Hadn’t I hoped at the beginning of the reception that there might be some change in Antoine’s feelings?

It was all futile hope.

After the reception ended, Antoine left the mansion with Caleb under the pretext of an after-party and didn’t return until late at night.

I paced around the center of the mansion, near the room that had been used by generations of mistresses in the family. The room decorated with orange blossoms symbolizing the bride’s joy, peonies symbolizing happy marriage, and golden apples symbolizing fertility—it was Mélisande and Antoine’s bridal chamber.

Out of consideration for the newlyweds, the corridor was quiet with no one around. Even the bridal chamber that should have been filled with the excitement of the first night was locked in terrible silence. In this empire’s culture, a woman who doesn’t spend the night with her husband on their wedding night receives considerable humiliation. Caleb probably aimed for this deliberately. He’s really despicable.

By the way, should I knock on this door? I agonized dozens of times.

I had done enough good sister-in-law work for today. It might be better to just wash my feet and go to sleep. Spending the night alone and lonely, and as the number of those lonely nights accumulated, Mélisande would gradually realize.

That her becoming marchioness wasn’t a miraculous love that transcended social status, but a choice made for convenience. That what she believed was love was deception, and what she believed was protection was neglect. She would fall into such terrible loneliness.

I didn’t need to interfere with her problem of being lonely. That was Antoine’s responsibility. If avoiding revenge was the goal, I could just not cause trouble and smile sweetly while occasionally giving her jewelry. In the novel, the kind Mélisande never sharpened the blade of revenge against anyone who had been even slightly kind to her.

But somehow, I didn’t want to turn away.

I made up my mind and carefully knocked on the door. I heard footsteps from beyond the door, and the door opened wide as if welcoming me. Mélisande came out with a bright smile, then our eyes met, and her gaze wavered for a moment.

Well, on the wedding night, as it grew late, the husband who should come didn’t come, and instead the sister-in-law knocked on the door. Just hearing about it sounds like a horror. I spoke awkwardly with a smile.

“Mélisande.”

“……Alix.”

“Um…… Sorry for the late hour. I came because I have something to say.”

I began speaking awkwardly, and Mélisande listened quietly.

“My brother went out with his friends to receive congratulations, but their conversation seems to be running long.”

Actually, it’s not just a friend, but a lover. A lover who has already taken his heart.

“I think he might come around tomorrow.”

Even if he returns to the mansion, he won’t even set foot in this bridal chamber. The wedding decorations that won’t see the groom will wither, and only dust will accumulate on the golden apples.

Mélisande smiled with effort. Her smiling face looked like crying. How sad. I briefly wondered what words I should say next to her, who would suffer heartache and wounds from her husband’s coldness for several years until the true male lead appeared.

Dozens of adjectives and hundreds of idioms passed through my mind, but what ultimately came out of my mouth was the most crude and plain wish.

“So…… I hope you won’t be too heartbroken.”

Sincerely. Mélisande, who had been trying hard to smile, hung her head like a flower wet with rain. The bed visible in the moonlight over her drooping white shoulders looked too wide for one person to use.

Memories from my previous life flashed by. When I quit my perfectly good job after marriage and moved to an unfamiliar area following my husband.

Far from finding new employment, I couldn’t even attend cultural centers or academies because I had to watch the eyes of my fierce in-laws, so I was literally in an isolated island situation. In a strange place where I knew no one, my only support was my husband, but he was always busy. A busy person who left early in the morning and came home late at night.

Contacting distant friends to complain about loneliness lasted only a day or two. As I watched them busy with their own work, realizing their dreams, and building their own relationships, an unknown negative emotion seemed to get stuck in my throat, so I gradually cut off contact.

Other people said they envied my fortune of marrying well and living comfortably without working. Yes, it might have been a complaint from a full stomach. But sometimes, sitting blankly in the empty kitchen at home, I wanted to work even for low pay. Not just because I wanted to earn money, but because I wanted to feel other people’s presence. They say humans are social animals because we confirm we are human by forming relationships with each other.

I wanted to confirm that I was a person, not an option that naturally came with the house like a ‘chair’ or ‘refrigerator.’

Why did that kitchen from back then overlap with that bedroom? I unconsciously took Mélisande’s hand. Mélisande seemed slightly surprised but didn’t pull her hand away.

“I hope you don’t think you’re lonely her in Levizet.”

