Before I knew it, the sun had set and the sky was covered in blue. I didn’t realize time had passed so quickly.

Hertian left, and I moved to my father’s office instead of my room as the butler had instructed.

I was certain that both of them would have liked Hertian.

But then,

“I cannot allow this marriage.”

What is this all of a sudden?

Father changed his words. His expression changed completely.

“You’re suddenly opposing the marriage?”

The elated mood I had just moments ago plummeted to the ground.

“I’ve given it some thought. It seems like too hasty a decision.”

I immediately rushed to the desk where Father was sitting.

Father put the marriage proposal into a drawer without even looking me in the eye.

“You said you’d allow it just earlier. If not, you should have said so when the Duke was here!”

My voice burst out rudely in front of my parents.

“Please say something. There must be a reason you suddenly changed your mind.”

There must be some reason, but they’re hiding it from me.

“Father!”

I continued to press my father, who kept his mouth tightly shut.

“Are you really not going to say anything? How can I accept canceling the marriage without any explanation?”

Father, looking serious, rubbed his forehead.

“Actually…”

Father couldn’t finish his sentence. He looked troubled.

“Actually?”

Father opened his mouth but shook his head and closed it again. His expression suggested he absolutely wouldn’t tell me.

“Did something happen while I was away?”

This time I turned my gaze to Mother, who was sitting by the window. Mother quickly turned her head away as soon as our eyes met.

“Why are you both being so frustrating? Is marriage a joke? And the other party is His Highness the Duke!”

It would be nice if they’d just give me a clear reason, but they didn’t seem willing to tell me.

“I can’t accept this. No matter what you say, I’m going to marry His Highness the Duke.”

I’ve already told Hertian we should set a date.

Unless a natural disaster occurs, the marriage will proceed as planned.

I looked at Mother and Father alternately with the coldest eyes.

‘Are you really not going to tell me even like this?’

Neither Father nor Mother could bring themselves to speak up.

I was about to leave the office but turned back and listed one by one the reasons why I should marry Hertian.

Still, there was no answer from them.

Should I talk to them again tomorrow.

“His Highness the Duke will be a perfect husband. He’s exactly the kind of husband I’ve been hoping for.”

As I added that last bit and was about to leave,

“How can you be so certain about that?”

Father finally spoke up.

“As I said earlier, he’s polite and keeps bringing victories from the battlefield. He’ll protect me no matter what situation arises.”

“How do you know if he only commanded from behind the knights?”

I shook my head at the negative remark.

“He must have done his best as a commander. Besides, His Highness is the most handsome man in the empire.”

“You shouldn’t judge by looks alone. A man should be ahem…”

Father stopped mid-sentence and cleared his throat. He seemed to have been about to say something embarrassing.

“His waist must be strong too. He must have ridden horses so much on the battlefield.”

“Ahem. That’s not what I meant to say.”

“Not only that, but His Highness has a smooth and prominent nose.”

I continued speaking without pause.

“What does his nose have to do with anything?”

“They say a man with a high, prominent nose bridge is good in bed.”

This was something I knew from a physiognomist who appeared on the hospital TV before I possessed this book character.

“Who said such a thing? It must have been that Cassian.”

“No. The young ladies were all talking about it.”

And the topic of noses came up often among friends at the academy too.

Coughs erupted here and there at those words.

“Father. I’m all grown up now. I pretended not to know, but I’ve known everything since I was at the academy. I see everything I need to see.”

It was a brazen tone.

“I’m sure His Highness the Duke and I will be a good match…”

“No!”

Before I could finish speaking, Father shouted at the top of his lungs. I was momentarily startled by the unexpected volume from my usually calm father.

“Not the Duke. Not him!”

He jumped up from his seat and ranted furiously. Seeing Father’s neck turn red like an apple, I expressed my bewilderment.

“Why are you opposing it so strongly?”

“Because… His Highness the Duke. No, that bastard!”

As Father, with steam seemingly rising from his head, finally tried to give a reason, Mother rushed over and blocked me.

“Anette. Go back to your room for now.”

“I need to hear the reason before I go. What about His Highness the Duke? Father.”

But Mother spoke sternly, furrowing her brow. Yet her voice seemed to be hiding something.

“Are you going to disobey your mother? Go back to your room quickly. I’ll explain later.”

A stifling air enveloped the office after Anette left.

The man who had been hiding on the large couch got up and opened the window, only then did the stuffy air start to ventilate.

“Phew. I wonder if this is the right thing to do.”

Lucas wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke casually to the man.

“I mean, how to explain this to Anette. What to say for her to understand.”

The man glanced at the closed door before walking towards the Count.

“For now, please make up a good excuse for Lady Anette. If what I’ve told you leaks out, both my friend and I will die.”

The Count pressed his deeply furrowed brow.

