Chapter 51: CASE 3. The Third Bride (26)

‘What on earth happened to Marie?’

Heys recalled the moment he parted ways with Marie.

“Master! Where should we go?”

“To the secret passage! We’ll go through the Grand Duchess’s room and head outside!”

Heys, Lur, and Marie. The three of them had emerged from the hidden room and ran toward the secret passage.

Until then, they had intended for all three of them to escape the scene together.

That was, until they heard voices from beyond the red door.

“You two! Get inside the secret passage, quickly! You mustn’t be seen!”

Marie and Lur jumped into the passage, but Heys remained outside.

“What are you doing, Master?!”

“Come quickly!”

“…I just heard the Archduke’s voice.”

Heys glared toward the red door and whispered rapidly.

“I need to check the Archduke’s reaction when he sees that Marie is gone.”

Lur understood Heys’s words immediately.

Just a moment ago, she had also found it impossible to believe what Marie had said.

The idea that the Archduke was trying to protect Marie. Did that even make sense? It was certainly necessary to confirm it.

But still….

“So, you’re going to stay here alone, Master?”

“No. I’ll be up above. Come to think of it, it’s better if I go up and get rid of that bundle of golden hair. The fewer clues there are, the better.”

“But then….”

“There’s no time for this. Go, quickly!”

In the midst of this, the sounds outside the door were drawing closer. Heys shoved the lantern toward Lur and closed the passage door.

‘Then you’re just volunteering to be the bait, Master!’

Lur fumed inwardly.

In Lur’s opinion, everything else was just an excuse.

Since the Archduke knew about this secret passage, Heys was clearly planning to hold him back and buy them time to escape.

She wanted to run out right then and tell him not to do it, but she couldn’t.

She had Marie, whom they had just rescued, by her side.

“Sister….”

“…It’s okay, Marie.”

Lur held up the lantern and forced a brave smile.

“Master will return soon, so let’s move first.”

The two of them slowly descended the dark and uneven path.

“I was kidnapped through this path, right? Then, if we keep going this way, will we reach the room where I stayed?”

“Yes. That’s true, but….”

Lur trailed off.

There was one thing bothering her.

“Actually, there’s one more room in between. Master and I went inside, and a suspicious red-haired woman was living there.”

“A woman? A woman lives alone in a room in the middle of a passage like this?”

“Not alone, it seemed like she had a roommate.”

“A roommate?”

“Yeah. Probably a woman with long black hair—”

“Sister! Over there!”

At that moment, a light appeared from the opposite side of the passage.

“Look. What did I tell you?”

It was that very woman.

The short-haired redhead they had been talking about.

She was standing on the opposite side of the passage holding a lantern, talking to someone behind her.

“Since the detective and his assistant entered the secret passage, finding Miss Marie is only a matter of time. I told you there’s no point in stalling any longer.”

‘I knew she was aware of us…!’

Lur’s nerves stood on end.

Furthermore, it seemed she had more companions.

In the worst-case scenario, she might have to prepare for a fight.

‘Ah, what should I do? If I had known this would happen, I should have borrowed that crude iron cane Master carries!’

“Well. I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

A surprisingly delicate voice drifted from behind the red-haired woman.

“Sarah, if you hadn’t taught them the right path, things might have been different.”

“Like I said, it wasn’t my fault!”

Lur watched the exchange without letting down her guard for a single second. That was, until Marie, who was beside her, reacted strangely.

“…Sister?”

Lur thought for a moment that Marie was calling her.

But she wasn’t.

Marie’s bewildered gaze was fixed firmly on the figure behind Sarah.

“No way…. How are you here, Sister…?”

“…It’s been a long time, Marie.”

A faint sigh.

Then, a small woman revealed herself from behind the redhead.

“Elise!”

The vanished first Grand Duchess.

The starting point of the disappearance case and the owner of the nightmares that had plagued Marie until now.

It was Elise.

“You must have many questions. I’ll tell you everything. It’s pointless to hide it anymore anyway, and I was on my way to explain it to you from the beginning.”

Elise spoke and then hesitated for a moment.

“But where on earth should I start…. Ah, right.”

Elise said.

“Marie, did you know? The truth is, I’ve hated my father for a very long time.”