Mélisande blinked her big eyes. The moonlight shining behind her looked so cold and lonely that words popped out of my mouth without my knowing.

“If by any chance you want to…… you can come sleep in my room.”

“……What did you say?”

Ah, this isn’t right. It sounds like some perverted old man’s harassment. In front of bewildered Mélisande, I frantically scrambled for words while flustered.

“Ah, it doesn’t have any special meaning, it’s just that you’d be lonely alone! Ah, of course I’m not forcing you, if this room is too big and scary……? I’m absolutely not saying you would be afraid of ghosts or anything.”

At my rambling nonsense, Mélisande chuckled, and my face grew hot. Mélisande soon called my name seriously.

“Um, Alix?”

I tensed for a moment.

“Yes, Mélisande?”

“……Why are you being so kind to me?”

I smiled awkwardly. Well, even in the original novel, Mélisande is foolishly kind, but she’s not completely stupid. The sister-in-law who had been openly showing her displeasure since before the marriage suddenly changed from the wedding day—she couldn’t help but find it strange. What excuse should I make? I roughly made up something that came to mind.

“……We’re sisters now.”

Mélisande was bound to Antoine under sacred vows and witnesses, and the empire’s marriage vow clauses include accepting each other’s families as one’s own.

Whether my excuse worked, Mélisande readily nodded. Her pale face seemed to redden slightly, but it was too dark at night to be certain. Anyway, since I had said everything I needed to say, I bid her good night and returned to my room.

And it was less than an hour later that Mélisande, wearing a shawl over her indoor clothes and carrying a lamp, carefully knocked on my bedroom door.

***

“I have one older sister and two older brothers. Mother passed away when I was young, so I don’t remember her……”

We were lying in the bedroom chatting leisurely. I listened with interest to stories about Mélisande’s family relationships, which weren’t described in the original work, feeling like I was reading a side story. Mélisande, who had been speaking in a gentle voice, suddenly closed her mouth.

“We should sleep, but I wonder if I’m being too noisy and disturbing you, Alix.”

“No, it’s interesting. Please continue.”

Mélisande smiled softly.

“In childhood, I sometimes played with children of commoners and tenant farmers too. There weren’t any suitable young ladies in the vicinity to socialize with. Their parents were shocked when they later learned I was the lord’s daughter.”

“Don’t you interact with them now?”

“I occasionally hear news about how some of them are doing, but there were children who disappeared without a trace too. There was one boy I was particularly close with……”

Mélisande trailed off.

I could understand why. The fate of commoners or tenant farmers who disappeared from territories was obvious. They either fled in the night exhausted by taxes, died unnatural deaths, or were banished for committing crimes.

“……That child used a wooden stick like a sword. He said he learned from his mother. He drove away children who bullied me with just one wooden stick. As if he were a guard knight protecting a princess. ……Then one day, he suddenly disappeared. I waited for that child for days until I was exhausted, didn’t eat, and cried miserably.”

Memories filled her big blue eyes.

“Of course, I couldn’t overcome hunger after that and started eating again.”

Mélisande, who had been speaking playfully on purpose, closed her eyes and murmured.

“I don’t remember his name or face well, but I remember calling him ‘Theo.'”

I gasped in surprise, and Mélisande asked curiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

When I brushed it off, Mélisande tilted her head but didn’t ask further. I took the opportunity to fall into thought.

‘Little Theo.’ Definitely the male protagonist.

The male lead, Grand Duke Lysander Nicerion, is banished to distant lands with his birth mother due to his stepmother’s schemes.

To avoid threats to his safety, he abandons his original name and wanders distant lands under the name ‘Theo’ taken from his maternal grandfather’s name ‘Theobald,’ and the place where he settled for the longest time was Mélisande’s family territory, Boden.

Later, he returns to the north when called back by the previous grand duke who needed an heir, but his mother, already weakened by long wandering, had died.

Grand Duke Nicerion, who hated noble ladies like his stepmother, only opened his heart to Mélisande. His childhood playmate from the brief time when his mother was still alive and they had settled stably.

And when he miraculously encountered her at court, the goodwill that sprouted from memories became pity, pity became affection, and eventually bore the fruit of true love.

Ha, the narrative is no joke.

I looked at Mélisande with slightly teary eyes. Though she looked puzzled, I made a firm resolution regardless.

Sister, don’t worry. I’ll help you walk only on flower paths and send you directly to the male lead.

***