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Chapter 14

“Open the door! Open this door right now!”

As expected, Rowena was Rowena. She was a spoiled child as her parents disciplined her incorrectly.

The Countess wanted to make up for her own shortcomings through Rowena. That was why she didn’t like that Edward wasn’t kind to Rowena.

On the other hand, it was obvious why she hated her friendship with Edward. She was jealous of unknown women who could have given birth to the Count’s child. It was a projection of herself.

In short, Elysia was the Count’s affair partner, Rowena the Countess, and Edward the Count.

It was understandable. As Edward grew older, he became more and more like the Count.

“If you are human, you will get tired soon, too.”

At that moment, her body was drooping from fatigue. Her heavy body felt heavy even with the clothes on her shoulders. Elysia wanted to get rid of Damon’s justaucorps right away, though she couldn’t even take his clothes off.

“Your clothes are so big, too.”


The justaucorps, which almost reached her ankles, seemed to be able to drag to the ground if it had been a little longer.

She was tired. She was mentally and physically exhausted, and if she relaxed a little, she seemed to fall asleep immediately.

After she had barely folded the justaucorps and hung it on the chair, Elysia staggered towards the bed.

What happened after that was all just a memory. The moment she touched her body on the bed, she fell into a deep sleep, like she fainted. She was so weary that she couldn’t even hear the slamming and squeaking right in front of her door.

“Miss, wake up.”

“Miss.”

She must have locked the door before she fell asleep, but all of a sudden, a bunch of maids came in and woke Elysia. Her forehead narrowed at the sudden awakening.

“Madam ?”

It was normal for her to come to her from the morning and torment her, so she thought it would be the Countess’ visit this time as well.

Habit was a terrible thing.

“Nice to meet you. Lady Elysia.”

Though rubbing her sleepy eyes, what she saw was not the familiar face of the Countess, but a woman with a face she had never seen before was greeting her.

“Who—?”

“Nice to meet you. From today on, me Leah Ariane, will be in charge of the general education of Lady Elysia.”

Leah Arianne…?

It was the first name she had ever heard. That said, she was an extra who didn’t even appear. Damon’s ex-wife, Elysia, isn’t the main story in the novel, so it was understandable.

“Leah Arianne?”

“Yes, I will be in charge of Lady’s education from today. Basic etiquette education and essential education before marriage.”

“Who brought you in?”

It wasn’t unusual to remember the Countess talking about manners yesterday. Nevertheless, she never expected it to happen so quickly.

“I brought her in.”

The voice coming from Leah’s back was an extremely familiar voice. The voice that woke her up like an alarm every morning. It was the Countess. She didn’t know how the Countess could be so diligent and not sleep in the morning.

“Mother.”

“You didn’t forget to call me mother.”

How can she forget? If Elysia had called the Countess, not mother, but Countess, as she usually does at this point, she would surely have angered her. Of course, she wouldn’t be as outraged as she used to be.

Now, she was a precious body that would become the Grand Duchess.

“I have no idea what this is all about in the morning.”

“Don’t even do that. Everything must be too fast for you.”

“Yes, it’s embarrassing that you didn’t notify me.”

No matter how much she said she would marry Damon, it was difficult for her to sort everything out like this. And, she wanted to enjoy her last freedom, at least, until she married Damon.

“I’m sorry about that. But, the schedule came earlier than expected.”

Whether she was catching the attention of the person named Leah, or the countess’s reaction to her first apology, her face made a disheartened expression.

Even though Elysia was annoyed not because the Countess made an apology, she didn’t like that the Countess made an apology she didn’t mean to.

“If it is a schedule, what do you mean by schedule?”

She hadn’t even made her social debut, and it was impossible for her to suddenly have a special schedule. It was even more so if the schedule was to the point of getting so busy in one night.

“The marriage between you and the Grand Duke. It was scheduled for a month later.”

“What…? A month later?”

“Yes.”

No matter how much Elysia did not engage in social activities and only labored in the County’s castle, she was not at all ignorant of the marriage arrangements of the nobles.

