1.1 – The Bet

“Ellen! Please, I beg you!”  

Viscount Novary knelt down, clutching the hem of his daughter Ellen’s dress, pleading with her. Begging her to marry Baron Aran.  

“What about my future if I marry a man I don’t love, who is so much older than me?”  

Ellen looked at her father with a bewildered gaze. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, no matter how hard she tried.  

The Novary Viscount family, though rural nobles, wasn’t entirely destitute. They had enough wealth to hire servants, as long as they didn’t indulge in excessive luxury.  

Of course, this was only true under the assumption that they maintained their current assets. However, Viscount Novary, blinded by greed for greater wealth, had invested in various ventures in an attempt to multiply his fortune.  

But lacking the foresight to predict successful businesses, he failed at every turn, and eventually, the Novary family’s finances began to collapse.  

Unable to stand by and watch his family fall into ruin, the Viscount devised a last resort: marrying off his daughter to Baron Aran, a man over 30 years older than her but wealthy enough to cover their financial shortcomings.  

“A husband’s age has nothing to do with happiness. Why don’t you look at Baron Aran’s character instead of just his appearance? He’s a fine man.”  

“His character?”  

“Yes. Once you meet him a few times, you’ll feel like marrying him too.”  

Would a man who lures a young woman into marriage with money really have a good character? Ellen resented her father, who was willing to sell his daughter for wealth.  

But to maintain the Novary family, she had no choice but to follow his words. Otherwise, in the worst-case scenario, the entire family might find themselves starving.  

If only Ellen had met a man who could save her family during her debutante ball, things might have been different. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.