Chapter 1

This marriage was a fraud from the beginning.

“My true love is Sharchen.”

It was their wedding night. It was also the first time she saw him face to face since their wedding. Her husband’s first words were shocking.

“Isn’t Sharchen your adopted daughter?”

“It was an unavoidable measure to protect her life from the attacks of the family. She will be the hostess of this house when father dies. Everyone in this baronial family already knows that.”

“Then, what about me?”

“You are….”

Eliana looked into her husband’s eyes. He said without wavering.

“You’re nothing.”

With that final denial of her own existence, he left the room. Eliana sat up in bed, too shocked to continue.

Karman Hunter. A beautiful man with a cold, ascetic face, he had earned his baronetcy at an early age. He had his own abilities, but the most important reason was that he was the heir to the Hunter family, the opening merit of the Concino nation. When such a man divorced three times, people didn’t understand why.

And when he had a fourth opportunity to go to the home of Eliana, a fallen family in the countryside. She didn’t know why he, of all people, had proposed to her. There was no artifice in the house of Eliana, no trace, only the name Rose. She was a noblewoman only in words, and she had lived her life like a commoner.

Should she have said no when her father said he was uncomfortable about this? Eliana was taken aback by the secret here that she could not have imagined.

This was a man who had adopted the woman he loved to protect her from her own parents. (*Eliana’s husband adopted his lover as his daughter to protect her)

This was the seat of the man’s wife in name only. This was an obvious fraudulent marriage. But Eliana had nowhere to go.

Eliana’s family was very poor. It was extremely poor. Eliana was an accomplished tutor for the noble girls, but she had four younger siblings. Her father was ill, her mother nursed him, and there were barely enough hours in the day to take care of the house.

All the profits of the house came from Eliana. The family was struggling to make ends meet, so her younger siblings thought about growing up and earning money, rather than studying and dreaming about the future they wanted to be.

Eliana’s eyes widened when she heard that her second sister, Gaia, had secretly saved money by delivering newspapers.

<I want a harp. But Harps are too expensive. It’s hard for you.>

Gaia’s voice, crying and speaking, was still vivid in Eliana’s ears.

This marriage was not a simple marriage. The reason Eliana accepted the suspicious proposal was to help Gaia and her siblings with their studies.

It was to fulfill a dream that she had not been able to fulfill. At the same time, the marriage was to buy medicine to cure her father’s illness. It was also a marriage for her mother, whose knees were beginning to hurt.

It was also a marriage to the Hunter family, not to any other family. The status of the Rose family would naturally increase if they were associated with a powerful man, and this was also advantageous when it came time for her younger siblings to marry.

They would have far more choices than they did now. As long as Eliana remained in the Hunter family. There was no reason to refuse. Maybe that was why Karman had chosen her, Eliana thought. There was no way she was going to back down.

It was not an option. She had to survive this fraudulent marriage. Eliana thought she could do it. It was the Rose family, a poor noble family on the outskirts of the city. It was Eliana, the eldest daughter, who fed the family. While everyone else lived their aristocratic life, she lived like a lone underdog and glued the family together.

She became so smart that she knew everything, and gave extracurricular lessons at a low price to those who wanted to study. She wrote books on behalf of the nobility. She did whatever it took to make money. A brilliant mind, there was nothing she wouldn’t do. It’s just not all that clear.

‘How will I survive?’

Eliana spent the rest of the night dwelling on that thought. In the morning, after looking at her maidservant, Eliana realized once again the situation she was in. It was a servant girl who had just turned 17. Generally, it was common practice for a formally married lady to have a maidservant affixed to her, or an older servant with experience.

However, this was a blatant disregard. Lujan, the servant girl, couldn’t hide her displeasure of being assigned to Eliana.

Eliana knew that look. She has a keen intuition. This girl must have been one of the closest people to Sharchen. The girl who would report everything that happens to Sharchen.

The price must be money. Of course, when Sharchen became a baroness, Lujan couldn’t take the position. Because she (Lujan) was a servant of the former baroness.

Lujan must be frustrated. That’s why they proposed a reasonable amount of money. Eliana thought about it.

“Lujan.”

“Yes, madam.”