—

Elise hated her father.

Simply saying she hated him wasn’t enough. She loathed him.

Her father viewed Elise as an object rather than a human being.

“Tsk, if only you had been born a boy!”

That was the Marquis’s habit.

The Marquis believed the family had declined because Elise was born as an only daughter.

‘But Father, you’re the one who failed to protect the Marquisate’s prestige.’

Times were changing.

Money was gradually becoming more important than status, and commoners like the president of the Peter Haring Company were emerging and earning vast amounts of wealth.

Most noble families reacted keenly to these changing times.

They preserved their wealth by starting small businesses based on the capital and power they had accumulated.

However, the Marquis was left behind, unable to keep up with the times.

Yet, he turned all that responsibility toward his daughter, whose only crime was being born.

“If you were a man, I wouldn’t have needed a large sum of money to find a son-in-law to marry into the family! It’s all because of you, so earn your own dowry!”

She had never even said she wanted to get married, so what “funds” was he talking about?

“Are you telling me to go out and do needlework?”

“Who said I’d make you do something so humiliating? I heard Baron Mangel is very worried about his daughter. Apparently, the girl is such a freak that she hasn’t had a single friend until now.”

Baron Mangel was a man who seemed to be the polar opposite of the Marquis.

Although the Baron didn’t have a very high status, he was clever and earned a lot of money, and he poured all that wealth into his one and only precious daughter.

“You go and become that girl’s friend!”

“But… she’s 4 years younger than me.”

“What does that matter! What’s a 4-year difference between friends!”

To a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old, it was a massive difference.

“Go and cater to whatever she wants! Never say no, and whatever she likes, you like it too!”

‘Seeing him talk like that, I suppose he’s already received an advance payment?’

Or perhaps he had his debts forgiven.

The Marquis often hung around with Bernard, a gambling addict, and it wouldn’t have been strange if he had borrowed a large sum of money from Baron Mangel through him.

Whatever the case, Elise could not defy her father’s orders.

Thus, Elise became Marie’s friend. Though they were called friends, her position was actually closer to that of a lady’s maid.

‘Does Marie even know why she doesn’t have a maid?’

She probably didn’t. Marie knew nothing.

She was a child who didn’t need to know such things.

Marie was a good person, but Elise sometimes felt miserable by her side.

Both Elise and Marie only had their fathers and no mothers, yet their lives were completely different.

Marie had a father who loved his daughter more than anyone, a father who poured money out for her without hesitation.

Marie bought all sorts of things based on her interests, and when her interest faded, she replaced them all with new ones.

She never attended events she disliked and could always live doing only what she enjoyed.

She was honest about her feelings, no matter what others said. Because it was okay for her to be that way.

Elise envied Marie’s confidence.

As the Marquis took an interest in Elise’s marriage, her misery grew even deeper.

“I’ve sent a marriage proposal to the McDowell family. Their eldest son is about your age.”

The Marquis had recklessly sent a proposal to a prestigious Ducal family and was rejected.

“The youngest of the Cyle family isn’t a bad match! Even if he is a stuttering cripple, he’s the only son who will inherit the title!”

Of course, the Cyle family would never give their precious youngest son to a penniless Marquis who called their son a “stuttering cripple.”

After that, the Marquis’s marriage proposals continued to be a series of failures.

“Father. Didn’t you say you would find a son-in-law to marry into the family? You clearly said that when you sent me to be Marie’s friend!”

Elise, unable to bear it, said that, but.

“Are you telling me to marry you off to a mere commoner then?!”

Was the only response she received.

‘Perhaps I’ll never be able to get married my whole life.’

Elise mocked herself, but it didn’t seem that bad. In a way, it felt like the best path given to her.

However, the year Elise turned 19.

Her father finally succeeded in arranging a marriage. Her designated fiancé was the Archduke of Kalan in the North.

“How… old is he?”

“He’s 14. 5 years younger than you.”

He was still a child younger than Marie, with not a single hair of a beard on his chin.

“Your Highness. Don’t you dislike this marriage with me?”

The Archduke answered calmly, in an old-fashioned tone that didn’t suit him.

“The Archduchy is poor. When there were still foreign tribes in the North, there was at least support from the capital, but even that has been cut off now.”

