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Chapter 1
“My Lady. His Grace the Duke has returned.”
It was late at night, when darkness had swallowed the entire world.
Those short, ordinary words dragged me straight into hell.
Just like every other day, my husband had returned only after every light in the streets had gone out.
And there I sat, dressed in a plain white gown, absentmindedly waiting in a room that wasn’t even our marital bedroom.
How much longer do I have to endure this living hell?
As my vacant gaze drifted into space, the question surfaced once again.
How much longer?
And more importantly…
Why?
No one could answer.
Just as those unanswered questions began filling my mind, a commotion erupted outside.
“Eloise! Eloise Mason!”
“…I think you should go out, My Lady.”
Nelly, the maid who had come to fetch me, had turned deathly pale.
These days, my husband no longer called me by my married name.
He always called me by my maiden name instead—as though I were no longer his wife.
That alone was enough to terrify not only me but everyone in the mansion.
It was no surprise that such a young maid trembled in fear.
Especially because…
He was always the most violent when he was like this.
“I understand, Nelly. I’ll go. You stay here and return to your room.”
“M-My Lady… should I call the knights?”
She looked at me with shaking eyes.
I didn’t need to ask to know what filled them.
Pity.
It wasn’t anything new.
The servants of the estate had pitied me for a long time.
Poor mistress.
Pitiful mistress.
The mistress whose only crime is being beautiful.
The laundry maids, the gardeners, the stable hands…
Every servant whispered the same thing behind my back.
If there was any reason my husband despised me, it was because I was beautiful.
My beauty had enchanted him.
And now that same beauty made him suspect my chastity.
Even though every one of them knew the truth.
The only thing I did all day was quietly exist without drawing anyone’s attention.
I met no visitors.
I rarely left the estate.
I simply lived in silence.
Yet every night, their master drowned himself in alcohol because of my face.
They sympathized with the woman forced to endure everything simply because she was beautiful.
But none of them ever tried to stop the man who tormented me night after night.
Instead, they hid behind me, afraid that his anger might turn toward them.
In a mansion full of people like that…
I smiled softly at the young maid who had gathered the courage to offer me help.
Calling the knights might free me from him for a little while.
But the result would always be the same.
Unless one of us died…
There was no escape from this meaningless cycle.
I quietly rose to my feet.
“Tell His Grace I’ll meet him in the bedroom. I’ll be there shortly.”
“M-My Lady…”
“Thank you for worrying about me, Nelly.”
But…
It’s alright.
Repeating the words that had become second nature to me, I left the room.
To meet the husband who no longer loved me.
* * *
There was a time.
Yes…
There truly had been a time when we envied no one.
A time when we embraced each other, talked about little things every day, and were happy simply because we were together.
A time when, after enduring countless hardships, happiness had finally come like gentle rain after a drought.
A happiness so overwhelming that nothing else in the world mattered.
Because we had found each other only after suffering so much, we cherished one another deeply.
Each of us wanted to give more.
Receive more.
Love more.
They were the happiest days of my life.
Our love captivated the entire Empire.
Our wedding was so magnificent that people called it the wedding of the century.
Surrounded by countless blessings from those who attended, we believed we had found our happily ever after.
But…
The cracks in our marriage appeared where neither of us expected.
The Fontaine family stood at the center of the Empire.
Among the Five Great Noble Houses, they possessed the greatest power.
A man blessed with noble birth, immense wealth, and unmatched beauty.
The Empire’s most eligible bachelor.
And yet…
A country girl from the distant northern frontier had stolen him away.
How could society possibly accept that?
I rarely attended social gatherings without my husband.
Even so…
The eyes of high society were anything but kind.
Curiosity became envy.
Envy became malice.
And malice became rumors.
“She was infamous in the North.”
“She seduced the Duke with her skills in bed.”
“Apparently there isn’t a man in the Empire she hasn’t slept with.”
The stories spread across the nation.
Each retelling grew crueler than the last.
Soon I was called…
The Empire’s Whore.
The Greatest Villainess.
The Witch from the North.
There were even men who secretly approached me, asking if I would teach them the bedroom techniques I supposedly possessed.
Back then…
I could still endure it.
Both my husband and I dismissed it with bitter laughter.
People are truly awful.
That was all.
He loved me.
And I loved him.
I believed that single word—
love
—was enough to render every rumor meaningless.
But neither the Crown Prince…
Nor my father…
Had any intention of letting things end there.
The Crown Prince repeatedly summoned me to the Imperial Palace using the Princess as an excuse.
At the same time, he constantly sent the Princess to my husband.
Little by little…
Poisonous whispers spread.
Rumors claiming that I was secretly involved with the Crown Prince.
Eventually…
Society gave me a new title.
