CH prologue 8

“I’m getting married.”

I had already started work when my boss, His Grace Duke Claude Lindbeld, whom I respect and admire but also wish would die, dropped a bombshell as soon as I entered his office.

“Uhhh…Congratulations?”

“Why is there a question mark?”

“Ah? Oh, I must have been so busy that for a moment there, I thought I was having a hallucination.”

His Grace glared at me, but I smiled foolishly to deceive him.

His Excellency, the Duke of Lindbergh, who listened to my words sullenly and was as sharp as ever in his own way with a strong work ethic, piled up the pending documents on my desk.

While sullenly listening to my excuses, His Excellency the Duke of Lindbeld, who was as sharp as ever in his own workaholic enthusiasm, piled up the pending documents on my desk.

“Um, what’s this?”

“Why should I do something that even you can do? You do it. Then I’m taking tomorrow and the next day off.”

The words “day off” came down at the same time as the amount of shock; could it be a harbinger of a natural disaster? I couldn’t resist looking at my boss with a blank stare.　

To begin with, His Grace the Duke of Lindbeld was a workaholic.

At work, his brow would wrinkle up in a grimace, and he gave off the vibe that not a single mistake could be tolerated.

When he was in a bad mood, I practically would receive a barrage of sarcasm at the slightest mistake.

As he was super-duper handsome, his glare was one of the best in the world.

Rumors had it that even His Majesty couldn’t defy it.

Incidentally, I got to know that this wasn’t just a rumor.

After all, I would sometimes see His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince coming to see him with some trepidation.

Well, anyhoo, if the power word “marriage” were to pop out of the mouth of such a workaholic, I would be beyond astonished.

How couldn’t I?

“Er, if I may ask, why are you taking days off tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?”

I winced a little when he looked at me as if he was talking to a lower life form, but it would be a disservice to my reputation as his secretary if I backed down.

Besides, this has always been our way of interacting.

However, there was no denying that he was even harsher than usual.

“I’ll take a day off on the very day of my wedding, and the next day.”

I was rendered speechless once more.

What? Seriously?

How the heck am I supposed to react when he abruptly stated that as if it were typical?

I thought for sure he would only attend the wedding ceremony and work the next day without his new wife, so I seriously wondered if this boss in front of me was for real.

Then, suddenly, I grasped something important.

“Er, that means that the woman you’re marrying is not the Princess, right? When did you deepen your relationship with such a woman in the first place? I didn’t hear any rumors about it at all.”

“Yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“I met her face to face for the first time yesterday and asked her to marry me. Since it’s too much trouble to do anything else, I got a special marriage license issued, and we can get married tomorrow.”

“…”

A super speedy wedding…!

I wondered if this was appropriate for the current head of the Lindbeld family, the most powerful family in the country, to perform such a wedding.

Or rather, I wondered how his partner even decided to marry someone like him…Was it for his face, his money, or his power?

If a person who had these all asked someone to marry him, she’d probably go through with it no matter what the conditions were.

I sighed.

What an absurd world it was; where I was sucked dry all the time; where I couldn’t even have a girlfriend; where marriage was but a pipe dream; and where my boss could get married the instant he proposed to someone.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to know, but who is your partner? If someone from the top asks me, can I honestly answer?”

His Grace thought for a moment and then said to me.

“She is the second daughter of Count Verdigo. Wait after the wedding tomorrow, then you can talk. As long as we are married and registered, no one will bother us. By the way, your presence has been decided.”

“Yeaaah?”

“It’s an intimate wedding, but it would be a problem if there’s no one on my side. If people inquire if we really got married, you can be our witness.”

W-Witness…?

Isn’t it polite to at least call me “father?”

I no longer understood where I stood now.

I couldn’t overrule his decision. I just had to do as I was told.

“But the second daughter of Count Verdigo ――… Is she alright?”

“What?”

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“You’ve done at least a little research about her, haven’t you? There are rumors, the kind you can call scandalous. I don’t believe in all of it, but I can understand why you might be somewhat inclined to believe some of them ――”

Honestly, if you looked like her, no one would want to come near you, then the credibility of the rumors would rise.

I brought up the subject as I picked up the documents piled high in the sky earlier, remembering Count Verdigo’s second daughter.

“The rumors are unreliable. She’s pretty decent.”

“Huh, really?”

Rumors were rumors.

But what I saw in person was so horrible that when I imagined her standing next to my boss, I couldn’t help but think how out of proportion they would look.

After all, the legal wife standing next to the head of a nobility, the labeled face of the country, must be of a certain caliber.

“I’m a little disappointed, though. Count Verdigo’s second daughter, his former wife’s daughter, is the direct descendant of their family, right? I believe all of the Verdigo family members are quite good looking. However, the current Count is the only one that isn’t that handsome…You might say, Her Majesty was involved in those events.”

“What do you mean?”

He asked curiously.

I was a little surprised.

It was a political marriage anyway. I didn’t think he had done much research on the woman, but he appeared interested.

I spoke with a little pride.

After all, I loved to collect rumors, so I have lots of them.

“I’ve heard that Count Verdigo’s late wife, who was a direct descendant of the Count, was an extremely beautiful woman. Because of this, the current Empress – who was the Crown Princess at that time – was said to have kept tabs on her quite a bit. Either way, it was said that her beauty was such that even the Crown Prince of the time ogled at her. The Empress is also a very beautiful woman, but we all have our own tastes in beautiful women, don’t we? I heard that she was called the White Lily.”

When I told him that it was because of this that the current Count, who was not very good looking, was chosen, he seemed to be convinced.

“I see, that was an interesting story.”

For some reason, I felt uplifted by his compliment.

However, I was immediately struck by despair.

“I’ll give you this one too, for telling me such an interesting story.”

Don!

More papers were piled up.

“Wa-wait a minute! You can’t thank me for this――…”

“This is gratitude work from a boss training his subordinate. You’re welcome.”

…Do you know why I can’t help but find you irreverent at times like this?

My boss, His Grace the Duke of Lindbeld, could get a job done at tremendous speed.

However, his mouth was kinda slack.

At times like these, my boss wasn’t in the right mind. 

I didn’t dare to dig my grave, so it was best not to see or hear anything.

I let out a sigh and wondered if I could finish all of these at the end of the day. In the end, I didn’t sleep a wink and attended the wedding of His Grace with dark circles under my eyes.