“The successor to Duke Brington, who has two suspicious divorces? The first son of Marquis Tolein, whose intelligence is so low that he can barely communicate? Or the second son, famous for being involved with many women? There’s no suitable man to propose to Viscountess Winblear.”
“Mother…”
“Your father will do anything to marry you off to one of the ‘Four Great Families.’ You know that, don’t you?”
Of course, she did. Her father’s obsession with the “Four Great Families” was incredibly tiresome.
He had pestered her since she was little about the need to maintain marital ties with one of the empire’s most powerful families.
“It’s better to accept the Duke of Lancaster’s offer. He has a long-time mistress and his children are all grown, so he likely won’t bother you. When the Duke dies, there will be a lot of inheritance left for you, so you can live as you please then.”
“And when is the Duke supposed to die? It’ll be at least ten years before I’m thirty!”
“Is waiting about ten years for forty years of a comfortable life really such a big deal?”
She then muttered to herself,
“If she becomes the Duchess, even her father would bow his head. Why is she so displeased? Tsk.”
At those words, Edel’s eyes flashed open.
Already suffocated by her father’s arrogance and coercion, she clung to the hope of escaping him, managing to compose herself both physically and mentally.
‘Yes, if I get married, I can leave the Canyon Count Family. I’ll gain my freedom in a few years. So, I’ll endure. I’ll endure.’
From then on, she diligently prepared for the marriage as her father wished.
Although she knew there were whispers about this marriage, she put on a cheerful smile at parties and gatherings.
However, the moment she entered the ducal estate, Edel realized that it could never be a ‘home.’
“Your father taught you well, didn’t he? Act the perfect Duchess. Don’t harbor any foolish ambitions; just exist in that position. That’s your role.”
On their wedding night, Duke Lancaster briefly visited her bedroom and gave her that ‘order’ before leaving for his own chambers, where his mistress was waiting.
Edel felt humiliated, but also relieved.
Not only because the Duke hadn’t touched her, but also because she had received thorough, almost abusive, education on how to be a noblewoman, so living in the ducal estate wouldn’t be too difficult.
But that was a tremendous mistake.
She hadn’t realized that the Duke not touching her meant she would be treated as invisible in the ducal estate.
Furthermore, the Duke’s grown children were hostile towards her. Of course, they wouldn’t want to share their fortune and power with a sudden interloper.
“Why would Father remarry? And with a woman from such an insignificant family!”
“He insists someone must occupy the Duchess’s position. He probably hates being called a widower.”
“What widower? He’s had a mistress for over fifteen years.”
“Still, he can’t possibly make that lowborn woman the Duchess. I don’t particularly like her either.”
“More than that, Count Canyon put a lot of effort into this, didn’t he? Trying to get involved with our family somehow.”
The Duke’s children exchanged such words in front of Edel, then sneered at the speechless Edel and said,
“Don’t speak out of turn and stay quiet. If you don’t want to suffer a terrible fate.”
Even after hearing such words, Edel gritted her teeth and endured each day.
She perfectly managed the ducal estate’s various banquets, oversaw dozens of ledgers and a hundred servants, and entertained countless guests daily without a single mistake.
She gritted her teeth and acted happy in high society to avoid disgracing the Lancaster Ducal Family’s name or her own honor.
‘I only have to endure for a few more years. Once the Duke dies, I’ll live freely to spite everyone!’
She held onto that single thought and persevered.
But all her efforts were in vain.
The “Duchy Independence Plan,” which she knew nothing about, was exposed earlier than the Duke had anticipated, and the enraged Emperor mercilessly crushed the duchy.
“Flee, my lady! The Emperor’s army is coming! Hurry!”
The disheveled butler rushed in, spitting blood as he urged her to escape, and that day was as vivid to Edel as if it were yesterday.
She had thought they would plan for independence only if they possessed the power to rival the Emperor, but the Duke’s army was annihilated without a single victory against the Emperor’s suppression forces.
Meanwhile, the maids staying at the ducal castle quickly packed their belongings and returned to their families, and the quick-witted servants stole items from the ducal estate and fled.