The Crown Prince’s mistress.
And with that…
The once-proud name of Fontaine finally began to crumble.
“…What did the Crown Prince promise you?”
“…What?”
“Or perhaps…”
“…did you make some kind of deal with Count Mason?”
“Ash… Ard… what are you talking about…?”
“…I honestly don’t know why you’re by my side anymore.”
It happened so quickly.
In an instant…
The trust my husband had always placed in me collapsed.
Perhaps it was because the man involved was the Crown Prince.
The same Crown Prince who mocked him at every opportunity.
Or perhaps…
The rumors were simply too detailed.
Too believable.
My husband—who had always comforted me no matter what people said—began distancing himself from me.
He still loved me.
But alongside that love…
A growing sense of betrayal took root.
Meanwhile, I…
The woman who believed petty rumors could never affect our marriage…
Gradually fell silent.
His returns home grew later.
Every time we met, resentment filled his words.
He grew thinner.
I slowly lost the light in my eyes.
Unlike fairy tales that end with…
“And they lived happily ever after.”
Our ending was miserable.
Life was never a fairy tale.
Least of all mine.
And despite everything…
I still couldn’t let him go.
The one who finally pushed me to give up…
Was none other than…
My own father.
* * *
“Isn’t it about time you returned to His Highness the Crown Prince?”
Those were the first words my father spoke after visiting my home for the first time in a very, very long while.
He had asked for everyone else to leave, so I assumed he had something important to discuss.
Yet despite living in the capital all this time…
He had never visited his married daughter.
Nor my younger sister.
Instead, he remained constantly by the Crown Prince’s side.
And the first thing he said to his married daughter was…
“You should return to the Crown Prince.”
The moment I heard those words…
It felt as though lightning struck my mind.
I realized the truth.
But I desperately wished I was wrong.
Clasping my trembling hands together, I looked at him.
“…Father… surely you’re not saying…”
“Didn’t I tell you long ago? His Highness desires you. It is only proper that you obey.”
He spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Without the slightest concern for how shocked I was.
At that moment…
I understood.
My father had been behind everything.
My bloodless lips trembled as I forced the words out.
“Everything…”
“…Everything was your doing?”
“For something so trivial?”
“Trivial?”
“A noble’s duty is to serve the Imperial Family. That is only natural. It is also for the good of our house. I’ve told you this many times.”
“So for something like that…”
“You slandered your own daughter?”
“You fabricated such monstrous lies?”
“That was the reason I brought you from the North to the capital in the first place.”
“I told you then that His Highness wished to see you.”
“…Ha.”
My father remained completely calm.
As though nothing he had done was wrong.
The Crown Prince wanted me.
Our family had to serve the Imperial Family.
Doing so would benefit our house.
Therefore…
Everything that had happened was perfectly reasonable.
He didn’t care how deeply his daughter had been hurt.
He didn’t care how much our family’s reputation had suffered.
The only thing that mattered to him…
Was loyalty to the Imperial Family.
That was why we had abandoned the cold northern lands and settled in the capital.
The man who had abandoned Mother and me his entire life…
Living only as the Imperial Family’s loyal hound…
Believed all of this was only natural.
“Now that matters have come this far, it won’t take long for the Duke of Fontaine to divorce you.”
“His Highness has prepared everything for you.”
“If you make your preparations immediately, then as soon as tomorrow—”
“Derrick! Derrick!”
I couldn’t listen anymore.
It wasn’t just his words.
I couldn’t bear to face the man who called himself my father.
The moment I screamed for the butler, Derrick hurried into the drawing room.
“My Lady! Are you alright?”
“T-That man…”
“Throw him out!”
“Immediately!”
“Eloise!”
As I cried out in despair, Derrick looked back and forth between Father and me in confusion.
I couldn’t bear to remain in the same room as him.
I couldn’t bear the realization that I had respected someone like him as my father for all these years.
Every doubt I had ever buried simply because he was my father…
Now returned all at once.
“Throw him out!”
“And never let him set foot in this house again!”
“Eloise! I am your father!”
“How dare you—!”
As I nearly screamed, Derrick shouted toward the hallway.
Moments later, several servants rushed into the room.
Ignoring Father’s protests, they forcibly dragged him away.
Holding my pounding head, my blurred vision watched as the man once hailed as the Empire’s greatest commander was hauled out against his will.
Even amid the unbearable pain…
One sentence reached my ears with perfect clarity.
“His Highness will never give up, Eloise!”
“Come to your senses and—!”
Bang.
The door slammed shut.
Silence fell over the room.
“My Lady!”
As my consciousness slowly faded…
Only one memory remained.
“Rose.”
My husband’s smiling face…
A smile that had already become little more than a distant memory.
