The more brilliant a family’s era, the more the truth of marriage tends to fade.

The Lapelsion Empire, surrounded by vast and splendid mountain ranges covered with frost-bitten snow, experienced snowfall year-round due to its northern imperial characteristics.

But even in Lapelsion’s climate, when spring arrived, the snow would melt slightly and flowers would bloom. Yet inside the grand mansion of the Camelot ducal family, one of this beautiful and great Empire’s ducal houses, it was always as frigid as if a blizzard were raging.

The Camelot residence was so magnificent and spacious that rumors circulated that five out of ten newcomers to the grand ducal residence would inevitably get lost inside. This was certainly one reason for the atmosphere.

But most people within the castle knew the true reason was because of the beautiful ducal couple who owned this castle.

Duke Deer Camelot and Duchess Hess Rainweed were, like many nobles, a couple who married for what appeared to be perfectly rational and plausible reasons—the benefit between their families—which held absolutely no importance to them personally.

The marriage of Deer, the Duke of Camelot who possessed the Empire’s greatest wealth and honor despite his family’s relatively short history, and Lady Hess Rainweed, a lady from a Count’s family that had somewhat declined but was once the Emperor’s right hand with glorious achievements in the Continental War.

Their marriage alone garnered enough public interest to dominate the front pages of every newspaper in the streets for an entire month.

What reason could there be for the union between a beautiful young Duke who had achieved everything and could achieve anything more, and the elegant lady from a Count’s family that had once achieved everything, to not be beautiful?

While their union attracted public interest based on their family names alone, in truth, many nobles were more interested in another aspect.

Namely, the clear disparity between the two that was evident by their noble standards.

Deer Camelot was, in fact, a man for whom the word “perfect” was insufficient. Being of Camelot bl＊＊d, he couldn’t help but be so.

His grandfather had brought the head of the opposing kingdom’s knight commander to the Emperor during the Continental War over the northwestern territorial hegemony that broke out about fifty years ago.

The war that had dragged on indecisively for ten years ended in an instant, and the Lapelsion Empire became the largest empire across the entire continent following that victory.

The Camelots were originally a very distant branch of the imperial family, but to honor their merit, the Emperor bestowed the title of Duke upon Camelot, along with an enormous reward.

From then on, the family line continued through the former Duke Camelot, Deer Camelot’s father, to the current Deer Camelot.

The Camelot family easily captivated people because of their beautiful genes. Anyone born with Camelot bl＊＊d invariably had platinum blonde hair and blue eyes.

Soft hair the color of fresh butter and emerald blue eyes so transparent they seemed to contain the Empire’s sacred and beautiful Lake Shainfil.

And their facial features, which appeared so meticulously crafted that they outshone all those colors, made the name Camelot even more enchanting.

Thus, Deer Camelot was born possessing everything from the start. His eyes, even more icily transparent than his father’s and grandfather’s, became the cornerstone of his destiny to become an arrogant grand noble.

Indeed, he grew up that way. He was truly arrogant, and cold-blooded just as much. The lips of this unrealistically handsome man never once smiled. His tall frame and firm body with its sleek muscles had never once acted hastily.

He was always unhurried, as if time flowed slowly for him. His languid yet sensitive movements never made mistakes.

Busy life and fierce existence. To him, all of it seemed like unnecessary futility.

Those who saw him feared him, yet he remained the focus of everyone’s attention nonetheless.

But Hess Rainweed, the mysterious woman who suddenly became the Duchess of Camelot, stood in perfect opposition to Deer.

The Rainweed family had very deep roots, but now it had become merely a faded glory. Long before the Northwestern Territory War, when the continent itself was busy with interstate wars aiming for imperial unification, the Rainweed family served as the Emperor’s right hand, becoming the brains of the war and displaying enormous strategic prowess.

However, the reason for Rainweed’s decline was that while times changed after that glorious victory, they failed to change with them.

Relying on past glory, the Count squandered massive wealth through excessive business expansion and entertainment following the war. While the imperial family and nobles still outwardly treated them with dignity, there was no longer any respect.

Thus now, after several generations, the current Count and Countess of Rainweed were left with massive debt, a name and title of their family, and an aged mansion that brought shame to their position.

Whatever their past or glory might have been, these were not matters of concern to them. Their only significant concern was filling their bellies for the day.

Having noble status as Counts but no experience with legitimate labor, they made money through gambling, games of chance, and usury. Their behavior was so dissolute and disorderly that no noble was unaware of it.

Because of this, no one helped the greedy and foolish current Count and Countess Rainweed. They merely watched from a distance, clicking their tongues, as if observing the inevitable downfall of the family.

As they entered old age, the Count and Countess fell ill and became bedridden. With the couple falling ill as a pair, people mockingly remarked that they must be a truly affectionate couple.

No one wanted to work in their mansion. Only an extremely small number of desperately poor maids remained in the Count’s household.

But there was no guarantee they would stay forever. A sickly atmosphere hung heavily in the old mansion, which always smelled damp and cool. The mansion itself felt like a large, shadowy tomb.

Perhaps thinking they might have to nurse each other directly at this rate, the Count and Countess adopted a child one day.

That child was Hess Rainweed.

When Hess, adopted from an orphanage, first came to the Count’s house, there was naturally not a trace of nobility about her.

Her skin, though not swarthy, was slightly darker compared to the snow-white nobles, and her ashy brown hair became her greatest complex from the time she was adopted into the Count’s family until her marriage now.

Especially when standing before her unbelievably handsome and perfect husband, she felt as if she had become his maid.

She felt like an awkward, stiff, and ridiculous wooden puppet wearing ill-fitting clothes above her station and adorned with decorations that didn’t suit her.

However, contrary to her own judgment, Hess was objectively beautiful. Her unknown lineage with drab grayish-brown hair that didn’t meet aristocratic standards and common gray eyes only made her think of herself as extremely ugly.

Though her birth parents were unknown, Hess had distinctive and peculiar features that caught the eye, suggesting that either her father or mother might have been a foreigner.

Her thick, long eyelashes, lips with soft curved corners, and in contrast, her firm, rebellious, and sharp gaze created a unique charm.

But if there was a flaw, it was her personality. Her cold and quiet demeanor, along with her blunt and emotionless gaze, caused many misunderstandings. The servants in the mansion were polite to her but never showed even the slightest smile.

Later, this personality became poisonous to her, causing many misunderstandings, but it would take a very long time for her to realize this.

In her earliest memories, Hess’s personality was not at all like it was now. She too had small sparkles of life, days of vain daydreaming like gold dust mixed in sand.

She had childish expectations that life would get a little better.

The young Hess of that time didn’t doubt life. She didn’t have mature dreams of wanting to be happy, but nevertheless believed that someday she would be.

Not now, but someday. When she grew up a little more. Definitely.

Definitely.

But as time passed, Hess’s life became more unfortunate. Philosophers all babbled that how one lives depends on one’s mindset, but it wasn’t easy to avoid suffering in the stormy waves of a burdensome life.

All of it gripped Hess tightly and wouldn’t let her go.