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Chapter 2
The Saxen County, which represented the emerging nobility, had originally been an insignificant provincial noble family that could barely set foot in the capital.
Had the former Duke still been alive and well, Jack Saxen, no matter how high-ranking he was as the young lord of the family, would never even have been worthy of being Grace Taylor’s conversation partner.
But now, backed by the powerful position of being the maternal family of the current Empress, the Saxen family had flourished to such an extent that people said even a bird in flight could be brought down by them.
Inside the finest guest room of Taylor Castle, maid Jessie lay sprawled across the floor, which was littered with shattered wine bottles and glasses.
Jack Saxen crouched down in front of Jessie and grinned.
“No, I only asked you to sit next to me for a bit. Is that really so difficult?”
After drinking all day, his speech was hopelessly slurred, and even his crouching body swayed unsteadily from side to side.
The servants of the Saxen family who had been attending the young lord quietly slipped away, while the young Duke of Taylor, who had been drinking with him, had been carried off to his bedroom completely unconscious.
The Duke and Duchess of Taylor, as well as the Count and Countess of Saxen, had deliberately stayed away as well. There was nothing to be gained by witnessing such an ugly scene themselves.
In the end, only the powerless maids and servants of the Taylor family remained.
An elderly servant knelt beside Jessie and pleaded.
“Young Lord, I’m sorry. Please, calm your anger…”
Before the servant could finish speaking, his face was violently slapped to the side.
But apparently that single blow was not enough to satisfy Jack Saxen. He slapped him across the face once more and shouted.
“How dare a mere servant speak to me without permission?!!!”
“I’m sorry.”
The servant immediately lowered his head.
Even so, the young lord’s anger did not subside easily.
Jack Saxen slowly exhaled, then picked up one of the wine glasses carelessly left on the table.
He tilted it over the bowed servant’s head.
Golden liquor trickled down the back of the servant’s head.
At the humiliating sight, some of the onlookers clenched their fists tightly and glared, while others turned their heads because they could not bear to watch.
Jessie, who was still lying on the floor, clenched both fists.
Her eyes trembled fiercely.
Then a voice filled with mockery came from above her.
“You lot are just like this wine glass, you know. You only need to do what your master tells you. Don’t you dare think for yourselves, speak whenever you please, or do anything like that.”
Jack Saxen roughly grabbed Jessie by the back of the neck and yanked her upright.
“You understand?”
That was when it happened.
Without warning, the firmly closed door flew open.
The young lord, who had been dragging Jessie toward the sofa, stopped abruptly and turned his head toward the doorway.
A woman wearing a pale green dress stood there.
Grace took a short breath and quickly surveyed the room.
At her appearance, the expressions of the Taylor family’s servants brightened, only to darken again almost immediately.
The servant standing by the door glared at the maid who had brought Grace there.
How could you bring Lady Grace to a place like this?!
Meanwhile, Grace glanced briefly at the servant and Jessie lying on the floor before turning her gaze toward Jack Saxen.
“Jack Saxen.”
Her voice was quiet yet dignified.
Jack Saxen felt as though the effects of the alcohol had suddenly evaporated.
His drunken, blurred eyes quickly traveled over every part of Grace’s refined face.
Even with his head spinning and the world hazy around him, he could tell that the woman who had suddenly appeared was extraordinarily beautiful.
Jack Saxen released Jessie’s neck as though bewitched.
The world was still swaying around him, but he stared only at Grace’s face.
Grace Taylor was a very different kind of beauty from the women of the capital, who wore their long black hair seductively down their backs and painted their lips a vivid red.
Her rare golden hair was so luxuriant that it looked as though pure gold had been drawn out strand by strand into fine threads.
Set against her pale face were clear, light-green eyes.
“She’s worth the money…”
Those were the first words the young lord spoke upon seeing Grace.
Jessie bit her lip until it bled, while everyone else’s expressions hardened.
Only one person remained calm.
Grace.
“It’s late.”
Her voice remained composed.
“You should rest now.”
Jack Saxen grinned.
Even her voice was exactly to his taste.
He had secretly been furious at this arrogant bride who had not shown so much as the tip of her nose despite the man who was supposed to become her husband arriving at her home.
But now, as though he had never been angry at all, the young lord smiled lecherously.
“If my future bride pours me a glass of wine, I think I could stop here.”
“……”
Grace let out a short sigh and looked around the room again.
She quickly took stock of the servants gathered there before quietly giving them an order.
“Everyone, go outside for a moment.”
At her command, the young lord’s smile deepened.
The servants, however, widened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Lady Grace…!”
Jessie called out to Grace in a voice barely loud enough to hear, but Grace did not retract her order.
She merely stood there with her hands neatly clasped together, staring calmly at the servants.
Jack Saxen put his hands into his pockets and shouted at the hesitant servants.
“What are you all doing?! Didn’t the Lady tell you to leave?!”
In the end, the servants had no choice but to leave the room, despite their unease.
The moment they closed the door behind them, Jack Saxen approached Grace closely, like a jackal about to pounce on its prey.
He gently wound a strand of her hair around his finger and whispered,
“So the Taylor family does have its uses after all.”
