“Lady Egritte! It’s unbelievable that she’s coming here!”
The Inkhart estate, the northern grand duchy.
Rose Temery, the youngest daughter of the Temery family, the most loyal among Inkhart’s retainers, sobbed and buried her face in Lady Egritte’s lap.
Her young face was filled with anger and jealousy.
“You said it couldn’t be. That it was just a marriage, and that His Grace the Grand Duke had not even a shred of affection for that woman! Then why is she coming to our castle!”
“You clearly said that though he would marry, the woman from the Porche family would not be allowed into this castle.”
Egritte sighed as if she herself was frustrated and patted Rose’s back.
“I told him to be so wary of the south. His Grace the Grand Duke is still too young indeed.”
Her tone implied concern for the north. However, she was disparaging the marquis Darius’s decision as ‘immature’.
Rose Temery, still young and naive, did not understand Egritte’s true intentions.
Egritte was the lady who oversaw the internal affairs of the north.
She was also a respected woman of Darius’s family, the Inkharts.
When Darius inherited the grand duchy title due to his father’s sudden death, the Inkhart relatives opposed it, saying Darius was too young to take on the role of grand duke.
Thus, at the family council, Egritte, Darius’s distant relative, was chosen as his assistant. Her role was to help Darius and take care of the grand ducal household.
“I couldn’t accept it when Lord Darius was to marry such a woman, but I endured it! Because you said he was fulfilling his duties as the marquis! But for a woman he married out of obligation to shamelessly try to enter this castle as if she’s the real wife!”
“Rose, it doesn’t make sense for such a large castle to be without a lady. In a way, it’s a good thing. Now I can retire to the back room with peace of mind.”
“What do you mean by that! You have been the one running this castle, Lady Egritte!”
Rose was shocked. She couldn’t even imagine Inkhart Castle without Lady Egritte.
“I merely took charge of the castle temporarily, the true owner is the newly arrived Lady Anette.”
At Egritte’s bitter smile, Rose ground her teeth.
On top of taking His Grace the Grand Duke, now even Lady Egritte’s position. Just what is that woman.
“That woman, I can’t forgive her!”
* * *
“Don’t you dare mistakenly think His Grace the Grand Duke personally brought you to this castle! The Porche family is the enemy of the north, so as the daughter of that family, the same goes for you!”
A brazen finger pointed at my chest.
Blonde hair parted in two, blue eyes. A pretty girl who seemed to have grown up only in beauty, with white skin.
I, who had just arrived in the north, couldn’t have done anything to earn this girl’s resentment. So why is she baring her teeth at me like a cat on edge as soon as she sees me?
‘In front of Darius, she was purring like a well-fed cat.’
Hah, how laughable.
The name of this girl pointing her finger at me, the grand duchess, on my first day entering the grand ducal household, is Rose Temery. A character I’ve also read about in the original work.
As the youngest daughter of the Temery family, the loyal knight family to the male lead, she had a crush on Darius from a very young age. She was also mentioned as a candidate for remarriage when Anette died and the position of Darius’s wife became vacant.
‘Even if he didn’t marry Rose, the Temery family had already pledged loyalty to Darius for generations, and above all, the true love, the female lead, appeared, so that story went down the drain.’
“That’s all I have to say. Don’t brazenly show your face around here and live quietly like a dead mouse!”
In a sense, Rose Temery and I, Anette Porche, are also comrades. Comrades as female supporting characters who married the protagonist but were not chosen, or had an unrequited love for the protagonist.
Since there are few people and no social events in the north, Rose, as a young lady of the Temery family, had nowhere else to go and frequently visited the grand ducal household.
While other young ladies would be attending or hosting tea parties, learning the ways of high society, she watched her brother and Darius wielding swords in the training grounds.
In the grand ducal household with no special female lead or master other than the grand duke and Darius, this young lady was doted on as if she were the lady of the house. To the point where they would overlook most of her whims.
‘In the original work too, this was Rose’s reaction when she first saw the female lead.’
Yes, the role of the villainous supporting character, drawn as if painted.
She was like that just now too, when taking me to the grand duke.
“You must have had a hard time coming here, Darius elder brother. Is this Lady Anette? Since you’ll be unfamiliar with this place, I’ll escort Lady Anette to her room!”
She made her eyes sparkle in front of Darius, but as soon as we were alone, this is how it is.
Perhaps it’s confidence from having lived in this castle longer than the newly arrived grand duchess.
“Strangely, I’m not getting angry even though Acorn is acting like this.”
“Wh-what did you say?”
