Chapter 1 – The Dishonorable Label

Katarina Dietze was innocent. She was at an age where it was only natural. It had only been half a year since her coming-of-age ceremony.

Society recognized her as an adult, but just because she had attended a single ball didn’t mean the inexperienced girl would miraculously become a grown-up overnight.

So, it was something she could do—a bold act.

“Haa, haa, haa.”

The time stood at the boundary between night and dawn.

Katarina slipped out of the Dietze Earldom’s mansion without anyone noticing. She ran on her own two feet down the path she usually traveled only by luxurious carriage.

The plane tree road, wrapped in dense greenery, was a place Katarina cherished. Whenever she passed by in a carriage, she would always crane her neck to look at it.

But now, Katarina’s mind was filled only with the urge to get away from this road as quickly as possible.

Nothing around her caught her eye. She had no regrets. She focused solely on what lay ahead.

There was a place she desperately wanted to reach. The most beloved person in the world was waiting for Katarina there.

“To Ordell Station.”

Having run as far as the village where the mansion was no longer visible, Katarina caught a hired carriage that had just started early morning service.

It was her first time riding in a carriage that wasn’t the family’s.

The speed was decent, but the ride was terrible. Her hips bounced up and down without rest.

She felt a slight wave of nausea. Still, Katarina endured, clutching her heavy luggage bag.

The carriage stopped in front of the station with its golden clock tower. The coachman, seeing Katarina’s appearance, glanced at her with anticipation.

Not knowing what would be an appropriate fare, Katarina handed over one of the ornaments she had taken from the mansion.

It seemed to be more than enough. The coachman’s face showed both shock and delight.

Without even saying goodbye, Katarina glanced at the coachman, who was staring only at the ornament in his hand, and stepped into the station.

Perhaps because it was so early, the platform was unusually quiet. That made it easy to spot him.

“Hans….”

No, even if this place were crowded, she would have found him at a glance. For some time now, Katarina’s eyes had only seen that man.

Thunk.

“Hans!”

Katarina, having dropped her large luggage bag, ran toward the man who turned to look at her and threw herself into his arms.

“My Lady!”

He embraced Katarina passionately in return.

His large hands gently, so gently that it seemed almost painful, stroked Katarina’s golden hair, which shone like the midday sun.

Screeeech—

Their tender embrace ended with the sound of the arriving train. Hans picked up Katarina’s dropped luggage and held out his hand.

“Let’s go, My Lady.”

Katarina looked quietly down at his hand, then shook her head. At Hans’s puzzled expression, Katarina smiled brightly and made a request.

“From now on, call me Katarina.”

Hans, gazing at Katarina with eyes full of affection, opened his mouth hesitantly, as if saying something difficult.

“Kata… rina….”

Finally, Katarina took Hans’s hand.

“Yes, Hans.”

As if she would never let go.

“Let’s go.”

Now, with the feeling that they would be together forever.

***

Three years later.

“Ugh….”

Katarina let out a small groan.

It was because of the maids’ relentless hands tightening her corset. Her ribs felt so compressed that they might shatter.

“So lacking in patience, tsk.”

But the cold glare and scolding from Sandra Dietze, the lady of of the Dietze Earldom and Katarina’s mother, were directed not at the maids, but at her own daughter.

“If you returned bearing a dishonorable label, shouldn’t you at least provide some spectacle to dilute it?”

Dishonorable label.

That referred to the incident when Katarina, the day before her wedding, ran away with Hans, a street artist.

Katarina lowered her head and shrank back. Whenever that story came up, Katarina had nothing to say, even if she had ten mouths.

At first… it was simply wonderful. The two of them settled in a beautiful coastal village where the boundary between sea and land was blurred.

Born and raised as the daughter of an Earl, Katarina repeatedly made foolish mistakes in the unfamiliar reality she faced in her new life.

Whenever that happened, Hans would whisper love to her as naturally as breathing, saying that caring for Katarina was his joy.

Even when Katarina burned the food or ruined the laundry, each day was one they could laugh off because they were together. Katarina spent her days joyfully, like a child on a picnic.

But their time together began to change as the jewels Katarina had brought from the mansion started to run out.

“Your paintings are special. They make me happy.”

Hans’s paintings, which Katarina had admired in ecstasy, did not bring in money. While they might make Katarina happy, they failed to satisfy others’ tastes.

Still, Hans stubbornly continued to paint. The more he tried to make his talent bloom, the more their situation deteriorated. Hardship soon arrived.

Katarina, wanting to contribute to the household, loitered around the fish market near the pier. But she had only enthusiasm and no skills.

Katarina was born with many things.

Whatever she wanted, she could easily get with a glance or a gesture. Having never worked hard for anything, she didn’t know how.

Lacking any particular talent and causing only trouble, there was no employer who wanted to hire Katarina.

Hans, at some point, began to find Katarina, who was of no help at all, burdensome.

“If I were alone, I could have managed somehow….”

Words he occasionally uttered carried regret deeper than a sigh.

Still, Katarina believed things would work out. Because they had love. It was still a naive illusion.

Even the usefulness of the feelings she thought would shine beautifully forever ran dry soon after they became penniless.

A little over a year had been happy. A little over two years had been sad.

And so, three years.

Katarina returned to her family after a long journey. It had happened two months ago.

Yet no one welcomed Katarina. The Dietze Earldom was suffering financial difficulties.

It was the result of Katarina running away with Hans, leaving behind her marriage to the Lyleberg Dukedom.

When the promised investment from the Lyleberg Dukedom fell through, other investors also withdrew.

Because of that, the business the Dietze Earldom was pursuing stalled at an ambiguous stage, and since then, it had been a steady decline.

“Katarina, this is all your fault.”

This was the phrase Katarina heard most often since returning home. The Katarina Dietze who had only received love no longer existed.

“If you don’t even get help from a corset, how can you present such a sagging body to the men?”

Even if you asked a hundred passersby, none would criticize Katarina’s figure. It was a pointless insult.

The problem was not Katarina’s body, but this corset. No matter how much it was for shaping her figure, it was a size fit only for a child.

But even when blamed for unreasonable things, Katarina wanted to stay here. She did not want to return to Hans’s side.

Katarina quietly let the maids work on her. The tiny gap left in the corset finally closed.

“……!”

She barely suppressed the moan that escaped. She already felt like she would collapse from suffocation. Her face went pale.

Still, no one cared about Katarina’s complexion. Rough hands began to force her into a dress.

“The Young Master Lyleberg will be at the ball tonight.”

Sandra Dietze stood up from the sofa and spoke, after dismissing the maids who had helped Katarina dress.

Katarina opened her eyes wide as her mother approached.

The Young Master Lyleberg was… the man Katarina had left behind three years ago, when she went mad for Hans.

“It’s rumored that, wounded by you, he doesn’t even look at women anymore.”

Richard Lyleberg. At the name that surfaced from her memory, Katarina swallowed a trembling breath.

“Do whatever it takes to hold on to him. Hold on with all your might. Do you understand?”

Katarina’s gaze, fallen to the floor, brushed the hem of the luxurious dress.

Somehow.

Even if today was the day Katarina returned to society, it seemed her dress was far too extravagant….

There was another calculation behind it.

“……That’s impossible.”

Katarina tightly shut her eyes and shook her bowed head.

“I can’t do that, Mother.”

She protested in a small voice.

As the saying goes, Katarina Dietze was a woman bearing a dishonorable label.

Her hands were too shabby and inadequate to hold someone else’s.