Chapter 11
Though Dietrich had been born in the North, he spent his childhood in the imperial palace.
Because his parents and the Emperor had been close siblings, he was given the opportunity to study at the palace and meet nobles from throughout the Empire.
As a result, Dietrich spent many years away from the North, and during that time, the variable named Teresa appeared.
He still could not believe that the once-loving relationship between the former Grand Duke and Grand Duchess had collapsed so completely. Worse, his father had not only betrayed his mother, but had even handed rights that should have belonged to his own son over to a mere mistress.
The former Grand Duke had transferred far too much authority to Teresa, including ownership of Glück Castle itself.
Because of the mistakes the former Grand Duke made in his later years, Dietrich had been reduced to a position where he needed Teresa’s permission simply to host a banquet within the castle.
Thus, no matter what promises Dietrich made, true authority could never properly be delegated.
Naturally, Adriana also never received the authority that rightfully belonged to the mistress of the castle.
At first, she protested the unfair situation and desperately tried to drive Teresa out and reclaim the keys to Glück Castle.
But the people of Hielo had already joined forces with Teresa, embezzling wealth and forming a powerful faction together. They were satisfied with the current balance of power, and an impenetrable wall had formed that Adriana alone could never break through.
She wanted to ask Dietrich for help, but he was never in the castle.
Since she could never meet him, there was no way to discuss anything.
Whenever she tried to ask about something, the lord was absent, and the retainers all sided with someone else.
And so Adriana fought alone for three years.
Yet now, only after she mentioned divorce, he suddenly claimed he would grant her whatever she wanted?
Adriana could not feel even the slightest sincerity from Dietrich.
More importantly, Adriana no longer cared about the castle’s finances anymore.
In the past, she had desperately tried to distribute the grain Teresa stole to the commoners somehow, but now…
In her previous life, Adriana had secretly procured food supplies behind Teresa’s back for the starving people of the territory. But the people of Hielo falsely accused the grain she brought of being poisoned and burned her alive.
Why should she put bread into the mouths of the very people who killed her?
There was only one reason.
It was because she carried the duties of a Grand Duchess.
She had been taught that nobles had an obligation to embrace those beneath them no matter how difficult or cruel they behaved. That was why the Adriana of her previous life had tried to help the people of Hielo without hating them.
Adriana fundamentally could not refuse the requests of others. She believed helping those beneath her was her duty. She believed it was the fate she had been born into as the eldest daughter of House Verano.
But if she divorced Dietrich, then her husband would simply become an ex-husband, and the people of Hielo would become strangers.
Thus, Adriana could remain calm even when imagining the future awaiting them.
“If you are not going to drive Teresa out immediately, then stop blocking my path.”
The moment Adriana declared those words and tried to leave—
“Would that be enough?”
Dietrich grabbed her arm.
“Is Teresa truly the reason you wish to leave my side?”
For a brief instant, it felt as though the light faded from Dietrich’s eyes.
Adriana stared blankly at him for a moment, struck by the illusion that a deep ocean—something that could never exist in Hielo—had suddenly appeared within them.
Soon, the waves within his eyes stilled, and Dietrich spoke.
“Fine. I will not stop whatever it is you are trying to do. I shall watch and see exactly what you intend.”
“I hope you mean those words sincerely.”
“But no lovers.”
“…Lovers?”
“The bastards you keep around as lovers. So the reason you surrounded yourself with knights was because you could not trust me.”
Adriana slowly shook her head, as though refusing to even acknowledge his words.
“So even you believed those rumors?”
“Adriana Verano. You are a woman of a great noble house, so perhaps keeping one or two lovers would not be unusual. I was willing to overlook at least that much.”
It was true.
Dietrich had completely believed the rumors that Adriana had lovers without the slightest doubt.
“But once you agreed to become Grand Duchess, should you not properly fulfill the role of mistress of Hielo? Does it make any sense to speak of divorce over lovers?”
Adriana became so furious that her head spun.
The cold of the North seemed to reside inside Dietrich’s mouth itself.
