TMM 2

Alicia, daughter of the Marquess of Wellston, had her engagement decided when she was six years old.

Their first formal meeting took place in the royal palace gardens. Roses in full bloom carried a sweet fragrance on the air as timid Alicia waited nervously for the arrival of Crown Prince Joshua.

(What kind of person will he be? I hope he is kind.)

Her father, Thomas, was quick to anger and quicker to raise his voice. Alicia lived in constant fear of provoking him.

If possible, she wished for someone who would speak gently, in a calm and quiet tone.

Like the princes in her picture books, she harbored such a dream in her childish heart.

Yet no matter how long she waited, Joshua did not appear. Thomas was summoned away by a palace attendant, leaving Alicia all alone.

“So you’re the future crown princess, huh?”

A bright, curious child’s voice rang out behind her. Startled, Alicia nearly fell from her chair.

When she turned, she saw a boy about her age, with blond hair and beautiful honey-colored eyes.

She had been told that Joshua’s eyes were blue. So this boy could not be him.

(Who is he? What should I do…?)

Shy and painfully reserved, Alicia fidgeted in place. The boy smiled innocently.

“You know, it’d be much more fun to be my bride than the crown prince’s. No queenly lessons, either.”

“Eh?”

As Alicia blinked in surprise, the boy suddenly let out a small cry, as though he had realized something.

“Oh no! I messed up. Well, see you!”

Like the wind, he dashed off into the shrubbery at the far end of the garden. Alicia stared after him in a daze, when she heard the murmur of many people approaching.

Surrounded by attendants, Crown Prince Joshua of the Kingdom of Telmiana appeared.

With silver hair and blue eyes, he was strikingly beautiful.

Alicia fell in love at first sight.

“I am Joshua Yuar Telmiana. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Alicia.”

His manner of speaking lacked warmth, yet it was calm and composed.

That alone was enough to make Alicia feel relieved.

Joshua made an effort to speak with her, but Alicia was so nervous that she could hardly manage a proper response.

They strolled through the garden together, yet she never quite managed to grow close to him, leaving her faintly disappointed.

(It’s all right. Next time, surely… I want to grow closer to His Highness.)

She held on to that small hope.

From the very next day, Alicia’s education as a future crown princess began.

She attended her lessons earnestly. They were severe and demanding, but because she had already come to adore Joshua, she devoted herself to them with all her strength.

As a reward of sorts, she was granted a tea gathering with Joshua twice a month in the palace gardens.

Whenever they were alone together, Alicia found herself at a loss for words, hesitating every time.

She was passive in all things, painfully shy by nature. And so, she chose to listen.

Joshua spoke of his studies, of the books he had been reading, and similar matters.

In order to keep pace with him, Alicia borrowed the very same books from the royal library and studied them desperately.

All so that she could understand him.

Even if she could not offer topics of her own, she refused to respond carelessly to the words of the man she loved.

Joshua was the only person who treated Alicia as an equal human being.

He never shouted at her, as her family did.

And so, the harsher Thomas became, the more Alicia clung to her feelings for Joshua as a lifeline.

Five years passed.

When Alicia was eleven, her stepmother Deborah arrived at the Wellston estate, accompanied by her ten-year-old daughter, the lovely Mariabelle.

Mariabelle was a rare wielder of holy magic, even within the kingdom, and was formally adopted into the Wellston family.

Alicia’s birth mother, Jessica, had died when Alicia was five. Thomas had attempted to take Deborah as his second wife soon after, but Alicia’s grandfather Edward and grandmother Barbara opposed the union due to Deborah’s background.

Thomas, who had married into the Wellston family, had already been on poor terms with the grandparents and living separately even before Jessica’s death.

Five years after her passing, he remarried Deborah and adopted Mariabelle, who was not his biological child.

This forceful marriage and adoption led to a complete break with the grandparents, but Thomas, having already inherited the title, seemed not to care in the slightest.

Edward and Barbara now resided in their outlying territory, the County of Volt.

From this point on, Alicia’s true hell began.

Thomas doted on Mariabelle, who was not his blood daughter, and treated her with great kindness. If Mariabelle desired something, Alicia’s dresses and jewelry were taken from her. Even her room was taken away.

When Alicia protested at first, she was scolded harshly. Mariabelle, they said, had been hidden away and raised in hardship until now. Alicia was accused of lacking compassion.

“You’ll never become a proper crown princess with that attitude.”

Those words cut deeply into the heart of eleven-year-old Alicia.

Because she loved Joshua, she surrendered everything to Mariabelle, believing it necessary to become a worthy future crown princess.

She was moved from a spacious room on the second floor to a poorly lit chamber on the third.

It was treatment unthinkable for the legitimate daughter of a marquess, yet Alicia was still a child who had not even made her debut into society. She did not understand how abnormal it was.

Seeing how meek she was, Thomas’s behavior gradually worsened.

Inheriting the title and severing ties with his parents had likely emboldened him.

He did not merely shout at Alicia. He began to strike her.

“You really are just like that woman. It makes me sick!”

At first, Alicia did not know whom he meant by “that woman.”

Before long, through whispers among the servants, she learned he was referring to her late mother, Jessica.

Thomas was the second son of Baron Arben. Jessica of the Wellston family had pursued him relentlessly.

Though he tried to escape her, she had used her authority to force him to part from Deborah, with whom he had been in love at the time.

It had been decided that Jessica would inherit the Wellston title upon reaching adulthood.

She persuaded Thomas to marry her by offering to pass that title on to him as an adopted husband.

No wonder he could not bring himself to love Alicia.

These were the stories Alicia heard from the servants of the Wellston household.

Naturally timid and deprived of parental protection, Alicia withdrew further into herself, eventually being looked down upon even by the servants.

Isolated within her own home, she shut herself away in her room to forget her pain and devoted herself wholly to her studies. For Alicia, learning was the only bond she shared with Joshua, the sole thread connecting her to him.

She began to dream of the day she would marry and finally leave this house behind.