The reception room, with only the two of them remaining, was quiet.

Steam rose gently from the afternoon tea pot placed on the table. A hand elegantly holding the handle of a teacup moved silently. As he set down the teacup he was holding onto the saucer, the man spoke in a low voice.

“It shouldn’t be a difficult choice.”

Leaning back comfortably, with his hands clasped together, the man’s expression looked relaxed. His gaze was like that of a predator cornering easy prey.

“Whether to become the sixth plaything of the pervert Marquis… or to become the Grand Duchess who will be free in three years.”

Aidel’s body trembled slightly. She knew it was an easy decision that even a three-year-old child could make, but somehow her mouth wouldn’t open easily.

Although clearly different from the lust-filled gaze of the Marquis he mentioned… the deep blue eyes staring intently at her seemed dangerous in another sense.

“Do you need more time to think? It doesn’t seem like you have that luxury.”

Unable to hide her impatience, she briefly bit her lip and released it. Like watercolor spreading, her light pink lips turned a deeper shade of red.

As her slightly swollen lips parted, the man’s gaze momentarily lost its composure. As the instinct to explore those petal-like lips right away rose within him, the man clenched his teeth tightly.

“…I’ll do it. The contract Your Highness the Grand Duke spoke of.”

Finally, the awaited answer came. Skillfully concealing his emotions, the man returned to his nonchalant expression as if nothing had happened.

“A wise choice.”

The man’s face, wearing a languid smile of satisfaction, was breathtakingly alluring. Her pounding heartbeat echoed in her ears like a warning sound.

‘Is this really a wise choice…?’

It felt like falling into an inescapable trap.

* * *

Aidel decided to run away… no, to become independent.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime decision made after living as an artificial flower of the Fluor Count’s family for twenty years.

Although she had been preparing for a long time, at this moment her resolve became even firmer. Reflecting her determination, the delicate hand holding the cutlery gripped it so tightly that veins protruded.

“Aren’t you happy too, sister?”

Roselyn, with a smile as fresh as the rose scent filling the dining room, tucked her luscious reddish-brown hair behind her ear and observed Aidel’s expression.

Though her face appeared innocent on the surface, the eyes looking at Aidel’s expressionless face glinted cunningly. As if she were a spectator watching her sister’s impending misfortune from the front row.

“It’s an unparalleled fortune for your sister. To become a Marchioness, no less.”

“That’s right. Although sister has a ‘flaw’… she’s still very beautiful, so I’m sure the Marquis will be pleased.”

The Countess answered on Aidel’s behalf while sipping wine, and Roselyn chimed in, emphasizing the ‘flaw’ – her favorite topic.

The word “beautiful” wasn’t a genuine compliment to Aidel’s appearance. It was merely a setup for what would follow.

“What good is beauty? After all, she’s just an artificial flower without fragrance…”

“Still, a flower is a flower. Sister is a Fluor, after all.”

“Hmph! I wonder about that…”

The Countess’s gaze towards Aidel was filled with deep contempt. Her expression seemed to imply that Aidel wasn’t truly born of the Fluor Count’s family.

And Roselyn’s face, watching the Countess’s expression with satisfaction like a well-fed cat…

This scene, continuing since childhood, had been repeating for over a decade like a never-ending old play.

‘Here we go again.’

Aidel swallowed the familiar sense of humiliation along with the food in her mouth. Having finished her meal, she picked up the napkin she had placed on her thigh and wiped her mouth with a composed expression.

The Countess, who had been looking at her with displeasure, completely changed her expression as she turned to Roselyn. With an affectionate smile, the Countess’s face was infinitely loving.

“By the way, our Roselyn is blooming more and more with each passing day. I hear the young nobles are losing their minds over your increasingly strong rose fragrance? Even ladies with eligible sons of marriageable age are pestering me to bring you to tea time.”

“Mother, please! You’re embarrassing me. I have no intention of courting anyone yet.”

“You’re already eighteen, it’s time to look for a good match. I have no intention of sending you off to just anyone. The empire’s finest flower should ascend to the highest position.”

It was clearly a different treatment from herself, who was being sold off in marriage to a Marquis in his fifties who had been married five times. The Countess and Roselyn, smiling at each other, seemed to be in a different space altogether.

As always, she was merely a foreigner who belonged nowhere in this household. Perhaps this was a fate determined from the moment of her birth.

Although it was a family secret not known to outsiders, the descendants of the Fluor Count family, who were said to have received the blessing of a flower fairy in the distant past, are born with the fragrance of their birth flower.

Having a unique body scent without wearing perfume was one proof of being of Fluor lineage.

‘Only I… was born without fragrance.’