“I’m going to see Sharchen.”

“What?”

“She’s my adopted daughter. I have to take good care of her, so it’s only natural that I see her face. I was too busy at the wedding to say hello. She wasn’t at the after party.”

But Lady Sharchen was someone whom not anyone can meet…

Lujan slumped in a panic.

“She’s not someone whom anyone can meet…”

The words meant that Eliana was nothing. It was just like her husband Karman had said yesterday. Eliana had no intention of meeting Sharchen.

She was just curious about Lujan’s reaction when she told her about it. It was hard to be sure just by guessing whether Lujaun was Sharchen’s person or not.

“Lujan.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t forget that I’m the only Baroness, I’m not just anyone.”

“…”

“Go and deliver it clearly to Sharchen.”

“That’s not what I mean. It’s just because Lady Sharchen is frail and especially cherished by the Baron.”

“Where is the library of this mansion?”

“What? The library? Why?”

“Where can a poor Baroness who has no power and is treated like nothing even by a maid be? I’m sure everyone in society knows, right? That Sharchen is the next Baroness. So I have no choice but to go to the library where people don’t visit.”

“I’m sorry. Ma’am. If you’re offended, have mercy………”

“It’s okay. I’m going to live quietly and lowly until I survive this house. So don’t worry too much.”

“…”

“Be sure to tell your Master.”

Eliana squeezed Lujan’s right shoulder with her second finger, twice. It was a mimicry of a scene she had seen in some novels. Eliana had never had any real use for servants, so she did not know how to treat them.

However, she managed to imitate them by using what she had seen while tutoring and what she had read in books. And so it seemed to work for this young maid Lujan.

Lujan guided Eliana to the library with the irritation gone from her face and her shoulders hunched.

On the way to the library, Eliana saw a group of old maids giggling at her. They openly ignored her, greeting her with only a raised head in her direction. Lujan was neither in a position nor of age to tell them anything.

Then again, the young maid didn’t have the will to do so. She was only interested in Eliana’s complexion. Eliana responded with a bigger smile as the people in the house did.

“This Baroness doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“No way. The Baron must have told her everything on the first wedding night. He went straight to Lady Sharchen’s room yesterday, too.”

Eliana’s expression did not falter at the sound of deafening noise. Then she opened the library. It was a tightly closed place with no signs of human’s touch. Lujan disappeared quickly at Eliana’s gesture to leave.

The word “blinake” was so appropriate. Looking at the dusty library, Eliana clicked her tongue. It was impossible to see a proper place of a noble family with dust in the library. Eliana opened the window.

It didn’t look like it would be enough to just brush away the piles of dust. After a few moments of pondering, she tore off her inner skirt and gave the long desk a quick wipe down. Then she pulled out some old books that contained everything about the Hunter family, from their history to their relationships.

The good thing about being a Baroness was that she had access to these books. This was because the library of the mansion was a space reserved for the people of the family. Eliana took out more than twenty thick books and slammed the desk with both hands.

“I’ll study how to beat these people.”

She couldn’t just go on being the fourth wife of a tragic love. Eliana had thought it was her only chance to establish the Rose family.

She wouldn’t let that opportunity go down the drain. Surely. Eliana’s torn underskirt flew out the window by the wind. Eliana started reading through the first book without even knowing it. She did so with such vigor that she meticulously read through the book page by page.

The determined and hardworking Eliana Rose remained unchanged even when she became a Baroness.

* *

Karman strolled through the garden and listened to the report the butler was giving him. It was a report of the Baroness’ movements.

“The Baroness went to the library as soon as she woke up. They said that she smiled brightly to all the people like a crazy person.”

“The library?”

Karman looked at the library that no one had paid any attention to before. An open window clearly indicated that someone had been there. A ripped piece of cloth flew out of the open window. The rag suddenly blew and stuck to Pepe the butler’s face.

“Oh, my. What is this?”

It was an expensive fabric that the servants could not use. The butler spread the cloth to show Karman as if it belonged to the Baroness.

The butler was also one of the people who cared for and loved Sharchen. In fact, there was no one in the baronial household who disliked Sharchen. Because she was a beloved person. Because she was the Baron’s woman who was ready to become the center of power.