1. Vile woman

From the window of his main study, the Grand Duke Kailan Raimer watched the carriage arrive at his territory.

His dark gaze had followed it since he saw the dust from the trotting horses a few minutes ago. He didn't expect them to arrive so soon, but it seemed that the palace guards were more efficient than he thought, and they protected the carriage from the thieves and bandits lurking along the way.

However, his appreciation did not prevent his eyes from closing in disgust as he saw the group of white horses bred in the Capital approaching his mansion and slowing down. The frown on his forehead deepened when they halted, but he didn't stop watching them intently.

Inside that luxurious carriage adorned with gold and silver finishes was a burden that was placed on him and he could not refuse. A woman was inside that carriage, his new wife, the one that the King of Etros sent to humiliate him.

If he did not marry her, the king would accuse him of treason and his soldiers would be imprisoned for several years enduring the worst torture in the southern islands. He could not resist, even when he had the strength to rebel against the king.

He could only bear it, after all, it was just a marriage, a woman. Nothing else.

"She's here, Your Highness," he heard his butler, the old Jerome, announce from the doorway. "Do you want to receive her?"

"Why would I do that? That woman doesn't deserve it…" Kai replied coldly. "Go receive her yourself, but... be careful."

"Yes, Your Highness," old Jerome bowed at the man and left, closing the door gently.

Kai continued to watch from his window, a glass of wine in hand. At that time, only the potent alcohol of northern wine could ease his headache.

The wedding had been completed a week ago, and he barely remembered that woman, but he hoped to completely forget her existence with alcohol. That day he did not even care to see the face of his new wife who was still covered with a huge magical veil when she signed the papers. He turned around without offering or receiving congratulations and headed for his Duchy in the North immediately. He didn't mind being rude to his wife's family or the king. His fate was already sealed, why waste so much time?

Only until he found a way to get rid of her or kill the King would he escape that stupid fate. Either way, he was already planning to do both.

The carriage was already at the entrance, and the woman was due to get out at any moment. For some reason he wanted to see her, he wanted to know what she was like. The famous woman the King handpicked for the Duke of the North.

He waited, imagining her coming downstairs in a brightly colored pompous dress in the latest fashion from the Capital, with a shrill, high-pitched voice and a vicious, extravagant personality. He already wanted to see her do something outrageous, something dastardly, at which point he would not hesitate to send her to the dungeons immediately.

He noticed that the servants were already taking down the boxes and suitcases. He thought there would be more, but there were only a few, surely the rest of the luggage would arrive later.

"What's going on?" he wondered as Jerome seemed to speak to the woman across the carriage. He hoped she wasn't giving him trouble.

Suddenly his migraine flared up again just thinking about the rumors surrounding that woman, Serena Hutcher.

"They say she's ugly, fat, and stupid," he heard one of the servants say one day. He thought that those were the most innocent words used to describe her. The worst words were too complicated and horrifying to even mention.

"Also that she is a murderer," another servant continued, "they say that she is crazy and that she tried to kill her little sister and burn her while asleep. And… no one knows how many maids she has killed already… I am afraid. I'm not sure I want to keep working here. Maybe I should leave before it's too late."

The other servants nodded. They were afraid that this woman would hurt them.

"Is it true that… that she marked her face on purpose with a magic dagger? They say that her face is now ruined and she does the same to her maids and the girls who are prettier than her… What if she does that to me? No… I can't stay, I haven't gotten married yet."

"She was supposed to marry another man, a prince from a foreign country, I don't know where, but she opposed the marriage and scarred her face to prevent the prince from taking her. Of course, they say that the prince was a fat and cruel old man, someone who already had many young concubines. No woman would want to marry him. But that madwoman sent her younger sister, Marian Hutcher, in her place. How could he do that to her little sister? The young Marian had just turned sixteen, hardly the age to be introduced to society. How cruel," the other maids trembled and nodded.

"If it wasn't for Crown Prince Evan saving the poor girl, it would have been too late."

"I still can't believe that woman is going to marry the Duke, he doesn't deserve it."