Chapter 1.
0.
A chandelier glittering like a diamond. Furniture adorned with gold melted into its embossed patterns.
Even the frames hanging on the wall and the flower vases by the window sparkled brilliantly.
‘No matter how many times I come to this reception room, I can never get used to it…’
I straightened my shoulders, which had unconsciously hunched up, and looked at the woman sitting across from me.
The large pearl earrings, matching the necklace made of hundreds of threaded pearls, blended with the Grand Madam’s noble elegance, creating a very graceful aura.
Even though I had stayed in this mansion for months and met her dozens of times, her dignified presence amazed me every time.
‘But this will probably be the last time I’m summoned here.’
As if she had read my thoughts, the Grand Madam finally opened her mouth.
“You already have a good idea why I called you, don’t you?”
I almost exclaimed, “Of course!” but stopped myself just in time and replied carefully.
“Yes, Grand Madam. I believe I do.”
“Then we can skip the formalities.”
With a graceful nod from the Grand Madam, a maid behind her stepped forward and handed me an envelope.
‘An envelope! Finally!’
“You’re smiling ear to ear.”
Oops.
I quickly fixed my expression and glanced at the Grand Madam’s face.
‘What if she thinks I’m acting weird for being too happy about the envelope?’
…It’s fine. We won’t be seeing each other again anyway.
I looked at the envelope I had just received. My heart swelled with a sense of triumph.
‘It’s been a long time coming…!’
I had worked so hard just to receive this envelope.
I hoped it held a reward worthy of all the time and effort I had poured in. Suppressing my rising anticipation, I opened it.
‘Hmm? This envelope is bigger than I expected. A regular letter envelope would’ve been enough for a check.’
The envelope in my hand was closer to a document folder, and what came out of it wasn’t a check—it was paperwork.
‘Wait. Why isn’t it a check?’
…Ah! Of course!
It must be a property deed or a house title.
A house far away from the duchy, maybe, telling me to go live there.
‘Well, land and buildings aren’t easy to sell… but I guess the Duke will help me sell it?’
Certificate of Engagement
…Huh?
Were my eyes playing tricks on me?
Certificate of Engagement
No matter how many times I blinked and rubbed my eyes, the letters didn’t change.
The paperwork that the Grand Madam of the Duke’s family was handing me—the one I had been posing as the Duke’s fiancée for—was…
“…A certificate of engagement?”
Something… something was definitely wrong!
“Grand Madam, I think you’ve handed me the wrong documents.”
As if she expected me to say that, the Grand Madam frowned.
“So you were planning to get married without even holding an engagement ceremony?”
“…Excuse me?”
“You haven’t forgotten your status, have you? If the process isn’t perfect, people with wagging tongues will call you names. You can’t change your birth, so everything else must be flawless.”
“…What?”
“You still don’t get it? If you marry without an engagement, people will assume something urgent forced you and Elkiers to tie the knot.”
…I really didn’t get it at all.
“You’re already living in this house, so what’s the rush? I’ll move your quarters to the Duchess’s room. But the key to the connecting door—I’ll give it to you after the wedding. You understand, don’t you?”
“No, I-I don’t really…”
“No matter how madly in love you are, those things between a husband and wife should happen after marriage.”
She shook her head at me with a look like she was seeing the dumbest person on earth.
“To think I have to explain something like this… There’s a lot I’ll need to teach you.”
“…”
“I’ve set the engagement period to about a year, so for the next year—hey! Airi! Where are you going!”
I heard the Grand Madam shouting behind me, but I didn’t stop.
‘What the heck is happening!’
I could feel the surprised gazes of the people I passed brushing against my face, but I ignored them and ran as fast as I could.
And that’s how I burst into the Duke’s office.
—BANG!
The Duke and his aide looked startled by the sudden slam of the door, but I had no time to apologize.
I stormed up to the Duke’s desk and slammed the document down.
“Your Grace! We have a problem!”
“What kind of problem?”
“I just got called by the Grand Madam, and she gave me—just look at this!”
“Hm?”
The Duke, looking like it was no big deal, calmly gestured for the aide to leave the room.
Then he leaned back in his chair and leisurely looked through the crumpled envelope and the document inside.
“Let’s see…”
His eyelashes glittered like golden sand under the sunlight, fluttering elegantly like butterfly wings.
Even in a situation like this, I was momentarily dazed by his dazzling beauty.
“Certificate of engagement?”
His sweet voice snapped me out of it.
Right. This wasn’t the time to be swooning.
Coming back to reality, I started to panic.
“You see it too, right? The Grand Madam said she had something important to tell me, so I thought she was finally giving me an envelope full of money! But instead, this!”
I just couldn’t understand the Grand Madam.
She clearly didn’t like me—so why allow an engagement?
A commoner like me becoming a Duchess? That’s ridiculous!
As if he’d read my mind, the Duke clicked his tongue.
“Isn’t this the natural outcome? You’ve solved more than a few issues around here, Airi.”
“Thanks to me? What issues?”
“Don’t tell me you’re pretending not to know.”
The Duke began ticking off his fingers.
“My sister, my brother, my mother, even the vassals… Not to mention Plum won’t even eat unless it’s your cookies. If you left, the divine beast might starve to death. Do you really think my mother would let you go?”
Well, if you put it that way, I had no counterargument.
‘But all I was trying to do was avoid getting kicked out before I got the money…’
I felt so wronged. Deeply wronged.
But it’s not like my tears could magically turn the certificate into a check or a deed.
First, I had to deal with the current crisis.
The one where pretending to be a fake fiancée had somehow turned me into the real one.
“So what do we do now?”
“No choice. Let’s sign it first.”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Sign it? Here? You do know this is an engagement certificate, right?”
“Then should we tear it up? What do I tell my mother?”
“…”
There was no way I could explain.
That from the beginning, I was just pretending to be his fiancée for the cash.
That all the sweet moments—holding hands, sneaking kisses—had just been acting.
“Fortunately, it’s just an engagement, not a marriage certificate. That’s easy to undo.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I promise.”
The Duke smiled sweetly and tilted his head toward me.
“Besides, it’s easier to break off an engagement than a marriage, right?”
Well… technically, he wasn’t wrong.
“My love, you trust me, right?”
Come now, sign it quickly.
With a low whisper, he smoothed out the crumpled paper and handed it to me.
Somehow, a fountain pen had ended up in my hand.
‘Is this really okay? Should I actually sign this?’
It didn’t feel right, but there was no better option.
So I signed it, albeit reluctantly.
“I’ve signed it too. Now, shall we go thank my mother for approving our engagement?”
As the Duke held out his hand and smiled at me, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
‘He was smiling just like that when he said I was the one who pushed this plan forward…’
Where had this perfect plan gone wrong?
Maybe it had all started… from the moment I first met the Duke.
I looked down at the hand he offered me, and my thoughts drifted back to that day, half a year ago.
