Elliope slowly opened her mouth and looked at the head maid, who didn’t even greet her. 

“A welcoming ceremony?” 

“Yes. It will be held tonight.” 

“What?” 

It wasn’t Elliope but Emma who was startled by the cold answer. Elliope just looked at Baroness Taleon as if she had expected it all along. 

“…….”

In her previous life, her welcoming ceremony had also taken place in the blink of an eye. 

That very night, after Elliope had put on her most beautiful dress, she had spent the entire day being snubbed at the front gates of the Grand Duke’s residence. The ceremony began only after she had stumbled on the stairs and fallen, humiliated. 

Emma, clearly uncomfortable, looked nervously at Baroness Taleon. 

“If it’s tonight, that’s hardly a few hours from now…” 

“So?” 

“So suddenly?” 

“Ha!” 

Baroness Taleon shot Emma a scornful look, her contempt unmistakable. 

“As head maid, I’ve thought carefully before informing you. Are you even displeased to be greeted?” 

“N-no, it’s not that…” 

“Even when we offer you hospitality, you complain. How shameless.” 

As she spoke, the head maid’s eyes weren’t on Emma, but on Elliope. Her expression betrayed her true feelings – she seemed ready to scold the fake princess sent by the Imperial Family at any moment. 

Elliope met her gaze without so much as a blink, calmly enduring the unspoken hostility. The head maid continued, her tone icy and contemptuous. 

“After the welcoming ceremony, the wedding will take place tomorrow morning.” 

“Tomorrow morning?” 

Emma turned pale at the words, her face drained of colour. 

It was certainly rare for such a sudden and shocking announcement to fall upon an ordinary bride.

“At least for a bride to be properly welcomed and treated as an honoured guest.” 

“Normally, His Grace the Grand Duke would…” 

“His Grace is busy.” 

‘Busy, indeed.’

Elliope was confident enough to wager her entire dowry that he spent his time entertaining his mistresses and mocking them behind their backs. 

“Surely the future Grand Duchess won’t complain about not being able to prepare for her own wedding.”

“…….” 

“After all, the staff of the Grand Duke’s residence will take care of the preparations. You only have to take care of yourself.” 

The biting words came one after the other. Rayla and some of the other maids just sneered, watching Elliope with thinly veiled contempt. 

Emma, forcing herself to speak, finally opened her mouth.  

“W-Wedding dresses and… there’s so much to prepare…” 

“We are the ones who are busy with all the preparations,” the head maid snapped. 

“Still, the bride is the centre of the wedding,” Emma pleaded hesitantly. 

“Then she should do it herself. After all, isn’t she someone who came here with the authority of the Imperial Family?” 

Despite the endless barrage of disrespectful remarks, Elliope felt neither fear nor anger. In fact, she doubted that the wedding would take place the next day. Perhaps they were just saying these things to torment her. 

Poor Emma, on the other hand, turned pale and bit her lip in anguish. 

“I have delivered all the necessary messages.”

Baroness Taleon said curtly, spinning on her heels with an audible huff. 

The maids who had accompanied her followed her out without a second glance at Elliope. 

“Wait, everyone!”

Emma called after them frantically. 

At Emma’s faint cry, one of the maids turned around. Emma asked with desperation in her voice, 

“Where are you all going?” 

“Oh dear, with this sudden event, the Grand Duke’s residence is short of hands.”

“Why should you be the ones to help?”

Emma’s voice trembled now, quivering with frustration and despair. 

At this point, Elliope began to worry that Emma might faint. The maids, however, remained unfazed as they replied, their expressions unchanged. 

“Well, we are part of the Grand Duchess’s staff now, and the affairs of the Grand Duke’s residence are the Grand Duchess’s affairs, aren’t they?” 

“It is only right that we help with the affairs of the residence. Don’t you agree?” 

The answer, though blatantly shameless, didn’t bother Elliope as much as the repeated use of the term Grand Duchess. 

She hadn’t even married Theodor and they were already calling her Grand Duchess. The title was far from welcome. 

One of the maids turned to Emma with a slightly pitiful expression. 

“Come and help later, Emma.” 

“…!” 

“We gave you a chance.” 

With those words, the maid’s gaze shifted to Elliope, probably intending to mock her situation. However… 

“…….” 

Elliope met her gaze, her expression calm and unreadable. The maid flinched, seemingly surprised at the lack of tears or despair she had clearly expected. 

Soon the maids all left the room. 

Emma, now pale, spoke in a trembling voice.

“I’ll ask if there’s a maid who can help me.”

Elliope tried to say she didn’t have to, but Emma ran away first.

***

In the end, as the welcoming ceremony drew near, no one but Emma came to see Elliope. No one was willing to give up their evening to look after a future Grand Duchess whose position seemed to have been decided. 

While Emma, on the verge of tears, briefly left to fetch the jewellery after helping Elliope into her dress, Elliope sat in a daze, staring at the mirror. 

