Prologue: The Runaway Wife
A harsh season had arrived.
Ryan arrived at the front of the Duke’s mansion, treading upon snow that no one else had stepped on.
Two years.
It had been two years since he was last here.
Unlike back then, he had grown a palm’s width taller, his facial features had become more defined, and he had gained a healthy physique.
No one looking at the current Ryan would ever imagine that he had suffered from a severe chronic illness two years ago.
“Y-Young Master?”
The face of the maid who discovered Ryan then turned pale. She rushed to announce Ryan’s return to the mansion, and the once quiet residence quickly became bustling.
Ryan waited for one person to emerge from the mansion.
Anasta Winterlet.
His wife.
[I want to be a husband you aren’t ashamed of.]
Two years ago, he had left her, leaving behind only a single sheet of a letter.
To soothe her resentment toward him, Ryan wrote a letter once every six months, but no reply ever came.
Nevertheless, thinking she would have read the letters, he often imagined Anasta’s face as she read his handwriting and caught the scent of a light breeze.
‘Anasta.’
And today, he returned to the mansion. As a husband who was no longer a source of shame, just as promised.
“Ryan!”
The first to welcome him was the Duke, whose eyes were moist. The Duke, who rushed out the door without wearing an overcoat, tightly embraced his son, who was now two palms taller than him.
“I am so glad you returned safely!”
“Ah, yes.”
Ryan responded stiffly with a stoic expression, then examined the people who came out the door one by one.
The head maid, the butler Paul, and even his stepmother who had come out reluctantly. Looking at his stepmother’s face made Ryan feel nauseous, but Anasta was the priority now.
“Where is my wife?”
Ryan asked point-blank.
“Ryan.”
“I don’t see my wife, Father.”
“…….”
“Anasta Winterlet, no. I mean Anasta Saltier.”
At Ryan’s words, the Duke took his hands off his body and spoke.
“Your wife…? You two never legally held a wedding.”
“What do you mean? I filled out the marriage vows two years ago and submitted them the day I left for the unit.”
“…….”
Seeing the silent Duke and stepmother, only then did a sense of anxiety rush over Ryan.
“Where is Anasta now?”
“……Ryan.”
“I must go to the villa right now—.”
It was just as Ryan tried to move, shaking off the Duke’s hand.
“She ran away.”
Ryan’s large frame stopped mid-motion.
“In the end, she couldn’t endure it and ran away. A year ago.”
His sharp eyes turned toward his stepmother, the Duchess, who was delivering the news about Anasta.
“You went to the army of your own accord. Left alone, Anasta couldn’t hold out.”
“…….”
“She said she stopped loving you. She suffered quite a bit when she first came to the Duke’s residence, didn’t she?”
“Don’t talk such nonsense.”
“If you can’t believe it, go check for yourself. There will be a letter she left at the villa.”
Ryan’s clouded pupils shook like waves.
“Ryan!”
“Young Master!”
Ryan, biting his trembling lip, passed the Duke and hurried to the annex. Arriving at the annex in one breath with angry footsteps that matched his fast-beating heart, he immediately opened the door to the room where Anasta had stayed.
There was no one there, only a chilly winter wind blowing.
“Anasta?”
Ryan, who carefully called out her name, looked around. Empty furniture with not a single object, a cold floor, and a vacant room where not even a trace of human warmth could be felt.
“…….”
Just as the biting wind lashed at the window, a sharp point of despair pierced Ryan’s heart.
Why on earth?
“E-Excuse me…….”
Behind his back, which was slumped in despair, a maid cautiously approached. When Ryan raised his head, she showed him a single sheet of stationery.
“A year ago…… the young lady told me to deliver this to you.”
Ryan quickly snatched the letter.
[Thank you for everything.]
There, Anasta’s farewell, announcing their parting, was written. Ryan’s eyes began to shake like waves at her unmistakable handwriting.
“Ha.”
A mocking laugh escaped Ryan’s mouth.
「She ran away.」
Along with the Duchess’s voice in his head, the cruel memories of the winter two years ago passed by like a picture.
* * *
Two years ago.
Under the chandelier, a woman stood tall like a doll.
“She looks as dainty as the rumors say. This much should be fine.”
The Duchess, who was looking Anasta up and down, finally opened her lips.
