The Maid's Contract Marriage (1 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 195

The day of the official debutante presentation—held only once every five years—was drawing near.

Originally an annual event, the debutante presentation began with an audience before the Emperor and Empress, attended by noble young ladies aged seventeen to eighteen who had reached adulthood, as well as newly married ladies.

However, on rare occasions, the ceremony was postponed for a year due to periods of national mourning or matters concerning the Imperial family.

In such cases, young ladies who had come of age over two consecutive years would debut together the following year, resulting in unusually large crowds on presentation day.

It had been a fully understandable and acceptable reason to delay the debutante presentation by about a year: Crown Prince Kyle, the beloved prince of the entire Empire, had departed for war five years ago to serve the nation.

Besides, with the noble marriage ban in place, there was no urgency for the debutante event, and since everyone initially believed the war would not last long, the postponement was readily accepted.

The command to refrain from debutante presentations and marriages—for the sake of noble men fulfilling their wartime duties and, to some extent, to select a future Crown Princess—was viewed as an honorable directive.

Yet grim tidings from the battlefield kept arriving, causing the debutante presentation to be postponed year after year.

For the first three years of the war, repeated defeats and massive casualties justified the delays; afterward, hopeful news of Arthur’s heroic exploits suggested the war might truly end soon, allowing people to sustain their hopeful anticipation a bit longer.

However, in the fourth year, Crown Prince Kyle—who had been commanding a separate army apart from Arthur—suffered a major defeat due to a strategic misjudgment and was captured by the enemy, delaying everything by yet another year.

Unlike Arthur, whose victories kept mounting, Kyle began to face doubts about his competence, and his reputation declined. In this uncertain situation—where it was unclear whether the Crown Prince would even return alive—no noble dared urge for the debutante presentation to be held or request the lifting of the marriage ban, even as eligible young ladies grew older.

Negotiations for a prisoner exchange involving the Crown Prince collapsed, and the fifth year of the war began.

The nobles could do nothing but continue waiting without pressuring the Imperial family.

And then, after fierce battles, Arthur rescued Kyle, led the war to final victory, and returned with enemy royalty as hostages for the peace treaty.

At long last, the nobles could resume all the long-awaited events.

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