Chapter 2 – The Man I Was Promised to Marry

There was a sin she had committed against the family. So she prepared to step into the marriage market called high society, just as her family pushed her to.

And yet Katarina was certain. There would not be a single man who would propose to her.

But her family had gone even further and was dreaming of Richard Lyleberg. It was absurd.

There was no way Richard Lyleberg would show any interest in Katarina Dietze, and after what she had done, it was not the proper thing for a person to dare show herself before him.

“You can’t do it?”

Sandra Dietze raised both eyes sharply. Her expression was fierce, as if asking how she could dare utter such nonsense.

Coming right up to her, she jabbed Katarina’s thin shoulder with the tip of her stiffly folded fan, tap, tap.

“You can’t do it? You’re saying you can’t?”

Katarina pressed her red lips together, then let them part.

“To him… it would be an unforgivable thing to do.”

“Ha.”

Sandra Dietze shot back in disbelief.

“The unforgivable thing was already done three years ago. To the young Duke of Lyleberg, and to us too. And now you’re saying it’s something you can’t do? Don’t act so disgusting, like some properly raised human being!”

“……..”

“Can’t you see what has become of our family because of you alone?”

Her breath catching, Katarina turned her head toward the sight her mother called “what has become of us.”

Dark mold had spread along the corners of the walls. Whitish dust had piled up on the window frames and the floor. The stained windows creaked weakly whenever the wind struck them.

This shabby appearance, something that would once have been unimaginable, was because there were absurdly too few hands to maintain the mansion.

In other words… it was all Katarina’s fault.

Unable to continue speaking, Katarina reflexively clutched her dress.

“Ah…!”

The fan flew at her and struck the back of her hand.

“One wrinkled thing in this house is enough, and that’s you.”

At the venom that followed, the back of the hand that had been hit turned even paler.

“If you fail to catch the eye of the young Duke of Lyleberg today, there is no need for you to return to the mansion.”

“Mother!”

“Then go to that man, Hans, or whatever his name was. You abandoned your parents and siblings and ran off, and you thought coming back would happen however you pleased?”

She had no answer. Saying she had not known things would turn out like this was of no use now.

While Katarina repeatedly opened and closed her mouth, Sandra Dietze opened the door and left.

“I expect great things.”

Leaving behind only those words, impossible to tell whether they were encouragement or warning.

***

“What are you doing? Come at once!”

Getting down from the old-fashioned carriage, Katarina looked around cautiously among the automobiles and luxurious carriages arriving one after another, then moved at her mother’s sharp scolding.

It was a ball prepared by Marquis Adler, a cousin of the Empress, to celebrate his birthday. She had expected as much, but the crowd was considerable.

Inside the banquet hall as well, it was already filled with faces more dazzling than the chandeliers.

Since it had been a long time since she had attended a gathering like this, Katarina shrank back and hid herself behind the family members who had entered with her.

But the family she had hoped would serve as her shield scattered for their own reasons, and Katarina was quickly left alone.

“Oh my, if it isn’t you?”

A voice flew in as though it had been waiting for just that.

“Isn’t that Katarina?”

The attention of the banquet hall focused on Katarina.

Though it was merely that others had noticed her presence, Katarina felt as if she could barely breathe.

“It’s been a very long time, hasn’t it?”

The one who greeted her in a cheerful voice was Yulia, the young lady of Count Keller’s family, with whom she had once been acquainted.

“Yes…. It has been a long time.”

Katarina replied awkwardly, unable to hide how intimidated she was. Unbothered, Yulia added another remark.

“What brings you to a place like this?”

The fact that Katarina Dietze had returned to her family was hardly a secret, but common knowledge openly known. To deliberately ask why she had come was filled with impure intent.

“…It just happened that way.”

Having barely managed an answer, Katarina could not even lift her head properly and only prayed that this malicious interest would go away.

She wanted, at the very least, to be there as if she were not.

“Oh, could it be that painter came with you too? Have the Count and Countess finally given their permission?”

Her wish did not come true. Pretending to lower her voice, Yulia brazenly asked an awkward question for all to hear.

