🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2
My terrified heart thudded violently. I, who had never cried even when slapped, now had tears streaming down my face.
The Marquis saw my expression and instantly wiped away his cold look, pulling me into a tight embrace.
So tightly that I could not struggle at all.
“Do you know how worried I was when I heard you were missing? I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Uh… huu…”
No words came out—only sobs.
The doctor standing behind the Marquis looked at me with a pitying expression and tried to comfort me.
“Oh my. It seems the young lady is very upset. Would you like another cup of cocoa? Or perhaps a doll?”
I slapped the doctor’s hand away as he approached with a teddy bear.
Upset?
The nerve of the one who had promised to bring my mother but instead brought the Marquis! And it was the Marquis who hit me—I had made that very clear!
I wasn’t sad; I was furious and despairing at being dragged back to the Marquis. My tears came from the pain of his strong grip on my torso.
But no one cared about my feelings. The Marquis and the doctor shook hands with laughter.
“Thank you for contacting me. I’ll make sure to reward you.”
“No, it’s nothing. It’s only natural to report when a young lady is wandering about alone.”
“Eleanor has never accepted that she has no mother and often throws tantrums like this. Could you spread the word among others? Whoever finds the girl will be handsomely rewarded, just like you.”
Those words meant that everyone in the city would now act as my overseers.
I was choking.
No one would believe me now. They’d think it was just the whim of a child missing her mother.
Everyone’s concern was gone, replaced by delight at the reward—just like this doctor.
I trembled with despair.
“Of course. I will do as you say. Ah, but young lady, your cheek is quite swollen…”
“She fought with her friends. She’s quite the tomboy.”
The Marquis lied casually.
“Ha ha. Earlier, you said she went to the guards to look for her mother. What a brave young lady you have.”
The fully deceived doctor revealed all of my plans, which the Marquis hadn’t even asked about. Thanks to that, he received a generous reward, and I had to stay trapped in my room for a whole week.
Because of the Marquis’s impeccable image and cunning excuses, no one suspected he was abusing me.
After a period of helplessness, I resolved to change my mindset.
“I’ll find a way out of here somehow. The Marquis is a liar. And… maybe my mother didn’t abandon me after all.”
With a small hope, I repeatedly tried running away, but every attempt failed.
Every time I tried, the Marquis found a way to drag me back to the mansion.
“Why?”
Despising and loathing me so intensely… wouldn’t it be better if I simply disappeared?
No one was there to answer me.
The only way for me, forcibly held by the Ramirez family, to leave the estate was clear.
“Marriage.”
Then I could officially and safely leave the Marquis family.
However, thanks to my stormy adolescence, my reputation had already sunk beyond recovery.
“Red Witch!”
“Watch out, or she’ll ruin you!”
Not wrong.
I had thrown tantrums at parties, overturned tables, even broken windows.
But to marry, I couldn’t have the reputation of a witch. Since deciding to marry, I acted like a proper young lady.
“What has Miss Ramirez been doing lately? I haven’t heard any news and was curious,” asked a haughty young viscountess. I scoffed inwardly.
News? Everyone knew I had been caught by the city guards after my 100th failed runaway attempt.
And “Miss Ramirez”?
A young viscountess of lower rank had no right to use that title for me.
I would have blown up before, but now I smiled demurely to maintain my lady-like image.
“It’s embarrassing, but I’m currently looking for a husband. Ever since I was a child, I’ve dreamed of a happy family.”
“Oh my! How surprising. But… is there anyone who could marry Miss Ramirez?”
“What do you mean?”
I snapped, unable to hide my temper, and the young lady waved her hands.
“Oh, don’t misunderstand. Miss Ramirez just turned twenty. You’re technically an adult, but too young to marry. I was worried—what if you suddenly dislike your husband and run away? It would disgrace the Ramirez name. Ha ha.”
I gritted my teeth.
“There’s no such risk. Please spread the word that the youngest daughter of the Ramirez family is seeking a marriage match.”
I publicly declared my intention to marry, yet no proposals came.
Not a single one in an entire year!
Even if I were illegitimate, at least one or two proposals should have come for the sake of connecting with the Ramirez family.
“Is the Marquis deliberately blocking them?”
A reasonable suspicion. After my public declaration, I was forbidden from leaving the mansion, not a single step outside.
The Marquis looked down at me from his quarters, suggesting I give up.
“No matter what you do, you cannot escape my grasp. Still, if you insist on marrying… I suppose Baron Campbell would be acceptable.”
One of the Ramirez retainers, a businessman over forty, who was quite successful.
