Chapter 1
“I should have known when the Viscount protected her so fiercely.” “To think that a lowly maid would dare bear the Viscount’s child.”
Selena was born a ‘bastard’ between Viscount Serius and a maid. She grew up receiving the scorn and disdain of many. Viscountess Serius, in particular, despised Selena and her mother to the point of hatred—even though it was the Viscount who had forcibly taken the maid against her will.
The Viscount’s passing desire soon withered. Far from taking care of them, the Viscount neglected the mother and daughter, causing the powerless pair to fall into the status of living in an attic, hidden from everyone’s eyes.
Even so, she had not expected that the moment her mother passed away—the man who didn’t even deserve to be called a father—would immediately marry her off to the “Monster Grand Duke.” Or, could she truly say she hadn’t expected it? Selena had always thought her father would sell her off eventually; it was simply that the time had come sooner than she anticipated. In fact, she felt that this situation—being sold off—was better than remaining in that suffocating mansion.
For better or worse, Selena possessed a lovely appearance, and her beauty only deepened as time went on. Her thick, honey-gold hair and clear, sky-blue eyes contrasted with her fair, smooth skin, making her look just like a sugar doll. Calculating the value of his daughter, the Viscount had one day, without warning, dressed her up meticulously and taken her to an imperial banquet. That was when she was only thirteen, while her mother was still alive.
“This is my daughter, Selena Serius.”
Her beauty, like a flower bud in full bloom, caught the eyes of everyone from young nobles who hadn’t yet reached their coming-of-age ceremony to old, cunning snakes of aristocrats.
“Truly beautiful.” “She looks just like a living doll.”
Selena wanted to escape the place as soon as possible. However, there was no way the Viscount, who was determined to sell his daughter at a high price, would consider her feelings. Even at a young age, Selena had to endure the explicit stares and lecherous glares that roamed over her.
Immediately after the banquet, the Viscount called Selena into his office and said, “Selena, shouldn’t you repay the father who gave birth to you and raised you? Say hello. This woman will be your teacher.”
Teacher?
At the unfamiliar word, Selena lifted her head, which had been pointed toward the floor. A woman she had never seen before stood next to the Viscount. The woman, wearing a dress with a plunging neckline and exposed shoulders, looked Selena over briefly before saying to the Viscount, “Is this the child I am to teach? She certainly is pretty.”
Sweat began to soak through Selena’s hands. The uncomfortable memories from the banquet were coming back to life.
“V-Viscount?”
Selena called out to him in a flustered voice. Since the time she had been slapped by the Viscountess for calling him “father,” Selena had been calling him “Viscount.” Of course, the Viscount had no interest in what she called him or whether she was abused by his wife. He was merely happy that he could sell the daughter he had fathered out of a momentary, immature desire for a high price.
“Shh, it’s alright. You are learning how to please men. You will thank me for this later, too.”
How to please men?
What on earth was this man saying? Men at least a dozen years her senior had been licking their lips while looking at her. Not only that, but how persistently they clung to her whenever she tried to step away even for a moment.
“I-I don’t want to. I don’t want to do things like that. I don’t want to learn how to please men.”
At that, the Viscount unleashed his violence not on Selena, but on her mother. In the end, weeping, Selena accepted the woman from the streets, who reeked of heavy perfume, as her teacher. If she had been like dust before—existing but unnoticed—now she was treated entirely like merchandise.
Seven years passed. Ellen Serius, the Viscount’s son who had been studying abroad in another province, returned.
One midnight, Selena, having left her room due to thirst, encountered Ellen in the hallway—a man with gold hair slightly lighter than her own. Selena was so startled she nearly dropped the lamp in her hand. She recognized immediately that he was the Viscount’s son because his face was identical to the Viscount’s.
Upon seeing her, he grinned from ear to ear. “Are you that bastard child?”
At his voice, thick with curiosity, Selena instinctively clamped her mouth shut.
“…”
The Viscount’s estate separated the main building from the annex. There was no doubt as to why this man—the legitimate son and heir who should have been in the main house—had come to the far-off annex.
“You’re prettier than I thought.”
At his blatantly intended remark, Selena glared at him in silence. He continued, his expression still holding a hint of laughter for reasons unknown. “I heard you learned some breathtaking techniques?”
Ellen stared at Selena and took a stride closer with his long legs. His intense gaze slid down, moving as if gliding from Selena’s face to the thin slip she wore. In the man’s eyes, cast in the lamplight, Selena read pure carnal desire. A scoff escaped her. It was truly horrifying that the blood flowing through that man was the same blood that flowed through her.
“If the Viscount finds out you are harassing me, it will be a big problem.”
“The Viscount? Ah, we share the same father, but you call him ‘Viscount,’ do you?” He laughed aloud.
“Why have you come to the annex in the middle of the night?”
“I just wanted to see you once before you are sold off to the North tomorrow.”
The North?
At the news she was hearing for the first time, Selena’s eyes widened, and Ellen clicked his tongue. “How could you not even know about your own marriage? Especially when you’re being sold off to the Monster Grand Duke.”