The maids moved from place to place in noble families, and they were more knowledgeable about the customs and culture of the nobles than anyone else. She learned a lot from the maids.

Usually, the wedding preparation period for nobles was three months. Even this required a considerable amount of manpower, so job changes were made every time they got married. To that extent, marriage was one of the most important events for the nobles.

Ordinary nobles take three months to prepare for marriage, whereas prominent nobles usually take six months or more. Even this was just the minimum preparation period. In order to show off their power, there were times when they deliberately extended the period even more.

“A month… Is that possible?”

Damon was the only Grand Duke in the Empire. The position of Grand Duchy Raphael in the Caesar Empire was enormous. It was also the only Grand Duchy, though the power of Grand Duchy Raphael sometimes exceeded the imperial power.

If Damon, the head of such a family, was to get married, it was nonsense to say that the preparation period for the wedding was a month…

“Usually, marriages in noble families are about three months. The higher the position, the longer it can be from half a year to a year. The reason is not only because they want to make a more luxurious wedding, but also to pardon the incidents that occur in the estate during that time and to provide various benefits such as tax reduction to the residents of the estate.”

Noblesse Oblige.

‘Moral obligations commensurate with high social status.’ It was wrapped in plausible words, but in reality, it was just the mercy of people of high rank. It was just a trick to avoid opposition from lowly things in the harmony of the two families.

“Yes, I know.”

It was said that a woman named Leah Ariane came to be her teacher, and the manner of speaking was as if ignoring and scolding a small child. There was not a single corner that she liked as a teacher that the Countess had brought.

Elysia’s brow furrowed slightly in the eerie eyes as if she was demeaning people outright.

“I’m glad you know. It was difficult for me to explain from the beginning.”

“That’s right.”

She knew the outcome of the bride’s short preparation period for the marriage. The only hope of the estate people who were struggling with high taxes was the marriage period of the nobles. It was because the generosity of the heads of state was generous at that time, and they were able to catch their breath even for a moment.

However, the bride who got married was different as if she was sold without proper preparation for marriage.

She was unable to receive the blessings of the people, and sparks of rage are directed at the newly arrived bride. It was because they thought that they did not receive the proper benefits of the new mistress.

Although the people’s anger didn’t seem like a big deal, it was important.

The hatred that started from the bottom gradually climbed up and spread to the subordinates who worked in the castle, gradually eroding the position of the bride.

“Then, you know what happens to a bride who doesn’t go through the proper wedding preparation period.”

Now, Arianne was asking her if she knew she was getting married like sold.

It was a problem if she answered that she knew, and even worse if she answered that she didn’t know.

When Damon, the great noble, had wedding preparations set aside for a month, it meant they weren’t welcoming a bride. A bride was brought in only with a rough assortment of items according to the need.

A dishonorable marriage. It was just this.

“Are you asking how I feel now that you are marrying me in a dishonorable way?”

Naturally, the noble family did not want to shorten the wedding preparation period to send their daughter out, so this was rarely the case.

It was really a low-ranking noble woman who was sold for money, or the brides who were getting married for the second or third time, and there was almost no preparation period.

Even among the people of the territory, the preparation period was talked about, but they did not know how important this would be in the noble social circle.

In addition, Elysia could have predicted how she would be treated in the social circle with this incident. But, she wasn’t particularly surprised. Damon was the man who said he would never marry in the first place.

Nonetheless, he couldn’t be happy that he was getting married because of the unavoidable five-year constraint.

This was, of course, a natural result.

“What?”


“Isn’t that right? I think that’s what Leah was trying to tell me now.”

“How dare you call my name on our first meeting!”

“Well, can you ignore people like this at the beginning?”

Commoners without a specific last name can be called by their first name, though nobles whose last name was important were not like that. Being able to call by the first name was something that only close people or people of higher rank could do.

So, it was very rude to call someone’s name at the beginning.

Elysia did not know why Arianne deliberately said her first and last name together in the first meeting.

This meant that she was no ordinary tutor.

“I heard you grew up uneducated, but Lady is a fairly rude person.”

“Really?”

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