Chapter 01
“I don’t expect you to act like a duchess. Just live quietly, indulging yourself as you please, as if you don’t exist.”
Klaus spoke bluntly to the small, pale woman who looked as though she might collapse at the slightest touch.
The petite woman before him—Roana, with snow-white silver hair—parted her lips slightly. Her round violet eyes widened, clearly showing her surprise.
Is she scared? This is going to be troublesome.
Klaus clicked his tongue inwardly.
If she started crying, he’d have a headache already. He had never been good at handling things that were small and fragile.
However, the words that came out of Roana’s mouth were nothing like what he expected.
“Wow, really? I can do that?”
“…What?”
For a moment, Klaus thought he had misheard her.
“I mean, really? I’ve always dreamed of living a life where I don’t have to do anything and just relax.”
Now it was Klaus’s turn to be surprised.
He stared at her with a dumbfounded expression, but there was no trace of joking or deceit on Roana’s face.
She was genuinely delighted. Her violet eyes, now sparkling far more brightly than before, were filled with pure joy.
Klaus quietly met her gaze. It was unexpected that a woman who had seemed so small and frail could radiate such vivid life.
Meanwhile, Roana was feeling something entirely different.
As Klaus remained silent for a long time, she began to grow anxious.
He said I could just relax… he’s not going to take it back now, is he?
Roana nervously waited for his next words.
“Do you even understand what this marriage means? What kind of relationship we have?”
After a while, Klaus asked in a low voice.
“Of course.”
Roana answered quickly.
“First of all, we were complete strangers until yesterday. Then suddenly, our families arranged a political marriage.”
She recalled the wedding from the day before.
After weeks of exhausting travel by carriage from the North to the South, she had put on an uncomfortable dress, worn a long trailing veil, and listened to hours of sermons before a priest.
It was a grand wedding, but there was no romance, and even the ceremonial kiss was omitted.
Klaus and Roana exchanged rings with dry, mechanical movements, then left the ceremony and slept in separate rooms.
And as soon as morning came, Roana was summoned to Klaus’s study.
“This isn’t just a simple arranged marriage.”
Klaus’s voice turned cold.
“That’s right!”
Roana nodded enthusiastically, which once again caught him off guard.
“I was chosen by the elders of my family to keep you in check, Your Grace.”
The Bruggen Duchy, currently led by Klaus, was divided into factions: the pro-emperor faction and the prince’s faction, which opposed the emperor.
Klaus and the direct line of the family belonged to the prince’s faction, while the elders and some retainers supported the emperor.
To restrain Klaus, the elders approached the Rius County—Roana’s family.
The Rius family had long served the emperor and readily agreed to send their daughter to keep Klaus in line.
By attaching Roana, who belonged to the pro-emperor faction, to Klaus, the elders also blocked any possibility of him forming a marital alliance with another faction.
“And you’re saying you’re fine with all that?”
From Klaus’s perspective, this marriage was unpleasant—but for Roana, it should have been far worse.
The elders had brought her in merely as a tool to pressure him and gave her none of the treatment befitting a duchess. Klaus himself had no intention of caring for her either.
Placed in a position where she was disregarded by both sides, this marriage should have been nothing short of humiliation.
Yet Roana didn’t seem offended at all. She didn’t look frightened or despairing either.
That only confused Klaus further.
“Don’t worry. I won’t bother you. I’ll truly live as if I don’t exist. I’ll stay in the annex you’ve given me and won’t set foot in the main residence.”
Roana said with a bright smile.
Is this woman sane?
Klaus stared blankly at his wife—who should have been miserable—yet was genuinely happy.
* * *
Leaving Klaus’s study, Roana headed toward the annex assigned to her with light steps.
For a newlywed wife to be kept in a separate building instead of the main house was a grave insult. But Roana saw it differently.
She had imagined something prison-like, but the annex was nothing like that.
Built in a southern architectural style that emphasized graceful curves, the Bruggen family’s annex was sturdy, beautiful, well-maintained, and even cozy.
