Chapter 1
“Don’t you feel it’s unfair, Miss?”
Mary asked with a pout, holding a brass comb engraved with an angel.
Chloe’s fingers, which had been playing with the ribbon in her hair, stopped.
“He must be a good person.”
“How do you know that when you haven’t even seen his face?”
She believed it without seeing him. She had to.
She had no other choice. So she blindly insisted that he must be a good person.
The Brack Empire had two old and prestigious ducal families, known as the two great pillars of the empire.
There was the Montfier Ducal Family in the south, praised for its knowledge and elegance, and the Stark Grand Ducal Family of the northern Principality of Amast, which was known as the army of the empire.
Because the Stark family had few descendants, it was customary for them to arrange an engagement before having children and marry when the bride turned twenty, when she was old enough to have children.
And Chloe Montfier, who would soon become the bride of the Stark family, was excitedly waiting for her twentieth birthday.
According to the Montfier family tradition, it was forbidden for an engaged couple to see each other’s faces before the wedding.
So she had never met her fiancé even once.
Grand Duke Tristan Stark.
He was so famous that there was hardly anyone in the empire who did not know his name.
He was the king of the northern Principality of Amast and the man who wielded the Holy Sword of Amast.
A holy man whom even the gods were said to bow their heads before.
He was so devoted to battle that people said there had been no war in the empire’s territory because he was there to protect it.
The flowery descriptions about him that Mary often brought back were unbelievable.
The Conqueror of Blood.
The cruel butcher without blood or tears.
The merciless ruler.
The swordsman whose sword was faster than his words.
The vampire who drank blood.
When Chloe first heard why he had received such nicknames, she wanted to wash her ears and forget about them immediately.
On top of that, guesses about his appearance and body were always popular topics in gossip magazines.
Some said he had a long scar across his face from when he cut off King Kiangka’s head.
Another rumor, supposedly from one of his closest aides, claimed that he limped on one leg.
People said they kept quiet about such rumors because if they spread, the Brack Empire might be looked down upon.
But that rumor was the least believable of all.
A man who had to leap quickly from his horse and swing his sword could not possibly have a problem with his leg.
The latest rumor Chloe had heard was that his entire face had been burned, so he now went around wearing a mask.
“So, is he a monster?”
Mary’s face quickly turned bright red after saying all that. It meant that even Mary knew those were nothing more than ridiculous jokes.
“No one has seen his face, so… tch. It just means he’s a mole who hides away in the north.”
Mary’s hands moved slowly as she braided Chloe’s hair.
“Mary. There are no moles in the cold north.”
Chloe pointed this out seriously in the middle of their conversation, and Mary’s expression became rather amusing.
“If you lived on a battlefield for eleven months, you’d probably want to spend one month resting in your castle too. Don’t add your voice to unnecessary rumors.”
Chloe disliked these frightening rumors about her future husband.
It wasn’t that she wished for him to be handsome.
Nor did she hope that he had an especially beautiful body.
She simply disliked hearing people talk about him that way.
But Mary was unusually sensitive today and continued grumbling.
“I’m the one who feels wronged. You’re supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the empire. And you’re going to marry a man surrounded by nothing but terrible rumors.”
Chloe calmly handed her the ribbon.
She had been born with a man already chosen as her future husband.
Before she was even old enough to understand anything, she had lived trapped inside Montfier Castle.
The reason was simple.
Because she already had a man she would marry, she had to behave modestly and properly.
Whenever spring came and the social season began, carriages filled the roads outside the gates of Montfier Castle.
Young ladies dressed in their finest clothes would attract the attention of eligible men at banquets.
Then, the next day, men carrying bouquets of flowers and gifts would line up outside their homes.
For nineteen years, Chloe had watched all those processions from her bedroom window.
All for the sake of becoming Tristan Stark’s wife.
All so she could give him her pure body and heart.
And soon, she would become his wife.
She would probably spend all her time lonely, waiting for a husband who would be away for eleven months protecting the empire in the unfamiliar north.
What would actually change from her current life?
