The Marquis Douglas Redford was likely trying to solidify Logan’s position through Lady Lind. If he helped openly, Logan would appear to be the Marquis’s puppet.

Wait, could he be trying to empower his granddaughter-in-law of humble origins? Even if not, take advantage of this opportunity.

Sidney spoke calmly with an indifferent expression.

“So, Lady Lind, please narrow down the list. Exclude those who harbor resentment towards Logan, but for families we must include despite that… have ‘Marien Redford’ send invitations addressed to the mistresses of those houses.”

“Conventionally, the bride’s pre-marriage name is used on wedding invitations… There will be a lot of talk.”

“They’ll only gossip behind our backs.”

Sidney tilted her teacup with a disinterested face. She sipped the fragrant tea and imagined the reactions of the nobles who would receive the invitations.

Marien Redford.

Sending invitations from the Redford family under that name meant she was already acknowledged as a member of the Redford family before marriage.

Even though she hadn’t obtained permission to do so.

If she used the sword hilt Logan had given her to shift the attention from Marien’s background to the new Marchioness Redford…

Sidney slowly raised her gaze as she set down her teacup. Looking into Lady Lind’s eyes.

“With that name alone, everyone will focus on my usefulness rather than my background.”

“Is the invitation a warning to figure things out on their own? For the mistresses of each family to help Lady Marien if they want to maintain ties with the Redford family…”

Lady Lind trailed off as she expressed her guess. The old lady’s expression and narrow eyes were full of expectation that she would say so.

Burdensome… Sidney lowered her eyes and slowly began to speak.

“Warnings are given by those who hold the sword hilt. Anyway, I trust Lady Lind will carefully select the list.”

When she raised her eyes again, Lady Lind smiled with satisfaction, her lips twitching.

Still burdensome. Sidney turned her head indifferently to look out the window. The gray sky was gloomy, as if about to pour snow.

“It looks like it might snow.”

“Shall I prepare the carriage?”

“Thank you, Lady Lind.”

As she sat quietly looking out the window, the sound of Lady Lind’s dress rustling was followed by fading footsteps.

Click, as the door closed, Sidney frowned and muttered to herself.

“This is strange…”

From the Marquis Douglas Redford last time to Lady Lind now. Putting aside not making an issue of Marien’s background, they were showing excessive favor.

Even if they could act like that after allowing the marriage, today’s atmosphere of supporting everything like dealing with a child taking its first steps was hard to interpret.

Could it be that they know her true identity?

Deep in thought, Sidney shook her head lightly and murmured.

“…If so, they would have strongly opposed.”

And as she got up from her seat, she added under her breath, ‘A commoner would be better.’

The dark clouds covering the gray sky slid by, and at the edge of the snow-covered garden, coniferous trees stretched towards the sky.

Two arrows flew side by side, cutting through the still air of the snow-covered forest.

One stuck in a tree beside a deer, while the other, flying later, pierced the neck of the leaping deer.

As the deer collapsed with a sharp cry, Duke Yant slowly lowered his bow. Watching the knights rush to retrieve the fallen deer, he clicked his tongue shortly in disapproval.

“Tsk, did you hesitate because it was young?”

“Not at all. I was careful to ensure a clean kill.”

Duke Yant glanced sidelong at the one who answered.

The face beneath the black fur hat pulled down to the eyebrows was red from the cold, and white breath spread from the faintly smiling lips.

The slightly curved aquiline nose, thin upper lip, narrowly slanted eyes, and greedily glittering purple irises… How could she look so much like her father.

‘She should have taken after her mother, who had nothing going for her but her face. If she had, that fellow wouldn’t have caused such trouble…’

Thinking of his second son-in-law, Dean Hamilton, who had been a disgrace with nothing useful but his decent appearance, made his teeth grind involuntarily.

Duke Yant ground his teeth and admonished his second daughter.

“This situation is the same. We should have killed that worm-like bastard earlier, but you asked for time…”

“I handled it perfectly. Moreover, no one but me can handle the Hamilton Earldom now.”

“So you planned to make that fellow a criminal and take the Earldom for yourself.”

“Is that not allowed?”

Catherine, tilting her chin slightly and looking down with half-closed eyes.

At her confident tone that seemed to ask what the problem was, Duke Yant declared with an incredulous expression.

“How foolish. Even so, you, a woman, cannot take over the Hamilton family. No matter how much public opinion you sway for sympathy, what’s not possible is not possible.”

“Father, laws are made by people. And public opinion is people.”

At his daughter’s cool confidence, Duke Yant sputtered out words.

