Chapter 1 – 【 The Princess’s Preference 】 (Part 1)

This was what the marriage was about. In a kingdom where the principle of primogeniture was firmly established, it was a transaction between a wealthy businessman born out of wedlock who needed a title and a poor royal family on the brink of financial collapse due to consecutive wars. The royal family bestowed a title, and the man filled the royal treasury. It was a mutually beneficial deal that could never be refused.

Even a clandestine transaction requires a contract. The royal family, specifically the Crown Prince who would soon inherit the throne, thought of a contract that could bind Cedric, their financial lifeline, for life. A very traditional yet still effective contract: a political marriage.

The pretext was also good. In honor of Cedric’s achievements as a war hero, they offered him the Princess and conferred the title of Count upon her husband, as it would be inappropriate for the Princess’s husband to be without a title.

Thus, Cedric was confined within the family framework, moving forward as a united front, capturing both justification and practicality in a very excellent strategy. Conveniently, he had two younger sisters of marriageable age. Yuria was chosen because she was suitable.

She was neither particularly beautiful nor intelligent, but not severely lacking either – a princess whom people occasionally even forget existed. Who could be more fitting for a marriage deal than this? It was a humiliating union for the princess herself. She would have to live her life hearing that she was sold off, becoming the first royal in history to marry a bastard.

But Yuria calmly accepted the marriage. She knew it was a dishonorable marriage, but what honor did she have left to preserve anyway.

She had lived her whole life in the shadow of her twin, Cristal – the beautiful and intelligent princess beloved by the entire kingdom. Yuria would dance with the men Cristal had rejected and catch the praises meant for her sister. What honor did she have to desperately protect?

The whispers that used to say, “How can twins be so different?” merely changed to “How unfortunate, to marry such a man.”

Yuria was actually glad that Cedric was “such a man,” someone who couldn’t even dream of Cristal or any other Princess. At least Cedric was not “a man rejected by Cristal,” and to him, she was not “Yuria instead of Cristal.”

That was Yuria’s misjudgment. Human desires are never so simple. People always want more – to stand when sitting, to lie down when sitting.

Yuria had underestimated the ambition of the man, born a bastard of the duke, who had risen from a war hero to a wealthy businessman.

‘Say hello, my sister Yuria.’

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Count Cedric.’

‘…I am not a count. Please call me Cedric.’

‘Haha, Cedric, why the sour face? Aren’t you fond of our Yuria?’

He didn’t answer, showing his displeasure. How could she forget the look of disappointment in his eyes the moment their gazes met? The same look the men who ended up dancing with her instead of Cristal always had. Yuria, who had adorned herself to impress him, felt pathetic and miserable.

If only she had protested not to marry back then. If she had known their first night would be as horrible as their first meeting, Yuria would have definitely done so, even at the cost of being banished from the palace. But time could not be turned back, and Yuria could never forget that wedding night.

That night, Yuria sat miserably on the bed, shedding a few tears while waiting for the man who would embrace her, imagining she was Cristal.

‘Crying like that won’t get you out of this marriage, Princess. You should be thrashing about with a paper knife or something.’

His voice, asking if that wasn’t the case, was as cold as a blade. Handing her a jackknife instead of a paper knife, Cedric left without looking back. It seemed he was repulsed by her tears, rather than angered.

Yuria pondered with the jackknife in her hand. She wondered if this was his way of telling her to kill herself. But if she had the courage to do so, Yuria would have stormed out of the bridal chamber long ago. The day broke, and Yuria didn’t die; for that transgression, she was completely abandoned.

She had followed Cedric to the southern coastal city of Ritano, having no family or relatives there, and felt a profound loneliness. Loneliness drove even her timid nature to madness. How could he, a lowly bastard, marry a Princess and not be content, but instead treat her with contempt? She harbored resentment.

No matter how lacking she was, there were plenty of men who would love to hold hands with a princess. Yuria wanted to show that to Cedric, so she ventured outside. While there were no high-ranking nobles due to the city’s distance from the capital, she met with young men from respectable families.

Blond or light brown-haired gentlemen with kind smiles and perfect manners—the exact opposite of the dark-haired Cedric. She chose them deliberately to prick Cedric’s pride, but he seemed pleased that Yuria sought affection elsewhere instead of bothering him.

Even though he didn’t care, even though he didn’t pay attention…

“Divorce, why…”

Yuria’s hand trembled as she held the divorce papers. Despite her numerous affairs, she had never imagined divorce. Suddenly, she felt suffocated. She hurriedly flung open the window and gasped for air, sliding to the floor. As she slid down, Yuria realized the implication.

Cedric was preparing for a divorce. If the letter hadn’t been mistakenly mixed among her own correspondence, she would have been completely unaware of his intention to divorce.

Inside the envelope, there was a letter stating that he could use Yuria’s infidelity as grounds for divorce, and even if it went to trial, the Spencer family would support him, giving Cedric a high chance of winning, along with the actual divorce papers.

Could this be true?

“Divorce, divorce can’t happen.”

The royal family would not take her back if she was disgracefully divorced. Having married with the title as her dowry, there was no separate property she could take with her. If she divorced, the only thing left for her would be scandal.

A cold splash of reality hit her dazed mind that had been hazy throughout her marriage. Hearing a sound like an explosion, Yuria hurriedly left the mansion as if it were a signal.

***

“The Count is preparing for a divorce?”

“Yes, Charlotte. It seems he wants to divorce me due to my conduct.”

That can’t be true. 

To Charlotte Mowbray, the Princess seemed naive. No, she clearly didn’t know her husband well. Charlotte had witnessed firsthand how Cedric took control of Ritano.

Before Cedric arrived, Ritano was not even considered a city. Pirate forces, who had taken over trade routes and harbors, were growing day by day, and the local influential families living in Ritano had completely surrendered to the pirates.

She had already heard rumors about Cedric. At the young age of fifteen, he was the illegitimate child of a Duke who was sent to a battlefield from which no one returned alive. He overturned the outcome of a war that was almost certainly lost and emerged as a national hero. However, Charlotte did not have high expectations.

Even though they were enemies, how could pirates, who had discarded their morals, be the same as foreign soldiers? The pirates’ methods were brutal, and Cedric’s way of dealing with them was… truly ruthless. Screams echoed day and night. Every morning, ships loaded with corpses set sail. The smell of blood lingered in the waters off Ritano for a long time.

Cedric did not hesitate to fire cannonballs at fleeing pirate ships or to behead surrendering pirates. It was literally a ‘cleansing.’ Even after clearing out the pirates, he did not return to the capital but settled in Ritano.

He took control of the port and dominated the trade routes. As security stabilized, buildings under Cedric’s name were erected one after another, and the coastline was cleaned up, Ritano began to gain attention as a resort city. Around that time, Cedric married the Princess and received the title of Count, effectively establishing himself as the de facto ruler of Ritano.

In any case, the important thing was that if Cedric wanted to get rid of Yuria, he wouldn’t go through the complicated procedure of divorce. It would be quicker and cleaner to become a widower than to divorce a royal.

“Could there be some misunderstanding, Princess?”

“I saw the divorce papers. He even sought legal advice.”

But Yuria, who did not know him well, seemed very anxious that Cedric might demand a divorce at any moment.

“Divorce is not an option.”

Yuria’s hand trembled as she held the teacup. Charlotte briefly thought that if Yuria was so afraid of divorce, she shouldn’t have had affairs, but she quickly felt sorry for her. Yuria and Charlotte were in similar situations in many ways.