In truth, Jack Saxen had not liked this marriage.
As the nephew of Her Majesty the Empress, there was no woman he could not have.
Besides, wasn’t Grace Taylor a woman who had never once appeared in the capital’s social circles, choosing instead to remain shut away in her territory?
He had assumed she must be terribly plain and hopelessly provincial.
But he had been wrong.
Her luxuriant golden hair was so magnificent that it needed no jewelry at all, and her pale face was as pure and delicate as a lily.
The satisfaction of having his long-standing tastes completely shattered in an instant was intoxicating.
Jack Saxen reached out as though to stroke Grace’s hair.
He would have—
Had a calm voice not interrupted him.
“You’re worth the money too.”
“…What?”
At first, he thought he had heard her wrong.
Jack Saxen tilted his head in confusion and asked again.
But Grace smoothly pulled her hair free from his grasp and took a step back.
Her movement was fluid and graceful, so perfect that it seemed to embody the very essence of aristocratic etiquette.
Her expression, too, was the epitome of an elegant highborn lady.
The contrast between her demeanor and her words made Jack Saxen briefly wonder whether he had imagined hearing them.
But as though to mock that very thought, Grace opened her mouth again.
“I wondered how much of a disgrace you must have become, despite being the nephew of the Empress, for the Count’s family to agree to forgive all of Taylor’s enormous debts without even asking for a dowry.”
She smiled faintly.
“Now I see. It makes perfect sense.”
The young lord’s expression instantly turned vicious.
“Has this bitch gone mad…?!”
Just as was common with drunkards, his violent temper erupted without warning.
Jack Saxen reached out roughly, intending to grab Grace by the hair.
But Grace was faster.
He grasped at empty air, and, unable to overcome his drunkenness, stumbled and fell heavily to the floor.
Meanwhile, Grace selected the thickest and sturdiest bottle among the many wine bottles rolling across the table and picked it up.
“Damn it…!”
As Jack Saxen spat out a curse, a shadow suddenly fell over his head.
“……?”
He narrowed his eyes and slowly looked up.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
“W-What are you doing?”
Grace Taylor stood straight and elegant, looking down at him.
In one hand, she firmly held a large wine bottle.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to hit me with that?!”
It was an absurd situation.
Yet the coldness in her eyes, her tightly pressed lips, and the way she held the wine bottle as though she could swing it at any moment caused Jack Saxen’s gaze to tremble violently.
“They say you can’t remember anything the morning after drinking, don’t they?”
“…N-No, that’s not true! I remember everything!”
What are you trying to do?!
The terrified young lord shouted desperately.
Grace merely smiled.
Then she whispered toward him in a soft and elegant voice.
“If you scream, two hits.”
The hand holding the wine bottle rose high into the air.
Even that movement somehow looked aristocratic.
Grace quietly whispered,
“Clench your teeth.”
Her smile deepened ever so slightly.
“Otherwise, you’ll bite your tongue.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Meanwhile, the servants and maids, completely unaware of what was happening inside the room, anxiously shuffled their feet.
“How could you bring Lady Grace here?!”
“But… there was no one else around… Sob…”
“She’s supposed to marry that man tomorrow. What are we going to do about our Lady?”
Someone’s tearful voice trembled through the dark corridor.
Then, as if on cue, the door opened.
Everyone who had been anxiously pacing the hallway turned toward it at once.
Grace Taylor stepped out of the room.
Seeing the worried faces gathered outside, she smiled brightly.
“Lady Grace!”
Grace carefully closed the door behind her before speaking to the oldest servant.
It was the very same servant who had been slapped by Jack Saxen.
“The young lord of Saxen has fallen asleep. Tell the servants from the Count’s family to come and clean up.”
“He fell asleep? Just like that?”
“Yes. He suddenly collapsed and passed out.”
“…Pardon? Ah, yes!”
The servant answered with a bewildered expression.
Grace calmly began walking down the corridor.
The servants immediately moved aside, and Grace followed the path they had opened for her.
The lanterns hanging along the corridor flickered in long, wavering shadows.
One maid stared at Lady Grace’s straight back as she walked away, then finally could not hold herself back.
“Lady Grace!”
Grace turned around.
“…Are you all right?”
Worry was evident in the eyes of so many people.
From the day she had lost her parents all those years ago, the concern and care in their eyes had protected and raised Grace.
Even when John and Emma, who had taken possession of the ducal family, mistreated her, the servants had always kept Grace’s room warm, gently stroked the girl’s back, and made sure she was given soft, nourishing food.
Our Lady, say ah~!
Look at these flowers, Lady Grace!
Everyone in the Taylor territory had been her parents, her siblings, and her family.
Without them, there would be no Grace Taylor as she was now.
Grace smiled brightly in the darkness.
“Thank you. For everything.”
“…Lady Grace…”
“Just wait a little longer.”
The servants blinked, unable to understand the meaning behind her calm words.
Grace turned away from them.
Then she stepped forward, walking into the thick darkness stretching endlessly ahead.
Swallowing the words that remained unspoken.
Until I come back.
