It was around noon when the awkward second son came to visit.

The Duke sat opposite his son with an uncomfortable expression. He had already heard that four of the mercenaries dispatched by the guild had returned in a reflective state, and Arasila had taken the remaining one.

The son, who resembled him in every way except for eyes that were the spitting image of his mother’s, crossed his legs without losing composure even in front of him.

“You have no manners, Demian.”

“Not as much as a father who sends a rude gift to his son’s prospective bride.”

“Gift? What gift did I give?”

The Duke feigned ignorance. Demian raised the corner of his mouth slightly, looking unsurprised. His father was the type to always pretend not to know anything unfavorable to him.

Vile, petty, and utterly small-minded.

He pulled out a neatly folded paper from inside his formal jacket and held it out. It was a statement obtained by torturing the mercenary the night before.

“Choose.”

“What?”

The Duke asked back, not showing his pale face after confirming the contents of the statement. Demian said with an expressionless face.

“Whether you’ll stay quiet until the wedding instead of me disguising the captured mercenary as a thief and disposing of him, or whether you’ll raise your son’s image as a romantic who reported even his father for his lover.”

The Duke’s hand on the armrest trembled. Unable to contain his anger, he burst out shouting.

“You brat! How dare you threaten your father?!”

“I’ve heard enough of that from the Duchess, so put it away. Right now, you just need to choose from the options I’ve given you.”

A cold gaze that was hard to believe belonged to a father and son pressed on the Duke. The Duke, gritting his teeth until his jawbone protruded, racked his brains.

If this matter became public, Demian would also take a hit. Perhaps the Marquis’ side would become enraged and oppose the marriage.

That’s why Demian didn’t immediately report his father and personally came to threaten him.

“Do you think only I will suffer if it’s revealed that I did such a thing to Lady Hugo?”

“We’ll both suffer losses. But who do you think will take the bigger hit? Especially if His Majesty finds out.”

Faced with his father who was momentarily at a loss for words, Demian continued speaking without inflection.

“No matter what you do, I won’t give up on this marriage. And the same goes for Lady Hugo. Can’t you tell from how she personally handed over the mercenary to me?”

In truth, if things were normal, Arasila would have taken the mercenary to the authorities. But her current goal was marriage, so she took him to Demian.

For him to use as a blade against his family.

The Duke finally realized. As long as Arasila Hugo and Demian Vandermir’s intentions aligned, the marriage could not be stopped.

The union of an oddball and a stubborn one was so solid that it was difficult to break.

“Hurry and choose.”

At his son’s cold urging, the Duke reluctantly opened his mouth.

“…Since I hear my son’s prospective bride was attacked by thieves, I don’t know what kind of comfort I should send.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve prepared everything in anticipation of this.”

Demian smiled like a picture and pulled out another sheet of paper from his breast.

It was none other than a document consenting to the marriage of Arasila Hugo and Demian Vandermir.

“Hah……”

“All you need to do is sign, Father.”

Demian handed a pen to the Duke, who wore an exasperated expression. It was truly impressive preparation, the sarcasm rising to the tip of the Duke’s tongue.

However, in the end, the Duke left his handwritten signature on the document. Demian left with a satisfied face, handing over the statement and pocketing the consent form.

After he disappeared, the Duchess came looking for her husband with a worried face.

“Darling, are you alright? What on earth did Demian say?”

Instead of answering, the Duke flung the statement over and slammed his fist down.

He couldn’t believe those foolish men failed to deal with one young woman and caused this mess.

‘They said they’d seal their lips with suicide if they failed the mission! Useless things!’

Of course, Arasila had bound them with magic before they had the chance, but the Duke couldn’t think that far and lit a cigar while grinding his teeth.

Taking a big puff and exhaling, his boiling insides seemed to calm down a little.

Meanwhile, the Duchess who had read the statement was on the verge of fainting, holding her forehead.

“What should we do now, darling.”

The Duke gestured to his whimpering wife to keep quiet and sank into thought.

‘I’ve messed up too many things.’

There had been several failed attempts to interfere with the marriage. As a result, he had given away too many points of attack.

If he stirred things up any further, he might lose other things while only making a fool of himself.

“It seems we’ll have to let them marry like this.”

The Duke said after a long while. If he persisted any further, it would be the tipping point for backlash. He had to back down.

“What? But darling, if we think about Father’s will, we should try to stop it somehow…”

“As long as I’m alive, no matter how much Demian marries Hugo’s daughter, he can’t take the Duke’s position.”

The succession of the title didn’t happen simultaneously with marriage. It was merely that the grandson who married Hugo’s granddaughter would be designated as the heir apparent.

But even that would be unknown to anyone unless the Vandermir ducal family announced it.

The Emperor was a sly fox who wanted to honor his friend’s will but didn’t want to actively interfere in the ducal family’s succession struggle.

“We’ll have to plan for the future.”

“But still…”

“Enough! If only you had handled things properly from the beginning, it wouldn’t have come to this!”

The Duke lashed out, blaming his wife. The Duchess apologized, shrinking her shoulders.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Agh!”

Unable to control his temper, the Duke kicked the table and went outside. Oscar approached the Duchess who was left alone, looking dejected.

“Mother, are you alright?”

“Oh Oscar, you’re all I have left.”

The Duchess spread her arms wide and embraced her son. Oscar patted her back appropriately before pulling away.

What he was curious about was not his mother’s mood, but Demian’s marriage.

“So, is Demian really getting married like this?”

