Bridgette then began to tell her story.

This empire has four ducal families, each positioned in geographically significant lands in the east, west, north and south.

Were the power balance among the four families to be upset, it could cause a rift in aristocracy, or worse, overthrow the state—although it would be unlikely unless something really bad happens—. Each family head’s marriage is selected after extreme deliberation, as they will be the key to relationships between families and other authorities.

This time, Sufia got chosen to be my fiancée because there was no problem, but then, a certain family hatched an evil plan.

The Modells, one of the four ducal families, is a martial and aristocratic family that has been in charge of the royal family’s guardianship for a long time. They have authority over the knight order and rookie soldiers alike.

The Modells and the Kvists are not on the best of terms among the four families, and they are well-known bitter enemies by everyone. That’s why Bridgette, until recently, hated the Kvist family without any reason and especially hated me so much that she wanted to kill me for breaking off my engagement with Sufia.

Sufia is the eldest daughter of the Lavinia family, a barony, and her mother is the eldest daughter of a first-generation noble knight. Her father—grandfather in Sufia’s eyes— is still alive.

As a first-generation noble, Sofia’s grandfather has no power. And since there is a huge difference between a baron and a duke, Kaisar’s action would only need the Kvist family to pay a large amount of compensation to the Lavinia family while, if the positions were reversed, they could be killed.

And why did the Modells have to kill Sufia? Is it because Kaisar had broken off his engagement, or is it because of the change of power?

Simply put, the knights, who were also the natural limbs of the Modell family, were manipulated behind the scenes to slowly brainwash the Lavinia family members, and by extension, their children, like cotton wool.

Naturally, Sufia, raised in such an environment, became a puppet for the Modell family.

After marrying her off to the Kvist family, which she had always disliked because of her upbringing, and to Kaisar, infamous as a tyrant among them, they planned to use her to spy on the Kvist family to eventually lead it to its downfall.

To begin with, the Modell family’s finances have been in a severe state of deficit in recent years, and they seem to be holding their own.