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CHAPTER 09
Of course, anything made by those rude people wasn’t worth more than a stone kicked on the roadside.
If it had been Kaiyen, he would’ve torn off everything she wore and thrown it away without a second thought.
But Etisha was different.
She truly, genuinely, looked good in them.
“Thank you, Duke. Thanks to you, I received clothes, jewelry, and shoes. I’ve never had anything this beautiful before.”
“…”
“…Duke?”
Kaiyen, his expression stiff, gave a slight nod.
“It’s nothing.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. It suits you very well, Lady Etisha.”
Perhaps feeling his short response was insufficient, Kaiyen added a few more words:
“Once we arrive in the North, I’ll summon another designer immediately.”
“Pardon?”
“Until then, please endure it for just a little while.”
Etisha blinked.
‘Does that mean… it doesn’t suit me? He doesn’t like it…?’
But Kaiyen didn’t give her time to think. He turned and headed upstairs.
“Then, we must now go to the imperial palace for the Foundation Day banquet. Please head to the carriage first. I’ll follow shortly.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Etisha watched his receding figure for a moment before quietly heading toward the carriage.
* * *
The second day of the Foundation Festival.
The palace banquet hall was packed with people.
The nobles, squeezed shoulder to shoulder, kept glancing toward the entrance, whispering among themselves.
“There was quite a commotion yesterday, wasn’t there?”
“You mean Lady Heinz? I heard. My daughter told me about it.”
“Who would’ve thought such a thing would happen on the first day? Had I known, I would’ve attended from the beginning.”
“Haha, indeed.”
Everyone was buzzing about Etisha Heinz.
Because regardless of what anyone said, she was the undisputed main character of this year’s Foundation Festival.
‘Is Lady Etisha really going to become the Duchess of Wintel?’
There was no formal engagement or public confirmation—just a sudden marriage declaration. Naturally, speculation and doubt were rampant.
‘That Etisha… marrying that Duke Kaiyen?’
The Duke of Wintel was like a towering cliff—too high to even look up to, let alone climb.
And yet, Etisha Heinz of all people had scaled it?
‘Spineless, timid, not even that pretty, with a terrible reputation… the most unimpressive young lady around.’
The nobles who had only ever seen Etisha being dragged around by Larienne couldn’t help but be baffled.
‘Why her?’
Curiosity bubbled like boiling water.
All eyes eagerly awaited the arrival of the people who could resolve their questions.
Just then, the banquet doors opened with the blare of trumpets.
“Baron Veron Heinz has arrived!”
Baron Heinz.
Instantly, all eyes turned to him. He was, after all, her father—he had to know what was going on.
The nobles, putting on their best manners, welcomed him.
“Congratulations, Baron. I hear there’s good news in your household.”
“Truly enviable. Your daughter becoming a duchess! As a father, you must be overjoyed.”
“Lady Etisha’s future is bright indeed—and with it, the future of House Heinz.”
Despite the smiles and congratulations, their eyes were scanning everything.
‘Yesterday, Lady Larienne seemed completely unaware of the marriage news. She looked utterly blindsided.’
So what about Baron Heinz?
Then, the baron opened his mouth, smiling humbly.
“Haha, yes indeed. It seems Etisha somehow caught the Duke’s fancy.”
“Then, you’re saying…”
“The Duke cherishes my daughter deeply. It seems he’s completely fallen under love’s spell. Well… even the Duke of the North is still a young man. Love can strike at any time, no?”
Without hesitation, he spun lies from his lips.
Baron Heinz had already calculated everything: he was ready to send Etisha off to House Wintel for good.
“If you ask me, it was love at first sight. They’re utterly inseparable.”
His greedy eyes gleamed as he continued spinning the tale.
“That ruthless Duke Kaiyen… in love?”
“My goodness. I had no idea…”
“He kept it well hidden. You know how our eldest daughter can be—so immature. She was jealous of her younger sister, so we decided to keep the engagement secret.”
“Ah, so that’s why Lady Larienne looked so clueless yesterday…”
Watching the situation unfold exactly as he wanted, Baron Heinz smirked behind tightly pressed lips.
He’d only tossed out the bait. To catch the big fish, he needed even more careful planning.
“Ahem…”
Baron Heinz stroked his beard and lowered his voice conspiratorially, like he was about to reveal a secret.
“Actually, there’s one thing that’s been weighing on me…”
He put on a worried face, barely restraining a grin, and let out a dramatic sigh.
