“Rest until the ceremony. The price for seeing the Grand Duke’s face…… I’ll repay it slowly, in time.”

The cold air of the corridor filled her lungs again. Behind her, the heavy thud of the door closing reached her ears. Only then did a few of the servants who fled to a distance begin to peer around the corner. As she waited for them to approach, Vivian noticed one utterly useless fact.

Her heart was beating fast.

It was certainly not from fear, so the cause was obvious enough.

Hah. Vivian let out a short, humorless laugh. Quite the thing to feel in a situation like this. She brushed aside the emotion that could become someone else’s card to play, accepted the attendants’ assistance, and returned to her room. But even as the door closed behind her, there was no sign of her heartbeat slowing.

* * *

The ceremony did not take long.

It was a small chapel located at the northernmost point of the capital. It was a venue entirely unbecoming of an imperial-sanctioned wedding and the grand duke who ruled the North, and even the guest seats of that small chapel were more than half empty.

Even those who filled the seats showed no sign of wishing to bless the couple being wed. The officials who needed to be present to carry out and confirm the imperial-mandated rite made no effort to hide that they were dragged there out of obligation.

A cursed grand duke and an imperial bastard. Before that combination, people cut off their attendance as though by agreement. They may not have wanted to draw the imperial family’s displeasure, but the greater reason was likely fear that the curse of the cursed mark might reach even into the ceremony hall.

If Vivian were an ordinary bride at an ordinary wedding, she would have stored poison in her lovely eyes and memorized every empty seat in the hall. Who came and who did not, who would become her blade and who her shield.

The names catalogued on her list were weapons to be used in the social world, and they would form the foundation of her power.

But what filled Vivian’s mind right now was none of that. She was too preoccupied throughout the entire ceremony, turning over what lay inside the masked man’s heart, and what the truth hidden beneath the mask might mean.

Even as she recited the vows, even at the moment the marriage was declared, even while the visibly uneasy priest delivered a blessing he clearly didn’t mean, only the scene from that morning occupied her thoughts.

A man who apologized, then raged, then was startled by his own rage and turned it into self-reproach, trembling all the while. Was all of that an act, or was it sincere?

The ceremony ended and Vivian went to find her lady’s maid immediately. She intended to ask Renard to share a carriage on the way back.

The inside of a narrow carriage was the perfect place to see into a person. The pretext was good, too. They just married, so it was only natural for a bride to receive that much consideration. If anything, it might have seemed slightly forward that she was the one to seek out her maid first.

Vivian’s instincts were not wrong. They were simply one step too late. The maid replied with an apologetic expression that Renard already mounted his horse and left for the grand ducal residence ahead of her.

She didn’t even go far to get that answer. In the brief time between the ceremony ending and Vivian returning to her waiting room, it was already done.

“The Grand Duke has always been reluctant to remain long in the presence of others.”

The maid who rode with her in the carriage opened her mouth carefully, watching Vivian’s expression. She seemed anxious, worried that the new Grand Duchess she would be serving might be in a foul mood.

“Did something happen between the two of you this morning? Your complexion looked quite off, and everyone was worried……”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Vivian turned her gaze to the window and hid a faint smile. What she concealed to keep her feelings from showing apparently read to them as signs of discord.

It didn’t matter to Vivian. She focused solely on Renard, like a predator that locked onto its prey.

She wanted to sit across from him and talk as soon as possible. To probe him, to shake him, to get her hands on the truth hidden beneath the mask. Reading people, getting close to them and drawing out what lay inside, that was her nature and her gift.

The maid added one more remark.

“There was talk of raised voices, and it has everyone worried.”

Renard raising his voice was apparently audible to the servants hovering nearby. Then again, the chapel was too small and too old to contain his shout. Vivian answered in a murmur, still looking out the window.

“What couple hasn’t had a fight? Think of it as getting one out of the way before the wedding.”

“…… Yes.”

The maid gave up trying to say anything more to the Grand Duchess and fell silent.

In the silence, the carriage cut through the snowfields of the North. From some point after crossing the border, the scenery outside the window was unlike anything Vivian saw in her life. It was rough, yet strangely beautiful.

“That is the grand ducal residence.”

“…… That?”

The maid spoke after a long silence. Vivian frowned at her words.

The grand ducal residence visible in the distance looked exactly like a ruined castle. The solid stone structure boasted an imposing size, but the warmth of people that should have filled all that space seemed to drain away long ago.

The closer they drew, the stronger that impression became. Half the windows in the tall spires were sunk in darkness, and the garden showed rare signs of tending.

But when they arrived at the front of the grand ducal residence, she put that concern entirely out of her mind.

“…… Welcome, Grand Duchess.”

Unexpectedly, Renard was standing before the desolate castle gate. He extended his hand and escorted her as she stepped down from the carriage. His masked appearance was unchanged, but the warmth she felt from his large hand put her in a strangely lifted mood.

“How long have you been waiting?”

“Since I arrived.”

“Didn’t you arrive before sunset?”

He gave a nod, and Vivian looked around. Darkness already settled in. Even if he rode at the slowest pace, the numbers added up to several hours of standing here waiting.

“You could have gone inside to rest.”

“It’s the first day. An escort is the least I can do.”

“You didn’t ride in the carriage with me, so I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”

Renard went slightly rigid, then answered in an even stiffer voice.

“That’s not it. Riding in the carriage together would have been uncomfortable for the Grand Duchess……”

“I wouldn’t have been uncomfortable at all. If anything, I was disappointed you weren’t there with me.”

“…… I appreciate the consideration. But I’m fine.”

She meant it sincerely, but it seemed to reach Renard as nothing more than polite pleasantry. A consistent pattern. The balance inside Vivian shifted slightly.

Walking into the castle with Renard’s escort, Vivian noticed one thing.

The servants here were all avoiding Renard. The maid mopping at the end of the corridor, the servant listlessly replacing a candlestick, the moment Renard appeared, they bowed as though on cue and vanished from sight.

It resembled the way people behaved at the ceremony hall. It was not the movement of people welcoming their master but of people fleeing from him.

Were they afraid? But Vivian noticed that soot still clung beneath the half-replaced candlestick. In any noble household she visited in the capital, the servants’ discipline was never this lax.

When they entered the hall, one person finally approached the two of them without any sign of disorder. It was an elderly woman with graying hair. The set of her closed lips looked stern, but the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes somehow felt warm.

“This is the housekeeper.”

“My name is Helen, Grand Duchess. I manage the household affairs of this castle. Though I am lacking, I will see to it that you are comfortable.”

It was a greeting without a single unnecessary word. It was also the first composed face she saw since entering this castle. Instead of fear or fuss, a calm and seasoned gaze was sizing Vivian up. Aside from Renard, she was the only person in this place Vivian found herself approving of.

“You came ahead.”

“Pardon?”

“…… You came ahead. I’m sorry.”

Renard cleared his throat. The voice that came through the mask was small and awkward.

“I don’t normally leave the castle grounds. If people happen to see me by accident, it becomes troublesome. …… The Grand Duchess already saw, but even so, I thought it best to keep my distance as much as possible.”

Upong hearing that, Helen’s eyes flickered, but rather than interrupt her master, she kept her silence and fulfilled her duty as housekeeper.

Renard, by contrast, could not even bring himself to look at Vivian’s face. His gaze, fixed somewhere around her feet, turned toward Helen.

“Helen.”

“Yes.”

“Show the Grand Duchess around the castle. I will……”

“Grand Duke.”

Vivian cut him off. It wasn’t polite, but being impolite was better than being stood up twice, the way she was with the carriage.