Chapter 1

1. The Beginning of the Contract Marriage

Eve, the second daughter of a humble countryside noble, had no other choice but to accept this marriage proposal.

No, to be precise, considering Eve’s condition, marrying anyone wasn’t a problem.

Despite his age of forty, the man, who still appears to be in his thirties, was called the most beautiful of the empire when he was young, beating out all of the young ladies in the empire.

The Count Hound family was one of the most famous families in the Empire. The Hound County, which has been in existence since the founding of the empire, has always taken a step back from the battles of the nobles—including the battle for succession—and was able to maintain the family for over a thousand years after the empire was established.

In addition, the family itself had a great reputation, and the estates and mines the Count had built over the years were a great resource to generate a solid income. In a word, Count Hound was a handsome man with a lot of money and a good family.

However, he also had his shortcomings. The reason the rich, handsome, and well-to-do Count sent a proposal to Eve, the second daughter of a humble family, was because he was a playboy and had as many children as his fortune.

The only child Count Hound acknowledged as his child was his first wife’s child, but the number of children unofficially assumed to be his descendants exceeded double digits. Moreover, Count Hound had already been married three times.

Nevertheless, the reason Eve did not consider her condition to be favorable was that her condition was so poor.

She is the second daughter of Baron Jenna, who has a small estate on the edge of the empire.

She was a noblewoman, but she lived a life different from what most people think of as a noblewoman.

She didn’t starve because she lived in a small estate, but a prosperous life of wearing dresses, attending parties, fitting new dresses, painting and playing musical instruments as a hobby, and entering society were not permitted to Eve.

Still, Eve was lucky.

By the time Eve was five, her older sister Cynthia discovered that her five-year-old sister was half-witted. At the time, Cynthia was earning money by working as a maidservant of a Viscounty in an estate not far from Jenna’s estate, and she decided to use the money to educate her younger sister, Eve.

The money Cynthia earned was not that much, so Eve could learn just as much. Etiquette as a noblewoman, the history of the empire, and simple writing and counting were all of the education Eve received, but Cynthia had to sacrifice quite a lot to teach her.

Thanks to the proper education, Eve grew up to be a graceful noble lady. With her rose-red hair and beautiful sunset eyes, the Baron and Baroness Jenna rejoiced as Eve grew up into a beautiful lady with graceful behavior.

It wasn’t that they were proud to see that Eve had grown up brilliantly despite being in a destitute environment. But because the daughter, who could be sold on the wedding market for a decent price, satisfied the hearts of the poor Baron couple, and they have been fervently searching for Eve’s husband since she was fifteen.

But strange things kept happening.

The wealthy Count Noah, who called her after being overjoyed to see Eve’s portrait, died that evening of a heart attack.

A fat baron who immediately set the wedding date after hearing the rumors about Eve and coming to the Jenna estate to meet her in person, ​suddenly notified Eve to break up, saying he had found his true love.

A series of failures left Baron Jenna and his wife greatly disappointed.

But they didn’t give up. Seeing their second daughter blooming like a summer rose as the years go by, they eagerly sought a mate for Eve.

But all their efforts were useless.

Everyone that her parents had reached out to, kept on canceling to marry her for various reasons.

Strange things such as having found true love, financial collapse, and epidemic outbreaks in the territory, were repeated over and over.

Of course, that didn’t mean that her partner canceled the marriage to Eve just because something bad happened all the time.

One day, a family notified the breakup of their marriage that they would form a relationship with a greater family due to the family’s success in business.

And just a few months ago, the married man in his seventies, who was about to become Eve’s partner, who lay in bed as if he was about to die suddenly found vitality and announced the breakup with a small amount of consolation money, saying that he would go on a trip he wanted to try before he died.

By this time Baron Jenna and his wife had almost given up on Eve’s marriage.

They tried so hard to get Eve to marry for the past five years, but Eve, who turned twenty, has not been married due to all sorts of unusual circumstances.

However, a nobleman who was so great—that he could not be compared to those who had almost married her so far—sent a proposal to Eve directly without going through the family.

She normally wouldn’t have been interested, but the proposal came in a timely manner.

At that time, Eve was in desperate need of money. Not long ago, her older sister, Cynthia, who can be called her only family, became pregnant. The father is her very longtime lover, the Young Master of the Viscount family where Cynthia worked as a maid.

A maid who is not even married yet is pregnant. Of course, it was a secret love affair and it would be difficult to get married.

Who would accept a thirty-year-old woman from a poor family?

Eve, who had secretly watched Cynthia mourning alone, knew intuitively that the marriage proposal letter, now in her hands, was her last chance. Not Eve, but Cynthia’s last chance.

Eve didn’t want her nephew or niece to be an illegitimate child and she wanted to see her sister, who was always struggling, get married and live happily ever after.

So she replied to the marriage proposal letter without telling either her parents or Cynthia.

And for a month, surprisingly, nothing happened to the Count Hound and he didn’t even notify Eve to break up.

After leaving her sister and her parents surprised by the unexpected wedding news, she headed for the Count’s mansion in a carriage sent by Count Hound.

***

After a week of traveling by carriage from Jenna’s estate, Eve arrived at the Count’s mansion, which was bigger and more splendid than she had expected.

As soon as she arrived, she went straight to meet the Count without a break, and the tension made her lips dry.

Eve caught her breath before entering the room where the Count was waiting. She shouldn’t be nervous to get as much of what she wants as possible.

Eve nodded her head to the servant after reviewing once more of the things she had been thinking about while in the carriage.

When Eve’s permission was granted, the servant informed the Count in the drawing room of her arrival.