“How’s your health?”

When Claude didn’t answer, he urged her impatiently.

“Are you asking if I’m well-prepared to die?”

She replied with an expressionless face like a doll.

“It’s going well.”

Displeased with the answer, Duke Vermonte’s brow furrowed.

“Answer properly.”

“I mean it’s steadily getting worse.”

Claude ignored the uncomfortable feeling lodged in her throat.

“As you wish, Your Grace.”

Finally satisfied with her response, he leaned back on the sofa with a pleased expression.

“I see. Of course. Surely heaven wouldn’t stand idly by as I, Vermonte, suffer humiliation at the hands of those damnable Temnes, who deserve to be torn limb from limb.”

Duke Vermonte’s eyes gleamed madly as he looked at Claude.

“This is how you repay the kindness of taking in an orphan with nowhere to go. Don’t worry about what comes after. When my revenge on Temnes is complete, your death will be widely venerated as a holy martyrdom under Vermonte’s glory.”

Duke Vermonte ranted passionately like a madman, though Claude made no reply.

“You seem to have gotten thinner.”

“It’s been difficult to swallow anything lately.”

“You consummated the marriage properly, yes?”

Duke Vermonte brazenly brought up such an embarrassing topic to his niece.

“Yes.”

“Hmph. It’s fortunate that man changes women every night. If he had more refined tastes, he wouldn’t have spent the night with a scrawny, unremarkable thing like you.”

Enduring the shame fell to Claude.

The cold treatment at Lowen Castle and Kaian’s insults were not unfamiliar to her.

From her commoner mother’s background, to the mockery of her father who followed her mother to the grave.

Nevertheless, the words were not much different from what Claude had heard tirelessly for ten years after becoming her uncle’s adopted daughter, born with Vermonte’s fiery red hair and golden eyes that she couldn’t discard.

If sharp words pierced her heart like a dagger, it hurt the same whether Temnes or Vermonte wielded the blade.

She was good at enduring pain.

There was no one left in the world to sympathize with or feel sorry for Claude’s pain.

“It’s fortunate the wedding happened before your condition worsened further. We were able to send you to that young duke and stab him in the back.”

He intertwined and unclasped his hands excitedly, smiling sinisterly.

“Once you die, I’ll pin the responsibility for your death on Duke Temnes. For taking Vermonte’s precious bloodline and bringing about her death. King Oberon will undoubtedly take my side. He already is.”

“What if the king doesn’t keep his promise to you?”

“You don’t know King Oberon.”

Duke Vermonte dismissed her words with a snort.

“He is truly a great monarch. Fundamentally different from that ignorant young pup Temnes who only knows how to swing a sword. Hard to believe they’re the same age, given how skilled and mature he is.”

He lifted his chin.

“Be grateful until your dying day that His Majesty King Oberon personally took an interest and allowed this plan to come about.”

The story Claude had heard ad nauseam while arranging the marriage went in one ear and out the other.

“Do you understand?”

“…Yes, Your Grace.”

Fortunately, her great-uncle and adoptive father Duke Vermonte did not resemble her father.

Claude deeply loved the red hair and golden eyes that were the spitting image of her late father.

If the cruel Duke Vermonte had resembled her father at all in appearance or personality aside from those colors, she would have been terribly saddened.

It was fortunate that, apart from the family’s symbolic colors, there was not even a speck of dirt under his nails that reminded her of her father.

If he had spoken such words to her with a face resembling her departed father, it would have been even harder for Claude to bear.

“The duke will be here soon.”

Duke Vermonte got up from the sofa and went to the mirror, humming happily.

“He doesn’t even realize he’s digging his own grave, paying a price for someone like you as a bride. Even the previous duke must be laughing in his grave.”

Unable to share in his joy, Claude remained silent.

Kaian strode down the hallway with long, purposeful steps.

The thought of seeing Duke Vermonte, that mangy old fox, was extremely unpleasant.

“Should I just get rid of that old man?”

His subordinates behind him noticeably flinched at his muttered words.

Imagining stuffing Duke Vermonte, who had usurped his father-in-law’s place, into the grave Claude had been looking at earlier improved his irritated mood.

In a much lighter state, a woman suddenly leapt in front of him with arms spread to block his way.

“Your Highness Kaian!”

She was a beauty with long black hair and blue eyes. However, her youthful face still held a girlish stubbornness and impetuousness, having only recently come of age.

“Antione. What are you doing so suddenly?”

She was a distant relative of Kaian, from a cadet branch of the family. Though her mother was from House Temnes and she bore the surname Berang, Antione Berang prided herself on having half Temnes blood flowing through her veins.

From a very young age, Antione had openly declared that she would marry Kaian when she grew up.

However, Kaian had never particularly indulged her or spent private time with Antione.

