Chapter 1.1

Road to the North (1)

The sunset light that streamed through the window colored the desolate parlor with an ominous red.

With every move of his lips, thick cigarette smoke permeated from the middle-aged man with a long pipe in his mouth. In silence the man put down the pipe and drew a conclusion.

“So, prepare to leave for the North.”

It was the sound of someone handing his daughter to a seventy-year-old perverted man that was old enough to be her grandfather.

She suspected this to some extent from the time she was suddenly called to a family meeting, but they went too far this time. Anne forgot the etiquette drilled into her as a noble girl and revealed her true feelings.

“Father, I heard that he is over seventy years old.”

“Angroanne, you are being immature. This is the Grand Duke Cromund with authority comparable to that of the imperial family. When the old man dies, all the properties of his house will become yours. You should thank your brother for making you the Grand Duchess.”

A snide voice interrupted without the slightest trace of courtesy.

Robert Libelois, the immature successor of County Libelois.

It was her older brother who was the one responsible for this, and yet he was brazenly showing his face. If it had been her, she would have immediately been rebuked for intervening in a conversation, but her parents, who were soft to the successor, were silent this time as well.

Anne opened her mouth as she struggled to tamp down the resentment filling her throat.

“Was Brother so mature that he molested someone else’s woman?”

At the same time, Robert, whose eyes usually only came into focus at the sight of beautiful women, molested the Grand Duke’s lover during her visit to the capital and was arrested on the spot by the knights of the Grand Duchy’s family. It wasn’t the first time he had acted like an animal in heat, but this time he got it wrong.

She was a woman favored by the Grand Duke Cromund who oversaw the North. He was an immovable figure even to the imperial family.

The only thing that County Libelois could do was lie flat on their stomachs and beg. They pleaded for mercy, but a threat to detain Robert was the only reply. After all, it was just yesterday that the Grand Duchy’s family demanded a huge amount of compensation in the name of molesting the Grand Duke’s lover.

Naturally, the Libelois family did not have the ability to cover that amount. The incompetent Count and thoughtless heir had devoured the family’s coffers and the business they had made was losing money rather than making any sort of profit. When her father said that there was no way they could pay the compensation, the solution that was offered was that they had to send a woman from Libelois.

And only now was the news conveyed to her— her, the one to be sent— without even asking for her opinion.

Why do I have to take responsibility for my brother? Why should I marry such a person?

Whenever Robert had had a problem with obscene insults to noble ladies in the past, it was Anne who went to ask for their forgiveness. As a woman, she was forced to speak, but there was never a sense of friendship. Not when she had no choice but to cover up the flaws of her blood relatives.

But now, she was sold into a marriage because those blood relatives could not pay the compensation.

This time, Anne had no intention of being obedient. This was not something the person who had caused the incident in the first place could say to her in an angry tone.

“This is what Brother caused, so please leave me out of it.”

“Angroanne, what are you talking about! Your brother only made a small mistake because he was soft-hearted and naive . . .”

The countess intervened quickly, her face cold. She and Robert had been born from the same stomach. Only their gender was different, and yet her parents were particularly strict with her and lenient with her brother.

Robert opened his mouth again. “Angroanne, how can you be so cold-hearted during a family crisis? It must have been that the woman approached me with hidden intentions.”

“Don’t speak nonsense. What purpose would a woman who was the lover of the Grand Duke have to approach a mere County heir?”

Anne couldn’t control herself and all but snarled at Robert’s unreasonable protest.

If he had truly been caught on the spot, the woman would have had quite a few escorting knights around her. Naturally, she couldn’t have dared to cheat on the Grand Duke in the presence of the knights. Moreover, Robert was a man who possessed neither good looks nor the ability to speak well enough to win over a woman’s heart. That he was the County heir was nothing more than an empty title. Moreover, the entire family of County Libelois was a noble family that was a sinking ship.

“Stop! Does that mean that your brother, the heir to the family, should go to jail? Do you want this Libelois to be caught up in a scandal and rise and fall in people’s mouths?!”

Count Libelois, who was sitting on the chair for the head of the house, burst out in anger and his face became red.