1 - The Duke's Bride is a Warrior from Hell
The Grand Duke's Bride is a Warrior from Hell 1
#1. Delicate Lady
It was winter.
The Reine family, located at the northern end of the Eastern Continent, began preparing for winter in September.
By November, all the bedding in the Reine family was made of velvet.
Velvet bed covers, thick quilts filled with fluffy cotton, and velvet pillow covers added to the mansion's antique charm.
Alicia opened her eyes in the deep blue velvet.
The velvet with the gold thread pattern was warm and soft.
And heavy.
The girl's purple eyes trembled anxiously.
Beyond the large room, the sound of footsteps climbing the stone stairs at the far end of the hallway could be heard faintly.
Alicia immediately closed her eyes.
The girl closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep, and thought.
'I wish it was Annie, not Daisy.'
Daisy was the head of the South Manor of the mansion.
The South Manor could be considered a separate annex of the mansion.
Perhaps because Daisy was in charge of the old Northern-style building and the Maze garden, she rarely showed any expression.
She rarely smiled, and when she spoke, she said things like, "Will you do it?" and "You must do it" in a stiff manner.
Unlike Daisy, Annie, who mainly did chores, always had a smiling face.
She was also the type to take care of even the smallest details.
It wasn't that Daisy treated Alicia harshly or acted scary.
But Alicia couldn't move comfortably with Daisy in front of her.
She felt unnecessarily intimidated.
Sometimes, just being next to her made her feel suffocated.
After a while, the footsteps stopped, and soon the door rang.
A calm voice came from beyond the door.
"Lady."
"Yes."
Alicia slowly opened her eyes and raised herself from the thick blanket.
Contrary to the girl's wish, it was Daisy who had come to wake her up.
It was only natural.
Daisy, as the head of the South Manor, had the primary task of taking care of Alicia.
Waking her up in the morning and informing her of the day's schedule were particularly important tasks.
There was no way she would entrust such things to Annie, who mainly did chores.
As soon as Alicia's reply echoed, the door opened, and Daisy walked in.
"Good morning, Lady Alicia. Did you sleep well?"
Daisy greeted her in a calm voice.
"......"
Alicia only raised her gaze to watch Daisy, who was neatly drawing back the bed canopy.
Daisy was indifferent but efficient.
She quickly pulled back the dark-colored canopy and fixed it to one side, and was already pulling back the thin, see-through canopy.
Daisy, who was about to fix the Lace canopy, noticed her gaze and looked at Alicia.
Alicia quickly lowered her gaze and nodded.
She also answered 'Yes' with a slightly mumbled pronunciation.
'Good morning, Daisy. Is everything alright in the mansion?'
Those simple words wouldn't come out.
She was Lady Reine and Daisy was the head of the South Manor, but her gaze kept dropping.
She felt tired already, even though she hadn't done much.
She just wanted to go back to sleep.
But she didn't dare to tell her to leave because she wanted to sleep more.
There was no way she could say such a thing.
The girl fiddled with the gold thread pattern on the Velvet bed cover.
"The bath is ready. Shall we go?"
Daisy said politely after finishing arranging the canopy.
"Yes..."
Alicia answered without looking at her questioning face and got out of bed.
Alicia Reine.
The girl, who turned 13 last summer, was the only daughter of the Reine family.
Except for the Marquis Reine's wife, she was the only woman in the mansion who could walk without being guided by a servant.
She could go anywhere without anyone leading the way, but if something blocked her path, a servant would bow deeply and step forward to handle the difficulty.
The door to the bath, one of the most beautiful places in the South Manor, opened.
Maids wearing pure white Linen head coverings greeted her as she entered.
"Good morning, Lady."
"Good morning, Lady."
Alicia nodded awkwardly, almost imperceptibly, to the greetings of the servants lined up in a row.
The lady of the Druyan barony, known for being pretty and sociable, was said to be so sociable that she exchanged words with each of the servants who greeted her.
Alicia thought she was a good lady and that she was worth emulating.
But the girl struggled to even nod her head to the servants who greeted her.
It didn't matter whether the other person's greeting was formal or sincere.
Just looking at someone's face and opening her mouth to speak fluently was an incredibly difficult task.
When facing others, Alicia sometimes felt her vision go dark and her mind go blank.
She felt blood rushing to her face and sweat forming on her hands. After facing someone, there was always sweat on her hands.
She didn't know what to say, and even if she tried to say something, her mouth wouldn't open.
If she miraculously managed to open her mouth, her tongue would twist.
She often stuttered on the first word.
When she managed to say the first word well, she stammered terribly on the important parts.
So, it was better not to encounter anyone.
For nearly 200 years, no daughters had been born into the Reine marquisate.
The current Head of the family was an only son.
The previous Head of the family had three brothers, and neither of the previous Head of the family's two younger brothers had daughters either.
Since there were no sisters to the Head of the family in the generations before that, no female descendants had been born into the Reine family for four generations.
In the midst of all this, Alicia was born.
Alicia knew that she had survived because she was a daughter.
The girl was able to become a member of the marquisate because she was a girl.
So, the girl was ashamed of herself.
