Chapter : 13
A few days earlier—more precisely, on the day the marriage negotiations with the House of Marvell collapsed.
Serge and four of Alfonso’s closest vassals sat around a single candle late at night.
The reason they had gathered like that was, of course, not because they were lonely.
“His Grace said he intends to marry Charlotte Noha.”
That was the reason.
The beginning of it all was when Ludvik had just returned home. Arnaud happened to spot him while heading in from the training grounds, still sweating, and decided to tease him.
“What’s with that face, Ludvik? Why do you look like a strangled chicken? You dressed up to go to the banquet—did your cravat choke you or something?”
“No…”
“If not, what—don’t tell me the engagement fell through again?”
“…It did.”
“…What? What did you say? Really? Why? Is he cursed or something?”
“Only His Grace knows the reason. That’s not the important part.”
“Then what is?”
“His Grace… said he would marry Noha.”
At that moment, the playfulness vanished from Arnaud’s face.
Borrowing Ludvik’s expression, his face became like the family estate itself—completely frozen.
And Ludvik could swear that in the more than ten years he had known Arnaud—and likely in all the years to come—he would never see that expression again.
From that moment on, everyone in Edouard went into emergency mode.
As a result, the men now sitting around the candle in the dead of night all looked miserable.
Their faces looked as though they had been stuffed full of mud.
Arnaud grabbed a fistful of his curly hair.
“His Grace marrying Noha? Does that even make sense? What on earth could have changed his mind?”
“I heard the villainess of Noha attended the Marvell marquisate’s banquet. Could it be that His Grace had some sort of fateful meeting with her, Sir Ludvik?”
“No. His Grace was with me the entire time. And he never exchanged a single word with that woman, Charlotte Noha. I can say that for certain.”
“Then what could possibly be the cause?”
At Jean-Jacques’ question, everyone fell silent.
After a long pause, Serge cautiously offered an opinion.
“Perhaps… His Grace was deeply hurt by the collapse of the marriage arrangement with the Marvell family…”
“……”
“Or perhaps Noha has some sort of leverage over him…”
“……”
“…Alright, I get it…”
And since no one responded, those suggestions were silently dismissed.
Leaving the dejected Serge behind, the silence continued for a while longer.
Finally, when the melted wax piled up on the candlestick to about the height of a finger joint, Jean-Jacques spoke.
“There is no reason to deliberate further. I will follow His Grace’s will.”
“Jean!”
“Jean-Jacques, Sir Arnaud.”
“Right, Jean-Jacques. You’re not a noble, and you only just came of age, so maybe you don’t understand—”
“Even if I’m not a noble and only recently became an adult, there is something I know for certain, Sir Ludvik.”
Jean-Jacques paused briefly, his characteristic quietness reminiscent of dawn in a coniferous forest.
Then he continued.
“Is there anyone here who would refuse His Grace’s command?”
“…No.”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Then all the more reason this discussion is meaningless.”
His words were brief, but they pierced straight to the heart of the matter.
“I will follow His Grace’s will.”
“…Well, Jean’s right. His Grace must have his reasons.”
“He’s not the type to joke about something like this.”
“Still… I just don’t understand. Should we really leave it like this?”
“And if we don’t, what exactly are you planning to do, Ludvik? We’re only vassals.”
Whether on the battlefield under Alfonso’s command or in the Edouard ducal estate, their duty remained the same.
“If he tells us to do it, we do it.”
That night, after the candle burned out, the closest vassals of Edouard reached an unspoken agreement.
Do not question His Grace’s decision.
However, if the marriage with Noha truly seems unreasonable, do not hold back from speaking frankly.
Because it is possible that His Grace might really have been threatened by Noha…
The last thought belonged to Serge alone, but still.
Thanks to that, Edouard passed its days in a tense calm, like the air before a storm.
No one voiced open complaints; they merely watched Alfonso’s mood carefully.
But by this point Serge could not help but wonder.
Is this really the right thing to do?
