CH prologue 1

As I stepped out of the luxurious carriage, led by a hand wearing a pair of white gloves without a single stain, I saw a dazzling mansion – more like a castle – towering in front of me. At the main entrance, the castle’s servants, headed by the butler, lined up and bowed their heads.

Such treatment took me aback.

I mean, normally, I would have recoiled.

It was scary.

It might be a normal welcoming ritual for the great aristocracy, and it could be because today was a very special day, but I would have preferred to be greeted more quietly.

Yes, today was a special day.

It was a wedding.

One of the most powerful men in the kingdom was going to marry.

However, the powerful man liked to keep a low profile, so the wedding was for family only.

There was no wedding reception.

It was that kind of wedding.

The man escorting me, who was wearing spotless white gloves, seemed unperturbed by this welcome, but I was rather distant.

He was too tall compared to a woman, but we struck just the right balance on my heels. He was handsome, strong, and rich, which was what all the ladies yearned for.

His deep crimson hair and eyes were distinctive traits of the duke’s clan. At first glance, he appeared passionate, but in contrast, he was quite indifferent.

But that was his beauty! Moreover, the eyes of many of the ladies were glued to him.

This single man possessed both power and wealth.

The question of who would win the title of his Duchess had been one of the most closely watched issues in recent years.

At 27 years old, he was a man in the prime of his life.

In fact, he was quite a workaholic.

But that didn’t mean he was out of shape. He has a well-toned body that stood out even when he was tightly escorted.

It was hard to tell with his clothes on, but he seemed to have a statuesque build.

I was no lascivious woman, but I might suffer nosebleeds imagining it.

I could understand why the young lady in my imagination kept squealing.

From what I heard, he was stronger than professional soldiers.

It wasn’t long ago that I heard the reason for this, and I was convinced.

He didn’t hide his stance that marriage was a pain in the ass. Needless to say, he got fed up with his aunts and company’s nagging on his marriage, so he finally found a suitable partner and began to pay his respects.

The woman he chose was the kind that made everyone who saw her want to ask, “Are you sure she’s the one?”

Well, I was surprised too, but it was me.

A woman who was ridiculed in social circles; who always wore layers of eye bags; whose hair and skin were in shambles; whose dresses were so-so; and whose appearance was not commensurate with it.

That was who I was. That wasn’t meant to demean, it was a fact.

Certainly, I was the daughter of a family with a considerable history, and I could be considered a suitable marriage partner.

If you go back far enough, you could trace my lineage back to the imperial family. If anything, my family had been protecting the current territory since before the rule of the imperial family.

Honestly speaking, there were few families that were this old, including mine.

In other words, I have an ancient bloodline, but that was it.

Our money wasn’t even enough to provide my dowry worthy of this Duke.

Or perhaps I should say, the only woman who could match the head of such a prosperous and rich duchy was the royal princess.

Truth be told, the princess had also turned 19 this year, which was a perfect age for marriage.

Rumor had it that she had been eyeing this Duke with an eagle eye.

Many people thought that with the royal princess’s status, a political marriage was a matter of course. However, our kingdom was by far the most powerful on this continent with both national power and military might.

That was to say, the princess was in a position to freely choose.

Compared to other riffraff kingdoms in the area, there was no one better match than the Duke, the young leader of this kingdom.

After all, he was one of the most powerful and richest people in the kingdom.

While the royal family’s budget had to be properly reported, the Duke could transfer money at will. To put it bluntly, in terms of fund transfer, the Duke was better off compared to the royal family.

No reasoning was necessary there.

Furthermore, the thought that this Duke’s family was as influential as a single kingdom compared to other kingdoms around, I understood why she wouldn’t want to marry into any country.

She’d already picked the Duke as her only choice.

Even without his power and money, he was still a superbly handsome man with an abundance of charm!

Of course, as a bachelor, she must have approached him.

He’d been brilliantly ducking and dodging all this time, but it was easy to suppose that he didn’t want to marry this princess.

I thought there was nothing more maddening for a workaholic guy next door than to have his personal life dictated to him.

If she were an ordinary noblewoman, the duke himself was higher in rank and position so he could just ignore her, but that was impossible to Her Royal Highness.

She was the youngest daughter among the four children of the eldest child in the Royal Family.

Needless to say, she was cherished and raised with great care by the people around her.

The Duke had better settle down quickly than to have such a sheltered girl approach him for marriage.