

At my words, Eden’s expression hardened coldly.

“That does not seem like something a person who just held an engagement ceremony today should be saying.”

“Is it not a relationship formed through a contract, after all?”

As we moved further into the center of the garden, the moonlight filtering through the white acacia slowly settled over Eden’s face.

His expression was, how to put it. It looked somewhat forlorn. It was an expression I could not understand at all.

“The reason?”

“Just… I want to return everything to how it was supposed to be.”

“What do you mean by ‘how it was supposed to be’?”

I could not answer his question easily. What I meant by how it was supposed to be was the original story of the novel? No, perhaps even wanting to return things to how they were supposed to be was a contradiction in itself.

The very fact that I was going to marry Siobhan was already different from the novel to begin with.

Reading my hesitation, he changed the subject.

“I heard you met Siobhan.”

“Ah, yes.”

“I ran into him on the way today. He mentioned he had spoken with you.”

“Sio… I mean, Sir Siobhan congratulated me on the engagement. And…”

“And?”

“He said he hoped to find true love someday, like us…”

A small smile spread across my lips as I spoke while thinking of Siobhan. But it could not escape Eden’s sharp eyes.

“Even though you and I are not bound by love.”

“Do you… like Siobhan?”

Eden posed a question I had not anticipated. Had he read the wavering in my eyes, or had he read the hesitation in my lips. Before I could answer, he spoke first.

“No, do not answer. Let us pretend I did not ask.”