(5) Northern Duke Cyrus Carha
“There really is such a thing as karma.”
Isaac said with a sense of satisfaction.
A gust of wind blew, causing his gorgeous blond hair to sway with a brilliant light.
Yet, no one in the ducal mansion noticed his presence in the tree.
This was because Isaac and Cyrus were using a stealth ability, a skill only a select few in the Northern Territory possess.
“I like that girl.”
Isaac, who readily accepted others, seemed to have already taken a liking to Arianna, but Cyrus disagreed.
“She’s sixteen?”
No matter how you looked at her, she didn’t look sixteen at all.
She was young and petite enough to look barely ten, but the way she guided the situation, the way her eyes and facial expressions shifted, was beyond the capabilities of a young, naive girl.
Arianna knew how to bring out the right expression at the right time and quickly hide it, and even the tone of her voice could be freely adjusted depending on the situation.
The change was so subtle and covert, it was something you couldn't detect without careful observation.
Now alone, Ariana was quietly hiding the packet of medicine from the bedside table in her skirt pocket.
Cyrus's crimson eyes darkened at the sight.
'She's no ordinary woman. What on earth is she hiding?'
Ariana was an anomaly in the ducal mansion he'd visited to find a connection between the Western Duke and the Eastern Duke.
He'd merely intended to observe her briefly, hoping to find a weakness in her for future dealings with the Western Duke and the Eastern Duke, but he'd witnessed something unexpected.
"Anyway, I can't just watch that young lady here forever. What are we going to do now?"
At Isaac's voice, Cyrus averted his gaze from Ariana.
"Let's take a look around the mansion tonight."
"I wonder if there's anything to gain? The Duke of Bronte is just a timid man who only cares about what others think."
“Even if the Duke of Bronte doesn’t know, Rachel Bronte might know. She married the Baron at that exact time, so she might still have evidence of it.”
Ariana, who had prepared sleeping pills, lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
‘This is all I can do for now.’
Luigi would be confined to a room similar to the one Ariana had been locked in for a few days after being beaten.
Rachel might scold Helena for this, but she thought she probably wouldn’t.
Helena was a particularly sore spot to Rachel, so unless she killed someone, no, even if she did, Rachel wouldn’t blame her.
‘This is enough for now. This is the best I can do with the power I have in this mansion.’
If Rachel, her biological mother, didn’t care for Ariana, then there was no way her adoptive father, the Duke of Bronte, would treat her well.
To them, Ariana was nothing more than a pawn to be sold out for the family.
‘There are only a few months left.’
A few months later, Rachel married Ariana to Ingo Alfrech, a Viscount of Western Territory.
Sixteen was the legal age for marriage, but these days, it was common for people to marry after twenty.
Nevertheless, Rachel, as if waiting, kicked Ariana out of the Bronte mansion as soon as she turned sixteen.
To a man sixteen years older and of lower status.
Rachel must have brought Ariana back with her when they divorced for this very reason. In a world where daughters are meant to be married off to good families and raised to contribute to the family, Rachel thought.
I have to get out of this manor before then.'
The horrific days she'd spent at the Alfrech household came back vividly to her mind. Back then, she'd foolishly smiled and endured it, oblivious to how difficult it was. She never wanted to return to that life.
'I need the power of the Eastern Duke.'
Her father, Duke Russell White, whom she'd never spoken to.
Ariana had only seen the Eastern Duke once, several years later, at an imperial party.
Even then, their eyes met, but they did not speak.
The Eastern Duke frowned and turned his head away when his eyes met Ariana's, as if he had witnessed something unpleasant.
For the timid Ariana, her father's cold attitude had left a deep wound.
The vassal states of the north, south, and east surrounded the Camela Empire under the pretext of protecting the empire, but there had been constant intrigue among them to expand their influence.
The Northern Duke and the Eastern Duke, who controlled the north and east, where barbarians and pagan remnants resided, were the strongest, followed by the Southern Duke, and the Western Duke was the weakest.
That was why the Western Duke sent her daughter, Rachel, to keep the Eastern Duke in check.