An even greater humiliation than the night Teresa had ordered her body searched crawled violently down Adriana’s spine.
‘The filthy Grand Duchess who fools around with lovers.’
Of all the rumors tormenting Adriana in Hielo, the worst were the ones about lovers.
No matter how ridiculous the other rumors were, she could tolerate them. But the claims that she toyed around with other men were unbearable.
Those rumors denied every sincere feeling Adriana had carried when she came all the way to this distant land for Dietrich alone.
As long as Dietrich understood her sincerity, she believed she could endure whatever others said.
But now even her own husband thought she was an unfaithful woman.
Dietrich had believed the malicious rumors created solely to tarnish Adriana’s honor.
She had endured those cruel years because of the affection she still held for this man alone, yet now a single sentence from Dietrich turned all of Adriana’s efforts into nothing.
Countless thoughts tore through Adriana’s mind in an instant.
And what remained at the end was only disappointment and emptiness.
“Anyone else may think of me that way, but you must not.”
She was not asking for love.
Nor for trust.
Nor even for protection.
She could do those things herself.
All she had wanted was to be acknowledged as his wife.
But if he truly believed she and her knights shared that kind of relationship, then it meant he had never considered Adriana his wife to begin with.
“How could you say something like that about my friends…?”
If he understood what those companions from the South meant to Adriana in this cold and lonely place, he could never have spoken such words.
Before she was Grand Duchess, Adriana was a knight.
If he viewed knights spending time together as nothing more than a woman amusing herself with men, then he was denying Adriana’s abilities and her work entirely.
This was something she could never forgive.
“Or perhaps you suspect me because the rumors about you having another woman are true?”
“What?”
“You think there are no rumors saying the Grand Duke constantly wanders outside the castle because he has hidden away a mistress somewhere?”
Just as Dietrich had heard rumors that Adriana kept lovers, Adriana had heard rumors as well.
‘His Grace the Grand Duke spends longer and longer periods outside the castle these days.’
‘Someone apparently saw him together with a young lady recently. Which noble family was she from? Surely she must have been from Hielo.’
But Adriana had trusted that such rumors could not possibly be true.
Just as she trusted Dietrich, she had foolishly believed he would trust her in return.
And yet the reward for that trust was mere suspicion.
“If you can twist loyal knights into lovers, then perhaps it means you truly do have a mistress yourself. But just because you wish to take a lover does not mean you may drag me down to the same level.”
No matter how lonely she had been, she had waited for her husband alone. Yet she never imagined the reward for that devotion would be accusations against her chastity.
The betrayal made her teeth tremble with rage.
“Wait, what do you mean I have a mistress—”
“Even if I truly had lovers, you would have no right to question me. While my knights protected me, you were never once on my side.”
Dietrich tried to demand an explanation, but Adriana was already striding farther away.
Adriana walked quickly, her face stripped of expression.
Dietrich truly possessed a talent for ruining every moment of happiness she experienced.
She was furious that he had twisted the loyalty of the knights who were like brothers to her into something filthy.
All she wanted now was to rest somewhere alone where no one could disturb her.
But waiting for Adriana upon reaching her bedroom were Katrin and Dorothea, her former maids.
“Your Grace the Grand Duchess!”
“Move aside.”
Adriana did not bother hiding her displeasure as she ordered them away.
Yet Katrin and Dorothea did not retreat.
“Your Grace, we were worried because you refused morning attendance and disappeared until now.”
“I am worried for you two as well. I clearly dismissed you yesterday, yet you managed to forget within a single day. With memories that poor, you will never succeed serving anyone.”
Understanding the insult, Katrin and Dorothea’s faces flushed red.
“Your Grace, please tell us exactly what displeases you about us. We will fix everything.”
“I already explained that yesterday as well. Must I repeat myself? First, perhaps you should correct this habit of making me say the same thing over and over.”
Just as Adriana ignored the maids and opened the bedroom door—
“You are late.”
There was an intruder inside the bedroom that should have been empty.