Quiet, rarely visited, and both beautiful and comfortable—it felt like a dream.
“This is where I’ll be living? How peaceful.”
Roana said cheerfully to the attendants who had guided her there.
They already looked at her as though she were something strange.
Did the shock of the marriage drive her mad?
No, she must’ve given up completely.
They whispered among themselves, but Roana simply kept smiling.
“I can take care of the rest myself. You may leave.”
As she dismissed them, their expressions grew even more puzzled.
But Roana didn’t care. She truly preferred being alone.
“Yes, Your Ladyship. Your personal maid will arrive soon, so please entrust any needs to her.”
Once they left, Roana finally found herself alone.
She immediately tossed aside her cumbersome skirt and collapsed onto an armchair in the sitting room, wearing only her underdress.
A warm southern breeze drifted through the window, gently brushing against her silver hair.
“Haaah…”
She let out a long, contented sigh, enjoying the warmth so different from the North.
“So this is my home now. And I can just relax and do nothing every day!”
She truly meant it.
Roana wasn’t pleased with this humiliating marriage because she was insane or had given up.
She simply had a completely different set of values from the people of this world.
In truth, she was a reincarnator who remembered her past life.
In her previous life, she had been an ordinary modern person—a barista who ran a small café. But after confronting her landlord for drastically raising the rent, she died in a traffic accident.
When she opened her eyes, she was here.
It took a long time—and a lot of hardship—for her to adapt to this world.
After all, her status here was that of an illegitimate child.
The disgrace of the Rius family. A symbol of immorality. A cursed child born with ominous silver hair.
Those were the words used to describe Roana.
No one openly abused her. After all, she still carried half the blood of the count.
But sometimes, indifference is far crueler than direct abuse.
From the moment she was born, Roana received no attention.
The count’s wife had branded her mother a witch and driven her out, leaving no one to care for Roana.
Once Roana became old enough to feed herself, the family’s indifference only grew worse.
They treated her as if she didn’t exist.
As a child, she dressed herself, washed herself, and snuck into the kitchen like a rat to steal bread.
The turning point came when she was six.
During the harsh northern winter, no one brought her firewood. Shivering through the cold night, she fell gravely ill with a fever.
In her delirium, she muttered for help—but no one came.
For days, six-year-old Roana was left alone in her room.
That experience changed her completely.
From then on, she never asked anyone for help again—and even when food was available, she kept a stash of hard bread hidden under her bed.
If not for the memories of her previous life—a normal, loving environment—she might have gone mad.
Then, when Roana turned twenty, a marriage proposal arrived from the southern Bruggen Duchy.
Originally, it had been meant for Beth, the legitimate daughter of the Rius family.
“We can’t send our daughter!”
The count’s wife fiercely opposed the marriage, knowing her daughter would only become a pawn in political struggles.
“But we can’t refuse. This is the Bruggen Duchy.”
At the count’s words, his wife bit her lip.
After a long silence, she came up with an alternative.
“What about Roana? She carries your blood too.”
“But will they accept her…?”
“Then are you saying we should send Beth?”
“…Fine. We’ll send Roana.”
And so, Roana was sent south in place of her half-sister.
The journey was long and exhausting, but she endured it, thinking anywhere would be better than the Rius household.
Even so, she wasn’t certain things would improve—at least not until the wedding.
Her husband, Klaus Bruggen, was an intimidating man just to look at.
His jet-black hair and blood-red eyes frightened her slightly.
The disapproving looks from the elders and the hostility from Klaus’s retainers also made her uneasy.
That night, lying in bed after the wedding, she couldn’t sleep, worried about how she would survive in the South.
—“I don’t expect you to act like a duchess. Just live quietly, indulging yourself as you please.”
But with that one sentence, all her worries disappeared.
“A life where I don’t have to do anything? That’s the best!”
Rolling around in the annex, Roana silently cheered in delight.