'Because the Northern Territory was weak back then, I wouldn't have guessed the Northern Territory would grow so quickly. The Eastern Territory's power has weakened because of Rachel, but it's not something to be underestimated.'
Rachel described the Eastern Territory as "a very cold-hearted, calculating, and cruel man." She constantly drilled into Ariana how horrible life in Eastern was, how rude and wicked the Eastern Territory's family was.
"So, Ariana, you should be grateful that I took you out of that hellish place. Compared to Eastern, this place is heaven."
She really thought so. Foolishly, she believed her.
Not knowing that this place was the same hell.
'No matter where Eastern is, if I'm useful to the Eastern Territory, the Eastern Duke won't cast me out. Since his relationship with the Emperor has been strained because of the Western Duke, if I bring something that could be a weakness to the Western Duke, he'll accept me.'
She didn't want her father's love.
Ariana only wanted one thing. As long as she could obtain that status, she didn't care what the Eastern Duke or his family thought of her.
'Everyone will go to the capital during the April social season. Will the Eastern Duke come to the imperial party this year?'
Ariana had never been to the capital during the social season before her wedding, so she didn't know whether the Eastern Duke would attend.
As far as Ariana knew, the Dukes, except for the Western Duke, only sent their families to the imperial party and didn't attend in person.
'If I could meet the Eastern Duke's family, that would be great. No, it didn't matter if I didn't meet anyone. As long as I found a way to get to the capital, things would work out somehow.'
Two months remained.
'Before then, I need to find evidence that could sway the Eastern Duke. And I need to be prepared to escape alone in case things go wrong.'
To Rachel, Ariana was a daughter she could use. Her pretty and docile daughter would be a great help in her future plans.
Her marriage to Viscount Ingo Alfrech, the biggest arms dealer, was the beginning of that. So, Rachel wouldn't let Ariana simply run away.
'The more I move, the more the future will change. I need to be able to handle any unexpected situation.'
Ariana pulled her arms out from under the covers.
Seeing her wretchedly thin arms, she sighed.
With a body like this, she wouldn't be able to run far in an emergency.
Time passed, but no food arrived.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten Ariana.
Even the old lady, after what had happened earlier, had stopped paying attention to her. She hadn't expected it, so she wasn't particularly upset.
Ariana waited until night fell, then quietly slipped out of the room and headed to the kitchen.
Everyone was asleep.
Arriving at the kitchen through the darkness, Ariana felt around and found the storage room.
Since she often helped in the kitchen, it wasn't hard to figure out what was inside.
The large storage room was filled with fruits, grains, ham, and cheese, all sorts of things displayed by type.
As befitting a ducal mansion, the storeroom was overflowing with fresh, high-quality ingredients, but Ariana had never really tasted them.
She'd always just eaten the ducal family's leftovers.
Ariana pulled out a few pieces of ham, cheese, and fruit that didn't require cooking and sat on the floor of the storeroom.
Since no one was visiting the kitchen at this hour anyway, she planned to eat what she could and take some with her.
Having not eaten properly in a long time, she decided to start with the fresh fruit.
She peeled an orange and put it in her mouth, the fragrant, sweet-and-tart juice spreading through her mouth.
Ariana closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the aroma.
'I should have done this sooner. What was so scary that I endured all this starvation?'
After finishing one orange, Ariana peeled off the wrapper around the ham.
Lacking a knife to cut the ham, she took a bite and chewed it whole. The salty, savory aroma of ham filled her mouth. Even as she ate, her stomach growled.
Ariana swallowed quickly and took another bite of ham, this time a bit bigger than before.
Rustle—
It was at that very moment that she heard a presence.
Ariana froze in her bite of ham and stared into the darkness.
'A person? At this hour? Or... a rat?'
She couldn't even blink, her sapphire-blue eyes fixed on the darkness, when she heard another rustling sound.
Ariana's hands gripped the ham tightly.
She let her guard down. Even if no one was coming to the kitchen at this hour, she should have been more careful.
As she was brooding over this, a deep, deep voice was heard.