Everyone knew Alfonso would not have decided to marry Noha without thought.
But Alfonso did not have much time left, and Noha remained silent.
Perhaps Noha’s proposal had been nothing more than a mockery directed at Edouard.
Otherwise, how could things have turned out like this?
“I don’t even know how to report this to him…”
With a sigh, Serge cast a resentful look toward the Noha estate before climbing back into the carriage.
Completely unaware that someone inside the mansion was quietly watching him.
The carriage of Edouard, which had been standing for a long time beyond the front gate, finally departed.
Only then did Charlotte draw the curtain across the window and turn away.
“That should do it.”
The man who had argued with the footman earlier looked familiar.
Serge Marshal.
Alfonso’s adjutant.
He had a reputation for being compassionate and extremely efficient, but unfortunately he and Charlotte did not have a particularly good relationship.
In truth, the same could be said for all of Alfonso’s vassals.
“…His Grace’s funeral? That ended yesterday. After running off to Noha and not showing your face once, how do you even have the nerve to ask that?”
Serge’s eyes had been red from crying as he glared at her with hatred.
It was a strange sight.
After her marriage, when the other vassals of Edouard treated Charlotte with nothing but contempt and disregard, Serge alone had always greeted her with a smile.
“I show you courtesy only out of respect for His Grace, not because I respect you.”
Even Serge, who had once said that, seemed unable to endure it after Alfonso’s death.
Right after confronting Quincy, Charlotte had collapsed in fury and remained inside Noha for an entire week.
She only learned from the maids that a week had passed since Alfonso’s death, and that during that time she had done nothing but cry herself to sleep repeatedly.
She rushed over immediately afterward, but by then the funeral was already over.
Charlotte, proud as she was, would never have let it be known that she had been unconscious for an entire week.
So it was obvious how others must have seen it.
“The woman who ran back to her family home the moment her husband died and never even showed up for the funeral.”
And since Noha was openly suspected of being behind Alfonso’s sudden death, Serge’s hatred toward Charlotte was entirely understandable.
Would someone else have cried in such a situation?
But Charlotte was already accustomed to hatred, contempt, and misunderstanding directed at her.
That was how the title “Villainess of Noha” had been created.
And so she froze Alfonso’s body just before burial, despite the fierce objections of the vassals.
“You are insane, my lady.”
Even Serge, who had always been kind, did not hide his contempt and criticism toward her.
But it did not wound her.
The only thing she truly felt in that moment was the cold realization that she had been left completely alone.
“How ridiculous.”
Only after the last person who smiled at her disappeared did she realize that the ground beneath her feet was barely a handspan wide.
She had severed her ties with both Noha and Quincy with her own hands—people she had relied on all her life.
Her husband, a man so upright that he could not tolerate her humiliation even while despising her, was dead.
The one person who had at least smiled politely at her was gone.
All that remained now was a cliff with nothing to hold onto.
The sins she had committed all her life were piercing through her insides like spikes, and there was no longer any place left to run.
“…That would be fitting for a villainess.”
To regret the past and die writhing in unbearable pain.
That was why Alfonso should never have been entangled with Charlotte.
Who would be foolish enough to plant seeds in rotten soil?
“Alfonso doesn’t have much time left.”
If the ceremony itself was taken into account, only about a month remained.
So whatever Alfonso’s intentions had been in wanting to marry her, he would now have little choice.
“He’ll probably push forward with the engagement to Adeline.”
Perfect.
Charlotte felt much lighter as she began walking.
If it were up to her, she would stay locked inside the mansion until the announcement of Alfonso and Adeline’s marriage.
Unfortunately, Charlotte still had one more matter to take care of.
Simply put, she had to go out tonight.
“Fortunately, this has absolutely nothing to do with Alfonso.”
There shouldn’t be any problems.
Charlotte paused while passing through the room when she caught sight of herself in the mirror.
The woman in the reflection looked sad.
So she raised the corners of her lips.
Only then did she feel slightly relieved.
