While her father and husband argued in the reception room, Adelheit trembled as she guarded the door.

Was it because she had stayed up all night with her eyes open? Her pale face, looking particularly unattractive today, was reflected in the cold glass window of the hallway.

It was then that she heard the sound of someone slamming the table. Following that, the angry voice of Grand Duke Ansgar echoed through the thick wooden door into the hallway.

“Are you mocking me now?”

“Your Grace. I promised to give you my daughter, but I never said I would give you Charlotte. Here, this is the contract you signed yourself.”

Count Reichenau stood firm, waving the contract and marriage oath bearing signatures from both parties.

“This joke has gone too far. Are you saying Reichenau had another daughter besides Charlotte? You’ve been hiding her all this time? Bringing in some dirty bastard girl who’s not even fit to be…”

“Adelheit’s name was recorded on the stone tablet seventeen years ago. Doubting her lineage is an insult to House Reichenau.”

“…Recorded on the stone tablet, you say?”

The procedure for recording a name on the family’s stone tablet was complicated and rigorous. It required three witnesses to prove that a woman who had not been with a man for over a year had conceived the head of the family’s seed, and ultimately needed the guarantee of the high priest. With this, the Grand Duke’s plan to claim the marriage invalid due to unclear lineage was completely blocked.

As Valentin’s face turned ashen, the Count continued with a very tired expression.

“Unless it was before signing the marriage oath… Your Grace, did you not enter the bridal chamber yesterday?”

It was an absurd claim that made him want to laugh bitterly. The Grand Duke glared at Count Reichenau with bulging eyes.

His encounter with the bride in the bridal chamber had lasted less than five minutes. Moreover, Reichenau’s witnesses had been standing in a circle just beyond the thin curtain, so the Count must have known that there had been no contact between them.

Yet he dared to take such a brazen attitude.

“It wasn’t just Reichenau’s witnesses in the bridal chamber last night. You already know I didn’t lay a finger on your daughter.”

“Grand Duke.”

Count Reichenau leaned back in his chair leisurely as he continued. His green eyes gleamed cruelly.

“What happened in the bridal chamber last night is not important. What matters is what those who witnessed it will say they saw.”

“…”

He was right. If Reichenau’s witnesses spread false rumors that he and the bride had spent the night together, Ansgar’s honor would plummet to the ground. Regardless of the truth.

‘What lord would spread false rumors while tarnishing his own daughter’s honor?’

But looking at the Count’s eyes gleaming with greed, it seemed he was more than capable of doing so. Valentin finally realized he had fallen into a terrible trap.

It was a thoroughly fraudulent marriage that exploited the loophole of not being able to see the bride’s face until entering the bridal chamber. If there had been multiple daughters, he would have been more careful from the start, but he had carelessly overlooked it since Charlotte was the only daughter raised openly until now.

‘In the end, the contract only specified receiving a daughter of Reichenau…’

As Valentin’s words were choked with anger, Count Reichenau opened his mouth triumphantly.

“We have fulfilled all the terms of the marriage contract on our side. You know well that filing for divorce without serious grounds in such a case is tantamount to excommunication, don’t you, Your Grace?”

Valentin gritted his teeth. The Count of Reichenau was right. The marriage vow sworn before God Morig could not be broken without serious grounds. Unless there had been a problem with the bride’s lineage, it was futile struggling from the start.

Valentin irritably stood up from his seat. As soon as he flung the door open, he came face to face with a small, pale woman standing stiffly. The fraud who had become his wife as of yesterday.

“…”

He was about to pass by Adelheit as if she wasn’t worth dealing with, but paused briefly to look down at the woman. Disheveled hair from being suddenly dragged out, a haggard face drenched in fatigue, an unripe and plain body without a hint of allure.

The Grand Duke’s hateful gaze swept over her from head to toe. He spat out:

“This half-grown thing is supposed to be a daughter and a woman? You’ve done well grafting this on.”

In the face of those contemptuous words, all Adelheit could do was bow her head and pray for her husband’s anger to pass. Clicking his tongue briefly, Valentin finally brushed past Adelheit.

The door was roughly opened and then slammed shut. And with that, Valentin marched off to the battlefield.

It was three years ago, when Adelheit had just turned seventeen.

* * *

“Were you here again?”

Adelheit opened her eyes at the voice calling her. She rose from Morig’s altar where she had been kneeling. The hem of her dress was damp from the moisture of the damp basement.

A middle-aged woman hurriedly approached and draped a thin cloak over her shoulders.

“It’s good to offer prayers, but you must take care of your health too. The wind and rain were so fierce today.”

“I’m fine, Grita.”

Grita was Adel’s wet nurse and chamber maid, the only person who had followed her from Reichenau territory.

She was one of the few people who remembered Adelheit’s dead birth mother, and the only support Adelheit had to endure in the cold and barren Ansgar territory.

Although, sometimes she would look at her with eyes so chilling it made her heart sink.

“Oh my…”

Grita glanced at the half-burned talisman on the altar and let out a long sigh like a complaint.

“Were you praying for the Grand Duke’s safe return again?”

“…”

“What on earth is so good about him that you pray like this every day?”

