Chapter 9.2

“Are you pitying me with good faith?”

“…I want to save you. Aren’t you convinced through that reason alone?”

“No.” Roseline wasn’t naive enough to candidly accept a baseless favor.

She knew this after conversing with him. The grand duke didn’t take pity on her, and he didn’t look at her as someone needing to be saved. Even if she was really sympathetic, all she could think of was that marriage was too much. It was not like he was taking Roseline as a concubine as Admiral Auclihy had done, but she was definitely his wife.

Marriages of noble families such as the Postenmeyers were treated as a serious matter in the empire. And he’d decide that just because he feels sorry for a noble girl who died after taking a rap for a crime?

How ridiculous.

From a helpless’ standpoint, she didn’t really speak, but to Roseline, the grand duke’s words were considered nothing but lunatic.

Frankly speaking, she didn’t know what he was plotting.

He could be spreading a charity business, or he may be trying to do something by getting a woman who can do whatever he wants. Maybe he was a lunatic who had decided on this big event on a whim because he was out of his mind.

If not that, then he’s really…

I am just like her.

The ‘Roseline’ the grand duke was looking for.

The girl with the same name and same appearance.

Heinz had only said that he was looking for someone related to lost memory, but it was just someone who resembled her, not her. Wasn’t it weird to save her by marrying her?

The person he said I resemble… Is she someone greatly precious to him?

Had she become his unforgotten first love? If he’d fallen for her so much that he wanted to keep even someone who remotely resembled her by his side, it was no wonder that Roseline was considered a stand-in for his first love.

“You said that you want to save me, Your Excellency.”

“Right.”

“Is that because I resemble the ‘one’ you are searching for?”

The grand duke’s eyes shook. I knew it, Roseline thought.

“I heard it from Heinz. Oh, it isn’t his fault. He just asked about something he heard from Your Excellency’s investigation.”

It wasn’t the truth, but here she decided to defend Heinz. Through looking at the expression of the grand duke, who muttered, “A futile act…” Roseline thought Heinz would be in trouble if she left it alone. He had given her all the information he could pick and choose for the frustrated woman, so she had to keep her loyalty.

“I’ll say this once again, but I am not that person.”

“I know. Because I first met ‘Roseline’ ten years ago. Around the same age as you right now.”

Ten years ago Roseline was only eight years old at the most. At that time, she was pretty much wet behind the ears, and the grand duke was already with an eighteen-year-old girl. Somewhat furious, Roseline glared at the innocent pledge.

“Was proposing to me first not a part of the order of things?”

“There was no time. A messenger came to send you back as soon as I brought you here.”

Roseline, who didn’t know Count Wiegelhofen had come looking for her, couldn’t care less about the identity of the messenger.

“I want to protect you, and there was no justification to disobey Her Highness Empress’s orders. All I could do was make up something, that we are planning to get married.”

“You could have told her the next time.”

“I sent the messenger back right away. I needed to see His Highness right before they took the initiative.”

So, had he immediately gone to the imperial palace? Roseline knew it had been urgent, but couldn’t he have at least tried to send a message in the meantime? She had had to spend an entire week not knowing a thing. This man had said he’d save her, but he had never considered her feelings about being locked up.

That’s really mean.

Of course, there was no better option for Roseline right now. Between going to jail or becoming the grand duchess. If she had to choose one of the two the latter was definitely better.

On top of that, it was she who benefited from it. Both the Postenmeyer family and the grand duke bore nothing but losses.

If I become Grand Duchess Postenmeyer, naturally, my safety is guaranteed.

There was no possibility that he would use violence or physically abuse her, as the grand duke and grand duchess had to make regular appearances in public.

“Alright. I will sign the marriage pledge.”

“That’s a wise decision.”

“I’d like to make one condition instead.”

That he wanted to save her was true. She didn’t deny having been helped. But she didn’t like the man’s method.

“What is it?”

“Please spar with me.”

She thought she would feel better if she gave him at least one blow.