1. Angel-like Man

If angels existed, would they look like him? No, he was certainly an angel. Rosia stared blankly at the man before her.

His bright blonde hair, reminiscent of lemons, swayed gently, and his golden eyes, sparkling like gold, gazed at Rosia indifferently. From his straight nose bridge and smooth white skin to his rose-red lips and beautifully elongated fingers.

He was the very embodiment of a unique being meticulously crafted by God. He was so dazzlingly brilliant that the word ‘beautiful’ couldn’t fully express it. Even though they had only exchanged a few words, his voice sounded like a heavenly melody.

From the moment Rosia first encountered this unfamiliar man, she couldn’t even think to close her slightly parted lips.

“You’ll catch flies, Lady Berthe.”

“…Pardon?”

Rosia snapped back to reality at the not-quite-insult. Come to think of it, she had said something nonsensical earlier, but every word coming from this man’s perfect and wondrous lips was strange. Or to put it differently, uncomfortable.

“It seems you didn’t understand me, so I’ll say it once more. Listen carefully.”

His eyes, the eyes looking down at her, were arrogant. The man smiled, brushing his bangs up, and continued speaking a beat slower.

“I, Nigel Gragford, am proposing to you.”

Amusingly, Rosia was meeting this man for the first time. Naturally, he too was meeting her for the first time. Yet suddenly, a proposal? When Rosia tilted her head slightly, not understanding his words, the man swiftly grabbed her fingers.

“It’s love at first sight, you see.”

Even though he whispered in a sweet voice, no emotion could be felt. To Rosia, this whole situation felt like a ridiculous play. She chided herself for being enchanted by his beauty and stepped back one step at a time. It was an instinctive action, like a small animal backed into a corner.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Rosia’s pale pink lips moved gently, emitting a soft sound.

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it, Your Grace, Grand Duke Gragford.”

With a smooth motion, Rosia’s fingers slipped coldly from Nigel’s grasp. Looking up at Nigel with clear eyes, she soon gave a slight curtsy, maintaining only the minimum courtesy, and left the place.

Appearance really isn’t everything, after all. Rosia shook her head as she returned to the banquet hall.

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Ten days before Rosia and Nigel’s absurd encounter, Rosia had been enduring hours of badgering from Baron Luther, the brother of Viscount Berthe, and his wife. The baroness was particularly zealous, with her eyes reddened to the point that even the whites were bloodshot. Her already thin jawline twitched in small spasms.

“So, as a woman, the only thing I can do is get married and receive help from my husband. Hmm?”

“Yes, Rosia. At this rate, the Berthe family will collapse! There could be nothing more dishonorable.”

The skinny Baron Luther, who had been watching his wife’s reactions, quickly added.

Rosia stared blankly at the baron couple sitting across from her in the reception room. The two had been talking non-stop about the same thing, and to sum it up, it was ‘Rosia needs to clean up after her father and two older brothers.’

Her father, unable to move forward or backward due to the rumored business failure with the Southern Continent, and her older brothers, who couldn’t return due to massive debts.

This was the situation of the Berthe family. In a way, the advice from Baron and Baroness Luther was accurate. If Rosia, who was of marriageable age and pretty to boot, were to marry a wealthy nobleman, the family would quickly recover.

But the reason she couldn’t readily agree to do so was because of her late mother. When she thought of her mother, who only wished for Rosia’s happiness, she questioned whether it was right to use her future as collateral to protect the family.

Would this choice make her happy?

Of course, Rosia wanted to protect her father and brothers. But wasn’t there another way besides her forced marriage? It was still too early to make a choice. And her father probably didn’t even know that Baron Luther had come to urge her marriage.

After a moment’s consideration, Rosia looked straight into the eyes of the baron couple and smiled slightly.

“I’ll think about it. Thank you for your concern about our family.”

“Hey, Rosia. Is that your answer?”

The baroness widened her sunken eyes in disbelief. The baron anxiously tapped the floor with his toes. The old wooden floor creaked, creating an unpleasant noise. Rosia calmly picked up her teacup and took a sip. Her dry tongue finally felt like it could move properly.

“I need to discuss it with my family.”

“Family! We are your family too, Rosia.”

The baron puffed out his skinny chest and scolded her sternly. His attitude was as if Rosia had made a great blunder. Rosia wasn’t scared of the baron at all. She knew better than anyone why they were acting this way.

It was natural for them to be afraid, as they wouldn’t be able to leech off her father anymore if the viscount’s family collapsed like this. Rosia sometimes resented her father’s indecisiveness, but she couldn’t bring herself to hate him too.

Rosia remained silent and just smiled. The baroness stared at her innocent face and tapped her own chest, frustrated.

“Don’t be like that. You should make your debut in society, shouldn’t you?”

“I appreciate your words, but…”

“Don’t tell me you’re still caught up in that stupid fantasy of eternal love or something?”

Rosia was a young lady who had been thoroughly influenced by her parents’ loving marriage. But that was only until her mother passed away; now, she no longer believed in the eternity of love. Love changes. Whether intentionally or not.

Her father must have wanted to forget her mother. It must have been painful in proportion to how much he loved her. Young Rosia noticed that her father’s love had disappeared into eternal darkness along with her mother’s death. To her, that was the meaning of eternal love. A weak emotion that has no power in the face of death.

Rosia leisurely took another sip of tea and put down her cup completely. With the clatter, the faces of the baron couple shadowed the sunlight. Rosia whispered with her eyelids drooping.

“That’s unlikely. I was just a child then.”

“Yes, yes. Now that you’ve become a proper lady, it’s time to worry about the family.”

The baron quickly caught the end of her words.

“We’ve made all the preparations, so you just need to do as you’re told.”

The baroness pulled out an invitation and held it out. The royal crest was stamped on the pristine white envelope. Rosia glanced at it briefly before looking back at the baron couple. The baroness smiled mischievously, as if she had been waiting for this moment, and said,

“It’s an invitation to Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday celebration. What could be a more splendid debut than this?”

“You have no idea how much we had to grovel to get this.”

The baron sighed deeply, rubbing his crooked glasses frame. Rosia felt a moment of sympathy seeing his slumped shoulders and wrinkled fingers, but it was fleeting. There was no need for such people. As Rosia remained silent with her small lips tightly pressed, the baron quickly added,

“Just make your debut, Rosia. If you don’t find a suitable marriage partner, we won’t say anything more.”

Rosia looked down at the magnificent royal invitation and fell into thought for a moment. The couple had a point. Debut. It was a rite of passage that every boy and girl in this country went through. Rosia had postponed it for years due to her weak constitution, so perhaps now was the right time.

Although she didn’t want to admit it, the day might come when she would have to get married, as the Baron Luther couple said. The words that marriage was the only thing a woman could do in this era felt like a shackle around her neck. Rosia bit her lip slightly before picking up the invitation.

“Thank you.”

“Finally, you understand our feelings, Rosia!”

The baroness covered her face with a handkerchief, pretending to wipe away tears of joy. Rosia already knew full well what expression she was hiding behind it.

To the royal palace, in ten days. Rosia unfolded the invitation, read only the most necessary information, then folded it back. It’s just making a debut that everyone does, only now. She had to try hard for quite a while to think that way.

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