Chapter 1 - Prologue (1)

Chapter 1 – Prologue (1)

“Today, will you stay out late?”

“Why?”

Nothing in particular. I thought to myself, merely looking at him with sorrow.

In the beginning, he had told me he couldn’t get mad at someone who approached him in a friendly manner. However, looking at his frowning face right now, I was sure that’s no longer the case. Not to me, at the least.

And as he put on the coat he rarely wore, he started to speak with a cold voice.

“I’ve told you before, Goyo.” Terio looked at me with an unfeeling expression. “Don’t expect anything from me.”

Of course.

Goodbye.

I hid the anguish in my eyes and smiled at him, silently bidding him farewell. However, Terio didn’t react at all, not even giving me another glance as he swiftly left the mansion. And without regard to my position, the servants also followed suit and left me behind.

I stared at the spot from where Terio disappeared from my sight with vacant expression. Then I quietly raised my head to the sky. I heard a storm was going to come today, but the sky was clear, showing no sign of turbulent weather.

It was a strange day.

****

It had been a long time since I first met my husband, Terio Alte.

He and I descended from the only two duke households, whose position was right below the emperor, in the Solaris Empire. Terio descended from Alte while I descended from Rubiet.

The two households shared a good relationship with one another. So, it was only natural that I got along with Terio. And that… That was the beginning of everything.

Because of the amiable relationship between our families, we came to know each other since we were very young, eventually becoming each other’s best friends. And we were close enough to know everything about the other. From preference, specialties, worries, up until our future’s dream, there was nothing we didn’t know about each other.

There was a strong friendship between us, and I once believed that it would last forever.

Until Terio confessed his love to me.

At first, I was confused before denial swiftly came followed by anger. I had never even once expected that he would feel romantic feelings for me. But ever so slowly, I came to accept it and at last, I fell for him.

All through that year, my emotions stirred constantly in a way that was foreign to me and made me realize that the eternity I swore as a child was a truly fleeting thought. But what was more fleeting was my heart.

It took too little time for the firm friendship between us to melt away into love.

I loved him. I loved Terio Alte.

And I was anxious that I would lose the comfort of our friendship. But in the end, I surrendered because I failed to overcome my feelings. Because I simply couldn’t deny what I felt.

It’s fine, nothing has changed. I believed that despite losing eternal friendship, I had gained eternal love in its place. Thus, once again, Goyo Rubiet foolishly believed in eternity.

After that, the situation flowed smoothly. A clumsy love grew as time passed, and the heart-throbbing excitements, once so frequent, eventually stabilized.

And when we became adults, we got formally engaged.

However, it had only taken three years for my relationship with Terio changed once again. And it began when he first spoke to Melissa, my step sister.

Melissa Rubiet, a sister who didn’t share the same blood with me, but still had Rubiet in her last name. She was Mrs. Kazel’s, who became the next duchess after the original duchess died, daughter.

Melissa came to Rubiet’s household when I was 13 and she was 10 years old. And at first, Terio wasn’t interested in her when he first spoke to her.

And since I neither like nor hate my sister, I let Terio and Melissa conversed with each other freely.

At that time, I didn’t know that it would lead to me feeling distress.

I didn’t know then. And I still didn’t know if I was subconsciously turning away from the fact or not either. I truly didn’t know which one was the truth.

Thus, I ignorantly let myself be formally engaged with Terio and set our wedding date. Despite that, I still noticed that as the date approached closer, Terio’s expression gradually became sour.

When I enquired about that, he told me he was nervous. Although on the surface I nodded my head and accepted his reasoning, deep down inside, I couldn’t convince my heart that he was telling the truth. Nevertheless, when I thought it over again, I think the reason he gave me was plausible as he was not an easygoing person in the first place.

In the meantime, I got a marriage proposal. The partner was the Marquis of Bethelgius, who made a great contribution in the war. He quickly became known as the marquis born from common people.

I thought my father would refuse it at once because it was very rude to propose to a person who was about to be married, but surprisingly, my father didn’t do it. Instead, he asked me before my marriage whether I would be willing to go through with marrying the marquis or not.

And there were two reasons why that happened. One was the political aspect, and the other one was… the rumor about the relationship between Terio and Melissa.