Interlude:
I Want to Marry Marie
I’D BEEN LOOKING AT THE NIGHT SKY AND counting the stars for hours now. I was sitting at the table on the balcony with a glass of wine made from grapes harvested early in hand. Unlike wine made from mature grapes, the color was a vivid, translucent red. It was almost the same color as Marie Chandelan’s—my fiancée’s—hair.
I let out a sigh. “How beautiful…”
“Stop with the ‘How beautifuls,’ my lord,” Mio said. She poured me a glass of water. “You shouldn’t use alcohol to escape reality.”
She practically slammed the pitcher back on the table, and I glared at her before accepting the water anyway.
“I’m not drinking to run away. I’m in a good mood.”
“I’d argue that very fact is proof you’re not looking reality in the eye,” she replied.
I asked why she was saying that, and she frowned while bringing her hands to her waist. She seemed exasperated, and I knew for a fact that she never minced her words when she wore that expression. “Lady Marie said no,” she said at last.
“Urgh. That’s… Well… Actually, I sent a marriage proposal to her house. And she came. Wouldn’t you say that counts as agreeing to the match?”
“Obviously not. Besides, you’re conveniently skipping over a lot of important details, aren’t you?”
Ugh…
She had a point, so I kept my mouth shut and drank a sip of water instead. Mio truly was merciless.
“Your proposal was addressed to Anastasia Chandelan. Lord Chandelan’s deceased firstborn daughter.”
“That’s…true. But it was because I—”
“And the one you wish to marry is Marie Chandelan. Anastasia’s younger sister.”
“Yes…”
“In other words, that first proposal and its acceptance by Lord Chandelan are completely void. You’ve never actually proposed to Lady Marie herself.”
“But I couldn’t have known, could I?!” I exclaimed. “How could I have assumed the star of the party would be the one crouching down all alone in the dark?!”
“Yet that doesn’t change the fact that she was,” Mio sighed. She looked sullen, a rare occurrence for her.
That night, I hadn’t been the only one to misunderstand. Just like me, Mio had assumed that the blonde young woman was Marie while the red-haired beauty I’d fallen for at first sight was Anastasia.
Everyone in high society had heard rumors of the Chandelans’ financial troubles. Word was that they rarely showed up to events because they couldn’t afford travelling expenses. I still remembered my close friend Luifon’s comments when the invitations to Marie’s birthday party reached us…
“Did you get one too, Kyros?” Luifon asked. “They’ve really gone all out and invited every wealthy bachelor they could think of with no consideration for their age, appearance, or even personality.”
“What vulgarity,” I replied with a sigh.
A young lady walked up to us and gave me a box of chocolates. I took it with a curt “thank you” and immediately turned back to Luifon.
He laughed before adding, “But you know, I heard their daughter is a real beauty. I’m already spoken for, so there’s no point in me going, but you should definitely go see what she’s like, Kyros.”
“I have no interest in noble women.”
Luifon laughed. “Yes, yes, I know. Most highborn ladies think Ypsandros is a nation of barbarians, after all.”
“None of them dare say it to my face, but I can see they loathe the color of my skin and eyes.”
“And yet you always seem to be in high demand.”
“They’re after my rank and money, obviously,” I said with a slight sigh. “And I suppose my face isn’t bad either. If you forget about my skin color, I’m perfectly handsome.”
“I like the confidence.”
“I’d prefer it if they just insulted me to my face. I hate the way they’re all smiles in front of me, only to scowl at my mother and I behind our backs. I could never have a child with disgusting women like them. I wouldn’t even welcome them into my yard!”
“You know, it’s because you always assume the worst of people that you have practically no friends.”
“And yet here you are.”
“Whew, what a smooth answer.” Luifon shrugged and smiled. “I can’t wait to meet the woman who’ll finally win your heart.”
I bit into a piece of chocolate. I didn’t say it out loud, but I was convinced the day would never come. Even so, I couldn’t remain single for life. I was a count, and the only male heir of a duke. I couldn’t inherit the duchy until I married, and I had a duty to produce heirs myself. I also had no choice but to marry a noble woman because of my status. Essentially, that meant my future wife would be with me for money and standing, while I’d be with her out of duty and obligation—two liars stuck in a loveless marriage.
I wasn’t particularly opposed to a political marriage over a love match, but I refused to take concubines. Even if I had to live without love my entire life, I only wanted to have one lawful wife, and no one else. After the feud that’d happened between my mother, Liu Liu, and my father’s first wife, I was certain of that.
My father, Alfred Granado, had married a noble woman, Laura, for political reasons. She’d known from the start that he did not love her. Nevertheless, the two of them had three children and lived peacefully at the Ducal Castle of Granado.
However, Laura changed after my father got a concubine. She despised Liu Liu for being a foreign traveling entertainer, and she insulted her at every turn. Despite all this, things were peaceful for a time. However, after Liu Liu gave birth to me—a boy with characteristic Ypsandrian features—things truly began to get sour. Laura’s children had all been girls, unable to be heirs. The morning after my father declared I would eventually inherit the duchy, Laura committed suicide.
After what’d happened, my father made Liu Liu his legal wife, but she left his estate in the end and settled in an old castle that belonged to my father. She’d brought along a small retinue and started trading with Ypsandros with the help of her former entertainer friends. She only ever returned to the Ducal Castle of Granado for important events the duchess couldn’t afford to miss, as if to show she was nothing but a concubine.
That was the history of my family in a nutshell.
To be honest, I too found the ducal castle stifling. I’d never had a proper relationship with my father, so it simply felt like a stranger’s house. I also detested high society gatherings. I usually found excuses not to attend them, and, so far, I’d done everything in my power to dodge marriage talks as well.
I hated it all—and worse yet, it scared me. The more I thought about loving someone, being loved, marrying, and fathering children, the more it terrified me. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t need love. And yet, I couldn’t afford not to take a wife.
I opened the invitation in my hand and read its contents. The family’s second daughter, Marie Chandelan, was turning eighteen. As far as I knew, the Chandelans were close to bankruptcy, and their rank was low.
I guess she’ll do. If I had to marry a useless, prideful noble girl, I figured I might as well pick one that would be easy to keep in line.
And so, I went to Marie Chandelan’s birthday party with that logic in mind. However, before I got to see the star of the party, I met her in the garden.
I couldn’t have praised the gloss of her unkempt red hair or the smoothness of her skin even as flattery. She was clad in an ashen, old-fashioned dress made of cotton, and she was curled up on herself like an old woman. What is wrong with her? was my first thought. What kind of person crouched in the courtyard dressed like that on the night of a party? Even for a servant, her behavior was suspicious to say the least. Still, I asked her for directions.
The second she looked up at me, however, her expression shifted.
“Are you from the Republic of Ypsandros?” she asked.