"The Second Princess of Bront has a peculiar way of eating."
The husky, low voice was a voice Ariana had never heard before.
“And a big mouth.”
Only then did Ariana realize she was still shoving ham into her mouth.
Slowly lowering the ham, the man, who had been hiding between the shelves, appeared.
Just then, the clouds hiding the moon parted, letting moonlight stream through the small window, dispelling the darkness.
With his back to the moonlight, his shadow cast a shadow, preventing Ariana from making out his face. All she could tell was that he was tall and broad-shouldered. With a soft click, the small lamp on the shelf lit. Only then did Ariana see his face, and her breath caught as she realized who it belonged to.
Silver hair more brilliant than moonlight, pearly skin, and captivating, peachy eyes, filling them with bloodshot pupils. Perfect features, like a painting, and a cold gaze that sent chills down her spine.
Ariana swallowed hard, looking at the man, whose beauty seemed to be a descendant of the moon god.
'Why is the Northern Duke here?'
In her past life, Ariana had only seen the Northern Lord in portraits, never in person.
She had gathered news from the Northern Territory for the Third Prince Herald, but had never actually met him. She had only heard rumors about him.
He was an iron-blooded lord with brilliant moonlight hair and ruby-red eyes.
Many women and young men admired him, yet feared him. His power and military might were so formidable that even the Emperor was at a loss.
He would only befriend those he chose, and rumors spread that he was so obsessed with people that he was aloof. There was even a story that a Duke in the capital had secretly brought his daughter to him in an attempt to gain his favor, only to have her beheaded in front of him.
Northern Lord Cyrus Carha was renowned for his unwavering swordsmanship, his swordsmanship undiscriminating against anyone but his master.
He rarely left the Northern Territory unless it was important, so Ariana had never encountered him.
Therefore, she hadn't even considered Cyrus Carrha's existence. She had assumed she'd never have anything to do with him in this life.
Little did she know that, just a few days after returning, she'd encounter the Iron-Blooded Duke.
And under these circumstances, too.
“There really is such a thing as karma.”
Isaac said with a sense of satisfaction.
A gust of wind blew, causing his gorgeous blond hair to sway with a brilliant light.
Yet, no one in the ducal mansion noticed his presence in the tree.
This was because Isaac and Cyrus were using a stealth ability, a skill only a select few in the Northern Territory possess.
“I like that girl.”
Isaac, who readily accepted others, seemed to have already taken a liking to Arianna, but Cyrus disagreed.
“She’s sixteen?”
No matter how you looked at her, she didn’t look sixteen at all.
She was young and petite enough to look barely ten, but the way she guided the situation, the way her eyes and facial expressions shifted, was beyond the capabilities of a young, naive girl.
Arianna knew how to bring out the right expression at the right time and quickly hide it, and even the tone of her voice could be freely adjusted depending on the situation.
The change was so subtle and covert, it was something you couldn't detect without careful observation.
Now alone, Ariana was quietly hiding the packet of medicine from the bedside table in her skirt pocket.
Cyrus's crimson eyes darkened at the sight.
'She's no ordinary woman. What on earth is she hiding?'
Ariana was an anomaly in the ducal mansion he'd visited to find a connection between the Western Duke and the Eastern Duke.
He'd merely intended to observe her briefly, hoping to find a weakness in her for future dealings with the Western Duke and the Eastern Duke, but he'd witnessed something unexpected.
"Anyway, I can't just watch that young lady here forever. What are we going to do now?"
At Isaac's voice, Cyrus averted his gaze from Ariana.
"Let's take a look around the mansion tonight."
"I wonder if there's anything to gain? The Duke of Bronte is just a timid man who only cares about what others think."
“Even if the Duke of Bronte doesn’t know, Rachel Bronte might know. She married the Baron at that exact time, so she might still have evidence of it.”
***
Ariana, who had prepared sleeping pills, lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
‘This is all I can do for now.’
Luigi would be confined to a room similar to the one Ariana had been locked in for a few days after being beaten.
