At Madame Eleonor’s words, cold as a cutting blade, the butler couldn’t dare answer and only groaned. The madame in the capital had quickly discovered holes in the territory’s taxes that even he, who resided in the territory, couldn’t find out, and immediately came to the territory’s main castle without notice like the bridegroom in the scriptures.

The faithful butler broke into a cold sweat recalling the parable of the ten virgins recorded in the scriptures. When ten virgins preparing for a wedding as bridesmaids were waiting for a bridegroom whose arrival time was unknown, the bridegroom suddenly burst in.

The five virgins who had prepared faithfully enjoyed the glory of entering the wedding hall, but the five virgins who had neglected preparation and failed to light their lamps were driven out without even entering the wedding hall. There was nothing to say about this.

“It was also decided to exempt the taille this year. However, there are traces of exploiting the territory’s people under this pretext.”

“I didn’t know the temple would do such a thing.”

Though it had recently turned to secular ways, the temple was fundamentally a place that served God and advocated integrity. In this embezzlement, the fault lay largely with the butler, who had deep faith and trusted the clergy, not thinking that the temple parish would abuse that power. It was a bone-deep mistake.

Madame Eleonor sighed as if displeased.

“I understand for now. I’ll personally inspect the affected areas today.”

The butler simply bowed quietly. Madame Eleonor rose from the heavy mahogany chair. She who had been walking toward the door with elegant steps soon lost her balance and staggered briefly.

“Madame!”

The butler rushed to support her, but Madame Eleonor refused.

“It’s fine. Go on. I just had a brief spell of anemia.”

Madame Eleonor waved her hand while rubbing her temples. Leaving behind the worried butler, she left the study and walked toward the stables, but soon felt sudden dizziness and collapsed.

“Madame!”

She tried to reassure the butler and maids who came running that she was fine, that she had just overexerted herself a bit on the way and would recover with rest, but no words came out of Madame’s mouth. Soon darkness came before her eyes.

***

“How wonderful that His Grace the Grand Duke appeared there!”

She was trapped among the exclaiming ladies and couldn’t move an inch. She wore an ambiguous smile and took a sip of sparkling wine in a glass. Following the sweet taste, carbonated bubbles popped. This sparkling wine was something she had personally transported from her territory, Gironde, as a wedding gift.

Perhaps shocked by the argument that she found him burdensome so he shouldn’t come close, Grand Duke Lysander Nicerion couldn’t say much and disappeared when his aide called, saying it was time to go. There was somehow an unsatisfying aftertaste, but she pushed it back with the refreshing white wine.

So now she was in a situation where she had rejected the romance novel’s male lead as burdensome. Still, since he wasn’t a man who would recklessly push his own opinions, she probably wouldn’t see him again under normal circumstances. She tried hard to erase him from her mind.

“Did you see that blue-black hair? I never imagined such a mysterious color could exist in the world.”

The topic of conversation among the ladies surrounding her was undoubtedly Grand Duke Nicerion, who had scattered tremendous impact with his brief appearance and disappeared.

“That’s right. I didn’t know the Northern Grand Duke would be such a handsome man!”

“I thought of a burly giant like Goliath since he’s the supreme commander of the war.”

The women blushed as if enchanted. Well, it was indeed rare beauty. Since most of the handsome and well-conditioned men in society were already taken, it was inevitable providence for them to be enthusiastic about the appearance of a fresh unmarried handsome man like cats hired at a fish market.

“I don’t know how envious I was of Mademoiselle Levizet. To be able to dance with that wonderful Grand Duke.”

The daughter of Viscount Rosien sighed.

“I should have stood as a bridesmaid too.”

“Oh my, even if you stood as a bridesmaid, would His Grace dance with just anyone? You’d have to be at least Mademoiselle Levizet’s level to match His Grace the Grand Duke.”

Mademoiselle Rosien’s expression hardened at being downgraded to ‘just anyone.’ The one flattering her while putting down another lady was the daughter of Count Montagne’s family. She gave a bitter smile at the blatant flattery. Mademoiselle Montagne was a woman famous for clinging here and there like a bat, hovering around places that might be profitable. She came close and whispered intimately.

“How well the two of you matched dancing under the chandelier lights in the ballroom. Who knows? Perhaps Mademoiselle Levizet will become the future grand duchess?”

Countess Montagne laughed merrily. What are you saying! How hard she was trying to escape the Grand Duke’s attention! The grand duchess would be Mélisande anyway! She tried to deny the rosy scenario she was drawing, but words came from someone else’s mouth faster.

“Oh my, His Grace the Grand Duke already has a lady to whom he’s pledged a knight’s oath. He probably just danced out of courtesy between fellow attendants.”