Oops, Rose’s face turned bright red at the unintentional utterance of my true thoughts.
Well, that’s because Rose Temery is only 15 years old right now. A 15-year-old whose development makes her look about 13.
No matter how much Rose raises her head and wears high heels, the top of her head doesn’t even reach my chest.
Just how old was she when she met the female lead?
“I guess at 15, you’re at the age when you think your life is like a romance novel. I’m envious. The springtime of life.”
At that age, you can do anything, so instead of being a villainess in your precious youth, why don’t you consider a different path?
“Are you looking down on me right now!”
Rose swiftly unfurled her fan. Oh, good. A proper villainess should at least have the skill of brandishing a fan.
Her age and development may be lacking, but she’s already prepared with the right props. Keep at it, get properly trampled by me now and stomp on your fated rival, the female lead.
“Are you underestimating me because I’m young? Do my words sound like a joke to you? It’s a serious warning!”
Rose gave a triumphant smile.
“Let me tell you something you didn’t know. I don’t know why elder brother suddenly changed his mind, but you were originally not even supposed to set foot in this castle. A woman sent from the south like you was supposed to be confined in a gloomy castle far from here!”
It was a mental attack, saying that I was meant to be abandoned and even now, my status is no more than that.
“How did you know that?”
“That’s because I secretly overheard the adults’ conversation… Ah, no! Of course I knew that much! I’m that important of a person!”
“I knew because Darius told me.”
Right before meeting you, at that.
“I apologize. For deciding to send you somewhere else without even meeting you when you were sincerely trying to escape from the Porche family.”
“Alright. I’ll accept that apology. But you’re not just going to apologize with words, are you? I’ll note it down as a debt. Pay it back later.”
At the castle gate, from none other than Darius’s own mouth, I heard it loud and clear as he apologized for that mistake.
If Darius hadn’t informed me of this fact, what would I have had to do now? Bite my nails and wail pathetically, “Th-that… I only trusted Your Grace the Grand Duke!” and faint pitifully?
‘Even if I really didn’t know, there’s no way I would have done that.’
“Da-Darius? H-h-how dare you casually use His Grace the Grand Duke’s name!”
Rather than me fainting, it’s more fun to watch Rose’s face turn red and bounce up and down at my words.
Actually, we’re not yet on a first-name basis either, but it’s amusing to see Acorn’s flustered face. I guess she can’t hide her facial expressions well since she’s still young.
“Young Lady Temery may not know this yet, but His Grace the Grand Duke and I are a married couple, you know? It’s an intimate form of address between husband and wife.”
Rose’s face instantly darkens.
“My elder brother would never do such a thing…!”
I wonder if she went around saying, “When Rose grows up, I’m going to marry Darius elder brother,” in her childhood.
If so, Darius should get a bit of a scolding. As a rule, the male lead of a romance novel should have proper chastity from a young age.
He should have the sense to coldly push away even a child who comes to him like a little sister, saying, “Elder brother!”
The male lead has no past girlfriends. No little sisters he knows either.
The male lead’s relationships are subordinate to the female lead, and it is only right that his world revolves around the female lead.
‘Of course, the female lead may know and associate with other men, such as a partner she jokingly promised to marry when she was young, someone she met while out at a festival, and the older brother of a long-time friend.’
Anyway, Rose Temery’s anger was justified in a sense.
It’s true that originally, I would have been trapped in a remote castle and unable to even show my face as Darius’s wife.
It’s also true that as a result, there would have been no reason for Rose Temery’s stomach to boil with jealousy upon seeing the wife of the elder brother she has a crush on.
If she angrily says, ‘Why are you here when you’re not supposed to be here!’, surprisingly, ‘Your anger is valid’ becomes the magic phrase.
‘She must be frustrated, having held the title of the closest woman to her beloved Darius elder brother until the female lead appears.’
Although she herself doesn’t know it.
“Miss Temery, I was refraining from seriously getting angry at a little girl who hasn’t even likely made her debut yet, as I, an adult, would look foolish.”
In a way, Rose Temery is the same type as Anette from the original work. In the sense that she wants to have a romantic relationship with the male lead but her feelings are not reciprocated.
Also, the Temery family is one that needs to be kept on good terms as an ally of the male lead.
‘A supporting character who will ultimately be coldly rejected by the male lead no matter how much she tries and puts in effort.’
Thinking only of her ending does make my heart soften…
But that doesn’t mean I need to go out of my way to be lenient with her, right?
__________
The Merman is a Love-Obsessed Brain (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
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