I felt dazed, my mind in a haze.

Marriage… did he say?

Did Casius decide to go ahead with marrying Vivian?

‘Why would Casius…’

Duke Diarob must have pressured him in his own way, but Casius wasn’t the type to give in to that.

It would have been more like him to use the information he had to strangle Diarob and call off the marriage with Vivian.

Of course, from my position of needing to make the contract happen, it was fortunate, but…

‘Casius, what on earth are you thinking?’

My thoughts were interrupted as Diarob’s voice overlapped like an answer.

“Rachel, it’s been 7 years since that disappeared.”

“…”

“After frantically searching for that dead thing until now, it seems he’s finally come to his senses.”

Diarob couldn’t hide his smile, seemingly quite satisfied that the marriage approval had been given.

But soon he hardened his expression and warned:

“You are to become the future empress, so you must keep your wits about you.”

“…”

“Don’t spout nonsense and ruin things.”

His downcast gaze, as if urging a response, was quite overbearing.

For now, it would be best to respond obediently. I gently closed my eyes and looked up at him.

“Don’t worry.”

Only then did Diarob disappear outside with a satisfied smile.

*

After that, Diarob didn’t show himself.

One thing was certain. The publicly known father-daughter relationship of the Snowfells was entirely false.

From my perspective, it was rather fortunate. Just seeing that disgusting face was such an ordeal it made me want to draw my sword.

It seemed there was a thorough gag order within the Duke’s household, and the only one who came to see me was the head maid Marianne.

She seemed to think I had amnesia, so she instilled quite a lot of information without leaving much out.

With each passing day, I became the perfect “Vivian Snowfell”.

The Snowfell family motto, traditions, Vivian’s usual way of speaking, and so on… Ridiculous things were implanted in my mind.

I could understand why Diarob was trying to make me into a perfect Snowfell by doing such things.

If it were revealed that Vivian’s mind wasn’t fully sound, there would be problems in becoming the Crown Princess.

It seemed that for Diarob, the position of Crown Princess was more important than the well-being of a daughter who had been on the brink of death for years.

To some extent, I could understand why Vivian had gone mad insisting on becoming the Crown Princess.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I forgive her.

The unnecessarily lavish private room that stirred up loneliness only intensified the solitude.

Still, one fact made me feel relieved.

That Casius was alive and well.

Whenever I felt relief at that heavy truth, questions always surged like a tidal wave at the end.

‘Have you forgotten me by now?’

For the sake of the mission I must carry out, and for his sake too, I hoped he would forget me completely.

So that his pain might be lessened, even if only a little.

Today too, I wished and wished again.

*

After announcing the marriage, Casius immersed himself even more in work.

His hardened face and pale complexion, hardly believable for someone about to be married, looked no different from a person being dragged to the guillotine.

Tikan’s worry deepened as he watched his lord in such a state.

The more he saw, the less he understood his lord’s recent eccentricity.

Casius had made thorough preparations for the meeting of the great nobles.

He had all the cards to silence the main nobles, so there was no need to follow their opinions.

And yet.

‘To approve the marriage with Snowfell?’

Tikan asked his lord, who had suddenly changed his mind, for the first time:

“What are you thinking?”

Casius, lying down with one arm resting on his forehead, drawled with his eyes downcast:

“I’m thinking of tearing Snowfell apart.”

“Pardon?”

Marrying Lady Vivian while tearing Snowfell apart? It was a course of action that didn’t add up.

Because of this, Tikan looked at Casius quietly with a puzzled expression.

For a moment, an enigmatic, cold smile bloomed on Casius’s face.

“Nothing hurts more than falling from a high place.”

Tap, tap – He tapped the hourglass audibly, then turned it upside down.

In reality, the cause of all this tragedy, from beginning to end, was Snowfell.

If Snowfell hadn’t framed Rosemary for treason, he wouldn’t have had to live a life with an expiration date. He wouldn’t have had to push Rachel away.

There wouldn’t have been this tragedy where she disappeared, tearing his heart apart.

With not much life left anyway, Casius decided to stake everything on seeing Snowfell’s downfall.

*

The time passed quickly yet slowly, with complicated thoughts swirling.

Over the past few days, I learned new things about this body.

There were several other scars in various places on the body, besides the ones I had seen before.