“It seems we have no choice. But don’t worry too much. The Vandermir dukedom is yours.”

The Duchess gripped her son’s hand tightly. No matter what, she would make it so.

Faced with his mother steeling her resolve, Oscar was strangely thinking of Arasila. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen, too precious to give to his half-brother.

‘I could seduce her and stop the marriage, couldn’t I?’

Oscar’s lips curled up slightly as he thought something that would make his parents faint if they knew. Playing with women like toys and then discarding them was his specialty.

There were already countless victims in the Vandermir duchy.

‘Until now, there hasn’t been a woman I couldn’t seduce, that’s what I’m saying!’

The Duchess had quite a good appearance, so Oscar, who inherited this, was also a handsome man in others’ eyes. He might not be as good as Demian, but instead, he had the position of the eldest son supported by the family.

If he used those to seduce Arasila, she would surely fall for him like other women.

The day before the wedding, the prenuptial agreement was completed.

Demian and Arasila visited the temple under the pretext of submitting their marriage registration. The main purpose was to notarize the contract, but this way, no one would find it strange that the two came to the temple.

“I’d like you to succeed to the Duke’s position within 5 years if possible. I want to divorce quickly.”

“It’s the same for me. Don’t worry, I’ll devote my whole body to it.”

The two chatted quietly as they walked down the temple corridor. From a distance, they looked quite harmonious.

Since they announced it as a love marriage, they had to show a good relationship to the outside.

While waiting for the priest who would notarize in the temple reception room, Arasila looked over the contract once again.

During the past month of wedding preparations, this prenuptial agreement was what they put the most effort into. They wrote clauses with annotations, struggling to minimize their losses.

She took in the last clause of the contract.

“Never fall in love with each other during the contract period.”

As if by agreement, this phrase popped out simultaneously when setting the last clause.

Neither Demian nor Arasila wanted to face the messy situation of the other falling in love and clinging to them.

“Lord, I’ll warn you again just in case.”

“…?”

Arasila, wearing a lavender-colored dress similar to her hair color, looked directly into Demian’s eyes and said.

“No matter how charming I am, you mustn’t fall for me. Work is more important to me than love.”

“…As if you’re any different.”

Demian retorted with a somewhat dumbfounded face. Revenge was more important than love for him too.

“My lady, you always have excessive confidence.”

“When you look like this, wouldn’t anyone? Besides, there were many men who pretended to dislike me or be uninterested when I was young, but later came to confess.”

There were quite a few men who were interested in Arasila but, because she was indifferent to them, their pride was hurt and they bothered her unnecessarily.

Then they would belatedly confess their feelings, which Arasila found absurd and unpleasant.

“Among them, some were severe enough to harass me. Of course, I kicked and burst all those guys.”

“…What did you burst?”

“Shall I explain in detail?”

Demian, feeling dizzy at the angelic smiling face, waved his hand.

“That’s enough.”

Just then, the high-ranking priest who would notarize entered the reception room. He was famous for his long career and integrity, a trustworthy person.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Priest Taylor. What matter would you like me to notarize?”

“This prenuptial agreement.”

The priest, somewhere between middle-aged and elderly, looked over the contract Arasila handed him with a gentle face.

Despite knowing that the marriage of these two, which had caused a stir in society, was fake, he remained calm without wavering.

“All matters related to this contract must be known only to the three of us present here now.”

The priest nodded at Demian’s stern request. Originally, when getting notarization at the temple, the priest in charge was absolutely forbidden from divulging related content externally.

“As a servant of Stenia, the guardian deity of the Setron Empire, I swear. All conversations we have and documents exchanged will be kept strictly confidential.”

“Thank you, Priest.”

After getting the contract notarized by the priest and leaving a copy, the two took their contracts and went outside.

“Then, I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”

“Yes, see you tomorrow.”

Demian and Arasila exchanged greetings as if attending someone else’s wedding, then turned and went their separate ways.

It was the last day they parted in opposite directions.

“Those two met with the notary priest?”

Frederick raised one eyebrow as he heard the report from his subordinate who was attached to Arasila as a surveillance. They said they went to the temple to submit their marriage registration, so why a notary priest?

‘There’s no way they didn’t have someone to notarize the marriage.’

Arasila had a good relationship with her family, and Demian had the Red Hawk Knights. There was no reason to ask a priest to notarize the marriage.

“Did you find out what they had notarized?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I couldn’t find out that far.”

Frederick tapped the desk. He remembered Arasila, who had boldly claimed she had been meeting Demian in secret.

‘Why did you go to see a notary priest with Lord Vandermir, Arasila.’

Unless you made some kind of deal, there’s no reason to meet a notary priest.

The suspicion in his crimson eyes deepened. He took out again the documents handed to him by his subordinate a few days ago. It was a summary of the background investigation on Demian.

It contained information that an arranged marriage was promised between the Vandermir ducal family and the Hugo marquis family.

‘As expected, it’s not a marriage out of love.’

A laugh escaped through Frederick’s lips. Although he didn’t know yet what was at stake in this marriage, this was enough to draw a conclusion.

Arasila is not marrying Demian Vandermir because she truly likes him. She’s doing it because of unavoidable circumstances.

‘Poor Arasila. Don’t worry, I’ll save you.’

Frederick’s smile deepened. It was always the prince who rescued the princess captured by the enemy.

“Find out from that priest what those two had notarized. I don’t care if you threaten or persuade him.”

He ordered his subordinate with a bright face. The setting sun shyly tinged his white face.