1 Scene I — Prologue.

"You are to leave this place at this very moment."

The Baron spouted in disinterest.

"... Pardon?... Leave...? Your Lordship??"

Ewelina questioned, baffled at the sudden order her stepfather welcomed her with at her true Father's bureau.

"... As I said. You are to leave immediately from this manor. A carriage has been arranged, it's already outside waiting for you."

"I do not–... Your Lordship, may you explain what this is about? Have I behaved improperly? I–I am... Where am I to go in that carriage???"

Tremorous to the news, the confused woman insisted to the indifferent man behind the desk who, displeased by her quivering inquiry, glared at her afraid figure that he had witnessed till sickness.

"Haaah... A hindrance until the end you are..." — Sighing to himself, he scowled annoyed at her very presence and mumbled in spite.

"..."

"You are leaving to do your duty! Leaving to your Spouse's Lands!... He demanded for you to be sent shortly to his fief... for a female is to be by her male's side."

"... Spouse...?" — Shocked, she repeated, pale in blue. — "... However, father– ah!!"

Bang!... Thud, thud...

"Tsk. Don't use that word! How many times do I have to strike you so you understand, Ewelina?! Lord! Refer to me as your Lord, disgusting waste!!"

The ink bottle reached her forehead, staining her curly yet light brown copper hair, as well as her already dirtied countenance along the clothes with the dark drops of the thick liquid that escaped in the blow.

"!!... I–..... I beg your pardon... Your Lordship..." — The almost unheard tremor of her voice answered nervously. Biting her lip. Clenching her wrist in fear and restrained pain after receiving the strike without daring to avoid it.

Regardless... the young woman braced herself to continue within tremor.

"... However... Y–Your Lordship... I– I have not.. I have not been wedded to anyone... Nei–neither was I informed of a proposal..."

"Why would you need to be informed of such things? You simply have to do as you are told!"

"!..."

"Hmph... At the very least, with this marriage, you have been useful to our House's finances. You are allowed to feel happy about that. Hah."

'No...How can this be?... The Barony has sold me to an unknown noble for wealth... what–... what am I to become... Mother...'

Helpless before her fate, Ewelina painfully shut her lids to an unavoidable future as she realised her present... Embarrassed to be facing such a destiny, and have to abide by it at her stepfather's orders.

"M–May I ask... Who my partner is?"

"The Archduke."

"?!?! M–Myr–" — Feeling faint, the woman stuttered after hearing the man's Title.

"Archduke Myrkzver. Which else if not him?" — The distasteful in-law smirked at her grief. — "Since no other Family had an inkling to give their daughters to that man, I figured since it's you... I could gain a lot from this deal, you see?"

"....."

Observing her shocked stance a few steps before him, the man scoffed at her pathetic appearance.

Old scourers as clothes were all she possessed. Pitiful and displeasing to his eyes, the child he accepted to keep after her mother died out of public pretence, disgusted the man with no mercy for her future.

"If you are done asking insignificant details, get out... Take one of Dina's old dresses to wear. You have to look slightly decent at the very least once you arrive at that ogre's cave... Oh! Tell that maid friend of yours to take care of whatever you leave behind. I don't want your dirt to remain here... Although... Hah. Is there anything besides those rags you own, Ewelina?"

Contempt eyes and humiliating words were poured at her naturally.

The entertained man, whose vicious expression was well too known by the abandoned woman, caused her goosebumps along the hurtful emergence of tears that grabbed desperately onto her lids... Desperate not to fall since the man would only become more difficult for her to endure.

Silently, she stood there. Shivering. Feeling a stuffing void of helpless misery in her frail chest again.

A sensation she grew accustomed to enduring through the years without her bearer parent.

Nonetheless, all she knew was those limited lands her ancestors had lived in.

The old and modest castle she once ran through happily, was later to become the only place she could stay at as she had little to nothing besides it as the child of the woman she was born from.

In lands she would never survive without such a shelter when young and alone; as she was left once the rightful Baroness, her Mother, had met her demise. A mere ceiling to protect her under the vast unpredictable sky, her warm home... had become no more than a cold hideout from an unknown world.

No option but to endure a lower treatment in her own Lands... The young Ewelina had accepted, grown accustomed and resigned herself to the life the family left in her charge gave her.

"... Why are you standing there? Leave. Nothing is left for you here."

'...but... Dina... She said that man is a sure death for the woman to be wedded to him... I have heard her and the other refined Ladies pray not to encounter the man...'

The young woman contemplated as she shrank in her shoulders. Afraid for she still learned the hearsay from the step-sibling she came to have and from her stepfather's wife who enjoyed what should have been rightfully hers.

"....."

Ewelina was unwilling.

A woman who was deprived of learning what she had to... That only knew the tricks to lead the mischievous mice out of the kitchens and serve their family like any disposable servant to keep a roof over her head and survive in the difficult world she lived in...

How was she to survive a dangerous man, who she has never met, who she did not know how to serve and did not know how to properly manage the responsibilities to fall on her as his Spouse?

'... What if he kills me...?'

Her expression scowled in grief, standing still even after the Baron had demanded her dismissal.

"Ewelina."

"!!"

The strong grip on her chin by the old rusty hand decorated by her real Father's ring, hurt her skin as it took hold of her.

Shut eyes of the woman desperately opened at his grasp, terrified. For she found the chilling gaze he portrayed when enraged.

"Y–Your Lordship..."

The uneven white was appalling in those fading pupils that ever so intensely watched her with revulsion.

"... Are you deaf?... Has your stupidity robbed you of understanding words?"

"...!... No.. I–..."

"... Maybe you need a last warning? Just like your mother. You only understand once I make you do so, huh?"

"Ah!!" — Thrown to the hard ground, she regretted her wish to change his mind. — "No...! I– I understand... Please–!?!!! kugh! Cough!! wugh!!"

"... Fortunately... By the time you arrive there no trace should remain... 'Daughter'..."