“I feel a little more at ease if I do at least this…”

She barely answered in a subdued voice.

“…You speak as if atoning again. I’ve told you countless times that you’re not at fault for this marriage.”

Grita smoothed her furrowed brow at Adelheit’s cowering figure. Though she grumbled, Adelheit’s judgment was correct. If she didn’t make these gestures, the Grand Duchess’s reputation would have plummeted even further than it already had.

That’s how much each day felt like walking on thin ice.

Grita gathered and cleared away the ashes on the altar, changing the mood with a jest.

“I’ll let it slide that you frequent the temple, but what if you encounter the dragon of Bützleben while wandering alone so fearlessly?”

A faint smile spread across Adelheit’s pale face. It seemed Grita wasn’t in such a bad mood today.

“You must see me as a very young child. I’m long past the age of being scared by legendary tales.”

“I say this because it might not be just a legend. I hear there have been livestock disappearing into beast lairs lately. Quite a few sheep have gone missing, they say.”

“The sheep have disappeared?”

“They say the barn doors are broken, and carcasses with their entrails eaten are found dozens of acres away.”

It was a terrible story, but at the same time not so special in the Bützleben region. All four northern territories, including Ansgar, frequently suffered attacks from wild animals in winter.

Adelheit shuddered lightly, recalling the cow carcass she had accidentally witnessed last winter.

“That’s awful. I hope no one was hurt?”

“The priest has been diligently consecrating… Still, you must be careful. Always be accompanied by a guard when I’m not around.”

She barely managed to nod.

“I was just being troublesome today. I didn’t know when the prayer would end either.”

“If you’re done, let’s go back. Your hands are like ice. You’re going straight to see the steward, right?”

“Yes.”

For the past few months, Adel had been helping the steward with small tasks. As soon as he learned that she could read and write skillfully, the steward entrusted her with organizing old ledgers.

Perhaps Count Reichenau had harbored vain hopes that she might belatedly develop healing abilities. For that reason, Adel had received the same education as Charlotte until she turned fifteen.

Reading and writing, of course, as well as ancient Arian language, embroidery, poetry, dance, and etiquette…

‘It must be because of that oracle the Count received when I was born. I don’t know the contents, but there must be a reason for it there.’

In any case, it was fortunate that she had at least some skills. If she didn’t have even these abilities, she would have been treated as nothing more than a parasite consuming food.

Even now, the old retainers openly criticized Adel as the woman who had shamelessly deceived Ansgar. Although she too was a victim of the fraudulent marriage, no one seemed to give that much thought.

To the northerners, Adel was nothing more than an expensive defective product.

‘They naturally expected a mistress with powerful healing abilities. Not an ordinary woman like me.’

The Bützleben region always lacked healers. Especially in Ansgar territory, located furthest north, many people were attacked by magical beasts. In winter, people often lost hands and feet to severe frostbite.

Amidst all this, news of the marriage between the daughter of Reichenau and the Grand Duke had the whole of Ansgar in a flutter. The knights of the family, who were prone to minor injuries, had especially high expectations.

That hopeful optimism quickly turned to anger when it was revealed that the Grand Duchess, brought at a high price, was utterly useless.

Fortunately, Ansgar’s old steward was a fair man. Since she started helping out like this, the quality and quantity of the meager supplies she received gradually improved.

“Your Highness. I’ll take this shortcut back to the kitchen. Is it alright if I go ahead?”

“Of course. See you later.”

Adel briefly gazed at Grita’s busy retreating figure before hurriedly turning her steps towards the right corridor.

“…”

However, she stopped abruptly after just a few steps. An unwelcome figure was visible at the end of the corridor.

Oscar, Valentin’s half-brother.

The last she had heard, he had been forced to join as a knight-errant due to frequent women troubles, but when on earth had he returned…

‘I hadn’t heard anything about his whereabouts even until this morning.’

She always felt uncomfortable around that man. Ignoring her wary gaze, Oscar approached, narrowing the distance, and spoke with a grin.

“Adelheit. Are you on your way back from the temple?”

His sticky gaze swept over her from head to toe.

“No matter how fervently you pray, my brother won’t know.”

“…”

“For me? Did you pray for me too?”

Adel bit her lip with a troubled expression. Anything she said would sound inappropriate. It was too late to regret not sending Grita ahead first.

“That dress…”

Feeling Oscar’s persistent gaze, Adelheit pulled at her worn sleeve to hide it. It had been a mistake to forget to mend it for the past few days due to being busy with work.

Oscar’s eyes darkened further. He gritted his teeth and spat out:

“If it were me, I wouldn’t treat you like this.”

Adel looked around anxiously, trying to call for a maid or guard. Oscar raised the corner of his mouth as if her actions were very amusing.

“The guards won’t come.”

“Please, maintain your dignity, Young Lord.”

“How can I maintain any more dignity than this?”

The man stepped closer despite her plea and grabbed Adelheit’s thin wrist. Adel pushed him away in alarm.

“People might see… I am your brother’s wife. Please…”

“How can you be my sister-in-law when you’ve never spent the night with my brother?”

At those brazen words, Adelheit’s face turned deathly pale.