Chapter 17
I still remember the very first time I entered the duke’s household.
The moment the big gate opened and I stepped in, the servants standing in neat lines on both sides greeted me as if I were someone important.
Feeling bewildered, I walked stiffly with awkward steps, and there, a space I could never have imagined existed.
A fountain that sparkled like light on water and a garden covered with green grass.
White plaster statues that displayed elegant postures, and an enormous mansion that seemed to have no end no matter how far you ran.
I felt as though I had become a princess from a fairy tale. How lucky was I that I would live in a place like this from now on?
My mother—dressed in a chic coat that the man who became my father had given her—knelt, grabbed my shoulder, and said to me:
“Rena. From now on you can live however you like.”
“Really?”
Even as a child I remember doubting that line.
But my mother, holding my small hand, lifted the corner of her mouth into a smile and said brightly.
“Of course. You’re now the noblewoman of the Lucianos ducal house.”
Back then I had no idea what a ducal house was or what social position a noblewoman held, but I could clearly understand one thing: I would be able to live in this luxurious mansion from now on.
The house we used to live in was so dark at night that not even a single moonbeam could enter; it was frightening.
My mother would go out at night wearing flashy clothes that revealed her figure and return in the morning.
I had to sleep alone, so every night I lived in fear and waited for my mother to come back.
But my mother told me as we rode in a carriage that day:
From now on you won’t have to go hungry or pull an all-nighter.
“If you want to keep living here, show conduct worthy of the Lucianos ducal house. Easy, right?”
“Okay! I will.”
I answered naïvely, and together with my mother I stepped into the mansion, my feet treading on obviously expensive flooring.
And it was there that I met that child.
While admiring the ornate crystal ornaments hanging in the corridor and the curved moldings, I heard an unpleasant cane-clicking sound from across and a voice like a nightingale:
“Who are you?”
The moment I saw that child, my mother and I froze.
The child my mother had described had features as fine as a doll’s.
Pink hair like apricot blossoms was neatly braided down past the neck, and purple eyes gleamed like glass, the facial features small and compact.
But the child seemed unable to see even after opening their eyes; they groped at the air with their hand and then turned away.
“How strange. There was definitely something there….”
From that moment—
I felt a sickening unease and an indescribable contempt coming from that child.
Smack! A sharp sound cut through the air. The child toppled with the shock, eyes brimming with tears as they looked at me.
I wasn’t appeased. I drew a breath and pointed at the steaming bathtub.
“What is this water temperature!? Are you trying to freeze me to death?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Princess Rena….”
The child kept bowing their head and muttering apologies.
Everything about this child irritated me.
Originally, she had been the personal maid assigned by Fiana; her name was something like Eri or Eli — nothing memorable, so I didn’t bother to remember it.
She had light brown hair, green eyes, arched eyebrows, freckles—an ordinary appearance.
Eli was the maid who used to attend my blind sister.
‘She has a face that wouldn’t stand out anywhere. It’s because she’s beside the blind child that she could be put there,’ I thought.
I bit my nails and Eli looked at me with a startled expression. Annoyance flared up inside me and I slammed the bathroom door and walked down the corridor.
My teeth ground together. Something was boiling up inside me.
It was all Fiana’s fault.
Ever since Fiana left, the mansion had been restless for days.
From the start she’d irritated me. She had the gall to act proud despite being blind, and to claim she was related by blood to the late duchess—how obnoxious.
Then one day, starting when I caught my foot on something and fell, that child changed.
She grew quieter than before, and almost ceased to show emotion.
She became like a wooden block—so lifeless you wouldn’t get a drop of blood even if you stabbed her.
I felt dissonance.
So when my father sent her away to the north, I felt extremely pleased. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of face she would make begging.
She had lived her life in this mansion with nothing to worry about—she’d probably beg until her hands and feet wore out, I imagined.
I had been looking forward so much to seeing that face I could hardly bear it. But when I finally saw her, she looked momentarily stunned and then—wiped that expression clean.
She did not throw herself into the humiliating posture we had expected her to, begging until her hands and feet were worn bare.