She had sneaked into Kaian’s bedroom a few times, but was sent home more gently than others solely because she was a relative.

Even that, Antione had boasted about in front of the other young ladies of the domain as proof that Kaian gave her special treatment, but he had let it be.

After Antione’s gossip, the bedroom attacks disturbing his sleep had decreased somewhat compared to before.

Kaian raised an eyebrow at Antione’s appearance, glaring at him reproachfully.

“What am I doing? What about you, Your Highness? What is this all about?”

“Speak clearly.”

At Kaian’s cold words, Antione’s eyes reddened as if upset.

“How… How could you… with another woman, leaving me behind… *sob*”

Seeing Antione break down crying as if overwhelmed by emotion, Kaian spoke coldly.

“What nonsense are you daring to speak now?”

“Your Highness. There’s no woman who could love you more than I do. I’ve loved only you since I first learned to walk. How could you do this?”

“You climb higher and higher without limit when given an inch.”

As Kaian glared at her with obvious displeasure, Antione’s expression soured. It was not a look that a young lady with a heart full of innocent first love could endure.

“Do you have objections to my marriage? Go directly to King Oberon to argue your case.”

He ignored Antione and took a step. After walking a few paces, he briefly turned back.

“Don’t appear before me again. This is the last time I’ll overlook things because you’re Temnes.”

As Kaian disappeared with his guards, Antione’s strength left her and she collapsed on the spot.

The group of young ladies her age who had been watching Antione’s demonstration from behind pillars rushed to her side.

“Well done, Antione. You spoke up properly, so His Highness Kaian will surely remember you clearly.”

“We couldn’t even dream of doing that. You’re amazing as always, Antione.”

As those around her praised her, she roughly wiped her teary eyes with the back of her hand.

Unlike moments ago when she had been expressing uncontrollable emotions to Kaian, Antione crossed her arms with a haughty expression.

“I’m truly appalled, speechless. To think that filthy Vermonte would crawl into His Highness’s bedroom.”

Strictly speaking, it was Kaian who had walked into the bedroom of his Vermonte-born wife, but none of the castle maids who overheard corrected this.

“It would have been better if Antione had become the duchess.”

“That’s right. You said you’d hold balls for us often at the castle.”

“And that you’d invite the knightly order with many handsome knights to the castle.”

The sighs and complaints of the young ladies who had just come of age filled the corridor.

But the one most filled with sighs and complaints right now was Antione herself.

Yesterday’s celebration was an event for Temnes relatives.

Antione had cried from morning until sunset, so no one from House Berang was able to attend yesterday’s banquet at Lowen Castle.

Having grown up pampered and doted on for her outstanding beauty since childhood, she was extremely stubborn, and despite today being a feast for vassals, she had insisted on going to the castle and managed to be present.

Stealing glances at Kaian seated at the head table from afar, Antione felt bile rising in her throat.

‘Ah, my dear Kaian. Have you fallen for the schemes of that ice land witch and spent the night with her?’

Kaian had never so much as touched her fingertips, let alone embraced her. In her one-sided emotions, she believed that such a man ardently loved Antione herself, but treated her coldly due to others’ eyes.

“Lady Antione.”

Just then, a maid called out to her hesitantly.

“Did you bring what I asked for?”

“Yes, here it is.”

What the maid pulled out from under her apron was a small box about the size of a fist.

“You cleared away all the flowers too, right?”

“Of course. We threw them all into the kitchen incinerator.”

The maid of Lowen Castle looked at Antione, with her black Temnes hair, with admiring eyes.

“To think that a red-haired Vermonte would dare cling to our lord. It absolutely cannot be allowed. Please call on me for anything regarding that woman in the future, Lady Antione.”

“Thank you. I’ll be sure to remember you when I become the duchess.”

“I’m grateful.”

Antione took out a blue diamond ring with a bluish sheen from the box and put it on her finger.

“Let’s head back for today.”

Behind her, Temnes supporters disappeared down the corridor, chattering with triumphant energy.

Duke Vermonte, who had been cursing Temnes all along, now smiled generously as if he had never done so.

“I won’t forget the great favor the duke has bestowed.”

“Now Temnes and Vermonte are no different from one family, aren’t we?”

“Indeed. Kaian, Duke of Temnes, will be the first to make a name for himself with good governance in our Valmond lands.”

“It’s an honor.”

Despite the warm conversation, their eyes looked as if they would tear each other apart at any moment.

Between them, Claude stood silently like a decoration.

Thirty wagons loaded with grain departed in a line towards the north.

Claude could bet her hair that, far from Temnes’ aid making a name in Valmond, praise for the great lord Vermonte would spread instead.

“It was quite a meaningful item to me. Did you not like the gift?”

Kaian’s question was abrupt and unexpected.

“Or was it me you didn’t like?”