“…What did you say?”
“Did you really not know? The reason he is handing you over to the Monster Grand Duke is that the Duke will pay off all the family’s debts in exchange for you.”
“…”
“That man must have been desperate for a marriage. To take a bastard as his official wife, and to buy her with money at that.”
‘So, he really is selling me off.’
He was a father who made one sick to their stomach until the very end. However, Selena did not hate the Grand Duke who had bought her. On second thought, with her mother gone, there was nowhere else for her to rely on anyway. She had nothing left to lose. She had lived her whole life without ever truly possessing anything from the start.
Inside the carriage heading North, Selena quietly closed her eyes and thought of the man who would become her husband.
Calix Elixion.
A war hero who ended the imperial war that had lasted for thirty years in just one year. Rumor had it that he was nearly two meters tall and looked absolutely terrifying. They said his face and body were riddled with scars from the battlefield, leaving no part of him intact. It was said that he had pale, colorless skin and had lost one eye. There was even a ridiculous story that if you looked at him for more than three seconds, you would die of a heart attack from fear.
Perhaps because of such frightening rumors, she had heard that despite him being a war hero and the Grand Duke governing the North, not a single person had sent him a marriage proposal until now.
I suppose that is why the Viscount sold me to the Monster Grand Duke.
Regardless, it did not matter to Selena what her husband looked like. Even if he were truly a monster as the rumors suggested, she was confident she could fulfill her duties as a wife without issue. Though she was being sold, it was better than being locked up in that wretched Viscount’s household for the rest of her life.
Having grown up in an environment that forced her to resign herself to fate quickly, Selena kept her hands folded neatly on her lap and looked out the window, which was frosted over with white steam. The carriage, which had been traveling day and night, finally came to a stop at sunset.
“We have arrived.”
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a massive castle with gray spires rising into the sky.
As soon as she stepped off the carriage, maids swarmed out from the castle and immediately took Selena to the bathroom. They submerged her in warm bathwater, applied jasmine-scented oil to her hair, and meticulously scrubbed every corner of her body with soap.
She had arrived expecting nothing, knowing she had been sold for money. She couldn’t help but be flustered by the touch of hands that treated her with such care, like glazed porcelain.
“Where is the Grand Duke?”
In this unfamiliar situation, Selena found herself searching for the husband she hadn’t even seen yet.
“He is waiting in the bedroom. Your Highness, please feel free to speak comfortably to us, as we are but your servants.”
After carefully washing her and finishing their preparations, the maids dressed her in a clean gown. “I shall guide you.”
Guided by the maid, Selena entered the bedroom where the Grand Duke was said to be. The room was like a dark cave. There was not a single light in the pitch-black room, and the windows, where light should have entered, were draped with row after row of black blackout curtains. Through the dim light entering from the gap in the open door, she realized there were no wardrobes or vanity tables. All that existed was a large, towering bed.
Selena looked around the room, then belatedly realized someone was sitting on the bed. Because the figure looked so large, she had mistaken it for a shadow rather than a person. The moment her eyes met the gaze of the man sitting on the bed, the open door closed without warning.
Heavy silence descended after the absolute darkness. How long had she stood there in the dark?
“Do you intend to just stand there?”
At the man’s voice, which sounded like it came from the depths of a cave—a sound that suited this darkness perfectly—Selena snapped to her senses. However, she could see nothing in the room where not a single ray of light penetrated.
Selena reached out into the void to head toward him, but tripped over her own hem. Just before she fell, a thick arm wrapped around her waist.
“Not used to the darkness, are you?”
A faint, subtle scent of musk wafted from the man speaking as he held her waist. For some reason, it suited the man’s voice incredibly well.
“I apologize.”
Selena apologized to him. What if he sends me back because he’s displeased? Feeling anxious, Selena bowed her head toward the man who was still holding her and added, “I apologize for being a bother.”
“…”
Despite her repeated apologies, the man remained silent for a while. A moment later, he simply let out a short, clipped remark, as if chewing on the words.
“Indeed.”
Selena debated whether she should try to pull away from the man’s embrace or not. She was worried that if she carelessly tried to pull away, he might be offended, but she also felt it might be rude to stay like this indefinitely.
Her deliberation did not last long. The man lightly lifted Selena up with both arms. Supporting her slender legs with one hand and her thin back with the other, he began to walk in silence. Perhaps it was because the warmth touching her body was so comforting, or perhaps it was because his tone—which lacked any reprimand—reassured her; after hesitating, Selena carefully wrapped her arms around the neck of the man holding her.
At her action, the man paused for a moment before taking another step. His stride was so long that it felt as if he hadn’t taken many steps before they had already reached the bed. He laid Selena down on the bed with care and pulled the quilt up to her neck.
At that moment, a bright, sudden light flooded her face. The man had turned on the lamp on the headboard without warning.
As she squeezed her eyes shut and opened them against the sudden light, the man’s face was right in front of hers. Despite her internal resolve, Selena, seeing her husband’s face for the first time, froze on the spot.
