Chapter 3

The Marquis of Bianche moved swiftly, as if trying to escape the marquisate altogether. If it hadn’t been for River grabbing him from behind, he would have been long gone by now.

“Father!”

“River, we must make Olivia a princess.”

“She hates the idea—well, maybe we could convince her, but still.”

River brushed his bangs at his father’s words.

“More importantly, nothing’s been decided yet regarding the alliance.”

Frenchia was aware that the world situation was precarious. Even if they were not currently involved in a war, circumstances could change at any moment.

It was wise to prepare in advance.

That was why discussions were underway about forming an alliance with their closest neighbor, Silvest.

“Discussions about a marriage alliance with Silvest are happening in secret, but how did Via hear about such things?”

A marriage alliance wasn’t inherently bad.

The Marquis of Bianche also knew it was the best method for an alliance. However, it didn’t necessarily have to be his daughter.

But in Frenchia, there was no other choice but Olivia Bianche.

“We should have forced the royal marriage four years ago.”

At the marquis’s lament, River tried to calm him.

“We can still discuss matters like resources, exports, and imports. Nothing’s been decided yet, so please, calm down.”

“……”

“Besides, the Bianche family holds the largest financial assets in Frenchia and has the strongest voice among the noble faction. The royal family can’t speak lightly, and the nobles are the same.”

Hearing River’s words, the Marquis of Bianche finally took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

Yes, nothing was decided yet.

His eyes glinted with firm resolve. Sending his daughter to a foreign country was something he would never allow—not unless he was six feet under.

***

After finishing the meal with her family, Olivia went to the study to retrieve the letter she received yesterday. She checked if the letter she had written was there, but it was nowhere to be found.

Giving up the search, she returned to her room and sat at her desk. She laid out the two letters she received yesterday and today and fell into thought.

The letter she left in the study had disappeared.

The letter she left on the desk while she briefly washed up had also vanished.

Moreover, letters kept arriving from an unknown source, and the situations overlapped as if predicting the future.

In her confusion, Olivia shook her head and muttered.

“Are these letters meant to inform me of the future? Or have they come from another world?”

As she voiced such nonsensical thoughts, a hollow laugh escaped her lips. It was truly an absurd notion.

The idea of being informed about the future was unheard of. And the notion of letters coming from another world was even more ridiculous.

What started as mere curiosity had now made her genuinely believe that the gentleman in the letters might actually exist.

“Crazy.”

Olivia looked at the letters she had received over the past two days. Though her words said otherwise, she was smiling.

She laid the letters out carefully to avoid damaging them and read them again. Though the letters were only a day apart, the Frenchian language used in today’s letter seemed more familiar.

Even the spelling mistakes she had pointed out were almost all corrected.

“Amazing.”

No matter how many times she studied Silvestian, she never improved this quickly.

The unnamed gentleman seemed to be quite intelligent.

Then she recalled what she had written in the middle of the night.

“Oh dear, I wrote a letter in a fit of anger. I don’t even remember what I wrote.”

Of course, she couldn’t be sure if her letter had reached the unnamed gentleman. Even if it had, if he didn’t know Silvestian, he wouldn’t understand its contents.

Even if the improbable happened and it reached him, she hadn’t included a sender, so he wouldn’t know it was from her.

Yet.

“So embarrassing.”

Olivia’s face flushed red.

“It’s probably a mess.”

She pressed her eyes shut. But only for a moment, as Olivia clenched her fist and exclaimed.

“They said to always act confidently.”

Her flushed cheeks glowed with liveliness.

If it were any other noblewoman, she would have frozen the moment a letter from a stranger arrived. But Olivia was different.

She was a woman who loved romance.

She decided not to overthink the strange things that were happening. After all, nothing serious had happened that would require her to track down the sender of the letter immediately. And more than anything—

“I’m just too curious about this person.”

She was intensely curious about someone whose name, age, and appearance she didn’t know.

She rubbed the edge of the letter with her slender fingers.

Seeing the increasingly neat handwriting, she was certain he must be rather good-looking. Besides, if it were her, she’d never agree to marry someone unattractive.

“Oh dear, that Olivia isn’t even me. Why do I keep identifying myself with her?”

Unconsciously, she was seeing the ‘Olivia’ in the letter as herself.

But she wasn’t that Olivia.

It was 1817 here, while it was 1820 there.

If, by some miracle, these letters truly came from another world or another time, wasn’t that the height of romance? 

Olivia hummed to herself at the thought.

A fresh breeze of early spring blew through the window. It made Olivia’s golden hair flutter in the wind.

“In June, the heat will start.”

These letters, which had only started arriving two days ago, had already kindled a strange flame in her heart.

If those around her knew about this, they’d surely be appalled.

To harbor such a fluttering feeling for someone she didn’t even know. So Olivia decided to keep this secret to herself a little longer.

***

It had now been nearly four months since the first letter arrived. The sender still remained a mystery, and Olivia’s ambiguous feelings only continued to grow.

She wanted to know who he was. She wanted to meet him.

She wanted to know the face behind the neat handwriting.

Unlike Olivia’s leisure, the situation in Frenchia was becoming urgent. The alliance with Silvest was nearing, and a marriage alliance seemed certain.

When she heard the news, Olivia felt more anticipation than fear.

According to the letters, the unnamed gentleman and ‘Olivia’ were in a marriage alliance. The thought that she might meet him if the alliance was formed fueled her anticipation.

She knew it was a childish thought. Yet Olivia couldn’t stop herself from hoping.

As more time passed, a war broke out in a nearby nation. Frenchia and Silvest were deeply engaged in final discussions for the alliance.

The Marquis of Bianche and River were so busy with the matter that they didn’t return to the marquisate for five days.

The Marchioness had been persuading Olivia since the day she grasped the situation. If she proceeded with an engagement to the Second Prince, her name wouldn’t be included in the marriage alliance.

But Olivia was horrified every time she heard that suggestion.

She much preferred entering a marriage alliance for her country over continuing a relationship with the prince, who clung to her like a stalker.

Moreover, she had no say in the marriage alliance.

Since Frenchia requested the alliance, it was up to Silvest to decide how it would be maintained. And they demanded a ‘marriage alliance.’

If Olivia prepared to become a princess in such a situation, Silvest would feel insulted.

Not only would the alliance fail, but relations could also be severely damaged. Knowing this, the Bianche family was anxious.

Olivia understood that her family was striving because of her. But to her, the letters arriving daily were more important than the alliance or war.

Though she never received a reply, she always awaited his letters.

The unnamed gentleman, as promised in his first letter, listed his wrongdoings every day.

His sins were sometimes intriguing, sometimes sorrowful.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t have stayed silent like that Olivia.”

Olivia exclaimed, clenching her fist.

“If you lived with me, you’d be happier, Mr. Unnamed Gentleman.”

Startled by her own words, she was surprised. Speaking such things to a non-existent entity. Her parents would be shocked if they knew.

Olivia couldn’t precisely define her growing feelings. But what was clear was that she, who used to sleep a lot, had developed a habit of waking up early to check for letters.

With a chuckle, she opened today’s letter.

The unnamed gentleman had become proficient enough in Frenchian to use it as if it were his native tongue.

Thanks to sending replies daily, Olivia’s Silvestian, which seemed impossible to improve, had also progressed.

Though she wasn’t as fluent as him, at least she didn’t make spelling mistakes.

With great anticipation, Olivia began reading the letter.

「To My Beloved Olivia,

The sin I wish to confess today is rather grave.

No, not just grave. It’s the worst.

Because I’m about to tell you about the day we lost our child.」