Previously
Aracella successfully shuts down the Vandermeer family's opposition during dinner by using blunt, irrational logic, earning Damian's genuine admiration and a sense of security. Meanwhile, the Emperor officially approves the marriage between Aracella and Damian, ignoring the Duke's attempts to substitute Oscar as the groom.
Aracella quietly put down the papers and began to speak in a calm voice.
This could only happen if she intended to sell her son for their own gain. A marriage into Marquis Hugo’s family was hardly a losing arrangement for them.
Yet meeting the demands of the Vandermeer Duchy would push Aracella’s personal wealth to the brink of ruin.
The two of them had agreed not to seek out a new estate to live in after their marriage. In particular, with no telling when a divorce might take place, Damian had been adamant about remaining in his own home.
At that moment, Aracella found herself wanting to buy a new mansion entirely out of her own pocket. If she had to pay an unfair sum just to purchase a residence for someone else, it would be far better to buy her own estate with her money rather than squander it on them.
Saying things that would have appalled Damian had he heard them, the Duchess elegantly lifted her teacup.
The Duchess was determined to make Aracella back out of the marriage on her own accord.
Whatever the circumstances, Aracella could not overlook an insult directed at her career, and her smile shifted.
Calling her an ordinary mage was an outright insult.
Aracella began to wonder how the Duchess could feel so entitled to compensation regarding her stepson. After all, the Duchess had never cared for Damian’s upbringing as she claimed.
The moniker “The Savage Knight” given to Damian had not come out of thin air. He had become a Sword Master after enduring years of struggle under grueling conditions, returning with that achievement through his own grit alone.
Yet from the Duchess’s words, one would think he had been raised in luxury and walked an elite path from the start.
Finally baring her true intentions, the Duchess smirked.
Aracella glanced down at the documents, which demanded an exorbitantly unreasonable sum.
If she refused to pay, the ducal family would find an excuse to reject the marriage. It might even lead to the engagement being broken off entirely, pushing Damian aside to proceed with the union between Iris and Oscar.
‘At least this is something that can be resolved with money, so it’s not the worst outcome…’
Iris’s life was more precious than any amount of gold, even if it meant sacrificing all her personal wealth.
Setting down her teacup, the Duchess looked at Aracella.
With her refined appearance, she seemed every bit the educated lady from a respectable noble family. Thus, she decided to offer some generous advice to this young noblewoman preparing to marry her second son, who had long been a thorn in her side.
The Duchess herself had been born the daughter of an obscure baronial family, yet she had risen to become the Duchess of the Vandermeer family by turning down numerous ordinary proposals and enduring years as the Duke’s mistress.
The Duchess smiled as she watched Aracella, who seemed deep in thought.
What the Duchess failed to realize, however, was that Aracella had already pursued her ambitions through her own efforts, not through anyone else.
At last, after listening intently to the Duchess’s words, Aracella spoke in a calm voice.
Shocked, the Duchess’s expression froze, while Aracella continued steadily.
Aracella lifted the papers and gave a defiant shrug. The Duchess let out a short, scoffing laugh.
Aracella replied with a sly smile and a wink.
Her smile was insufferably provocative. The Duchess glared sharply at her, then rose from her seat without uttering another word.
Aracella saw her off with a bright smile.
She then offered a polite parting bow toward the Duchess’s coldly retreating back.
Naturally, there was no reply from the Duchess, but Aracella paid it no mind; instead, she neatly gathered the papers and stood up.
She could not keep this information to herself; she had to show it to her fiancé at once.
Following the formal announcement of their commander’s marriage, the Red Falcon Knights were thrown into turmoil.
A knight commander marrying a prominent mage from the Magic Tower was entirely unprecedented.
All the more so because it was framed as a love match, which piqued the public’s curiosity immensely. Everyone was anticipating an extraordinary romance, but inside the knight order, matters were quite different.
The knights trailed Damian everywhere, trying to talk him out of it.
Yet what was the ‘Ritterson incident’ they kept speaking of?
It referred to the murder of Jonathan Ritterson, the former Commander of the Imperial Knights and one of the renowned Sword Masters of his era, who had been killed by his mage wife.
That incident was one of the primary reasons for the bitter hostility between mages and knights in the Citron Empire, especially after Lexie Ritterson confessed upon her arrest that she had married Jonathan with the express intention of assassinating him.
During her interrogation, she had declared:
Her criminal motive had shaken the empire to its core; her attempt on the life of one of its strongest knights had been intended to curb their growing influence. As a result, a deep distrust took root between knights and mages, particularly female mages.
Damian snapped at them, pressing his brow in sheer exhaustion at his men’s persistent badgering.
Yet his subordinates, who held him in great esteem, stubbornly continued to hound him.
A delicate voice abruptly broke into their conversation. The knights whipped around and froze in sheer shock.
There stood Aracella, her eyes wide open and her wavy hair draped over her face like curtains drawn across a window.
Several knights felt their hearts drop into their boots, collapsing to the ground in terror.
Damian gave his men a look of displeasure before turning his gaze toward Aracella, who was standing there like a spectral apparition.
Aracella swept her hair back with a cool smile. Behind her, Audrey hastily smoothed down her mistress’s hair.
The knights grew flustered and averted their eyes. Just moments ago, they had been branding her a wicked witch without hesitation, yet now that she stood right before them, they could not even look her in the eye.
Aracella cast a reproaching glance at Damian, letting out a faint scoff.
She was calling him out for failing to intervene while they spoke about her.
Damian apologized sincerely, then barked an order to his men with a stern expression.
Knowing full well they were in the wrong, the knights offered no protest. They bowed deeply in apology before bolting toward the training grounds.
Once they had vanished, Damian turned back to her.
Aracella cut him off with a radiant smile. Damian hesitated at the sight of her expression.
His failure to intervene was tantamount to a tacit endorsement of what his knights had been saying.
Aracella gestured toward the training grounds with an easy smile.
This was the first time in his life Damian had ever received a punishment of running laps around the training grounds. Yet he did not object, for he was guilty as well.
Aracella flaunted her generosity with a mocking air, as though saying, ‘Aren’t I wonderful?’
Damian offered a silent bow, then turned and headed straight for the training grounds.
Aracella was sitting comfortably in his office eating sweets when Damian walked in after finishing his ten laps. She narrowed her eyes at him.
Damian sank onto the sofa across from her with a faint look of disbelief. He dragged a hand across his face, let out a soft sigh, and asked,
Aracella presented the Duchess’s documents to Damian. As he scanned the contents, his scowl deepened.
Damian gripped the papers tightly. Even if the duchy was among the most prestigious noble houses, demanding such a staggering dowry was an unignorable burden.
It was obvious that the Duchess had deliberately made these excessive demands to derail the marriage. The problem, however, was that Aracella might genuinely consider calling it off.
Disputes over dowries and gifts were almost always the spark that ignited conflicts in any noble marriage.
Damian’s future hinged on this marriage, whereas what Aracella stood to gain from it had never been entirely clear to him.
The reason she had given—preventing her sister’s marriage to Oscar—did not feel substantial enough to convince Damian that she had a lasting incentive to see this union through.
As a result, an uneasy feeling lingered in him, as though she might change her mind at any given moment.
“If you wish to call off the marriage over the dowry…”