It was a plain and monotonous evaluation for her, who possessed beautiful looks and intelligence, but the Count and his wife standing next to her were more delighted than anyone.
“You say she is twenty this year?”
“She is a well-behaved child. She is even a child who does not yet know the touch of a man. There will be no disappointing you or the Young Master.”
“Hmm…….”
“Look, My Lady!”
As the Duchess pondered, the Count grabbed Anasta’s arm as if handling a doll.
“Her hair is thick and her skin is as white as a newborn baby’s! Above all, this child has never been sick once. Her body is sturdy, so there will be no problem bearing children.”
“Is that so? Have you really never been sick? Dear.”
The Duchess, narrowing her eyes, quietly observed Anasta’s expression.
Her intelligent and shining green eyes looked innocent, as if she didn’t know how to lie, but they were unwavering.
Looking closely, the aura felt from her slender body was remarkably tough.
The Duchess smiled slightly.
She loathed spite that was malicious without knowing its place, but spite that was full of patience and knew its place was welcome.
What Anasta had was the latter.
“Your answer is slow.”
“I have tripped and been hurt before, but I healed quickly. I will not disappoint you or the Young Master.”
“She has the body my son wants. You know well about my son, right?”
Terminally ill.
A single word came to Anasta’s mind.
The fact that the second son of the Saltier family, Ryan Saltier, was in poor health was something even nobles who didn’t participate in social circles knew.
The story of how a terminal life that suddenly arrived at age seventeen blocked his bright and talented future all at once.
Ryan Saltier’s reputation, which was praised as noble just by hearing his name, was instantly engulfed in pity.
Noble ladies who wanted to marry him now regarded him as lower than a low-ranking noble, and the young masters who had stuck by his side to gain something ignored him and badmouthed him.
Three years passed, and talk that the Duke’s family was looking for a bride for Ryan Saltier spread secretly.
They called her a bride, but in reality, it was talk of finding a caregiver, or a servant, for a twenty-year-old terminally ill young man.
However, there were many people who were greedy for the attractive reputation of the Saltier Duke’s family.
Naturally, people blinded by expensive wedding gifts stepped forward to say they would marry Ryan right away.
Anasta’s parents were among them.
She, who had grown up destitute in a ruined Count’s mansion, had been raised not as a daughter but as a tool for marriage since long ago. And today, the time had come for her to play her role.
“Since my son fell ill, his personality has become very sensitive. He dislikes it when someone talks to him and gets angry even if their skin just brushes. He gets angry recklessly when he hears talk about himself, so even the maids don’t want to get close to him.”
“I will always be careful with my words.”
“Yes, you should.”
The Duchess smiled as if satisfied.
“Th-Then, My Lady. Will you take Anasta as the bride?”
“I think it would be hard to find a woman as perfect as Anasta even if I looked around more.”
“That’s right!”
At the goal that was almost reached, the Count and his wife smiled so widely their mouths could tear.
“However, let’s have a six-month grace period. There’s more than one or two women who run away as soon as they stamp the marriage seal.”
“But the Young Master is…….”
Isn’t he a body that will die soon anyway?
The Count, who almost spoke carelessly, realized his mistake and trailed off.
“Then is the wedding six months later?”
“Before that, I plan to take Anasta and have her attend to Ryan. Since they haven’t seen each other’s faces, it would be good to get closer before the marriage.”
The words were smooth, but in fact, it meant she would entrust all the work regarding her troublesome terminally ill son to Anasta.
“Instead, I will send the wedding gifts and the promised gold coins to the Count’s mansion once a month. How is this amount?”
The Duchess handed the check she received from the butler to the Count.
The Count was disappointed at the news that the wedding gifts wouldn’t be given all at once, but his eyes widened upon seeing the number of the amount written on the check.
“Th-This, am-amount is…….”
“I liked Anasta, so I added especially more. Once the grace period passes and Anasta becomes his wife, I will provide even more. Even in the event of his passing, the Winterlet family will be able to take more money. Is it perhaps insufficient?”
The Count and his wife shook their heads. There was no way they wouldn’t be satisfied!
“Please take Anasta, My Lady.”
In front of gold coins and wedding gifts, there was no hesitation from the Count and his wife. They were very happy that even their youngest daughter, whom they gave birth to in pain, was being sold to an excellent family.
