Chapter 51
Diane was married off at a young age to Iron Lloyd, the third son of Marquis Lloyd, a renowned imperial diplomat, as a symbol of unity between the Caesar Empire and the Kingdom of Todome.
“You’re Lily’s daughter… Diane, was it? You’ve inherited her looks. You won’t bring shame to the Empire.”
“…”
“This land is your dowry. You’re well aware of the kingdom’s situation, aren’t you? This is all I can give, so if you need more, ask your mother or figure it out yourself.”
Given the symbolic nature of this political marriage, Diane’s maternal grandfather summoned her for the first time. With great pomp, he handed her a piece of desert near the Empire-Kingdom border—an utterly barren land called the Rachia Desert, infamous for being filled with nothing but sand.
“Why me…?”
Diane left for the Empire in tears. Though she reluctantly accepted her fate, she felt deeply wronged. No royal had ever been married off to the third son of a noble house before. To her, the marriage was a disgrace—an ultimate sacrifice.
“Are you out of your mind? You slapped your sister-in-law?! Have you completely lost it?”
“She dared to talk down to me! I’m a noblewoman of the Kingdom of Todome!”
“You are now the wife of Viscount Riddle! Good grief… After a whole year of marriage, don’t you think you should understand your position by now?”
Diane’s married life was far from smooth. She had never bowed her head to anyone besides royalty, and she couldn’t endure having to defer to nobles because of her husband’s lowly viscount title. The marriage, unsurprisingly, began to fall apart early on, and within a few years, the two were little more than strangers.
“Where do you wander off to every single day?!”
“Since when do you care? You acted like you wouldn’t even flinch if I dropped dead.”
“Don’t flatter yourself! My sister came to visit, and you weren’t home until dinner. She laughed at me! Said you’re probably seeing another woman!”
“Is that how you royal Todome women think? Always jumping to such crude conclusions?”
“W-what did you just say? How dare you…!”
Estranged as husband and wife and isolated from any real companionship, Diane was miserable. But life isn’t only made of misfortune.
Three years after arriving in the Empire, her luck began to turn.
“What a tragedy. The eldest son died last year, and now…”
“It must be a curse. How else do you explain both sons dying so suddenly?”
“Neither of them had heirs… Looks like the youngest will inherit the family now.”
The turning point was the death of Marquis Lloyd’s first and second sons from illness. It was a devastating blow to the Lloyd family, but it meant that Iron—formerly the third son—became the sole heir and eventually inherited the marquisate.
Naturally, Diane became the Marchioness of Lloyd. For a brief moment, the couple reconciled, and during that short peace, their son Cliff was born.
“I refuse! Why should I, the mistress of House Lloyd, bow to some countess?”
“No one’s telling you to bow. I’m just saying, maintain cordial relations.”
“That’s the same thing! You humiliate me. Even as a marquis, you still act like a clueless peasant! I don’t expect you to have the dignity of royalty, but could you at least act in a way I can tolerate?”
“Tolerate? Do you even realize how deluded you sound? If I start acting as arrogantly as you, House Lloyd will crumble in no time.”
Their temporary peace didn’t last. Before Cliff even turned three, the couple had drifted apart again. As a result, Cliff could count the times he saw his parents together on his fingers.
Though they lived under the same roof, Diane and Iron avoided even seeing each other. This continued until Cliff turned ten.
Then, Diane’s second stroke of luck arrived.
In the barren Rachia Desert, the land her grandfather had dismissed as worthless, a massive deposit of a rare ore called Adium was discovered.
“Adium is incredibly valuable. Mixed with iron, even a fingernail-sized amount makes an unbreakable sword.”
But unlike her first stroke of luck, this one brought conflict.
The discovery of the ore sparked a territorial dispute between the Empire and the Kingdom. The once-neglected desert suddenly became a battleground of political claims.
“The land belongs to House Lloyd. And House Lloyd is an imperial noble family. Therefore, the land belongs to the Empire.”
