Francis said.

“When I thought about it, I realized I had no reason to live as the Marquis of Adel. It’s not that I lack ability, nor do I particularly need money or fame.”

“……”

“Moreover, a prestigious family like the Adel Marquessate has many restrictions on behavior. I don’t want to live such a boring life.”

“Haa……”

Rosalyn exhaled with an incredulous expression and shook her head.

“Are you crazy? Or have you already forgotten how you used to live?”

“I remember it well.”

Francis said, rounding his eyes like a bow.

“My mother ran away, and I lived anxiously from relative to relative. How could I forget that?”

“Then why go back to……”

“I didn’t say I’m going back to that time.”

Francis firmly cut off Rosalyn’s words.

“I’m just saying I’ll start over from the bottom with my own abilities. As you know, I’m quite capable of many things.”

Francis gently cupped Rosalyn’s chin as she looked at him incredulously.

“So, Rosalyn. You’ll still be by my side, won’t you?”

“……”

“You said you’d focus on me. Right?”

Sunlight brightly illuminated his face as he smiled playfully like a boy.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind changed the direction of the fountain’s water stream, merging with the pouring sunlight to cast a brilliant rainbow.

Only around Francis.

A solemn tension filled the grand banquet hall of the duke’s residence.

The long benches arranged in rows looked as rigid as a military formation. Around the nobles seated with stern expressions and disciplined postures, a bleak atmosphere lingered.

If not for the colorful dresses worn by the ladies, the flower wreaths, and the long virgin road spread out in the center, one might have mistaken it for a funeral of a high-ranking person rather than a wedding, given the majestic scene.

Eida Pelton, watching this scene from the inner terrace, tilted her lips to one side.

“Quite a turnout.”

Far more than the number of invitations sent out.

‘Well, I suppose they’d want to come and see the empire’s highest-ranking nobleman marrying a lowly orphan girl.’

In any case, since they came as guests, they couldn’t be driven away. There was no choice but to willingly become a spectacle.

Frowning as if displeased, Eida Pelton turned away from the window.

She asked one of the waiting attendants behind her.

“Is Mellisa ready?”

She uttered that name without feeling any dissonance, but the attendants, still not accustomed to it, tilted their heads, not immediately understanding.

Finally realizing that Mellisa meant Melly, Sarah answered.

“Ah yes, she just finished. I saw her myself.”

“How was she?”

Sarah recognized the contempt clearly contained in those words, but pretended not to notice and continued her response.

“She’s very beautiful. Almost unrecognizable.”

“Good. That’s how it should be. She can’t appear in front of people with that unremarkable face.”

“……”

Sarah wanted to say that wasn’t true, that the makeup only made her face a bit clearer, not turn her into a completely different person… But at the same time, she didn’t want to lose a good job over unnecessary bravado.

“I wonder if she’s mastered all the etiquette. She can’t afford to make even the slightest mistake.”

As she said this, a hint of anticipation flashed across her face.

It seemed as though she was secretly hoping for a mistake.

After all, weaknesses can be useful cards to keep someone under one’s feet continuously.

‘Let’s see how well you do, Mellisa. Until you realize that happy social climbing only happens in fairy tales.’

Eida Pelton left the terrace with a pleased expression, her lips twitching into a smile.

‘So… this is the atmosphere.’

Melly was utterly bewildered upon entering the ceremony hall.

The wedding she had dreamed of was not one held in such a dark and suffocating solemnity.

She had always imagined a beautiful wedding where the autumn sky hung high as if painted with a single shade of deep blue, and a cool breeze gently fluttered her veil.

A wedding where colorful flowers adorning marble wreaths wafted subtle fragrances, and dried leaves rustled as they fell, shaken by the wind. That’s the kind of wedding she meant.

Where everyone’s faces were filled with smiles, blessing the newlyweds’ future with those expressions. Wasn’t that what a typical wedding was supposed to be like?

But here, there were only hard, dark marble walls and the sharp gazes of people intently observing her. There was not a hint of warmth.

Melly carefully moved her steps, looking down.

That’s what she had been instructed to do beforehand.

And also not to smile.

Smiling was an act only befitting the vulgar weddings of commoners, they said.

But even without that instruction, Melly was not in the mood to smile.

The entire atmosphere heightened her tension to the maximum.

