Betrothed to My Sister's Ex

I was dreaming.

Not a nightmare... or at least, I don’t think so. But it was a sad dream.

A slender noble lady was arranging sweets in front of me. They were my favorite chocolate-flavored cookies. Freshly baked, still a bit warm, and looked absolutely delicious. I was only four years old, my eyes shining and drooling in front of the cookies.

But I couldn’t reach out for them. This noble lady’s name was Lady Laura... the one who had repeatedly beaten and shouted at my mother, Ryuu-Ryuu. I thought she must hate me too.

Yet she smiled and said,

“These are made by me, but please, have some if you like.”

Overjoyed, I reached out to the cookies and devoured them without hesitation. The noble lady then spoke in a surprised voice,

“…You’re quite quick to eat them.”

I didn’t understand why she said that. It was Lady Laura who told me to go ahead. That must mean I could eat them, and that she didn’t hate me, right?

So there was no reason to refuse these precious cookies.

“But they’re delicious! I like these the most!”

When I said that, the noble lady muttered, “I see.”

“I like sweets, too. When I’m making them, I don’t have to think about unpleasant things...”

Then she touched my shoulder, speaking quietly and slowly, as if trying to reassure me.

“Next time, I’ll make something you like again. What flavor do you like?”

It was a single, fleeting promise. But it was never fulfilled.

—The duke family will pass the inheritance to Ryuu-Ryuu’s son, Cyrus—

When my father, Alfred Granado, said that, the gathered relatives murmured in unison. Only the noble lady—the one who gave me the delicious cookies—was glaring at me with fierce hatred.

A faint, old memory from when I was only four, vague and blurred between fact and truth.

Looking back, maybe that was when I started to feel uneasy around women.

Lady Laura, my father’s legal wife, who died in the end amidst love and hate. Her once gentle face shown to me as a child, now twisted with eyes filled with darkness, glaring at me like a demon.

I don’t think my father was a villain. But it’s true that the woman was hurt by him—and, clearly, my existence was the final blow that took her life.

Lady Laura’s wax-like pale skin lying in the coffin has been engraved in my mind for over twenty years.

Perhaps she was even trying to poison me.

But at the same time, back then—when she ordered me to call her mother, when she gave me the chocolate cookies—maybe she really did have kind feelings.

Maybe my father and mother made that gentle woman unhappy.

I respect my parents deeply. But I don’t want to follow their example.

I don’t want a marriage bound only by interests, nor do I want to seek true love as if denying that reality. I don’t need multiple wives. I want to love just one destined partner, the only one in this world, with all my heart for my entire life—if that’s impossible, then I want no one.

Marie... Marie Shadelan Granado.

Meeting you was the greatest blessing for me.

Thank you for meeting me. Thank you for becoming my wife.

Thank you for being born. Thank you for being alive.

Just that alone. Just that alone, and I—

...When I woke up, my cheeks were wet. Apparently, I had cried in my sleep.

Wiping the remaining droplets from the corners of my eyes, I got out of bed.

My body ached a little here and there, but it was nothing serious. I judged that the damage from carrying a person across the river had healed.

Leaving the room, I headed straight to Marie’s room.

Assuming she was probably asleep, I didn’t knock and quietly opened the door.

Sure enough, Marie was sleeping. According to Tunic and Mio, there was no longer any danger to her life, but it would still take time for her strength to fully recover.

I sat down on the floor beside the bed.

As long as her eyes remained closed, I didn’t want to leave her side. Listening to her breathing, I rested my head on the edge of the bed and drifted in and out of sleep.

The midnight moon softly illuminated her profile.