Chapter : 01
The Fate of the Transfer Marriage
Rosetta’s heart pounded. Even now, walking down the pure-white flower path, she could hardly believe this was real.
She wasn’t the only one struggling to believe the situation.
“Is that…!”
Guests at the wedding whispered as they looked at the groom.
“That’s Sol Rique Iglesias, isn’t it? Why is Rique standing in the groom’s place?”
“Good heavens…! I’ve never seen the groom change on the day of the wedding, and the replacement is the Lord Protector himself!”
“A mere count’s family like the Fabignes becoming in-laws with the Iglesias? That’s an outrageous mismatch of status!”
“Is Fabigne even qualified to stand next to Iglesia? And look at that wedding dress—it’s a limited edition from Angriage!”
Ignoring the murmurs around her, Rosetta looked toward the ceremonial platform.
A tall, imposing man was watching her.
Below honey-blond hair neatly slicked back with pomade, cool bluish-gray eyes glinted.
Sol Rique Iglesia.
Lord Protector of the Kailus Empire.
The people of the Empire called him “Rique,” meaning the happiness of the blue rose, symbol of the Imperial House.
Rosetta swallowed hard.
Someone like him… is marrying me?
This marriage was a blatant mismatch.
A transaction between unequal ranks.
No—could it even be called a transaction? A transaction implied benefit.
Why would he propose only now?
Before she knew it, she had reached the platform.
When the groom extended his hand, her father, Count Fabigne, who had walked with her down the aisle, placed her hand into the man’s.
Before stepping away, the count whispered low enough for only Rosetta to hear.
“If you wish to protect your mother’s coffin, you must make this marriage succeed.”
A warning not to disappoint him if she wanted anything.
Rosetta bit the inside of her cheek.
Two hours earlier.
“There’s a limit to repaying kindness with betrayal!”
A furious voice rang through the bride’s waiting room—where blessings should have filled the air.
“How could we not have known Diegro Genomgard was a ‘Possessed’?!”
Chrono Delta Fabigne kicked a chair, unable to contain his rage.
Possessed.
A being from another world wearing a human’s body.
Anyone entangled with one risked not just death, but the annihilation of their entire house.
“Answer me, Rosetta Fabigne!”
“……”
The bride bowed her head, fists clenched atop her knees.
I’m the one who should be shouting…
This marriage had never been her choice.
If she had ever been given even one chance to choose, she might have taken out the truth buried deep inside her heart.
But she couldn’t. And so the engagement—and the marriage—had been decided for her.
At least she had been relieved to find that her fiancé, Diegro…
“To think I’m getting you as my bride—I must be the luckiest man alive.”
The man who had confessed to her, face burning red, would never betray her like this.
He was not someone who would disappear without a word right before the wedding…
Rosetta spoke calmly.
“Did the Adjudicators take him?”
“If they had, they would’ve demanded we hand him over instead of coming here. They clearly haven’t found him yet.”
Count Fabigne shuddered.
Never had he imagined he would see, with his own eyes, those black, blood-scented robes.
“Diegro Genomgard will be tried. If you do not cooperate, all will be executed on sight.”
A hundred and twenty years ago, the Kailus Empire had nearly fallen to the Possessed.
After barely rebuilding, the Imperial House created the magical weapon Adjudicators, designed specifically to eliminate them—and they never showed mercy.
Even to members of the royal family.
What are we supposed to do?
If things continued, they would be branded traitors and exterminated.
Before that happened, the Fabigne family had to prove they had nothing to do with Diegro Genomgard’s disappearance!
As Count Fabigne anxiously chewed his nails—
Bang!
“Father!”
“Juliet?”
His second daughter—Rosetta’s half-sister—Julietta burst into the room.
“Is it true? Is Diegro— Is the groom really gone?”
“…Yes. The Adjudicators came. That bastard completely fooled us!”
“That can’t be…!”
Julietta grabbed Rosetta with a pale face.
“Sister! Did you know? Did you pretend not to know?!”
“Of course not.”
“What are we going to do now? Huh? Because of you, we’re all going to die!”
“…Let go.”