“I’m secluded too.”
She had been taught about relations between men and women, but just thinking about it made her face feel hot.
She would have to undress and share her body with a man she didn’t know.
Sometimes, she wondered.
Did His Highness Grand Duke Tristan miss her too?
When he learned from the moment he was born that he was destined to marry a woman who had not even been born yet, what expression had he made?
If he really was the battle maniac everyone said he was, then he would never have any interest in someone like her.
After fulfilling his duty on their wedding night, he would probably only visit her bedroom from time to time.
Thinking about it made her restless.
What kind of person was he, anyway?
That was why, even when Mary carried around all these stories supposedly to defend her mistress, Chloe did not frown.
Instead, she simply smiled.
At breakfast, her mother’s nagging continued.
“Chloe. You still haven’t finished the embroidery? You need to make your own blanket with it. The one you’ll use on your first night as a newlywed—”
Chloe carefully placed her utensils on the plate without making a sound and politely wiped her lips.
“Mother, I’m not good at embroidery. Mary is much better than me, so please let Mary do it.”
Emma, the Duchess of Montfier, who normally did not show her emotions over trivial matters, raised her voice.
Her fair cheeks had noticeably turned red.
“Is Mary getting married?! The bride has to do it. It’s tradition!”
Under the table, Chloe’s legs swung back and forth out of boredom.
“Mother. Honestly…”
The Duke of Montfier, who had been quietly listening to the mother and daughter, had a smile on his face.
He seemed quite used to situations like this.
Chloe knew that after saying what she was about to say, she would definitely have to run out of the dining room.
“Honestly, why do I need a blanket on the first night? I’ll be hugging my husband all night. Wouldn’t I eventually end up sleeping on top of my husband instead?”
“Ahahaha!”
The Duke of Montfier finally burst out laughing.
Emma blinked as though she could not believe what she had just heard.
The information that had entered her brain seemed too shocking for her to process.
Chloe slowly stood up.
Then she grabbed the skirt of her dress with both hands and gave a small nod.
“I’ll be going to practice swordsmanship now.”
“Chloe!!!”
Chloe quickly ran out and shut the dining room door behind her.
She gathered up her skirt and sprinted down the hallway.
Behind her, the door opened violently, and Emma shouted with her fist clenched.
“Just try not to finish that embroidery today! I’ll lock you in the tower for a week!”
Chloe stopped running and turned around.
“Mother! I’m not good at embroidery. I’m not good at ironing either. I’m not good at making clothes. I even burn the food! I can’t do anything women are supposed to do! So there! I’ll leave the embroidery to Mary!”
Behind Emma, her husband Antonio approached and gently wrapped his arms around her.
“Emma. Why can’t you admit that Chloe simply has no talent with her hands?”
“This is serious! What if her mother-in-law dislikes her after she gets married? I hear the Grand Duchess has quite a temper. Will she really like a daughter-in-law who can’t even embroider…?”
Antonio kept gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.
“Why does the Grand Duchess matter? Tristan can love her.”
“This is why Chloe is always like that.”
Emma sighed.
Antonio pressed his lips against the back of Emma’s hand.
“Emma. I fell in love with you even after seeing the chrysanthemum handkerchief you embroidered so crookedly.”
That meant Chloe’s lack of embroidery skills had not simply appeared out of nowhere.
“Why do you have to bring that up again?”
He kissed her shoulder once more.
“So, let Mary do the embroidery on the blanket. If Chloe has to embroider it herself, she’ll probably be eighty before she can get married.”
At the end of his words, the two looked at each other and laughed.
As Tristan left the temple of Amast, he suddenly looked toward the south.
One month left, was it?
Until my wedding?
At the thought, he let out a small laugh.
The gentle Amast wind blew through his jet-black hair.
“Your Grace!”
His secretary, Romero, came running toward him.
“What is it?”
“The barbarian Dedrin have appeared near the border.”
Tristan’s eyebrows rose sharply.
This was not the time when they were supposed to cross the border.
Why now?
“How large is their force?”
“They say there are around a thousand of them.”
