Chapter 1: The Autumn I Took a Swing but Kept My Virtue as a Noble
MY name is Misha von Ritual. I was born the daughter of a viscount and raised in a nation of snow. My fiancé, Rudolph, was a kind and gentle man, the innocent type who knew not of impurity. He had immigrated to the Lawlife lands, thick with snow, and he never quite adapted to the cold weather. He’d often be in bed half the month, but I truly believed I simply needed to work harder than ever in his stead.
I studied magic and made potions, hoping to improve his condition, even a little. I even made extra potions and sold them every day in the royal capital’s pharmacies to save up extra cash for our marriage. Just as I was about to reach my monetary goal, he brazenly approached me one day with my cousin, Lizzy, in tow and made a crazy announcement.
“So, yeah…” Rudolph muttered. “I’m sorry, Misha…”
“Rudolph, I fear that I couldn’t quite understand you,” I replied. “Could you say it again, this time in a way that’s easier to digest?”
He endearingly wrapped an arm around Lizzy’s shoulders as he repeated himself. “Lizzy is pregnant with our child.”
So, I wasn’t hearing things, I thought. He and Lizzy had a secret relationship that resulted in a child.
“Her belly isn’t showing yet, but I’m sure she’ll give birth to a healthy child,” he said. “And I want to raise that child as my own.”
Everything I believed in—my entire world—came crashing down on me with a deafening rumble. I worked myself tirelessly to the bone for his sake, and this was how I was being repaid. I couldn’t understand it.
“So, what?” I asked. “You want to cancel our engagement, then?”
“Of course not,” Rudolph replied, making me almost doubt the words that left his lips. “I still love you from the bottom of my heart as well.”
I’d never heard a less romantic confession of love before. What in the world is he saying? I stood there stupefied until he made another insane suggestion.
“Misha, I’ve got a request,” Rudolph said. “I want you to become my second wife.”
As he confessed and begged me to stay on as his second wife, it felt like a bolt of lightning had struck my head. At once, memories from my past life flooded back to me. In that life, I was born in Japan and raised in an average household. After graduating from college, I joined a major company and met a man through work. We fell in love and got engaged, but just as we were about to host our wedding, my fiancé made a crazy suggestion.
“Sorry, but I impregnated a girl at my company,” he told me. “And I want to take responsibility for that.”
“I can’t believe you!” I snapped. “Our wedding’s soon, and now you want to break up with me?!”
“No, I don’t want to break up with you. Will you be my second partner? I hear that polyamory is all the rage these days.”
My rage bubbled up like lava. Yes, now I remember! In my previous life, after my fiancé cheated on me and audaciously asked me to be his second partner, his mistress, a side piece, I snapped. I exploded with rage and told him he was selfish and insane before I called our engagement off and stormed out.
I couldn’t recall much of what happened after. I engrossed myself in work to forget my bitter experience and often worked overtime until past midnight, even though it wasn’t necessary. I staggered home, exhausted, before I misstepped and fell into a ditch. Covered in mud and dirt, I died.
After my pitiful end in Japan, I was reborn as the daughter of Viscount Ritual, who possessed a snowy fief, only to face the same fate. A second wife was practically a secondary partner; I trembled with rage.
Raised to act with grace and elegance as a member of the nobility, etiquette was hammered into me. Since I was a young child, my teachers tirelessly reminded me how unseemly and crass it was to become emotional or lose control of myself, and I’d been taught to act like a demure lady. I managed to hold myself back, but Rudolph prattled on, his insanity knowing no bounds.
“When she gives birth to our child, I’ll make sure that they’re raised to be a splendid future Viscount Ritual,” he assured. “I’ll do my best to make that happen.”
“What in the world are you on about?” I snapped back.
In this world, women could inherit titles as well. However, I’d never heard of a case where a bastard child born to a man who cheated on his wife took over the title.
“You told me that you weren’t confident that you had the energy or health to create a child,” I accused. “And yet, you have a child with Lizzy? How did that happen?”
Rudolph, a devout worshipper, regularly attended the Holy Church. He often said that making a child was an act of defilement. He was frail and possibly lacked the stamina for it, but I accepted him, flaws and all, despite his fear of child-making. Likely because someone had casually cheated on me in my past life. I was more than happy to let my little sister’s child take over the title one day, and I truly believed that we could still be a wonderful family.
I didn’t have my memories of Japan then, but I unconsciously assumed Rudolph wasn’t the type to be blinded by love and let emotions get the best of him. Yet, he betrayed me as easily as he breathed.
Until now, I had done my utmost to become the head of House Ritual one day. We weren’t the wealthiest family, so I worked hard to ease my parents’ financial burden, and Rudolph trained under my father to become my assistant one day. Never would I have imagined this outcome. Rage swirled within me, refusing to be quelled, while Rudolph seemed indifferent to my distress as he spoke of his infatuation.
“Lizzy opened my eyes and showed me what true love is!” he gushed, like he was in a trance. “I never knew that the act of child-making was something so splendid!”
Lizzy flashed an angelic, happy smile at her beloved, but when she turned to me, her grin turned malicious and devilish. She made sure to do it discreetly, ensuring that Rudolph wouldn’t notice as she flaunted her triumph.
She had always had a nasty personality, ever since she was a child. She tried to sneak in and melt everyone’s hearts, only to steal the fruits of others’ labor right under their noses. Time and again, she frustrated me as a child, and I wasn’t keen on reliving those memories. I only let out the deepest of sighs.
“Only she poured unconditional love into me!” Rudolph went on passionately.
So my devotion never reached his heart, huh… His obliviousness to my feelings, to my devotion, disappointed me. I made potions to ease his pain, nursed him through sleepless nights, made nutritious dishes for his health, and even paid for his living expenses. But perhaps, to him, it was only natural that I did so much.
Unbelievable. While I worked hard day and night, he secretly fostered a passionate love with Lizzy and even made a child with her! When he’s engaged to me! And now, he’s asking me to be his second wife and keep the engagement?! As if! That’s insane enough, but then he goes on to insist that their child will be the heir to my house! I’d had enough of his stupidity—any more, and I felt like I’d go crazy. Rudolph, however, not knowing when to stop, delivered the final, emotional blow.