Shaken violently, Rosetta pushed her half-sister’s hands away. She rose to her feet and spoke through clenched teeth.
“I’ll be the one who ran away.”
“…What?”
“Ran away…?”
Announce that the bride fled?
As her father and half-sister stared at her in shock, Rosetta faced the mirror.
A red-haired woman in a white wedding dress stared back.
She had tried so hard to be the perfect first daughter of Fabigne.
But had any of that effort ever been acknowledged?
“A broken engagement is better than a divorce.”
A father who never recognized anything she achieved.
A half-sister who pretended to be affectionate only in public.
Once, Rosetta had believed that if she tried harder, her relationship with them might improve.
But it never did.
A family that didn’t cherish her? She was the one refusing them.
The only reason she hadn’t left earlier was that there was still something she had to accomplish.
She had even been prepared to marry an old nobleman again if necessary to achieve it.
I can’t fail now.
She had to smooth things over somehow.
“If I run away, the guests will have no choice but to accept it.”
Even if it meant being branded a runaway bride.
“Then all the blame will fall on me, and Father will receive sympathy for having such a troublesome daughter.”
“Hmm…”
Count Fabigne hesitated.
Though he had arranged the marriage, rumors said it was Diegro, the marquis, who had desperately pursued Fabigne’s daughter.
I only wanted to prevent other houses from interfering…
Even if the Genomgard line was destitute, they were still a marquisate.
This marriage was part of the plan to restore the Fabigne family’s long-lost glory.
Letting it go was agonizing.
Rosetta pressed him further.
“I’ll take the fall. So please, keep your promise with me.”
Count Fabigne didn’t stop her.
To him, Rosetta—unlike Julietta, born from the woman he loved—was a child he could easily do without.
Rosetta’s mother, married through political arrangement, hadn’t brought any gain, for her entire family had been wiped out soon after the wedding.
Worse, after giving birth to Rosetta, she could no longer bear children.
The fact that she clung to life for six more years had irritated him—
And after her death, her daughter incessantly begged him to move her mother’s coffin to the family cemetery, which was nothing but a nuisance.
So he promised Rosetta that he would reinter her mother’s coffin only if she secured a marquisate lineage for the family…
Given the circumstances, Rosetta’s plan may be the only way.
Since the marriage vows had not been made, the Adjudicators would have no grounds to punish them.
“Rosetta.”
Having concluded his calculations, Count Fabigne gestured Julietta over while addressing Rosetta.
“Leave the capital for now. Julietta and I will tell the guests the wedding has been cancelled.”
At that moment—
The tightly closed door to the waiting room swung wide open.
“No need for that.”
“W-what…!”
A cascade of dazzling honey-gold hair caught everyone’s eye.
“—!”
Julietta gasped at the striking features accompanying that radiant hair.
Eyes of cool bluish-gray, like gray spinel, shone with the sharpness of a predator.
Why is he here?
Rosetta’s eyes widened. She wasn’t the only one shocked.
Count Fabigne recoiled in disbelief.
“S–Sol Rike Iglesia? Lord Protector—why are you…!”
Sol Rike Iglesia didn’t spare the frantic count so much as a glance.
With his sharp jaw lifted slightly, he fixed his gaze on Rosetta. A low, smooth baritone flowed from his lips.
“Rosetta Fabigne’s wedding will proceed as scheduled.”
“W-what?”
The count was thrown off by the unexpected declaration.
Regaining his senses, he barked,
“How can we proceed without a groom? Even if you are Rike, this is an insult to Fabigne!”
“What do you mean, without a groom?”
Sol tilted his head, a crooked smile playing on his lips.
“I’ll be the groom.”
“—?!”
The Lord Protector Rike, offering himself as the groom?
The head of the Iglesia family—revered like royalty?
As the Fabignes froze at his unbelievable statement, Sol snapped his fingers.
A waiting aide entered and opened a large trunk. Inside lay a breathtaking rose-pink dress, spilling out like a wave.
“T-that’s…!”
Julietta recognized it first and gasped.
“That’s from Angriage’s Maryrose Collection! The one-of-a-kind piece!”
A masterpiece said to be impossible to obtain even with money.
End Of Chapter : 01
