Chapter 2
“The Berington Duke's heir who's had two suspicious deaths by bereavement? The firstborn of the Tollein Marquis family, who's so dim-witted you can't even communicate properly? Or the second son, infamous for fiddling with this girl and that girl? The Winblair Marquis family doesn't even have a man worth proposing marriage to.”
“Mother......”
“Your father will use any means necessary to marry you off to one of the 'Four Great Houses.' You know that, don't you?”
Of course she did. To her, her father's obsession with the Four Great Houses was utterly exhausting.
How much had he hounded her since childhood, insisting they needed to forge a marriage alliance with one of the empire's four most powerful families?
“The Lancaster Duke's terms are better, comparatively. He has a long-time mistress and grown children, so he probably won't bother you. When the duke dies, you'll inherit a fortune, so live freely as you please then.”
“How do you know when the duke will pass? It'll be at least when I'm over thirty!”
“What's a decade of waiting compared to forty years of comfortable living?”
Then, she muttered as if to herself.
*Spoils of war*
“Once you become the duchess, even your own father will bow his head to you. What on earth are you so dissatisfied with? Tsk.”
*Duchess*
At those words, Edel's eyes flashed open.
Already suffocating under her father's authoritarianism and coercion, she clung desperately to the one hope of escaping him, barely holding her body and mind together.
*Written by ruly lemon frog*
Yes, if I just get through this marriage, I can leave the Canian Count's family. If I endure for a few years, I can gain my freedom. So hold on. Endure it.
From that moment, she diligently prepared for the marriage as her father wished.
She knew there was plenty of gossip about this marriage, but at parties and gatherings, she smiled brightly as if delighted.
However, the moment she entered the duke's residence, Edel realized that place could never become 'home' either.
“Did your father teach you well? Act like the perfect duchess. Don't harbor useless ambitions—just exist in that position. That's your role.”
On their wedding night, the Lancaster Duke briefly visited her bedroom, issued that 'command,' and then went to his own bedroom where his mistress awaited.
Edel felt humiliated but also relieved.
- 2 -
.
Not only did the duke truly not touch her, but she had received education to become a noble lady that was thorough to the point of abuse, so she thought living in the duke's household wouldn't be too difficult.
However, that was a tremendous misconception.
*I'm the lady of this castle. I have nowhere else to go!*
She hadn't realized that the duke not touching her meant she'd be treated like an invisible person in the duke's household.
Even though she held no real power and was ignored as if she didn't exist, Edel had tried to fulfill her duties as the duchess.
Moreover, the duke's grown children were absolute to her. They wouldn't want to share their wealth and power with some stone that had suddenly rolled in.
Nevertheless, the steward shouted as he dragged her away from guarding the duke's office.
“What was Father lacking that he remarried? And to a woman from an insignificant family, of all people!”
“Everything's wrong! The duke's family is finished! The young master and ladies have already fled!”
“You're insisting someone has to sit in the duchess's seat. He seems to hate being called a widower more than death.”
“Widower? With a mistress he's kept for over fifteen years?”
He had been shoving Edel on the back, but the moment he heard the castle gates shattering, he fled in panic. Still, he was the only one who had shown her any concern until the end. No one else had even told her to run.
“We can't possibly elevate a woman of lowly birth to duchess. Though she's not entirely to my liking either.”
Looking down at the chaos unfolding below from the castle's third-floor corridor, Edel realized she had been abandoned. And that there was no way left to save her life.
“More than that, I heard the Canian Count put in tremendous effort? Trying desperately to tie into our family somehow.”
The paths outward were blocked, and the duke's family hadn't told her about the castle's secret passages.
Unable to just stand there, Edel blindly ran to the top floor of the castle and hid in the attic used as a storeroom.
The duke's children, exchanging such words right in front of her, mocked Edel, who couldn't utter a single word in response.
“Stay out of sight and keep quiet. If you don't want to suffer something awful.”
*Why did God abandon me? What on earth did I do wrong?*
In the dim corner of that gloomy storeroom, she curled up and mulled over questions no one would answer.
Even hearing such things, Edel gritted her teeth and endured day by day.
She had endured her father's harsh education since childhood. She had strived to become a perfect lady beyond reproach and was acknowledged in high society.
She flawlessly managed the duke's large and small banquets, oversaw dozens of ledgers and over a hundred servants, and greeted the constant stream of guests without a single mistake.
Yet, being praised as a shell created by her father's scheme felt hollow and painful. She felt like she might one day disappear entirely if she lived like this.
In society, to avoid tarnishing the Lancaster Duke's name or damaging her own reputation, she gritted her teeth and pretended to be happy.
*What if all that suffering was God's warning to run away right then?*
*Just endure a few years. Once the duke dies, I'll live freely to show them!*
Outside, horrific screams and the clashing of blades never ceased.
She clung to that one thought and endured.
But it was all futile struggling.
*I've lived a life as nothing but a tool. A tool to bring more money and power to my father and family, a tool to maintain the duke's household's face...*
The 'duchy independence plan' she knew nothing about was discovered sooner than the duke anticipated, and the enraged emperor crushed the duchy mercilessly.
It was the same even in that moment.
“Run, Madam! The emperor's army is coming! Hurry!”
While the suppression forces ransacked the castle searching for Edel, the duke's children had undoubtedly fled far away.
The day the disheveled steward came running, shouting for her to flee as if spitting blood, remained vivid in Edel's mind like yesterday.
*I'm bait. They must have deliberately let it be known that I'm here.*
She had thought he planned independence because he had power rivaling the emperor's, but the duke's army was annihilated without a single victory against the suppression forces.
Meanwhile, the maids staying in the duke's castle quickly packed and returned to their families, and quick-witted servants stole the duke's possessions and fled.
Realizing once more that she had no choice but to die made even hiding in the corner feel meaningless.
Yet she defended the castle. She had to.
*Yes, I'm the duchess. If this life was born and raised solely for that purpose, then my end must befit a duchess too.*
.