A woman with a lifeless face, yet strangely radiant in a disturbing way, stared back at them – a face so unfamiliar that even Elliope couldn’t recognise it as her own. 

“What did I look like originally?” 

Even that memory had faded, slipping further into the darkness. 

Once again, she was struck by the surreal nature of everything around her, which made it all feel disconnected from reality. 

Causing such a commotion at her husband’s funeral, coming back to life, being dragged back here, proposing to Kallian and having that proposal annulled – it all felt surreal. 

‘Should I run away?’

The thought suddenly came to her. 

Before, she had felt completely trapped, unable to leave this place. But then Kallian had been by her side, watching over her. 

Despite her recent dreams of Kallian and the frequent thoughts of him that plagued her, he hadn’t come to see her even once. That alone made it clear that her proposal had truly been invalidated. 

Elliope allowed herself a brief, bitter smile before shaking her head. 

‘I shouldn’t rely on anyone.’

Still, it worked to her advantage – no one was paying attention to her now. Theodor, just as in her previous life, was probably too busy figuring out how best to ignore her to even bother attending the welcoming ceremony. 

A few retainers and some of Ilmos’ nobles would probably attend, not out of genuine interest, but to scrutinise the Imperial Family’s intentions and find ways to insult them. 

But what if… 

‘If this really is my last chance.’ 

Heat began to rise in Elliope’s head. She hadn’t felt quite right since she’d entered the Grand Duke’s residence, and now, as she stood in front of the mirror, her mouth grew even drier. 

‘Shall I leave now?’ 

She had never once considered what she would do if she ran away. Perhaps the Emperor would send someone after her. If not for the proposal to the Grand Duke of Ilmos, he could easily replace her with Leanne in another engagement to a similarly loathsome man. 

Even if Theodor didn’t go after her, the Emperor probably would… and that would mean her escape wouldn’t last long. 

Still, the thought of being labelled a bride who fled because she couldn’t stand the Grand Duke… it was strangely appealing. 

‘Even if I’m caught and returned, this could be an opportunity to humiliate both the Imperial Family and the Grand Duke’s household.’

If she escaped, perhaps she could try to find and do at least one thing she really wanted before being recaptured. Wouldn’t that be better than withering away again? 

“Emma?” 

Elliope called out cautiously, just in case. 

“Emma, Emma?” 

Her only maid didn’t answer. Wherever she’d gone, she was probably too busy, too burdened with managing everything on her own for Elliope’s sake. 

“I’m sorry.” 

The soft whisper slipped from her lips. 

She was not yet fully dressed for the ceremony, wearing only a thin chemise and a few shaping garments to accentuate her figure.

Elliope tore off the corset and crinoline that bound her body, nearly tearing them apart in her haste. Though these garments were notoriously difficult to put on and take off alone, a sudden surge of almost superhuman strength ran through her slender arms, allowing her to shed the cumbersome items with ease. 

Left with nothing but a thin chemise, Elliope looked around. There was no time to find and change into a proper outfit. 

Rustle. 

She quickly scanned the wardrobe, pulled out a coat and pulled it on. The shoes available were either high heeled or too uncomfortable to wear for any length of time, so they were of no use. She decided to stick with the soft leather indoor slippers she already wore. If they proved too uncomfortable, she could find new shoes somewhere in the estate – steal them if necessary. 

Strangely enough, the moment she settled on this conclusion, her thoughts began to organise themselves. It was as if irrationality had taken a full turn and turned into clarity, leaving her with a strange sense of calm purpose. 

‘I’ll flee towards the mountains.’ 

She didn’t know the other routes well, but she had a vague memory of the path she had taken with Kallian. Surely no one would suspect that the princess had taken the mountain path instead of the main road. 

Her plan was to head into the mountains and stop at the hut Kallian had taken her to earlier. There she could pick up any useful supplies that were left and continue on to another destination. She had already seen meat and hides drying outside the hut, so she could replenish her food supply there. If possible, she would collect small hides to sell at the market and use the money to pay for the journey. 

It was a flimsy plan, but the more she thought about it, the more confident she became that it could work. Failure didn’t even cross her mind. 

Elliope looked silently outside the door. A few knights were talking not far away. Their presence was both annoying and ridiculous – stationed there as guards, probably because she was the future Grand Duchess, if only in name. 

“Tsk.” 

Clucking her tongue in frustration, Elliope immediately changed direction and opened the window. 

Her room was on the second floor, but she thought it might be manageable if she climbed down carefully. The walls of the annex seemed to have plenty of ledges to help her descend. 

‘Slowly.’

Steeling herself, she leaned out of the window and began to lower herself. 

Whooosh. 

A sudden, strong gust of wind hit her, knocking her off balance. 

“Ah!” 

With a short gasp, her fragile body fell helplessly to the ground below.