IWDGD 01

Chapter 01

Yulia glanced furtively at the man sitting across from her, tilting his glass.

Fernan Caesar. A man who, at the young age of twenty-six, had led the empire to victory in war and inherited the title of Grand Duke.

True to his prestige, he possessed handsome and robust features, and even in a light shirt, he was radiant.

He was the kind of man whose gaze one couldn’t help but fall upon, even when trying not to steal glances.

Yulia still couldn’t quite believe that this man, who seemed so utterly perfect, was her husband.

“If you’re going to stare, you might as well eat.”

At the sudden low voice, Yulia was startled and dropped her fork.

Fernan had raised his head and was gazing at her with an impassive face.

“Y-Yes…”

Yulia blushed and picked up the bread on the plate before her. Embarrassed at being caught stealing glances, she couldn’t lift her head.

As she nibbled on the bread and aimlessly stirred her soup, a servant brought her new cutlery.

Quietly cutting her steak, Yulia cautiously raised her gaze to check on him. He seemed bored with this time, emptying his champagne glass repeatedly.

Should she try to start some conversation? What did ordinary couples talk about during meals…

While Yulia was agonizing alone, Fernan rose from his seat.

“I’ll be leaving first.”

With those brief words, he exited the dining room. Without giving her even a single glance.

Yulia stared blankly at his empty seat before setting down her cutlery. For some reason, she no longer felt like eating.

Rising after eating less than half of her meal, Yulia trudged back to her chambers.

Even though several months had passed since their marriage, she had never once had a proper conversation with Fernan.

In fact, apart from the occasional shared mealtime, she hardly ever even encountered him.

He had been away from the estate on many days. Sometimes as short as three days, sometimes as long as a month.

Naturally, there had been no opportunity to grow close to him.

Somehow, she felt their relationship was even less intimate than that of strangers.

“Your Highness, you’re back? Did you enjoy your meal?”

As Yulia entered the bedroom, the maid who had been tidying the bedding smiled and greeted her. It was Melissa, who had been assigned as her personal maid.

“Yes, you work hard every time.”

Yulia went into the dress room, and Melissa followed to assist her with changing. After putting on a thin slip dress and draping a robe over it, Yulia returned to the bedroom.

“Oh, a letter arrived during the day, but I forgot to give it to you.”

Melissa took out an envelope from her bosom. Yulia’s expression darkened slightly. She felt she knew who the letter was from without even looking.

After Melissa left, Yulia tore open the envelope and checked the contents. Naturally, the sender was her father.

[To Yulia, my daughter.

I received no reply to my previous letter. Worried, I write this new one. Have you grown accustomed to your new home? I await daily the day I hear joyful news from you. I shall visit the castle soon.]

It was a concise letter containing only its purpose. Yulia tossed the letter carelessly into a storage box and let out a deep sigh.

Her father, the Marquis of Elodie, was the one who had gained the most from this marriage.

He had used Fernan’s reputation as a war hero to expand his business, maintained close ties with the imperial family, and was endlessly elevating his family’s prestige.

As if that were not enough, he was now pressuring Yulia to bear the Grand Duke’s child as soon as possible.

Sending letters periodically to apply pressure like this.

His reasoning was that if an heir were produced, this marriage would move in a more stable direction.

Yulia fell into thought with a subtle expression. She had not even consummated her marriage with Fernan yet.

Children and heirs still felt like a distant matter, but there was a need to develop their relationship.

She couldn’t go on living this distantly forever.

‘Let’s not be too impatient.’

They had become husband and wife, so there would be many days to spend together. Lying in bed, Yulia slowly pictured her husband’s face.

From long ago until now, a consistently beautiful and splendid man.

Yulia had first seen him nine years ago. After recalling old memories for a while, she eventually drifted off to sleep.

A peaceful smile was drawn on her sleeping lips.

—

*

—

It was nine years ago, a summer when she was thirteen. That day was also the first time Yulia had ever gone to the imperial palace.

‘How dare someone of low birth try to enter the banquet hall?’