As she approached and provocatively waved her fan, the ladies surrounding her parted like Moses’s miracle. What approached with a leisurely raised chin was Louise Oerzi.

“Madame Louise, are you saying that even after seeing the two of them dance?”

Countess Montagne’s weak protest shrank and scattered at Louise’s dismissive, perfunctory gesture as if annoyed. When Countess Montagne wilted, Louise smiled mockingly.

“I saw everything. However, does Mademoiselle Levizet believe people are matched by one dance? Surely not naively like a country bumpkin?”

It was blatant provocation. Normally, she would have scratched back or given her a verbal punch. But today was different. It felt like miraculously finding dog poop that was nowhere to be found even for medicine! She smiled brightly at her.

“Of course. If people were matched by dancing once, it would be hard to find those who aren’t lovers in Rauli Palace. Madame Louise, you spoke correctly!”

Lovely dog poop Louise blinked in confusion. She had come to pick a fight, but suddenly she was being welcomed like a puppy seeing snow for the first time, so her face was confused. Of course, her inner confusion was none of her business. She smiled brightly and relentlessly pushed the logic.

“Isn’t that right? How sacred and weighty the union between spouses is.”

“Ah… that’s, right, but……”

Louise stammered.

“Ah, Madame, since you’re already married, surely you would know! That the love and respect that form the foundation of marital relationships isn’t trivial enough to be built while dancing once.”

“That’s, that’s true. But……”

“Right? How could I covet His Grace the Grand Duke’s pure heart toward the lady to whom he’s pledged a knight’s oath? What one can expect from a brief dance is merely a shallow layer of friendship.”

Is, is that so? Louise, who had been floundering in the storm-like development contrary to expectations, disappeared with an uncomfortable feeling. She smiled with relief behind her. She had almost been swept up in strange rumors before the original story’s full-scale progression even began. Go, Louise-mon. Scatter the rumors!

***

Madame Eleonor opened her eyes.

On the ceiling hung the blue velvet canopy she had become familiar with since coming as a bride. Levizet main castle, the marchioness’s bedroom. As she raised her stiff body, a voice clear as a golden bell rang out. Mélisande’s upper body, with her smooth silver hair pinned up and wearing easy-to-move cotton clothes, suddenly appeared between the canopies.

“Oh my, Mother. You’re awake?”

“……Why are you by my side?”

“Mother, you collapsed. It’s been a little over a day. The physician said you overexerted yourself quite severely. You’ve had headaches and dizziness regularly, haven’t you? When you were sleeping, we did a blood test, and fortunately there’s no major problem. However, you have mild chronic fatigue, so you shouldn’t endure with fragrant oils and should rest for a while……”

When Madame Eleonor gestured for the chattering Mélisande to be quiet, she tactfully became silent.

“Rest is nonsense. There are mountains of things to check immediately. I need to personally inspect the exploitation damage areas……”

“Oh my, if it’s there, I went in your place.”

Madame Eleonor raised her eyebrows. Wrinkles formed on her ivory-white forehead.

“What do you know to have gone there?”

“I heard the report from the butler and compared ledgers from the past 3 years to understand the general problems in my own way. Based on this, I also wrote a document to report the inspection results.”

Before she knew it, Madame Eleonor accepted the bundle of papers Mélisande offered.

Though it was a somewhat crude and clumsy outline compared to those who had professionally prepared documents for decades, Madame Eleonor read through the text reasonably well. She could glimpse some thoughts between the neat handwriting. Still immature and unrefined though.

Interest flickered in Madame Eleonor’s eyes as she turned through the documents with a displeased expression.

“An unusual conclusion.”

Madame Eleonor narrowed her eyes and pointed to a part of the document.

“Setting aside other things, look at this part saying we should also reduce the money given to the temple under the pretext of relief. Do you know what this means?”

Mélisande smiled shyly.

“Yes, if we adopt a method of directly relieving orphans and the poor without going through the temple, we could reduce the temple’s influence.”

Toward Mélisande explaining that the temple’s exploitation would naturally decrease, Madame Eleonor spat out.

“Unrealistic. Religion and faithfulness have dominated this land until now. How will you block their backlash?”

Mélisande didn’t answer immediately. She blinked slightly while thinking deeply about something, then opened her mouth.

“When I attended Sunday worship at the temple last time, I heard a story about the very distant past, when the ancient Latium Empire made its name known across the continent.”

It was seemingly out-of-the-blue. Madame Eleonor furrowed her brow but didn’t interrupt.

“When the Son of the Lord came to this earth in human form, the politicians of that time, jealous of His influence in preaching about the kingdom of heaven, set a trap.