For a Fluor child to be born without fragrance was like being born with a disability, such as missing an arm or a leg.

No, it might have been better if she had been born without an arm or leg…

Despite being the legitimate heir of the Count, Aidel’s birth without color or scent caused great controversy in the family. Eventually, family members accused her mother of being an unfaithful woman. Bearing the brunt of accusations of carrying a seed that wasn’t Fluor’s, her mother, who had been ailing, passed away less than a year after giving birth.

The arrow of blame turned to Aidel who was left behind. There was pressure from the family to send her away, doubting her origins, but Count Fluor accepted her as his daughter because she was born of the woman he loved.

In exchange, he took a second wife designated by the family, and that woman is Aidel’s stepmother sitting before her now. She gave birth to Roselyn, who was born with the rose as her birth flower, as if to prove a point.

“Sister should marry first before I can think about marriage. Spring is coming soon, so it would be perfect for a wedding ceremony!”

Roselyn said, clapping her hands with a childlike, bright expression. At first glance, it seemed like an innocent remark, but it contained the intention of wanting the marriage to proceed as quickly as possible.

“The Count said he would return from inspecting the territory by the middle of next month.”

Aidel’s keen mind clearly read the Countess’s intention to quickly proceed with her marriage, taking advantage of her father’s absence.

“By then, your wedding preparations should be finished. We’ve explained that you haven’t had your debutante ball because you’re a modest and virtuous lady, so don’t act rashly and focus on preparing for the wedding quietly.”

As the Countess said, she had indeed been living in seclusion without any external activities. Partly because she was ostracized within the family, but also because she had no interest in social activities like other young ladies.

“The head maid said that the light in your room was on until late last night… Were you reading books again?”

“Sister spends every day with her nose in a book. Using the allowance father gives her to buy books…”

Roselyn looked over Aidel’s utterly plain dress sitting across from her. Her tone was tinged with pity, but her eyes clearly mocked Aidel for choosing reading over adornment.

Since childhood, Aidel had grown up shut away in the library. In a household where she had nowhere to belong, her only solace was reading books. She preferred new books to new dresses. They contained a world she couldn’t experience directly.

In particular, she was interested in books related to law and administration. At first, she started by reading the same books her father read, wanting to have something to talk about with him. Her brilliant mind quickly absorbed the knowledge, but she never had the chance to show it.

“What good does reading books do… You should have spent that time learning one more etiquette rule.”

The Countess clicked her tongue, looking at Aidel with incomprehension. As she said, what society expected from a lady of noble rank was etiquette and culture learned through practice, rather than knowledge in her head.

Most noble young ladies received home tutoring or entered a girls’ school until they were sixteen to acquire basic knowledge, then made their debut in society through balls or salons. There, they would meet a suitable partner or marry someone chosen by their family.

Perhaps she should consider herself fortunate for not being sold off in the so-called marriage market until she was twenty.

“You’re going to dress like this even when the Chalet Marquis family might visit before the wedding? Go to the dressmaker and have clothes made, for the sake of the family’s dignity.”

The Countess said with an even more displeased expression than before. Aidel nodded quietly, as if agreeing with those words. It was just the excuse she needed to go outside.

“Remember, all preparations must be completed before the Count returns.”

Her father, usually cold and indifferent but fair in nature, might have stopped this marriage proceeding without her consent.

But even if it could be stopped this time…

‘It will happen again soon.’

For herself, who had already come of age, staying in this household would only lead to another marriage where she would be sold off.

So Aidel decided.

To take the entrance exam for the Administrative Department of the Yupitera Imperial University, based on the academic knowledge she had accumulated through books!

If she could obtain an acceptance letter from the Imperial University, she could postpone the unwanted political marriage, at least for a while.

Her ultimate goal was to graduate from the Imperial University and become an official or scholar, gaining independence from her family.

From society’s perspective, this might be a path a middle-class commoner woman would choose, but not a lady from the long-established Fluor family.

However, to avoid an unwanted marriage and escape from a family where she had no place, this was the best option.

‘The exam results should be out around the time father returns.’

Although she usually kept to herself, the pretext of wedding preparations was an appropriate excuse to go out and take the entrance exam.

If she could take the Imperial University entrance exam scheduled for next week, and present the acceptance letter to her father who would return just in time, she might be able to get permission to enroll.

‘I will… definitely pass.’

Under her long eyelashes, her clear light green eyes shone like hard glass with firm determination.

It was the moment she resolved to no longer be an artificial flower living like the dead, but to become a living flower breathing on her own.

However, at this time, she didn’t know.

That the Fluor flower, who had declared her independence, would soon be caught in someone’s grasp and become precarious…