However, even before she could set foot in the banquet hall, Yulia was thrown into some deep back room of the palace by a rough hand.

It was the habitual cruelty of the Marchioness, who had never acknowledged Yulia as her own daughter.

‘You stay here quietly. I’ll come to fetch you when the banquet is over.’

‘M-Mother!’

Bang! Staring at the door that had closed with a loud slam, Yulia slowly lowered her desperately outstretched hand.

As she looked around with trembling eyes, a pitch-black interior where nothing could be seen stretched before her.

While she stood there frozen in fear, the splendid sound of music announcing the banquet reached her ears.

‘…Hic.’

Crouching down right there, Yulia eventually began to sob aloud.

The bustling noise of the banquet hall in the distance only made young Yulia feel even more sorrowful.

Had it been a mistake to show such excitement, wearing a pretty dress for the first time and riding in a splendid carriage…?

Her vision blurred with tears falling drop by drop from her eyes.

And then, suddenly, a long shadow fell over her.

Lifting her gaze blankly, she saw a tall man looking down at her expressionlessly, as if he had appeared out of nowhere.

Startled, Yulia flinched, and the man slowly bent his knees.

When their eye level became roughly equal, she could finally see the man’s face clearly.

‘Why are you crying.’

Hair as dark as the encroaching shadows. Golden eyes that shone alone even in the pitch-black darkness.

His face, somehow still youthful for a man, was beautiful enough to immediately capture Yulia’s gaze.

To the hesitant, frightened Yulia, the man silently extended his hand.

‘…….’

Yulia stared at that hand with teary eyes.

Why… why would he extend his hand to someone like me…?

Though confused, Yulia could not turn away from the hand he offered.

With a hesitating face, she timidly touched his fingertips, and soon he led her toward a small door set into one wall.

There was a terrace there.

Unlike the dark interior of the room, beyond the terrace, the glow of sunset was just beginning to rise.

‘Don’t cry. I’ll stay with you.’

Dressed in splendid attire, he looked like someone who should have been in the banquet hall, not in such a secluded back room.

Yet strangely, he seemed quite accustomed to sitting here alone.

He asked nothing of her, nor did he say anything to her.

He simply held her hand for a long while.

Miraculously, her sad and sorrowful heart gradually faded while she was with that man.

He did not leave until the sunset had fully faded and the moonlight had just begun to seep in.

Clutching his large hand tightly in hers, Yulia learned for the first time that someone’s hand could be this warm.

It was the first time anyone had held her hand so unreservedly.

When at last the music signaling the end of the banquet reached her ears, Yulia hesitated and finally asked him.

‘Um, could you at least tell me your name…?’

At that small question, he silently lowered his eyelids, then slowly raised them again.

The golden eyes revealed in that moment shone brighter and more beautiful in young Yulia’s eyes than the moon hanging in the sky.

‘Fernan.’

‘…….’

‘If we meet again someday, I’ll hear your name then.’

That was their last conversation.

After that day, Yulia saw him again two days later at the departure ceremony.

At the very forefront of the imperial army leaving for the conquest war, that man was there.

Fernan Seiref Foremene. The Emperor’s only nephew, and the commander who would lead the imperial army in this war.

The man she had met in that shabby back room was said to be such an extraordinary person.

Yulia only learned later that the night of the banquet when she met him was actually a gathering to pray for the safe return of the departing imperial army.

And so, without even a chance to meet again, that mysterious man departed for the battlefield.

Yet even afterward, Yulia could not easily forget the memory of that day.

Even through the long, distant years until Fernan returned as a war hero.

After his return, for a long time, Yulia would watch him from afar.

No longer the boy from her memories, but a fully grown man, he had become the most renowned person in the empire.

A year passed after that.

To her surprise, Yulia came face to face with him for the first time at the negotiation meeting where their marriage arrangement was finalized.

That day, her father said to her:

‘Yulia, you will soon become the Grand Duchess.’

The man who had been granted the northern Caesar territory after the war and had inherited the title of Grand Duke—Fernan.

That kind man from her memories, who had felt so noble and distant, was to be her marriage partner.