They were mostly on the back where they couldn’t be easily seen, so it seemed they had never been exposed externally.

Come to think of it, Vivian seemed to insist on dresses that weren’t low-cut even in hot weather, as if deliberately trying to hide them.

While receiving Crown Princess education, a famous foreign healer came in to treat the traces in parallel, but they weren’t erased completely.

What was impressive was the scar drawn on the left wrist.

‘Could it be that Vivian tried to kill herself?’

Complex questions arose, but they weren’t easily resolved.

Even when I asked the head maid who occasionally came in, the only answer I got was that they were scars from being bitten by a magical beast when she was young.

‘No matter how I look at it, these aren’t injuries caused by a magical beast…’

Having done quite a lot of research on magical beasts, I could tell this much at a glance.

There were many unsettling aspects, so my thoughts continued at length.

But no matter how much I thought about it, nothing particularly stood out.

The Vivian I had known until now was the worst villain if she was a villain, but not someone who would go somewhere and get hurt.

Just remembering how she coveted Casius at the end and told him to send Rosemary’s people to the wasteland, Iergo, made my teeth grind.

‘If she had only pushed me away, I would have thought it was just the rash behavior of a noble lady who couldn’t have what she wanted…’

She was even plotting to drive out the entire Rosemary family.

It seemed absurd from the start that such a person would go somewhere and get hurt.

But…

Complex thoughts arose, but I soon shook them off.

There was no time to dwell on such things now.

The wedding was already just around the corner.

*

As the ceremony drew closer, my anxiety grew like a snowball.

‘Will I be able to seduce Casius with this body?’

To be getting married now as Vivian, when I couldn’t with Rachel.

It’s laughable.

There hasn’t been a single good thing since becoming Vivian, but that one thing seems good.

Casius, because I’ll be able to see you every day.

D – 5

I had a nightmare yesterday.

A nightmare where you looked at me with contemptuous eyes.

Suddenly I’m curious.

What kind of face will you make, what expression will you wear when you see me?

That day when you confessed to me.

I only imagined a trembling wedding ceremony…

Will you come smiling in my dream today?

D – 4

It’s truly hell.

Those horrible patterns we cursed are all over the walls.

The hardest thing to bear is the mirror.

When I see my reflection, I get the urge to smash the mirror because it’s so awful.

Could you marry someone like me, Casius?

The only reason keeping my sanity intact is the fact that you’re still living on borrowed time.

D – 3

I even doubt if it’s really right for me to marry you.

Are you living well now?

It’s laughable to ask such a question after making that choice on my own.

I can clearly picture you foolishly searching all over the empire for me, so I can’t even delude myself into thinking you’re living well.

It’s a night when I miss you.

D – 2

The dream repeats again.

You’re looking at me with contemptuous eyes.

Still, since you’re alive, it’s hard to call this a nightmare.

Anyway, you’re alive and looking at me.

That’s enough.

D – 1

I want to see you, yet I don’t want to see you.

As the wedding approaches, unnecessary anxiety washes over me.

What if I can’t fulfill the contract?

What if I can’t save you?

D – 0]

The wedding day finally dawned.

It was time I had to accept that I was Vivian.

The head maid, Marianne, with a beaming face, placed a necklace so splendid it looked like it might break my neck.

“When His Highness sees this appearance, he’ll have no choice but to fall head over heels for you, miss.”

In the mirror was Vivian, lavishly adorned.

No matter how many times I looked, it was an appearance I couldn’t get used to, but setting aside personal feelings, it was certainly a striking beauty.

Unlike my previous self, who was often described as pure, cat-like eyes that were noticeably glamorous and haughty stood out.

With the lavish dress and tiara added, that beauty was multiplied.

But that doesn’t mean Casius will like Vivian, as Marianne said.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I felt even more certain.

‘If even I feel like vomiting just looking at it, how much worse must it be for you?’

The chains of hopelessness tightly bound my heart.

*

To celebrate the joyous occasion that had befallen the Wolfdor Empire after decades, numerous guests gathered.

But even after quite a long time had passed, the main characters still hadn’t shown themselves.

There was constant murmuring in the audience.

“I saw earlier that the bride seemed to be waiting.”

“It looks like His Highness hasn’t come out yet.”

“Could it be that His Highness isn’t pleased with this marriage?”