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Thank you. Lady Anette will soon understand why you opposed it.”

“I hope that day comes quickly, Baron Melson.”

Baron Melson smiled broadly in relief, his thick beard on his chin quivering.

“Of course.”

“Yes. How long have we known each other, Baron. Thank you for coming today.”

The Count forced a smile to the corners of his mouth, expressing gratitude to Melson, the longtime family doctor of the Leanberia County.

“It’s a thousand blessings that I came to deliver Anette’s medicine on my way.”

Melson was the doctor who had worked hard to cure Rian’s illness since he suffered from a fever.

Having seen with his own eyes how much effort he put into curing Anette’s illness as well, they couldn’t help but trust his words.

“I’m disappointed in Duke Blanditiae. I was foolish to think that he would naturally be clean in his relationships with women since he was participating in the war.”

The sound of Count Leanberia grinding his teeth quietly spread.

“I almost sent my precious daughter to a scoundrel.”

He recalled Melson urgently knocking on the door and entering while he was having an intimate moment with his wife in the indoor garden.

Just a few hours ago.

“I heard that His Highness Duke Blanditiae and Lady Anette are getting married!”

“Ho ho. I guess the butler already told you. That’s right.”

“Have you stamped the marriage proposal?”

“Not yet, but why are you sweating so much?”

“That’s because!”

Melson’s words, spoken with an uncharacteristically anxious appearance, shocked the peaceful Count and his wife.

“His Highness the Duke is… that promiscuous?”

“My friend who was dispatched as a doctor on this expedition returned and told me.”

It was said that Duke Blanditiae not only indiscriminately indulged in women from conquered villages during the wartime situation, but even laid hands on princesses.

“It was so bad that my friend had to personally XXX the Duke’s XX that had rotted and XXXX.”

Gasp.

Both of them let out a groan of shock at the obscene medical terms they had never heard before.

“So now only half remains, they say.”

“H-half, you mean it’s been cut in half?”

“Since the lady is present, please check this for details.”

What Melson handed over was a medical record. It contained extraordinary content. A type of illness beyond imagination.

“But the name isn’t the Duke’s name, isn’t this someone else’s?”

“In the case of royalty or high nobles like the Duke, we deliberately use a different name. To prevent information from leaking out.”

It wasn’t wrong. Moreover, Melson, who had been with them for many years, was not one to tell lies without reason.

“Ah…”

Lucas let out a small sigh. Then, with eyes as big as saucers like someone in big trouble, he jumped up from his seat.

“No. We must. We must cancel the marriage immediately.”

As soon as Baron Melson boarded the carriage, he first wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead.

“Anyway, I’m lucky. I’ll be able to squeeze quite a bit out of this deal.”

Despite the cold sweat flowing, his face was full of a victorious smile.

“Where shall I take you?”

The coachman asked. Melson considered whether to go and deliver this news first.

“Take me to the back alley.”

But in the end, he decided to head to the tavern, thinking that relieving fatigue was the priority since it was late today.

Then, leaning back against the hard carriage backrest, he burst into giggles.

“This is why nobles raised delicately to the bone are so easy to deceive.”

He recalled the innocent Count and Countess Leanberia who believed his words at face value.

Having seen and experienced only good things all their lives, they absolutely wouldn’t do anything that might tarnish their honor even slightly.

So he started approaching them, smelling an easy target from when Rian began to suffer from illness.

After becoming Anette’s attending physician following Rian, luckily the money source approached on its own.

Even after several years, they still don’t know his true identity. He just worked as instructed and pocketed money from both sides.

He simply handed over the precious medicine given by that side to Anette. Once he pretended to personally import a rare medicinal herb that only grows in the East, and after that, the Count and Countess showed deep trust in Melson.

“Why is that guy so obsessed with their daughter?”

He doesn’t know the exact reason.

‘Does the Count’s daughter have some hidden treasure?’

He can only roughly guess while imagining.

He just needs to do what he’s told. Though he doesn’t like being suddenly ordered to come and go like today.

“How did they know the Duke was going with a marriage proposal?”

The more he worked, the more he realized how impressive their intelligence was. How could they know such information when the Duke had only recently returned from war?

“They can’t be royalty, right?”

Melson rubbed the goosebumps on his arm and erased the painful assumption. Anyway, he only cared about pocketing the money. Instead, he snickered as he recalled what just happened.

“Was saying it was cut in half too much?”

He deliberately thought in a direction difficult for the Count to verify and the rumor flew that way. It was a story that obviously seemed hastily made up.

‘Aren’t they going to believe it?’

But the anxiety was short-lived.

The trust in him was thicker than expected, and the medical record of another person played a part. But to cancel the marriage without any verification.

“The believer is the fool.”

Even if something goes wrong, the high-class money source will take care of it. Melson shook off his worries and scratched his ear that had suddenly become itchy.