Cesare snorted.
“From the beginning! Isabella was the woman for me. The most beautiful woman suits the strongest man. Do you know the humiliation I felt when your father pushed you in place of your sister?”
Ariadne stared blankly at Cesare with her mouth open.
“Your sister was the most beautiful young lady in San Carlo. She put in the marriage proposal and she fucking gave it to you! How unfair I was! Where am I missing?”
In front of Ariadne, Cesare shared his feelings of sadness because he had been rejected. Ariadne was a ‘good woman’. She used to accept this nonsense from her man over and over again. That was the only way she learned how to be loved. She couldn’t possibly compete with her exceptionally pretty sister on her looks. Ariadne loved to study, but her stepmother, on the pretext that her study was not a girl’s virtue, vehemently hindered her study of writing, so she did nor learn much. Ariadne had to be ‘good’. She was not naturally docile or amiable. But by letting go of herself, yielding, accepting, apologizing, and submitting, she has made her own place in a world that does not give her side. She did, she thought. Until today.
“You mean I was a substitute?”
A bewildered smile was imprinted on Cesare’s face, which was as handsome as a statue carved in marble. It was a laugh close to madness.
“Replacement?”
He strode over, reached out his hand, and lifted the tip of Ariadne's chin. He threw out word after word as if he were spitting it out through his teeth.
“A substitute is a substitute. You are not even a substitute.”
Ariadne looked at Cesare’s expression one by one while shivering. The upper lip that raised to show fangs when angry, the high nose bright and the handsome auburn eyebrows that continue from there, the high forehead bone and the movement of the forehead muscle above it that pounces in anger. And his blue eyes. Those blue eyes with incomprehensible anger. She knew Cesare very well. He was a man whose head was incomprehensible, but he embodied the pattern in his mind. Perhaps today would be the last time she would see her Cesare. That feeling came. He jerked her right hand away from her chin. Ariadne, unable to overcome the strength of Cesare's arms, collapsed on the floor of her bedroom.
“Get out of my sight. Don’t show up again.”
She had countless hints. It was she herself who sat there foolishly, chewing her hopes like a cow. She knew it would be like this.
***
Cardinal de Mare entered the clergy, but like many other clerics of his time, he had several children. His mistress, Lucrezia, was of noble origin, had three children with the cardinal, and behaved like a mistress. The three children were also raised like the offspring of a great aristocrat. Isabella, the second and the eldest, was still seventeen years old, but her beauty made her famous in society. The treasure of Lucrezia and the pride of Cardinal de Mare.
“Dad, I don't want to marry that man.”
With peach skin and flaxen hair, she whined sweetly to Cardinal de Mare. Her two eyes, resembling amethyst, twinkled pitifully.
“He is ferocious like a beast. And there are rumors that he is a bastard.”
Cardinal de Mare stroked the hair of his angelic daughter.
“Yes, yes, your father knows. He was announced to be the Prince’s cousin, but in fact he was the King’s bastard. I have no intention of marrying off my daughter to this bastard.”
It was as if Cardila's son could be the son of the royal family. Isabella laughed softly. As soon as her innocent and beautiful face showed a smile, she looked like a cute fairy.
“Dad always told me to make the de Mare family name known. I will become the most beautiful and noblest woman in the country. I can’t just end up as a Countess.”
Cardinal de Mare shook his head,
“Let’s pretend that our Isabella has been ill for a while.He can’t force marriage on a sick child.
“But you can’t ignore Count de Como’s marriage proposal, can you?”
A cool voice interrupted from behind. It was Cardinal de Mare’s mistress, Lucrezia.
“I’m about to become a Marquess, so don’t make me sad.”
The Margrave was the one who defended the borders of the Kingdom. he is given military power, but he is forced to leave the capital. For Count De Como, it was a confusing move whether it was a promotion or a relegation. One more thing was certain: Count Cesare de Como was not the kind of husband he wanted his daughter to be. He couldn't send his daughter to a corner of her country, to a man who might die in a local war. However, if he did not give his daughter to the Count who had a military base, and the Count had a rebellious spirit and even marched on the capitol, it would be a big deal. even if he couldn’t give the Count the most precious child, he had to keep the string in. Since he is a hand that doesn’t know when to break it, the less precious the string the better.
“Affliction goes well with baptism. Send Ariadne, Your Excellency Cardinal.”
“Ariadne… That’s a name I haven't heard in a long time.”
Cardinal de Mare smiled.