Rachel might scold Helena for this, but she thought she probably wouldn’t.
Helena was a particularly sore spot to Rachel, so unless she killed someone, no, even if she did, Rachel wouldn’t blame her.
‘This is enough for now. This is the best I can do with the power I have in this mansion.’
If Rachel, her biological mother, didn’t care for Ariana, then there was no way her adoptive father, the Duke of Bronte, would treat her well.
To them, Ariana was nothing more than a pawn to be sold out for the family.
‘There are only a few months left.’
A few months later, Rachel married Ariana to Ingo Alfrech, a Viscount of Western Territory.
Sixteen was the legal age for marriage, but these days, it was common for people to marry after twenty.
Nevertheless, Rachel, as if waiting, kicked Ariana out of the Bronte mansion as soon as she turned sixteen.
To a man sixteen years older and of lower status.
Rachel must have brought Ariana back with her when they divorced for this very reason. In a world where daughters are meant to be married off to good families and raised to contribute to the family, Rachel thought.
I have to get out of this manor before then.'
The horrific days she'd spent at the Alfrech household came back vividly to her mind. Back then, she'd foolishly smiled and endured it, oblivious to how difficult it was. She never wanted to return to that life.
'I need the power of the Eastern Duke.'
Her father, Duke Russell White, whom she'd never spoken to.
Ariana had only seen the Eastern Duke once, several years later, at an imperial party.
Even then, their eyes met, but they did not speak.
The Eastern Duke frowned and turned his head away when his eyes met Ariana's, as if he had witnessed something unpleasant.
For the timid Ariana, her father's cold attitude had left a deep wound.
'The Western Duke and Rachel dislike the Eastern Duke. The Eastern Duke also harbors no fondness for the Western Duke.'
The Northern Duke and the Eastern Duke, who controlled the north and east, where barbarians and pagan remnants resided, were the strongest, followed by the Southern Duke, and the Western Duke was the weakest.
That was why the Western Duke sent her daughter, Rachel, to keep the Eastern Duke in check.
'Because the Northern Territory was weak back then, I wouldn't have guessed the Northern Territory would grow so quickly. The Eastern Territory's power has weakened because of Rachel, but it's not something to be underestimated.'
Rachel described the Eastern Territory as "a very cold-hearted, calculating, and cruel man." She constantly drilled into Ariana how horrible life in Eastern was, how rude and wicked the Eastern Territory's family was.
"So, Ariana, you should be grateful that I took you out of that hellish place. Compared to Eastern, this place is heaven."
She really thought so. Foolishly, she believed her.
Not knowing that this place was the same hell.
'No matter where Eastern is, if I'm useful to the Eastern Territory, the Eastern Duke won't cast me out. Since his relationship with the Emperor has been strained because of the Western Duke, if I bring something that could be a weakness to the Western Duke, he'll accept me.'
She didn't want her father's love.
Ariana only wanted one thing. As long as she could obtain that status, she didn't care what the Eastern Duke or his family thought of her.
'Everyone will go to the capital during the April social season. Will the Eastern Duke come to the imperial party this year?'
Ariana had never been to the capital during the social season before her wedding, so she didn't know whether the Eastern Duke would attend.
As far as Ariana knew, the Dukes, except for the Western Duke, only sent their families to the imperial party and didn't attend in person.
'If I could meet the Eastern Duke's family, that would be great. No, it didn't matter if I didn't meet anyone. As long as I found a way to get to the capital, things would work out somehow.'
Two months remained.
'Before then, I need to find evidence that could sway the Eastern Duke. And I need to be prepared to escape alone in case things go wrong.'
To Rachel, Ariana was a daughter she could use. Her pretty and docile daughter would be a great help in her future plans.
Her marriage to Viscount Ingo Alfrech, the biggest arms dealer, was the beginning of that. So, Rachel wouldn't let Ariana simply run away.
'The more I move, the more the future will change. I need to be able to handle any unexpected situation.'
Ariana pulled her arms out from under the covers.
Seeing her wretchedly thin arms, she sighed.