“N-no, it’s not like that.”

Turning pale, Katarina shook her head, even stammering over her words. Her head, already bowed low, sank even deeper.

“So in the end it came to this, and for what kind of grand love did she even run away right before the wedding?”

“No matter how immature she was, this is too much. It’s pathetic that she’s even a fellow noble.”

“To cause trouble for people everywhere and still think of coming back again, how shameless, really.”

“Well, only someone shameless could do something like that in the first place. The Count Dietze family is the only one I feel sorry for.”

“But it was the Count and Countess who raised their child that way, so who can they blame?”

Watching Katarina’s fall, everyone voiced their own thoughts. Because of who the target was, even those who were usually masters at speaking indirectly spat out blunt insults.

Scratched and pierced by the sharp voices, Katarina felt as though she were being torn into rags.

And even that did not seem enough for them; the people would not easily let go of this rare amusement thrown into the once-calm social circle.

“Just look at that dress.”

This time, Katarina’s appearance became the prey.

“With the state of the Count Dietze family these days, does a dress that extravagant make any sense?”

“Surely she doesn’t think there’s a man who would propose to her?”

“Why wouldn’t she? She certainly looks determined.”

“Ha ha, even so. Men aren’t fools. Everyone knows what happened, so would they really be swayed by looks alone?”

“Well, if it were Viscount Schwenk over there, perhaps. Ever since divorcing his fifth wife, he’s been looking for another spouse.”

Without realizing it, Katarina turned her gaze toward the place indicated by the pointed chin. First her eyes caught the graying hair, then the eyes lined with deep wrinkles.

It had been so long since she had left high society that her memory was not exact, but as far as Katarina knew, Viscount Schwenk was nearing seventy.

Moreover, he was also notorious for striking his wives whenever the mood took him. Which wife had it been? Katarina too had once seen a woman standing beside the Viscount, smiling faintly, with bluish bruises barely concealed beneath makeup.

But since he owned an iron mine, there was no doubting his wealth.

Afraid their eyes might meet, Katarina hurriedly turned her head back.

She was terrified that if he approached her and even spoke a word, then what people were saying would become an established fact.

Her mother had told her to catch the young Duke of Lyleberg, but that was absolutely impossible. And in the midst of that, if Viscount Schwenk were to show even the slightest interest in Katarina……

A future she did not even want to imagine took shape before her. Katarina squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands and feet began to tremble.

Though it was obvious to anyone what state she was in, Yulia, who had opened the floodgate of condemnation, returned to her own group and laughed playfully.

“It seems Katarina isn’t entirely uninterested either. She just glanced at Viscount Schwenk.”

“Oh my, Miss Dietze did? Then perhaps I should go over to the Viscount and casually give him a hint. That a very lovely lady is waiting for him here.”

Katarina shook her head stiffly, but no one paid attention. Her heart pounded erratically, as though it would leap out of her mouth.

Rattle, rattle.

She was reminded of the sensation of the old hired carriage she had boarded on the day she went to meet Hans. A sickness like motion sickness rose in her, as though she were riding in it again.

“That’s a good idea, isn’t it? I’ll help too.”

Her two legs, barely holding her up under the mockery colored to resemble consideration, wavered. It was then that a ringing voice resounded through the banquet hall.

“Richard Lyleberg, Young Duke of the House of Lyleberg, enters!”

The hall fell frighteningly silent.

At the appearance of a man who had not even inherited his title yet, most of the nobles bowed their waists. Though it was far from an ordinary situation, his position was so imposing that the sight did not seem strange.

There was a weight all his own in each step of his shoes upon the marble floor. A cutting sharpness seemed to seep from the perfectly tailored tailcoat.

His features, decadent in some indefinable way, served as splendid adornment in themselves. Upon every clear line of his face clung a beauty no one could easily dare covet.

It was as though he wore a mask shaped by God with the utmost care. All the more so because he had no expression.

Richard Lyleberg.

Yes, he was that kind of man. The man who had once been promised in marriage to Katarina.