“Well said. The Imperial Law of Asnel established by the great Emperor Cloud can never be changed. So stop tarnishing the dignity of the nobility immediately. Everyone is busy laughing and feeling ashamed of you who has become nothing but gossip fodder. Just like when you married that bastard.”

At the height of the war, a scandal of the century shook the Asnel Empire.

The second daughter of Duke Yant, who held immense power as the Emperor’s father-in-law, Catherine H. de Yant, and the second son of the fallen Hamilton family, Dean.

The two differed greatly not only in family background but also in appearance and ability.

While Catherine received scholarships throughout her time at the academy, Dean Hamilton was nearly expelled for repeated failures and poor attitude.

Moreover, compared to Dean Hamilton who was a typical Asnelian handsome man, Catherine had a very ordinary appearance.

Up to this point, anyone would think Dean Hamilton had intentionally seduced Catherine aiming for social advancement.

Such rumors were common enough in high society that Duke Yant didn’t pay much attention.

But the Emperor used this ‘scandal of the century’ to quell the public unrest caused by the war.

“Anyway, I got what I wanted.”

“You think His Majesty the Emperor will move again this time? Tsk, what can you do with those mere commoner rabble?”

The Asnel Empire is a class society. Even if the majority are commoners, they were merely beings who served the Emperor and nobility.

So in Duke Yant’s eyes, his daughter trying to use such lowly beings was displeasing.

As the father and daughter glared at each other silently, the knights approached dragging the deer. The arrow piercing the deer’s neck was tipped with blue dye indicating it was Catherine’s.

“That’s all I can do. As a woman living in this country, I have to borrow the power of even those ‘mere commoner rabble’ to make my voice heard.”

Catherine bent down to pull out the arrow herself and slowly turned around. Holding out the arrow tip demonstratively, she continued.

“You never know. A foolish duke’s daughter thoroughly used and discarded by a man who wasn’t even human, I should look even more pitiful and miserable. That way, no one will be able to take away the Earl title I’ve grasped.”

A strong wind swept the snow covering the forest. As the flying snow obscured below the knees, the fur coats of the father and daughter fluttered.

“Just to get a mere Earl title…”

“Of course not. Watch carefully from now on, Father. How well I protect this ‘mere Earl title’, and whether I’m fit to take over the Duke Yant family.”

With only two daughters for children. For some reason, he couldn’t get grandchildren from either his eldest daughter Rosalyn the Empress or his second daughter Catherine.

Even the young wife he hastily took in had no news…

‘You should have been born a man.’

Duke Yant hawked up dry phlegm and spat it onto the white snow with a thud.

“Useless talk! This time, marry a proper man.”

“Father.”

“Catherine, all I expect from you… is a decent son-in-law and grandchildren of my blood.”

Twenty years ago, ten years ago, and even now, her father’s answer remains the same. His two daughters, his own children, were merely tools to bear grandchildren.

Glaring at her father’s back as he coldly walked away, Catherine shouted.

“My husband isn’t even dead yet! How can you talk about remarriage!”

Caw, as if startled by Catherine’s shout, the distant cry of a crow was heard.

The wind blew fiercely between the father and daughter standing far apart, raising white snow like dust.

Catherine crunched through the snow, closing the distance.

“Father, do you really want to see me go mad?”

Duke Yant, who had been standing still, slowly turned around, exhaling white breath.

And he held out a note to his daughter, who was gritting her teeth. Catherine’s eyes shook violently as she unfolded and read the note.

“Put aside any foolish ambitions, and this time you must marry the man I’ve chosen. After the wedding, I plan to name him as my official heir.”

Once again, her father was trying to clip his daughter’s wings. More forcefully than when he forced her first marriage in the past… even mentioning ‘official heir’.

Catherine crumpled the paper and laughed hollowly with a dejected face.

“All this time, I’ve been the one helping you lead the family… And you want me to hand everything over to someone who isn’t even my son, who doesn’t share a drop of our blood?”

“If you don’t like that… you can bear a grandchild before I die.”

Duke Yant left with those meaningful words. Watching her father walk away, Catherine raised her hand.

Victor Biles, the captain of the Hamilton family’s knights who had been watching from afar, approached her.

Catherine asked dryly, with contempt in her eyes.

“You, did you know?”

“…Yes.”

“Victor Biles, are you going to watch me marry another man again this time?”

The crimson light stretching from the sun setting between the trees enveloped the two.

Catherine waiting for an answer with her chin raised proudly, and Victor Biles’ cloak fluttering in the wind as he stepped back slightly.