Chapter 1 - Prologue (1)

“Today, will you stay out late?”

“Why?”

I believed that despite losing eternal friendship, I had gained eternal love in its place. Thus, once again, Goyo Rubiet foolishly believed in eternity.

After that, the situation flowed smoothly. A clumsy love grew as time passed, and the heart-throbbing excitements, once so frequent, eventually stabilized.

And when we became adults, we got formally engaged.

However, it had only taken three years for my relationship with Terio changed once again. And it began when he first spoke to Melissa, my step sister.

Melissa Rubiet, a sister who didn’t share the same blood with me, but still had Rubiet in her last name. She was Mrs. Kazel’s, who became the next duchess after the original duchess died, daughter.

Melissa came to Rubiet’s household when I was 13 and she was 10 years old. And at first, Terio wasn’t interested in her when he first spoke to her.

And since I neither like nor hate my sister, I let Terio and Melissa conversed with each other freely.

At that time, I didn’t know that it would lead to me feeling distress.

I didn’t know then. And I still didn’t know if I was subconsciously turning away from the fact or not either. I truly didn’t know which one was the truth.

Thus, I ignorantly let myself be formally engaged with Terio and set our wedding date. Despite that, I still noticed that as the date approached closer, Terio’s expression gradually became sour.

When I enquired about that, he told me he was nervous. Although on the surface I nodded my head and accepted his reasoning, deep down inside, I couldn’t convince my heart that he was telling the truth. Nevertheless, when I thought it over again, I think the reason he gave me was plausible as he was not an easygoing person in the first place.

In the meantime, I got a marriage proposal. The partner was the Marquis of Bethelgius, who made a great contribution in the war. He quickly became known as the marquis born from common people.

I thought my father would refuse it at once because it was very rude to propose to a person who was about to be married, but surprisingly, my father didn’t do it. Instead, he asked me before my marriage whether I would be willing to go through with marrying the marquis or not.

And there were two reasons why that happened. One was the political aspect, and the other one was… the rumor about the relationship between Terio and Melissa.