That was a story Elise was well aware of.

To begin with, the Archduke was of imperial blood who had been pushed out in a power struggle. In other words, a thorn in the Emperor’s side.

The Archducal family had to fight against barbarians in the barren North, and as the barbarians disappeared, even that necessity was exhausted.

The Emperor claimed he would elevate the Archduke’s territory to an Archduchy in honor of his victory, but that was merely an excuse to cut off useless flesh.

Now that the Archduchy was no longer the Emperor’s territory, it could no longer receive any support from the capital.

‘It’s a story any noble with an interest in politics would know.’

“My Lady. I had to rent a special train just to come to the capital. Not because I am special, but because there are no regularly scheduled trains running to and from the Archduchy. Even then, I couldn’t go directly to the capital; I had to travel for nearly a week by carriage after getting off the train. When I finally arrived in the capital, I saw that plays were in full swing. Plays featuring the Northern Archduke, that is.”

“…In the capital, those things are in fashion.”

Elise said, avoiding the Archduke’s eyes.

In truth, both of them knew exactly what that meant.

‘It’s proof that the Northern Archduke is seen as a laughingstock.’

Commoners who knew nothing, or people like Marie who had no interest in politics, might harbor fantasies while watching the Northern Archduke, who always appeared as the male lead in plays.

But in reality, the truth was pointlessly ridiculous.

High-born nobles did not like their names being used recklessly in the entertainments of commoners, such as plays.

The theater companies needed a title high enough to satisfy people’s fantasies while ensuring they wouldn’t be sued for damaging a noble’s honor.

That was why it was the Northern Archduke.

Someone with a high bloodline but who was so far away and impoverished that he couldn’t even sue a theater troupe.

“The position of Archduke has become a joke. Since I am young, there are even more who look down on me. In order to protect this position, I am desperate for every cent. To me, a bride’s dowry is difficult to ignore, and since you were the only one who proposed marriage to me, I have no choice but to accept this marriage, do I?”

It was a flat voice, as if he were reading a pre-written script. Elise suddenly realized.

‘Ah, he’s someone like me.’

Archduke Kalan was standing on a stage he didn’t want to be on, reciting a set script. He was merely acting according to the role he was given, though he didn’t want it.

A puppet on a stage, no different from her.

Because of that, Elise came to dislike the Archduke even more.

“Sister? Are you okay?”

Elise suddenly snapped to her senses at Marie’s voice.

She saw the stage hidden by red curtains.

The sound of applause echoed from all sides.

“The play ended a long time ago, what on earth are you thinking about?”

Marie asked worriedly.

It wasn’t a question out of politeness, but genuine concern.

‘Of course. She’s always honest about her feelings.’

Because Marie Mangel was not a puppet on a stage like Elise or the Archduke.

She was someone who sat high in the audience, looking down at the stage and willingly being deceived by a play full of lies, crying and laughing.

Because she was a person who had never lied to her own emotions and believed that others would naturally be truthful as well.

To such a Marie, Elise couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

What could she possibly say? That she could be friends with her, who was 4 years younger, without a problem, but she didn’t want to marry the Archduke, who was 5 years younger?

That the words saying age was just an illusion were lies told to win her favor?

That the truth was she hated plays so much she didn’t even want to look at them?

In the end, there was nothing she could confide.

“If you have a worry, please tell me. You know I’m always on your side.”

And yet, drawn by the warmth of that moment.

“Marie, I….”

Elise spoke, gathering her courage for the first time in her life.

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going to marry Archduke Kalan.”

They were words spoken impulsively, but after saying them, she became even more certain.

“Father will surely be very angry, but… I simply cannot go through with this marriage. I will tell Archduke Kalan myself and break the engagement.”

If she said she wouldn’t take back the dowry, he would accept. Of course, the Marquis would go ballistic, but so what?

The Marquis was the one who first said she should take care of her own marriage funds.

Since she was the one earning it, couldn’t she be the one to decide how to use it?

‘Well, if necessary, I could just run away immediately after the ceremony with the Archduke.’

Elise firmly resolved to talk to Archduke Kalan.

Without knowing that that evening, she would come face-to-face with Tailor John.