Her new name, called before her entrance, still felt unfamiliar, and the indifferent attitude of Eida Pelton’s second elder brother who held her hand also added to Melly’s nervousness.

If it weren’t for someone who appeared just then, Melly might have fainted from suffocation.

“……!”

It was when she had reached about halfway down the virgin road. As her gaze followed the smooth toe of a shoe upwards and caught sight of Edric, Melly’s tension dissolved in an instant.

With his bangs swept back, making him look even more handsome, he seemed to be the only living, breathing being in this taxidermied-like solemn space.

He, dressed in formal attire, took Melly’s hand from her uncle.

Melly’s body finally relaxed gently. Now she had to struggle not to smile.

She had to forcibly hide her happy face behind an impassive mask.

The two stood side by side before the priest officiating the ceremony.

Melly tried her best to take in the grand words of the officiant, but it was not easy.

All her nerves were directed towards Edric, standing straight beside her.

‘Marrying this man.’

To Melly, this situation felt like a dream.

After the lengthy officiating speech ended, the two exchanged wedding rings brought on a satin cushion by the ceremonial officer.

An intricately crafted diamond ring was slipped onto Melly’s lace-gloved hand.

A thick gold ring with an inset oval-cut diamond was placed on Edric’s finger.

Seeing these symbols of belonging to each other finally made the reality of marriage sink in.

A smile born of happiness unconsciously began to spread across Melly’s face.

‘No.’

Edric narrowed his eyes and shook his head slightly.

Melly quickly lowered the corners of her mouth and pressed her lips together.

“Now turn and greet the guests.”

The two turned as instructed by the officiant and bowed their heads towards the guests.

The sound of applause rang out in measured, crisp claps.

The officiant commanded once more.

“March towards the new history of the Pelton family.”

‘So there’s no kiss.’

Melly thought.

In the wedding she had imagined in her mind, a kiss was never missing. But since dreams and reality are different, she wasn’t disappointed.

Edric offered his arm to Melly. And Melly gently grasped it.

The two descended from the platform together.

Throughout their walk down the virgin road, she could feel the arrogant and sharp gazes of people. She could also sense Eida Pelton’s eyes, lit with fire, trying to catch her mistakes. But Melly was no longer bothered.

She was so happy that she still couldn’t believe it.

The fact that her long-held unrequited love had come true.

Even though she hadn’t even dared to hope, even though she had given up and resigned herself early on, it had miraculously come true.

She hoped it wasn’t a dream, but if it was, she didn’t want to wake up. If she could stay asleep, she wouldn’t mind dying right here.

‘What would mother say if she saw this?’

Melly suddenly wondered.

Would she be displeased, saying it’s a marriage unsuited to her status?

Maybe. No, she probably would. That would be just like mother.

But even that seemed okay now.

She had spent many years reminding herself of her place. Not once had she indulged in desires beyond her station. So perhaps this marriage was God’s reward for that.

“……”

Holding back her smile made her feel like crying.

No, maybe she had wanted to cry from the beginning.

But just as she shouldn’t smile, she shouldn’t cry either. Melly bit the soft flesh inside her lip hard. Whether from the pain or not, the welling emotion retreated.

Edric hardly looked Melly’s way, busy giving formal greetings to people.

It was only natural. As the head of a ducal family, he needed to pay attention to who had come and who hadn’t.

Melly also looked to the opposite side of Edric, nodding her head quite gracefully as she had been instructed beforehand.

But the guests were not at all favorable towards her. They scrutinized her up and down, busy analyzing what charm she could possibly possess for the great Duke Pelton to have agreed to this misalliance.

‘I suppose the bedroom activities must have been quite satisfactory.’

They would probably think like that.

At a gathering of family members held just before the wedding, Melly had accidentally overheard his cousins snickering about it.

She felt a stabbing pain in her chest at the insulting words.

But now nothing mattered.

At this moment, Melly was so happy that even their arrogant faces looked kind.

Edric’s arm, felt through her glove, was firm.

She believed without a doubt that with this arm, with this firmness and uprightness, with his love for her, he would shield her from everything.

There might be minor difficulties, but Melly was confident they could overcome anything with their abundant love for each other.

Therefore, she never dreamed that several years later, on some day, she would utter these words with her own mouth.

“Let’s get a divorce.”