But she stayed in the castle. She had to.
‘I am the mistress of this castle. I have nowhere else to go!’
Even though she had never held an ounce of power and was treated as if she didn’t exist, Edel had tried to fulfill her duties as the Duchess.
However, the butler dragged her out as she tried to guard the Duke’s study, shouting,
“It’s all over! The ducal family is finished! The young master and ladies have already fled!”
He fled in a panic as soon as he heard the sound of the castle gates being breached, pushing Edel away, but he was the last person who showed her any consideration. No one else even told her to escape.
Looking down at the chaos unfolding below from the third-floor corridor of the castle, Edel realized she had been abandoned. And that there was no way to save her life.
The path to the outside was blocked, and the ducal family had not revealed any secret passages in the castle to her.
She couldn’t just stand there, so Edel ran blindly to the topmost floor of the castle and hid in an attic used as a storage room.
‘Why have you forsaken me, Lord? What did I ever do wrong?’
In the dim corner of that warehouse, she curled up and pondered unanswered questions.
She endured her father’s harsh education since childhood. She strived to become a perfect lady whom no one could criticize, and she was recognized in high society.
But being praised for a shell created by her father’s plan was hollow and painful. She felt like she would disappear if she continued living like this.
‘Perhaps all that suffering was God’s warning to escape right now?’
Outside, dreadful screams and the clashing of swords were incessant.
‘My life was spent as mere tool. A tool to bring more money and power to my father and family, a tool for the ducal family’s reputation…’
It was the same at that moment.
While the suppression forces scoured the castle searching for Edel, the Duke’s children were undoubtedly fleeing far away.
‘I’m bait. They probably deliberately let it be known that I’m here.’
Realizing again that she was bound to die, hiding in the corner felt meaningless.
‘Yes, I am the Duchess. If my life was born and raised solely for that purpose, then my end should be befitting a Duchess.’
Determined not to make her final moments pathetic, Edel unfurled her curled body.
She took out an old chair from the corner, placed it in the center of the storage room, and gracefully sat down, tidying her skirt. She also adjusted her hair and dabbed away the cold sweat with a handkerchief from her bosom.
Meanwhile, the sound of knights storming up the stairs grew closer.
‘Almighty and benevolent Phara, please take me without much pain.’
She sought God in her final moments, the God of all, who had never granted her wishes.
*Clack, clack.*
The door rattled.
“Only this door is locked!”
“Captain! This must be it!”
After searching every room in the castle, the suppression forces gathered in front of the last storage room at the very top of the castle.
Edel, who had been praying, clenched her trembling hands tightly.
“Be resolute in the face of suffering. Trust in God’s plan and endure. Suffering is momentary, and the reward of endurance is sweet.”
She muttered the scripture she always recited with her dry lips. Even if the only reward for enduring the impending suffering was death.
“Break down the door.”
Along with a man’s voice, something thudded.
The door was slammed open. The hinges of the old door broke easily after a few impacts, and a man with an indifferent face stood beyond the fallen door.
There were other knights beside him, but the man’s presence was so strong that the others seemed to fade away.
‘Laslo Krissus… They say he’s the Emperor’s hunting dog?’
He, who had never been defeated, once again carried out his master’s orders without fail.
“Duchess Edele Lancaster?”
He asked, without wiping the bloodstains on his cheeks and hands. Of course, he wasn’t asking because he didn’t know.
“Whew, you’re as beautiful as the rumors say.”
“Even if she’s the second wife, a Duchess is still a Duchess, isn’t she? Even in this situation…”
Despite the surrounding knights’ sneering appraisals, his expression did not change. He was an impressive man with sharp eyes visible between his disheveled black hair and a straight nose above his patchy beard.
“I am Edele Lancaster. Will you behead me here?”
Edele asked, wishing he would kill her right there.
The other knights, perhaps taken aback by her calm demeanor, whistled or wore expressions of disbelief. But Laslo, with eyes devoid of any emotion, looked at her and replied simply.