‘So gloomy to the end,’ I thought.
While I was huffing along, I suddenly caught sight of my reflection in a window and relaxed my expression.
Wouldn’t I be just as vulgar as that blind person otherwise?
‘I’m fundamentally different from that girl.’
My eyesight was not only fine, but I could see even distant things clearly. Besides, as my mother had said, I had learned all the manners and dignity a noblewoman should have.
“Rena, you must be superior, unlike that one.”
When I entered the ducal house my mother had grabbed my arm and firmly instructed me like that. Years passed after settling in the ducal house with my mother, and that child became a forgotten presence in the household.
‘But rather than die in the streets or live begging…’
I ground my teeth.
She must not take anything, nor greedily desire anything. Whatever she can do, I must be able to do better; whatever she cannot do, it should go without saying that I can.
When I arrived at my destination I knocked exactly twice on my father’s office door.
A voice said, “Come in,” and I entered with a bright expression.
“Father.”
My father, Duke Kalidus, continued his work without giving me a glance, dipping his quill with ink.
His white hair was slicked back without a single stray strand, his features sharp, lips pressed tight in concentration.
Wearing a green vest and a black tie, he gave a neat, stern impression.
A keen gaze flashed beyond his monocle. My father looked at me.
“What is it, Rena?”
“Father. It’s about that halfwit… sorry, my sister.”
“You mean you?” he asked.
One eyebrow twitched. My father nonchalantly lifted the teacup that had been beside the documents and sipped.
He had known for some time that I had been picking on that child.
“Don’t meddle in things that don’t concern you, Rena.”
“But, as her sister, how can I not worry? There has been no message from His Grace the Duke of the North.”
“That’s none of your business.”
With a fluid motion my father pulled out a bundle of papers from the drawer. When I saw them I couldn’t help closing my mouth.
Red wax seals stamped with the crest of Duke Glacies who rules the North.
They told me that none of the explanations I had thought would be excuses could change anything.
“Duke Glacies intends to take Fiana as his betrothed.”
My ears buzzed.
What is this nonsense. That halfwit who couldn’t even fend for herself is to become the duke’s betrothed? Moreover, isn’t the duke the madman who killed his own betrothed?
“But father, the duke was the one who—killed his betrothed—”
“Duke Glacies is of sound mind. I have spoken with him; I know him well.”
My father spoke quickly, as if to prevent me from saying more.
So she would become the duchess of the North—and could look down on me.
Ah. Now I understood.
My father was putting me to some kind of test. There had to be a reason. Otherwise he wouldn’t play such a cruel joke.
“What? Father, really. Why do you have to be so cruel with your jokes?”
My father didn’t answer.
He looked at me over his monocle with a look that seemed to scold me for needing to be given time to understand this, as if bored.
Heat rose in my face.
Feeling a shame I could not bear, I said nothing and slammed the office door as I left.
My breathing came short and cold sweat trickled down my jaw.
That Fiana—she was to be Duke Glacies’ betrothed?
That servant who couldn’t even manage herself?
Would she become the duchess and take control of the North?
‘Impossible. Fiana should have frozen to death on the street!’
A foul, prankish thing like that filled me with disgust from head to toe. My knees trembled and I braced myself with my hands when someone grabbed my shoulder and shook me.
“What happened!?”
It was my mother.
My mother—who always insisted that child be called ‘Duchess’ no matter what—looked distraught, as if she already knew everything.
Ha. So I was the only one who didn’t know?
I brushed my mother’s hand away and grumbled.
“There’s nothing to be shocked about. As expected.”
“What an awful bolt from the blue this is!”
If that child really became the duke’s betrothed and my father had no objections, what would become of my mother and me?
‘I still haven’t found a betrothed myself…!’
I bit my lip hard.
Decision came.
I would go myself to see Fiana, that low-born girl who didn’t even know her place.
“We can’t just sit here doing nothing.”
“What are you going to do?”
I turned to my mother with a cruel smile.
“What else? I can’t stand not seeing that cute little sister’s face once, can I?”
Fiana.
Everything about you will be mine.
