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Chapter 1
1. EXPOSITION – ⅰ
The obituary arrived almost like an invitation.
Ray Crawford quietly held the high-quality paper bordered in black and read it. A dry laugh escaped his lips.
The slow waltz playing from the gramophone had somehow started to sound like unpleasant noise.
Before receiving this news, his day had been flawless.
The headlines of the morning newspapers delivered to him had said the same.
<Conservative Party Wins 3 Out of 5 By-Election Seats Thanks to Foreign Minister Crawford’s Popularity>
Every newspaper, without exception, was telling him once again that he had been right, as always.
As always, it had been a perfect day. Until this obituary arrived.
No. That was not quite right.
Perhaps “as always” was the wrong phrase. For some time now, his days had no longer been completely perfect.
As he traced back the cause of that change, he slowly closed and opened his eyes.
That woman.
Ever since talks had begun about a forced marriage with a woman he had never even known existed, things like this would occasionally ruin his mood.
This unexpected obituary was also part of that ridiculous affair.
“What are you going to do?”
Agatha Crawford, seated across from him, asked her son.
Her cold blue eyes and the firmly closed lips that followed her question perfectly reflected her personality.
“I should go. Unofficially.”
The answer that came from her son was short and exact, just as she had expected.
“I see….”
As if he had never laughed at all, her son’s face had already returned to calmness.
There was almost no emotion in the hand that quietly set down the obituary, as though it meant little to him.
Even though Agatha knew her son resembled her not only in appearance but also in personality, moments like this still left her speechless.
For the past month, Agatha had tried very hard to remain calm about the sudden arrival of a foreign daughter-in-law into the Crawford estate, but it never ended well.
“Yes, of course. Even if it’s unpleasant, it would only be proper to go….”
In the end, she always found herself adding a comment like that.
Even she, who had pushed this marriage forward herself, sighed from time to time. Yet her son, who had clearly disliked the marriage from the beginning, had remained calm ever since the decision was made.
“I had a bad feeling when they refused to show me their daughter’s face until the wedding day. Honestly, that would have been better. Not only is there a funeral before the wedding, but now you’ll be meeting your fiancée for the first time at that funeral.”
“I don’t think things can get much worse at this point.”
Agatha silently agreed with the light answer that sounded half like a joke and half serious.
No matter how many funerals there were, this marriage could not get any worse.
The marriage itself was already the worst possible thing.
Turning his eyes away from his mother, who clearly looked troubled, Ray looked back down at the obituary.
The deceased was his fiancée’s mother.
Even the name felt completely unfamiliar.
The marriage proposal had appeared only two months ago, and they had not even gone through a proper engagement.
Still, the dowry had already been received, and they were merely at the stage of choosing one date from several proposed ones. Not attending would seem rude.
Whether it was his fiancée or her mother, they were strangers he had never met. But if she had lived another month or two, the woman would have become his mother-in-law.
“At least I’ll be able to confirm whether what Elliott Davis said is true before the wedding.”
“Has that man ever said anything useful enough to verify? Other than ‘virtuous’ and ‘beautiful,’ what else did he ever say?”
The foolish future father-in-law had done nothing but repeat that his daughter was “a graceful beauty with virtue,” while refusing to show her face.
His exaggerated and careless attitude even made it doubtful whether he actually knew his own daughter at all.
Even when describing a stranger, most people would put in more effort than that.
“And even if it’s true, what difference does it make? She’s still a Bolton woman, and her father’s origins won’t change. If she were truly such a wonderful woman, Archibald Avery would have taken her as his own wife instead of threatening you into marriage.”
Ray chose not to point out that such threats would never have worked on him if not for his mother. They had already exhausted themselves arguing about it once before.
“Well, the second condition is fairly important. There’s nothing wrong with a beautiful woman.”
Instead of mentioning that it was his mother who had surrendered to such dirty and pathetic threats, he smoothly changed the topic.
“You’re joking in a situation like this.”
Even after the scolding, Ray only gave a polite smile.
Still, he genuinely wanted to see what kind of woman she was. If they had tried this hard to hide her face, there had to be a reason.
He had already received reports that she had no physical defects, but still… a woman who had remained unmarried until the age of twenty-six surely had some kind of problem.
“I suppose I should prepare for the trip to Bolton.”
He had already prepared himself mentally from the moment they started discussing the wedding date.
Prepared himself to accept even the worst kind of woman imaginable.
“Yes…. Since it’s already decided, there’s no point delaying it. And Tommy, turn off the gramophone. My head hurts now.”