“Marry that guy?”
I pretended to be ill to avoid meeting him, shivering under the covers.
If the Marquis wished, he could drag me out and force me to marry immediately.
Divorces among nobles required family agreement, and he would never permit one. Marrying Baron Campbell would mean I would remain forever under the Marquis’s control.
“This is the end if things continue like this!”
But just as I was wracking my brain for a solution, a marriage proposal arrived—directly from Grand Duke Killian Hart.
“…Is he insane?”
Either I was insane, or the Grand Duke was. There was no other possibility.
I stared at the wax seal on the elegant envelope, doubting its authenticity.
If it were truly from the Grand Duke, the Marquis would have intercepted it first, yet it reached me intact. Amazingly, it was genuinely from Killian. Someone had likely assumed it was a prank and left it until it reached me.
“Dear Miss Ramirez,
I imagine you must be quite startled to receive a proposal from me. Please forgive me for sending a letter before appearing in person.”
Startled?
This man, infamous for his pride and arrogance, was so polite in writing?
Even his straightforward, almost awkward phrasing was surprising.
“From the day I first saw you, I could not take my eyes off you. Hearing that you might marry Baron Campbell, I could not sleep.”
He was clearly claiming to have fallen at first sight.
“Did he really write this?”
I first met Killian at sixteen, when I debuted in society, and last saw him at nineteen.
For context, “met” doesn’t mean conversation—it just meant we were in the same place.
“Maybe there’s more to it?”
Although we hadn’t spoken, he had always watched me persistently. Whenever I noticed and looked back, our eyes met. He even intervened to support me when nobles harassed me.
And once…
“Could it be… the Grand Duke really likes me?”
I shook my head, dismissing the thought.
“No. That’s impossible. Who would like someone like me?”
I continued reading.
“I may not be the best husband material, but I am better than Baron Campbell.”
That was true.
A Grand Duke of royal blood, stunningly handsome, and very young—my age, in fact.
“Could I even compare a 40-year-old businessman with only money to him?”
Although Killian was not perfect—there were dangers in the northern frontier, where monsters roamed—the comparison was clear.
In the harsh northern forests beyond the Hart estate, creatures with abnormal speed, strength, and regenerative abilities lurked. Only Killian could handle them.
In other words, in the north, anyone else would die at the hands of monsters.
Die in Ramirez or die to monsters in the north.
“Which is the better fate?”
No need to ponder—both were dangerous.
“A more detailed conversation is best in person. I will stay in my townhouse for the time being, instead of returning north. I would be honored if you would visit me.
—Killian Perrain Hart”
Unlike other great nobles of the empire, Killian had to remain in his territory to manage monsters.
In short, marriage meant I was going north, whether I liked it or not.
“Freedom from Ramirez!”
“…Then, I eagerly await the day we meet.
—Eleanor Ramirez”
I tried to compose a polite reply, covering up the wild antics I had shown at parties.
Before I could send it, the Marquis snatched the letter.
“Ungrateful little brat! Do you think you can run away after all I’ve done for you?”
The Marquis, his gaze freezing like ice, tried to tear both my reply and Killian’s letter.
“Stop, my husband!”
Surprisingly, it was the Marquis’s wife, Caroline, who stopped him.
I looked in disbelief—Caroline despised me just as much as the Marquis.
She tapped my forehead with her index finger.
“Do you intend to carry this troublemaker with you for life?”
Her sharp voice pierced my chest.
“Caroline, that girl—”
“She’s none other than the Grand Duke Hart! Not just a royal, the former crown prince!”
When the previous emperor died young, Killian was only three. His uncle ascended, and years later, Killian became the Hart Grand Duke, not crown prince, and went north.
Still, he remained first in line for the throne.
“There are rumors about Joshua’s health. He is His Majesty’s only child. If anything happens…”
“Mind your words, Caroline!”
“…Ahem. I mean, don’t sell the girl short. Think of the gain in giving her to the Grand Duke.”
From border defense to trade, Killian’s influence extended throughout the empire. Such a man was far too valuable to dismiss.
“…You’re right. Keeping a foot in the Grand Duke’s favor wouldn’t be bad.”
“Exactly!”
Under these intentions, the marriage proceeded smoothly.
Rumors spread that Killian had fallen in love with me at first sight. Even as an illegitimate child with a ruined reputation, people believed it—he was marrying someone so lowly in status.
Throughout the wedding, Killian couldn’t take his eyes off me. So intense and persistent were his looks that even I almost believed it.
“I’ll warn you in advance—I don’t like you.”
Until that first night, that is.
