Previous life and current life

It was a two-week journey by horse-drawn carriage from the townhouse in the royal capital to the Duchy of Ordland.

If it were on horseback, it would probably be shorter, but marrying a child of a high-ranking aristocrat is not that easy. There were about 20 horse-drawn carriages with luggage alone, and over 40 carriages if you included the carriages of guards and servants, and they were equipped with preparations, security, maids, and attendants befitting their family status, so they proceeded naturally, becoming extremely slow.

As mentioned above, there was a distance between Melfina and her family, but the preparations and dowry were appropriate for a daughter of the Marquis Crawford family. If these formalities are not followed, the prestige and credibility of the family will be affected. This is because simple preparations are an insult to the Duke family who receive them.

To be honest, I was tired of being rocked by a horse-drawn carriage for such a long time, but just as we were halfway through the journey, we felt a little relieved when the group encountered the problem of being exposed to the long rain.

Not all roads in this world are well-maintained, especially between territories. It was natural for any feudal lord to allocate budget to his own capital, which would directly lead to tax revenue, rather than spending his own money to improve borders with other territories.

Long-term travel by horse-drawn carriage is planned with a certain amount of flexibility in mind, taking such problems into consideration. However, weddings between great aristocrats are planned with a lot of time, including the nobles who will be attending and the high-ranking clergy who will be performing the ceremony. I have a schedule and can't slip up. Melfina's party, which was a large family, continued to move while slowing down.

As a result of forcing himself, an accident occurred. While traveling along a road at the foot of a mountain, he was caught in a landslide. Fortunately, they escaped a direct hit, but the horses pulling the carriage became confused and the carriage overturned. Melfina, who was inside, was not seriously injured, but he hit his head and was knocked unconscious for a while.

At that moment, memories from my previous life came flooding back to me, and I remembered that the world I had lived in so far was very similar to the game I had played in my previous life.

--This is Maria's world in the land of hearts!

Maria in the Land of Hearts is a maiden game set in a royal court, where the story revolves around the saint "Maria" who one day visits from another world. There are domestic politics, diplomatic strategies, magical medicine, and light mystery elements, and the characters you can conquer will change depending on the route you choose.

The scenario is solid and interesting even in light mode, but there is a wide range of knowledge required depending on the mode, such as normal mode and hard mode. If you play hard mode on online bulletin boards, you will become a trivia king by the time you clear all routes. It was often written as a joke that he could become one.

In the game, Melfina von Ordland is a villainess who stands in the way of the heroine Alexis von Ordland, one of the country's few dukes and margraves.

It may be strange to call her a daughter since she is actually a duchess, but two years later, when Maria arrived in this country, Melfina was still 18 years old, a high school student in Japan, where she lived in her previous life. Since she was around that age, she was probably called a young lady on purpose.

Along that route, Melfina left the duchy and lived in a townhouse in the royal capital.

In this country - of course, the Heart Country is not officially called the Kingdom of Francesca - Melfina is the highest-ranking woman other than the royal family, and she continues to stay in the royal capital without returning to her territory. Because he actively appeared at the evening parties, he was selected to be an instructor at the court of Mary, a saint sent by God.

In the game, Melfina is a character who treats Maria lightly, even though she is a saint but is a commoner, and mocks her, asking her if she can't do something like this. After she entered the Alexis route, she turned her fierce jealousy towards Maria, and she began to bully Maria, a saint, which threatened her life, and when this was discovered, she was a character who lost her position.

Alexis is forced to divorce her daughter, and her family, the Marquis Crawford family, completely abandons her daughter who harassed the saint, and after a still image of Maria, who melted the heart of Alexis, the Duke of Ice, cuddling with her, there is a blizzard all year round. The fate of the villainess, Melfina, was only one sentence: she was sent to a harsh monastery in her hometown.

—Melfina was definitely a mean character, but when you put yourself in her shoes, there are a lot of things you want to say about her.

In the game, Melfina is a strong-willed, twisted woman who loves luxury, but she is still a duchess from a marquis family. A noble marriage is also a contract between families. Since the church basically prohibits divorce, if Melfina were to harass her saint, her husband Alexis would also be held jointly responsible for her.

Despite this assumption, the reason why Melfina was divorced and Alexis and Maria were married was that the church also recognized divorce in white marriages. White Marriage - In short, in the original game, Alexis and Melfina never shared a bed as a couple.

