Several years later, her sister finally captured Viscount Skein, a reasonably promising noble in the region, beating out other minor family ladies.

In families with sisters, it wasn’t uncommon for brides to switch from sister to sister before marriage. Worried about this, Mélisande lived almost confined to her room until the day before the wedding by her sister’s arrangement.

Especially on days when guests came and went, she couldn’t even step outside her room door all day. She could only guess by watching carriages come and go through the window gap, thinking that person must be her brother-in-law, that thing going out must be wedding gifts.

So she was even more surprised to see her sister visit her room the night before the wedding.

Her sister’s face showed none of the excitement befitting a new bride. She just looked at Mélisande with an unreadable, tired expression.

“I won’t apologize.”

At the sudden words, Mélisande just blinked. Her sister paid no mind and just stared at Mélisande, then let out words like a faint sigh.

“If we hadn’t been born into such a poor family, or if there had been other paths to choose besides marriage……”

Her sister soon stopped speaking. An unreadable regret passed over her hardened expression. More befitting an old woman than a new bride.

Her sister, who hastily composed herself, changed the topic expressionlessly.

“Never mind. Several regional dignitaries will attend the wedding, including his acquaintances. Especially Baron Julard from the capital. Though he’s widowed, he’s still young and frequently visits the court, so definitely approach him tomorrow. You’re young and pretty, so…… you understand what I mean?”

***

[The faithful and beautiful girl caught the lord’s eye. However, the lord’s greedy family hated her.]

Meeting Baron Caleb Julard at her sister’s wedding was heaven’s fortune.

Baron Julard, who smiled kindly at Mélisande as she approached hesitantly, didn’t seem to have any intention of taking a new wife. However, he gave Mélisande something better. He invited Mélisande to a banquet held at his mansion, where she met Marquis Antoine Levizet.

“Nanny, I think I’ve fallen in love.”

The aged nanny whose mind had grown dim blinked her eyes. Mélisande chattered on.

“He’s a marquis. The most handsome and wonderful of all the people I’ve seen so far. And he lives in the capital, no, in the Rauli court. He’s wealthy enough to have a separate mansion.”

A marquis, no less. The highest rank she had seen so far was one count grandfather who had come from the capital for her mother’s funeral. Mélisande rested her chin on the headboard of the hard bed where her nanny lay.

“He’s like the wonderful knight who came to rescue the princess in romance book stories.”

“Moreover, he has perfect etiquette incomparable to my brothers. Ah, a ‘real noble’ was like that.”

Compared to her brothers who reeked of country manners and paid no attention to etiquette, he was no different from a perfect archangel that God had personally molded from heavenly materials.

Marquis Levizet was the gentleman that country bumpkin Mélisande had only imagined. He didn’t mock Mélisande when she first saw the marquis and stood gaping with her mouth open. He gentlemanly pretended not to notice when she confused the meat and fish forks.

The moment she received the marquis’s escort while walking the garden path was thrilling as if she were flying through the sky.

Perhaps he was the male protagonist who had come to rescue Mélisande trapped in this countryside.

The nanny made deflated sounds with her toothless mouth. If her mind had been clear, she probably would have said this:

‘What did I tell you? Miss, you will meet a precious groom and live grandly as the lady of a prestigious household.’

Mélisande fidgeted with her hands.

***

“Will you marry me?”

When he who had said he loved her slipped the peridot ring he suddenly presented onto her ring finger, Mélisande felt as if she owned the whole world. He was the perfect male protagonist from romance novels. Mélisande was immersed in a dreamy feeling.

She thought what lay ahead in her life was the happy ending from romance novels. Even when Baronet Boden signed with trembling hands the document giving up all rights he could exercise as Mélisande’s relative because he couldn’t prepare a dowry, even when she received meager wedding gifts, even when she first saw her frightening mother-in-law.

“Read this ledger and fill in the missing parts.”

What was written in the documents her stern-looking prospective mother-in-law set down was a story Mélisande didn’t know. Would her sister, who had experience managing a household, have understood a little? But to Mélisande’s eyes, they were just incomprehensible symbols, letters, and numbers.

What was this about wine, central taxes, and wool?

Where did cotton suddenly come from?

Where did this tax come from? Taxing glass bottles? She had never heard such a thing.

Seeing Mélisande continue to stumble and miss the content, her prospective mother-in-law pressed her forehead as if incredulous.

“How can you sit in the position of marchioness when you can’t even do extremely simple calculations?”

She felt choked up at the expression that seemed to say she was pathetic. She should have prostrated herself then and begged to learn, but Mélisande, who had stammered arguments about how love could overcome everything, was blocked by her mother-in-law’s cold gaze and couldn’t even finish saying that, only muttering to herself. Her prospective mother-in-law, as if all expectations had fallen, gathered up the documents again and took every single sheet away.