***
Ariadne’s mother was the maid of Lucrezia. On a rainy day, Cardinal de Mare, drunkenly, took a maid instead of Lucrezia, and Lucrezia went into a fit of rage when he learned about it. But the maid already had the Cardinal’s seed in her belly. The child she was born to was neither a son nor a daughter who bore the slightest resemblance to the Cardinal. After giving birth, the maid immediately was locked in a room in a tower and she died after only a few years of life. ever since Ariadne was taken from her mother’s arms, she has been raised in a servants quarters. Ariadne, who had no special education, did not know how to write, draw, or play an instrument. But suddenly, in the spring of the year she turned 15, Cardinal de Mare’s butler, Nicolo, notified Ariadne to pack up to the inner city. At that time, she thought that her father finally remembered her. She had thought that now she had a family too, the aristocratic family beyond the castle finally forgave her mother for her humble status and accepted Ariadne into the family.
***
‘I accept your request. The daughter of the de Mare family is betrothed to Count de Como.’
When Cesare de Como accepted this reply, he was overjoyed. Isabella, the only daughter of Cardinal de Mare. To society, she was the lover and ultimate goal of every man’s heart. Getting Isabella was a confirmation that he had become the most handsome man in the capital. With porcelain-white skin, peachy blush, and flaxen hair, Isabella’s beauty was like that of an angel in a torch. Somehow, when she even smiled in her amethyst eyes, she was playful like a fairy from ancient mythology. But she was by far the best of her looks when she was Isabella in her demure manner. When he was saddened by her noble and innocent statue-like beauty, he didn't know what to do because she wanted someone to relieve his sorrow. And so was Isabella in front of Cesare de Como.
“Miss Isabella, why are you looking so pensive?”
“...”
“Don’t you like me? Although I hold the title nobility instead of succession to the throne, I am still the King’s cousin and Count de Como. My estate, soon to be given, is rich and beautiful. Currently, among the aristocrats in the capital, there is no marriage that goes beyond that. I risked everything to make the young lady happy…!”
Isabella interrupted Cesare.
“It’s not me.”
“Yes?”
“I am not the one who is betrothed to Sir Cesare.”
Cesare was taken aback.
“But the marriage proposal clearly had a positive reply…”
Isabella raised her amethyst eyes and stared at him with pity.
“The ‘ daughter of de Mare’ written on the marriage proposal is my sister Ariadne. She is a poor little sister not well known in society.”
Her thin voice was like a celestial melody to Cesare’s ears.
“My younger sister made a fuss with my father, asking if there was anything in her life, even if she wanted to marry the best man in this Etruscan kingdom. She was so stubborn no one could stop him.”
Isabella sighed, lowering her golden eyelashes.
“ I am…Because I have lived with more than my sister. This time, my father told me that I had to yield to my younger sister, so…”
Appealing tears welled up in her violet eyes. As if she didn’t want to show her tears, she bowed her head.
“I cannot go against my father, Sir Cesare.”
Isabella felt sorry for the slightly lowered head.
“I have always admired Sir Cesare from a distance at a large service. But we’re a family now, right? Loving hearts are not allowed among family members. Bury your feelings deep in your heart, and remember me only with affection and goodwill.”
This nonsense. Cesare, who had been listening intently, finally spoke.
“But…!”
“Shh.”
Isabella raised her finger and covered Cesare’s lips. Isabella’s white, translucent fingers lightly pressed against Cesare’s lips, touching the soft mucous membranes of his lips. Cesare inhaled and breathed in at the body temperature that he had come in contact with defenselessly.
“Ariadne is also a good child. Please treat her well. I just came to tell you this.”
Leaving these words behind, Isabella de Mare made her way back to her family seat in the church’s main chapel. Cesare looked at Isabella’s back in dismay, and noticed Isabella’s gauze lace handkerchief on the floor. Cesare picked it up and carefully placed it in his bosom. He wanted to smell her scent, but he found that disrespectful. He felt the faint warmth of her handkerchief tucked across her chest. He placed his right hand over his heart, which contained a handkerchief.
Cesare’s heart throbbing. He couldn’t tell if it was his heart beating because he was excited to see Isabella, or it was the sound of his heart beating out of anger at having her taken from him right in front of his nose. As he raised his head, Cardinal de Mare and a black-haired girl standing with her head bowed next to him immediately came into view while chatting with the people around him in the distance. The girl was unnecessarily tall, her hunched back looked like a lower one doing odd jobs rather than that of a high-ranking aristocrat, and her sunburnt skin was tacky. He glared at the white-cad Cardinal and at the dark-haired girl standing hunched over next to him. The golden trophy was just a step away from being put in his hand. Those two people ruined his life.
***
“Giacomo!”
“Yes, Your Excellency the Regent!”
“Take Ariadne to the top of the western tower for recuperation. Madness has come and I can't possibly carry out the Queen’s work. It’s ugly to look at, so handle it secretly so the others don't come and see it.”
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
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