The reason for this was not explained in the game. Although he had no choice but to accept the marriage as a matter of convenience, there was a depiction of Alexis hating Melfina, a mean and extravagant aristocratic woman, and I had a vague idea that it was for that reason, but in reality, she married Alexis as Melfina. I tried it and found out why.

Maybe Melfina wasn't the kind of woman who was harsh and looked down on others and behaved in a coercive way, like she had been in the game from the beginning. Even though Melfina was not loved by her parents and was surrounded by heartless rumors from childhood, at least she tried harder than anyone else to be worthy of her high status as the daughter of a marquis.

Just like I was before my memories came back, even if I had to give up on my relationship with my family, I would have married with the desire to be happy in my new marriage.

Alexis so easily trampled on Melfina's wish, which was almost a prayer.

Melfina in the game was also told that she had no intention of loving him, that her nephew would inherit the Duke's title, and that she could live wherever she wanted, and that's when her heart was definitely broken.

Until then, the tag that I had so tightly disciplined myself with has come off, and my efforts have become ridiculous, and even though I am living a luxurious life, I am not satisfied with it, and gradually I wonder why I am not able to do such things, and I wonder if I am not trying hard enough. I started to balance my mind by criticizing and looking down on others.

Then, he became jealous of the heroine who could easily show him the love that he had never been given, and he was destroyed. I think it's a terrible story even if it's about someone else, but this is what happened to me and what might happen in the future.

Now that she has regained her memories of her previous life, she no longer needs the love of her parents, who had shunned Melfina for selfish reasons, nor the love of Alexis. If they can do what they want, then she should have the right to do what Melfina wants too.

"I was surprised when Cedric was an escort knight, but the fact that he is now a knight of Ordland means that he will inherit the earl title by the time the heroine appears."

In the game, Cedric was the commander of the Royal Knights and the head of the Earl family. I don't know why he's in Ordoland now, but there must be something going on.

"For the time being, I should be able to avoid the route of becoming the heroine's educator as long as I don't go near the royal capital for two years from now. I have obtained the position of lord just in case, and there will be a famine, and the lord's job will be... If you say you're busy, they won't force you to call me.''

If Maria goes the Alexis route, the scenario will probably end in divorce, but since the lordship of the Enkar region was handed over through a formal exchange of documents, it shouldn't be taken away even after the divorce.

She returned home after returning to her parents' home, and the value of an aristocratic daughter who couldn't have a child in her first marriage was not only zero, but also bad news, which was a minus. This time, there is a high possibility that she will be handed over to the second wife of a lower noble or a powerful merchant via her parents' home, or she will be placed in a convent with better conditions than the route of her condemnation.

There's nothing wrong with going to a monastery. If they lived a modest life and had the financial means to do so, they would make and sell alcohol and sweets, or they would live a cultural life where they would write books and pass them on to future generations. At least nuns in wealthy convents have a much better life than commoners or farmers.

--But I absolutely hate serving the god of this world.

Now that she has regained her memories of her previous life, she can clearly understand how unreasonable her fate was in Melfina's life. Even if there was such a thing as a god, she was unlikely to be able to admire and respect his existence.

Then what should we do? I have a certificate that says I can do whatever I want. There was no obligation for me to quietly divorce him, so in that case, I would receive a generous amount of alimony, but in addition to that, I needed to obtain a new status so that I wouldn't have to return to my parents' home.

That is to acquire territorial rights over an area including Enker Village, in short, to become the lord of a small territory.

In a world with a class system, it can be said that if you have a title and wealth, you can be considered safe. By regaining her memories of her past life, Melfina von Crawford was able to objectively view her life.

Have you ever found out about your troublesome family home and marital home? That was Melfina's true feelings right now.

"I think you should save some cash in case your entire territory is taken away. If you get divorced, the land and mines you gave as a dowry will probably be confiscated by the marquis family. If I were to run a bakery that bakes white bread, I wouldn't have any trouble making a living.''

Without something to precede it, nothing will happen. I need to quickly accumulate assets at my disposal so that I can survive even if everything is taken away from me.

Melfina von Crawford's life has been full of hardships since the beginning.

However, I will open up the future with my own hands.

Would you ever cry over your fate?