She considered herself to be someone who shouldn't exist.
Most noble families did not recognize illegitimate children.
The marquisate exceptionally recognized Alicia as an official member of the family because she was the first daughter born in almost 200 years.
Alicia herself did not know exactly who Alicia's biological mother was.
No one mentioned it.
Alicia was the daughter of the Marquis Reine's wife, and only the noble lady of the marquisate.
From just after Alicia's 18th birthday, talk of marriage proposals began to circulate within the family.
Some aristocratic families arranged marriages between families even when the children were still in the womb.
But for marriage proposals to be discussed from the age of 18 was early.
She was still like a child, but marriage seemed like a story from another world.
Alicia wanted to say that it was still too early.
But it was still difficult to open her mouth in front of anyone.
She tried to go to the Marquis Reine's wife several times, but she didn't have the courage, so she just wandered around her room.
She would rather the world end tomorrow than marry someone she didn't even know.
But the world didn't end and went on well.
At a Tea Party hosted by the Marquis Reine's wife, one of the vassals made a kind remark, asking if the young lady's marriage proposal wasn't too sudden and whether a debut into society shouldn't come first.
However, a full-fledged debut into society was painful for Alicia in its own way.
Even when assisting with parties and gatherings hosted by the Marquis Reine's wife, minor mistakes and accidents were constant.
The thought of having to jump into society, where so many people gathered, made her feel like it would be better to fall into hell.
However, her debut into society, which was no different from a horror, went surprisingly smoothly.
This was thanks to Lady Miller and Lady Cynthia, who helped Alicia by her side.
In particular, Lady Miller, the daughter of a vassal of the Reine marquisate, took care of everything right next to Alicia.
As she gained experience, she was able to be among people without being noticed.
At least she didn't make any big mistakes.
But was it because she was careless?
Alicia tripped and fell heavily near the center of the banquet hall while moving in a hurry.
She couldn't remember who the host was or what situation she was in that made her act so hastily.
'Keuk!'
Laughter that leaked out, stinging her nose, spread around as if contagious.
Alicia couldn't do anything for a moment.
She only had the foolish thought that it was fortunate that it wasn't in the middle of the banquet hall.
At that moment, a hand reached out in front of her face.
The person who offered his hand was laughing like the others.
It was clearly ridicule, but since it was her fault for falling like a fool, she couldn't just blame the person who was laughing.
She felt resentment, but she didn't refuse the helping hand.
'Are you alright? Lady......'
'Thank you. I'm Alicia Reine.'
'Lady Alicia. I'm Gregory Barker of the Count Barker family.'
A man with brown hair mixed with sparse blond strands and a pale face introduced himself without erasing his smile.
The moment Alicia heard Gregory's name, the resentment in her heart turned into a hard rock.
Gregory Barker.
The Barker family, who owned land near the imperial capital, was highly prestigious.
For Alicia, his name was famous in a slightly different way.
Gregory of the Barker family had often appeared several times during Tea Parties within the family.
In addition to Gregory Barker, there were also Albert of Ipsen and Joachim of Jacoite.
When their names were frequently mentioned, she assumed they were potential grooms, but when they appeared in this way, she felt suffocated.
'Th, thank you so much.'
Alicia fled the banquet hall as if running away.
After that, she happened to meet Gregory Barker several more times.
When Alicia didn't leave the house because she was sick, she ran into Joachim of Jacoite by chance when she went to a party again at the Head of the family's command.
It was a strange and unpleasant coincidence.
When Alicia turned 19, the Head of the family announced a private meeting as if delivering a sentence.
Alicia repeated thousands of times before going to the Head of the family's office.
'I'm fine with whoever the Head of the family chooses.'
The words she actually uttered were not the same as the words she had practiced in her mind.
For some reason, her words became very short, and she stammered several times, saying, 'If the Head of the family... chooses... I'm fine......'
The Marquis ordered Alicia to marry Gregory Barker.
Alicia simply said she would obey.
The engagement proceeded quickly.
However, the marriage did not take place.
Gregory, who was staying in the imperial capital, was embroiled in a scandal with a married woman, and as a price for the scandal, he engaged in a duel and became disabled.
The man who survived but would never be able to fully extend his right knee was Alicia's fiancé.
The Reine family declared the engagement broken.
The Barker family did not recognize the annulment.
A battle of pride began between the great Northern family and the powerful family in the imperial capital.
It was a tedious war.
The Reine family insisted on invalidating the engagement with Barker and searched for a new groom for Alicia.
Alicia accidentally ran into unmarried men from prestigious families in the quiet suburbs.
Someone who got lost in a gathering of her two older brothers' friends.
Someone who was a friend of her older brother's friend's younger brother but happened to visit.
Albert McMahon was not a bad fiancé.
He was as quiet as Alicia and was a shy man.
He was the unofficial fiancé of a woman who had a fiancé whose relationship was not officially over, but he faithfully fulfilled the duties of a fiancé.
Alicia exchanged letters with Albert several times.
She hated meeting Albert in person for short periods of time as if it were a chore, but the stories about plants that Albert sent in his letters were interesting.