With a body like this, she wouldn't be able to run far in an emergency.
Time passed, but no food arrived.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten Ariana.
Even the old lady, after what had happened earlier, had stopped paying attention to her. She hadn't expected it, so she wasn't particularly upset.
Ariana waited until night fell, then quietly slipped out of the room and headed to the kitchen.
***
Everyone was asleep.
Arriving at the kitchen through the darkness, Ariana felt around and found the storage room.
Since she often helped in the kitchen, it wasn't hard to figure out what was inside.
The large storage room was filled with fruits, grains, ham, and cheese, all sorts of things displayed by type.
As befitting a ducal mansion, the storeroom was overflowing with fresh, high-quality ingredients, but Ariana had never really tasted them.
She'd always just eaten the ducal family's leftovers.
Ariana pulled out a few pieces of ham, cheese, and fruit that didn't require cooking and sat on the floor of the storeroom.
Since no one was visiting the kitchen at this hour anyway, she planned to eat what she could and take some with her.
Having not eaten properly in a long time, she decided to start with the fresh fruit.
She peeled an orange and put it in her mouth, the fragrant, sweet-and-tart juice spreading through her mouth.
Ariana closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the aroma.
'I should have done this sooner. What was so scary that I endured all this starvation?'
After finishing one orange, Ariana peeled off the wrapper around the ham.
Lacking a knife to cut the ham, she took a bite and chewed it whole. The salty, savory aroma of ham filled her mouth. Even as she ate, her stomach growled.
Ariana swallowed quickly and took another bite of ham, this time a bit bigger than before.
Rustle—
It was at that very moment that she heard a presence.
Ariana froze in her bite of ham and stared into the darkness.
'A person? At this hour? Or... a rat?'
She couldn't even blink, her sapphire-blue eyes fixed on the darkness, when she heard another rustling sound.
Ariana's hands gripped the ham tightly.
She let her guard down. Even if no one was coming to the kitchen at this hour, she should have been more careful.
As she was brooding over this, a deep, deep voice was heard.
"The Second Princess of Bront has a peculiar way of eating."
The husky, low voice was a voice Ariana had never heard before.
“And a big mouth.”
Only then did Ariana realize she was still shoving ham into her mouth.
Slowly lowering the ham, the man, who had been hiding between the shelves, appeared.
Just then, the clouds hiding the moon parted, letting moonlight stream through the small window, dispelling the darkness.
With his back to the moonlight, his shadow cast a shadow, preventing Ariana from making out his face. All she could tell was that he was tall and broad-shouldered. With a soft click, the small lamp on the shelf lit. Only then did Ariana see his face, and her breath caught as she realized who it belonged to.
Silver hair more brilliant than moonlight, pearly skin, and captivating, peachy eyes, filling them with bloodshot pupils. Perfect features, like a painting, and a cold gaze that sent chills down her spine.
Ariana swallowed hard, looking at the man, whose beauty seemed to be a descendant of the moon god.
'Why is the Northern Duke here?'
In her past life, Ariana had only seen the Northern Lord in portraits, never in person.
She had gathered news from the Northern Territory for the Third Prince Herald, but had never actually met him. She had only heard rumors about him.
He was an iron-blooded lord with brilliant moonlight hair and ruby-red eyes.
Many women and young men admired him, yet feared him. His power and military might were so formidable that even the Emperor was at a loss.
He would only befriend those he chose, and rumors spread that he was so obsessed with people that he was aloof. There was even a story that a Duke in the capital had secretly brought his daughter to him in an attempt to gain his favor, only to have her beheaded in front of him.
Northern Lord Cyrus Carha was renowned for his unwavering swordsmanship, his swordsmanship undiscriminating against anyone but his master.
He rarely left the Northern Territory unless it was important, so Ariana had never encountered him.
Therefore, she hadn't even considered Cyrus Carrha's existence. She had assumed she'd never have anything to do with him in this life.
Little did she know that, just a few days after returning, she'd encounter the Iron-Blooded Duke.
And under these circumstances, too.
Previous Next
Comments
Post a Comment