At the lady’s order, the servant moved quickly, and the overly sentimental music suddenly stopped.
Only then did Ray Crawford lift his teacup and calmly take a sip, feeling his mind clear.
His willingness to prepare was not surrender or defeat.
Ray was simply quick to accept the difference between situations he could change and situations he could not.
He had even won a war. What was one woman compared to that?
Ray Crawford had never once lost on any battlefield in his life.
The process might not go exactly as he wanted, but the result would remain the same.
As always.
Bolton was a republic.
A country without a king.
There were several republics among the nations surrounding Orthuran, but most of them had become republics only recently. Bolton had existed without a king for far longer.
For the first time in his life, Ray Crawford stepped onto the land of a country without a monarch.
“There’s nothing special about it. Spencer, do you also think Bolton people have tails?”
Ray asked his secretary while looking around at the mourners gathered inside a rural church in Bolton.
“I’m not sure, sir. But older people probably thought differently.”
His secretary, Paul Spencer, answered sincerely even though his superior was asking about an old mocking folktale once told by elderly people long ago.
As those old stories suggested, Orthuran people disliked Bolton not simply because they hated words like “republic” or “democracy.”
The reason lay in their long history of conflict and the enormous differences in personality and temperament between the two nations.
Bolton people’s overly honest speech, their fiery emotions, and their habit of turning every living thing into food—Orthuran people looked down on all of it.
“Well, maybe.”
Ray chuckled quietly to himself for some strange reason.
But when Elliott Davis approached after finishing a conversation with the bishop, the smile vanished from his face as if it had never been there.
“Ah, Minister, Minister.”
“I didn’t come here as a minister, so that title feels burdensome. Please call me Duke Crawford.”
Ray lightly shook his head with one finger resting against his lips as Elliott showed excessive respect to a man twenty years younger than himself.
“You have my condolences. May your wife rest peacefully in God’s embrace.”
“Thank you, Minister—no, Duke Crawford.”
“I would also like to offer my condolences personally to your daughter. Assuming she truly is my fiancée.”
Although Ray’s expression and tone remained polite, Elliott must have sensed something dangerous underneath, because he awkwardly glanced around the church.
Ray already knew his fiancée was not inside.
Standing far enough away to avoid notice, he had spent the entire service watching the back of the woman standing beside Elliott.
The woman wearing a hat decorated with a black satin ribbon disappeared into the crowd the moment the ceremony ended.
“My daughter was deeply attached to her mother, so she’s suffering terribly. She isn’t in her right mind today. It was only proper to send you the obituary, but meeting today may be a bit….”
“I’ll wait.”
Ray smoothly cut him off.
“I already crossed a border to come here. Waiting a little longer is hardly a problem.”
“…Then please wait a moment. I’ll go find her immediately.”
Ray maintained his formal smile until the man hurried away after giving a respectful bow.
Secretary Spencer quietly glanced at his employer’s face.
The corners of Ray’s lips were perfectly measured, raised only slightly above a straight line.
His superior was not a man who rarely smiled.
But it was rare for those smiles to be sincere.
“It seems it’ll take some time, so I should step outside for a moment.”
That meant he was going out for a cigarette.
As Spencer instinctively tried to follow, Ray lightly stopped him with a gesture.
“No, I’ll go alone. No need for us to miss each other.”
Behind the church stretched a large graveyard.
The rows of gray gravestones created a gloomy atmosphere, though the thick trees growing nearby softened it somewhat.
Searching for a quiet place, Ray approached a large tree beside the cemetery when a strong sweet scent reached his nose.
An unfamiliar smell….
As he stared absently at the purple fruits giving off the sweet fragrance, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a black skirt peeking out from behind the tree trunk.
Without thinking, he walked around the tree.
There, leaning against it in a crouched position, sat a woman in a black dress.
The hat resting on her head carried the same black ribbon he had watched throughout the funeral service.
The moment the familiar black satin ribbon fluttered in the wind, Ray knew.
She was his fiancée.
The woman who would become his wife.
Did she sneak out here to cry?
Just as he wondered whether he should attempt comforting her despite having no talent for it, the woman moved.
Pale green eyes lifted to check the intruder and met his own.
At the same time, white smoke escaped from her colorless lips.
The sweet scent of the unknown fruit mixed chaotically with cigarette smoke.
Ray looked down at the cigarette hanging loosely between her fingers.
Then he laughed.
His fiancée was truly a virtuous woman.
Truly.