Under Imperial law, a foreign woman who marries into the imperial aristocracy automatically becomes an imperial citizen. Additionally, a married woman’s dowry is legally absorbed into her husband’s house—unless the couple divorces, she has no legal claim to it. Citing this, the Empire claimed that the Rachia Desert was part of its territory.
“Nonsense! The Marchioness of Lloyd is a Todome royal and a citizen of the Kingdom. Under our laws, the land remains her personal property. And land belonging to a royal citizen is Kingdom territory!”
The Kingdom had similar laws about dowries and national identity. However, they had a special clause for royalty: even when marrying foreigners, a royal woman retained Kingdom citizenship permanently, and her dowry remained her personal property until death.
This law had evolved from the Kingdom’s diplomatic culture of using numerous royal marriages to form alliances. Using this clause, the Kingdom insisted the land still belonged to Diane—and therefore to them.
“Is that even legal? She bears the Lloyd name and claims to be a Kingdom citizen?”
“That’s the law. What, are you planning to bend it just because you’re the Empire?”
Under normal circumstances, none of this would have escalated. In international political marriages, the two countries typically agree beforehand which nation’s laws will take precedence.
But Diane and Iron were mere political pawns at the time—an illegitimate princess and a third son. The land was considered worthless, so no formal pre-nuptial legal coordination had taken place.
And now, both Diane and Iron stood firmly with their homelands, fueling the dispute.
“Diane, you’re a Lloyd. That makes you an Imperial citizen!”
“So this is about annexing the land by tying me to the Empire? Don’t make me laugh. I’m a royal of the Todome Kingdom! And forget being a Lloyd—I want a divorce!”
“Divorce? Now? Don’t be ridiculous. If you want a divorce, give up the land. Do that, and I’ll sign the papers today.”
Their bitter quarrel seemed endless.
But two years into the conflict, something happened that threatened to bring it all to an end.
Iron, who was notoriously tenacious, discovered a crucial piece of evidence hidden among old embassy documents.
“The land belongs to the Empire. See here? This clause in the marriage contract between our nations says imperial law takes precedence.”
Among the dozens of documents bearing the seals of both nations, one clearly stated that imperial law would govern Diane and Iron’s marriage.
“That’s a lie! I’ve never seen that before. You forged it, didn’t you? You pathetic cheat!”
“How could I forge both the Empire’s and the Kingdom’s seals? Stop being stubborn. Just back down quietly, and for Cliff’s sake, I’ll let you stay as my wife.”
With the Empire gaining the upper hand, the Kingdom began to panic. They delayed proceedings under the pretext of verifying the document’s authenticity and secretly reached out to Diane.
Then Diane fled to the Kingdom with her son, Cliff.
“That lunatic woman! She’s using her own child now?!”
In a letter to Iron, she demanded a divorce and declared she wouldn’t return Cliff to the Empire unless her terms were met.
“His Lordship demands the southwest portion of the land.”
“Tell him that’s out of the question. That’s the most valuable part! What a ridiculous demand.”
As part of the divorce negotiations, they began to discuss dividing the land. Knowing Iron couldn’t bring himself to abandon Cliff, Diane had the upper hand.
But just as victory seemed near, everything changed—Iron died suddenly from a heart attack.
“Your husband has passed. May he rest in peace.”
“What?! Then what happens to the divorce? And what about the land I was supposed to get after the divorce?!”
“With the death of the primary party, the divorce proceedings are nullified. Furthermore, under imperial law, the land now belongs to the new Marquis, young Master Cliff.”
“What kind of insanity is this?! No, I need to act fast—Cliff! Bring me my son, now!”
Panicking, Diane rushed to retrieve her son. But nearly three years of neglect had left Cliff estranged, and upon hearing of his father’s death, he fled the Kingdom with officials from the Empire.
Despite Diane’s efforts to chase him down, Cliff slipped from her grasp.
“Your Majesty, please protect me and my land in the name of the Empire. In return, I offer half the profits from it.”
Upon returning to the Empire and assuming the title of Marquis, Cliff went straight to the Emperor and offered a deal. Impressed by the bold offer—and as a close friend of Iron—the Emperor abandoned peaceful diplomacy and immediately dispatched his army.