After her prospective mother-in-law left like that, Mélisande didn’t see even her shadow until the wedding day. She fidgeted with anxious fingers and only counted down to the wedding day. As if all misunderstandings and conflicts would be resolved once the wedding was over. As if she could live happily ever after like fairy tale protagonists.

***

Third year of marriage.

It was the Northern Grand Duke who saved her after she witnessed her husband’s affair and threw herself from the fourth-floor railing.

They said he was a sword master beyond human limits. Her body that he caught didn’t have a single scratch. He looked at Mélisande with cold eyes as she cried and struggled, asking why he had saved her, and said.

“If you’re going to die, then die. Just not during the period when my victory banquet is being held. After that, whether you die or live, I won’t care.”

Because I absolutely hate having troublesome incidents occur while I’m in the capital. The cold words like pouring water actually brought her to her senses. Mélisande noticed the irritation fully soaked into his handsome face. Then, Grand Duke Nicerion suddenly swung the staff he was holding.

“Who’s there!”

“Oh my!”

A man and woman who had been setting the mood for a tryst in nearby bushes could be seen fluttering away like pigeons. The bush that had briefly served as their sweet bedroom was cleanly cut in half like kitchen carrots by sword energy. Mélisande stared blankly at that sight.

“Damn, this is why I hate coming to the capital unless absolutely necessary.”

The grand duke irritably ran his hand through his hair. For some reason, the irritated sigh was familiar. The form of using a bladeless staff like a sword also seemed somehow familiar.

“Wait. Theo?”

The grand duke froze like a rock. At the sudden change, Mélisande stammered slightly.

“S-sorry. You resemble a childhood friend…… I-I am the wife of Marquis Levizet, Mélisande Silvia, and in my maiden days I lived in Baronet Boden’s territory in the Ardennes region……”

Seeing the grand duke’s face gradually hardening, Mélisande’s words trailed off as she became frightened. The silent grand duke opened his mouth.

“Could it be, you’re, Mel?”

***

Mélisande, who had been recalling previous memories, closed her eyes slightly.

She and the grand duke had started as childhood friends who met by chance, then continued as a contractual married couple who helped each other, and now they had become true companions.

Yes, she was no longer the foolish country bumpkin who had been mistreated. She was now the mistress of the vast north, Grand Duchess Nicerion.

What had she just been doing? Right, Mélisande had just sent away Alix, who had come to find her and knelt before her. Gone was the splendid appearance she remembered, and Alix had appeared disheveled in plain white clothes without any ornaments, kneeling before Mélisande and pleading.

‘Your Highness the Grand Duchess, I’m sorry. You may slap my cheek, spit on me, or kick me—I’ll accept it all gladly. So please, stop the measures against Count Tire’s territory. If cotton doesn’t arrive on time, the territorial people won’t be able to survive winter.’

What had she done? Right, she had closed Martua port and blocked imported cotton from flowing into the territory where Alix was.

She had merely signed a few sheets of paper. Could the endlessly haughty noble lady crumble so easily before her?

She had thought it would be satisfying to trample on her former sister-in-law and mother-in-law who had mistreated her. But why was it? She felt far from refreshed. Somehow her mouth tasted bitter as if she had chewed gallbladder.

‘It displeases me to see you, so withdraw from my sight.’

‘Your Highness the Grand Duchess, please have mercy! Show compassion not to me, but to the innocent people of the territory!’

Mélisande had her servants drive away the screaming Alix. Now that Alix was completely ruined, she would probably never see her again in life.

[The wicked sister-in-law who tormented the girl was punished.]

The villain had been punished. Now what remained was.

“Wife, what are you thinking about?”

She quickly raised her head at the voice she heard. Grand Duke Nicerion. At the sight of her husband who had appeared, Mélisande painted a smile on her face. It was a smile she habitually made whenever she saw him. Yes, it was he, not Antoine, who had been the male protagonist of her life.

“It’s nothing. Your Grace.”

The grand duke asked as if puzzled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your Grace, are you happy?”

The grand duke thought for a moment as if unsure of her intention, then answered.

“Yes, I’m happy. How about you, wife?”

Mélisande was silent for a moment, then smiled like an iris.

“Yes, I’m happy too.”

Am I happy? A disturbing question seemed to suddenly pierce through her heart, but Mélisande hastily composed herself. Like the curious woman in mythology who briefly opened the box containing all the world’s calamities and hastily closed it again.

She was happy. She had to be happy.

[And the girl and the prince lived happily ever after.]

⟨To be continued in Volume 2.⟩