The nobles took the bait like a swarm of hungry fish.
“Oh? What concern could you have?”
“With everything going so well, what could possibly trouble you?”
The baron sighed heavily, slumping his shoulders, then shook his head like a man facing a tough dilemma.
“Well, you see… Duke Kaiyen…”
“Yes?”
“He said he wouldn’t accept a single coin of Etisha’s dowry…”
The hall erupted in gasps.
“W-What? No dowry?! That’s unheard of!”
“Though… the marriage announcement yesterday was also unprecedented…”
“Still, isn’t that going too far? No dowry at all?”
The nobles were thrown into chaos, each voicing their own opinions, while Baron Heinz fanned the flames.
“Love is like that, isn’t it? I can’t claim to understand the Duke completely, but I suppose he believes love isn’t something money can buy.”
“Heavens. That Duke Kaiyen…”
“The man known as the Monster of the Battlefield? The one who leaves nothing but corpses in his wake?”
The idea of the fearsome Duke of Wintel becoming a hopeless romantic was hard to swallow.
And yet… not entirely impossible.
“Now that I think of it, the Duke was quite protective of Lady Etisha yesterday.”
“Yes, I saw it too. And House Wintel doesn’t exactly need to worry about dowries…”
“True enough. All of the North’s wealth lies in Wintel’s hands—what’s a dowry to them?”
Duke Kaiyen Wintel was, in fact, the wealthiest man in the Ignivan Empire.
Unlike the fragmented southern and central regions, the North was entirely under House Wintel’s control.
So their wealth far exceeded that of other noble houses—rumors even claimed they were richer than the royal family.
“You know, there was a rumor that the Duke had a secret lover. Could that have been Lady Etisha?”
“Ah, yes! I remember hearing that. Perhaps the Duke is more of a romantic than we thought.”
And just like that, the nobles came to believe it: Kaiyen Wintel was madly in love with Etisha Heinz.
‘Everything is going perfectly.’
Baron Heinz suppressed a laugh, twisting his mustache smugly.
“Haha. But still, I can’t just let my daughter marry without sending any dowry at all. I’d like to contribute somehow, but the Duke is so firm in his stance…”
“Let it be, Baron Heinz. If that’s what the Duke wants, there’s nothing you can do.”
“Indeed. Just put together a small token gesture. No need to offend him over something so trivial.”
‘Perfect. Just perfect.’
Baron Heinz clenched his fist. His eyes gleamed with greed. Now that public opinion was in his favor, all that remained was to meet Kaiyen one-on-one and negotiate.
‘No matter how powerful the Duke is, he can’t back out now. With rumors spreading like wildfire, if he suddenly asks for a dowry, he’ll look like a greedy scoundrel.’
He already had the next step planned.
‘Instead of a dowry, I’ll offer to invest that money in northern trade. That way, I can enter Wintel’s northern business without paying a single coin.’
Baron Heinz was certain that once he gained access to the North, there was no way he could fail.
Now that Etisha was “Wintel,” he was counting on the value of her name.
‘Keh… Excellent. Truly excellent!’
This was a real scheme. Baron Veron Heinz looked at the scene he had orchestrated with complete satisfaction.
And just then—
The banquet doors opened again, and the trumpets blared majestically.
“Duke Kaiyen Wintel and Lady Etisha Heinz are entering!”
Dead silence.
Despite the hall being full of people, no one made a sound. It was as if time itself had frozen.
“…”
Someone dropped a wine glass. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the hall—but no one turned to look.
Everyone’s eyes were locked on Duke Kaiyen and Etisha walking in by his side.
“L-Lady Etisha Heinz…?”
At first, no one recognized her. Because the woman entering was nothing like the Etisha they had known.
She was not the timid, unimpressive young lady they once dismissed.
“W-What in the world…”
Magical energy radiated from every inch of her body.
More precisely, from everything she wore.
All the nobles had the same thought:
‘What kind of commission would you have to make to produce those kinds of items?’
Wintel, of course.
If you added up the cost of what Etisha was wearing, it could easily exceed a small country’s annual budget.
‘So the rumors were true… Duke Kaiyen is in love…’
There was no other explanation for why she looked this magnificent tonight.
“Ohhh, Etisha!”
Suddenly, the sound of clapping echoed through the hall.
Baron Heinz strode toward Kaiyen and Etisha, clapping and beaming with joy.
