HSMDW 1
by Sylvie Hart 🪐Chapter 1
In Viphalten, a land where the winter was so brutal that more people died from the cold than from monsters, Duke Aden de Viphalten was considered the worst possible husband candidate despite possessing a vast territory.
Aden had spent more time encountering monsters than he had spent meeting women.
He was always surrounded by the smell of blood, and his face was not even known in the social circles of the Atenbl Empire.
Since he rarely showed himself, rumors even spread that he was horribly ugly.
Then, one day, a nobleman who had been curious about his face was found dead, his entire body frozen stiff.
After that, a rumor spread like wildfire that he was someone no one should ever cross paths with.
There wasn’t a single woman who wanted to marry the Duke of Viphalten, a man surrounded by nothing but ominous rumors.
Yet the young head of House Viphalten had absolutely no interest in producing an heir—or in the rumors following him.
Thanks to that, the elders of House Viphalten found themselves in a desperate situation.
[There is nothing wrong with the head of House Viphalten.]
The elders tried spreading rumors to that effect, but there was no way rumors about Viphalten, which didn’t even have a proper social circle, could spread effectively.
When no one believed them, they eventually went so far as to put up a notice seeking a bride for the monster, Aden de Viphalten.
[Divorce available upon request.]
The outrageous notice recruiting a duchess came with an even more outrageous condition: divorce was allowed.
It essentially said that if she wanted, she could be invited to Viphalten Castle without anyone knowing, and she could come and make her decision herself.
[No need to meet face-to-face.]
If all the long-winded aristocratic formalities were stripped away, that was basically what it said.
But this backfired as well.
In the land of Viphalten, crawling with monsters, they were asking a woman to spend her first night with the Duke of Viphalten, supposedly an even greater monster than the beasts themselves, in a pitch-black room without even a single candle?
[Aden de Viphalten does not usually stay at the estate.]
Then was she supposed to live there alone?
The elders’ foolish attempts to somehow avoid the Duke of Viphalten’s bad reputation only made things worse.
And so, around the time a full year had passed without success in finding a bride for the Duke of Viphalten—
It was a vivid dream.
Dreams that remained in her memory after waking always had a sign.
In the dream, Eileen looked up at the mobile slowly spinning from the ceiling.
Even though it wasn’t a crib meant for a baby, there was a mobile hanging above the bed.
A prophetic dream.
Ever since she was young, dreams containing a mobile had always shown Eileen the future.
She watched her dream-self.
She was carefully looking around the bedroom, checking to see whether another version of herself was hidden somewhere in the brightly lit room.
At that moment, the lights in the bedroom abruptly went out.
A voice rang out in the pitch-black darkness.
「Eileen de Viphalten.」
Eileen’s eyes widened.
My name?
No.
Her surname had changed.
Not Eileen de Arlen, but Eileen de Viphalten?
A dull ache struck the back of her head, as though she’d been hit with a hammer.
「Eileen.」
A low voice resonated beside her ear.
With nothing but that voice echoing through the pitch-black darkness, the sensation of it reaching her ears seemed several times more intense.
The bed shifted.
The sensation was so vivid that it felt as though someone had actually touched her.
Since it was a prophetic dream, she already knew.
The man who had climbed onto the bed was the Duke of Viphalten.
Aden de Viphalten.
His hands, which she had expected to be cold, were passionately warm.
The hand brushing over her lips and the touch that grazed the edge of her clothes were more careful than she had expected.
His touch was delicate, like someone handling a fragile piece of glasswork that could shatter at any moment.
“Haah…”
Her dream-self let out a deep breath.
The hand that carefully loosened her clothes was large enough to feel reassuring.
She could no longer tell whether the soft rustling came from her clothes or the blankets.
The sound of fabric rubbing together seemed to sink much more deeply into her ears than usual.
“Mm…”
Her back arched upward.
She could distinctly feel herself gripping the bed sheets.
The night was long.
Eileen opened her eyes.
In her hands was a letter from House Viphalten seeking a bride for the duke.
With an expression of disbelief, Eileen unfolded the letter and checked the name again.
Eileen de Viphalten.
Her surname had changed.
Having the name of House Viphalten meant that she would marry the Duke of Viphalten.
Eileen suddenly sat upright in bed.
The old mobile hanging down over her forehead brushed against her.
There were countless rumors about Viphalten.
They said that because of the blizzards, one couldn’t even see the outer walls of Viphalten Castle except in the middle of summer.
They also said that the winters were so harsh that reaching not only the castle but even the territory itself was nearly impossible.
Only the people of House Viphalten could guide outsiders there.
They alone knew the roads that people could actually travel.
And yet that brutal winter ended precisely at the border of the Viphalten territory.
Beyond the border, it was as if someone had drawn a line and painted everything on the other side a different color. Warm sunlight shone there as though the cold of Viphalten had never existed.
“The land abandoned by God…”
Eileen muttered Viphalten’s nickname.
They said that the extreme cold caused monsters unlike those found anywhere else to appear as well.
A place crawling with monsters.
And what about the Duke of Viphalten?
There were even rumors that he was hideously ugly.
But that didn’t matter.
They said that anyone who met his eyes would freeze stiff.
They also said he was the kind of man whose sword came before words.
If someone disagreed with him, he supposedly wouldn’t even bother exchanging words before cutting off their head.
The Mad Duke of the North.
That was how the current Duke of Viphalten, Aden de Viphalten, was regarded.
“Aden de Viphalten.”
She looked down at the letter from House Viphalten seeking a bride.
[House Viphalten is seeking a lady to become its mistress.]
Below that were conditions enough to make any noble lady of the empire lose heart.
Put simply, the lengthy message said this:
The Duke of Viphalten was perfectly normal, contrary to the rumors.
But if the rumors bothered her, she would never have to see his face.
Furthermore, the duke rarely even returned to the estate.
The wording showed so little consideration that it seemed as though they intended to leave their bride stranded alone in a distant land until she slowly withered away.
Eileen’s gaze moved lower.
[If you find it uncomfortable, you may leave immediately.
We will take you wherever you wish to go, whenever you wish to leave.]
This part felt different from the dry handwriting above.
The handwriting had a rough quality to it, but the meaning was gentle.
No one else in the empire would believe it, but Eileen knew.
This was Aden de Viphalten’s own handwriting.
This was also one of the reasons she wasn’t as frightened about traveling to Viphalten as she perhaps should have been.
The wedding night had already been foretold.
I will arrive safely at the Viphalten estate.
And perhaps that man is different from the rumors.
Ah…
Because that wedding night had been soft and sweet.
「Eileen de Viphalten.」
The dream had clearly foretold her wedding night with the Duke of Viphalten.
I will marry him.
“Fate cannot be avoided.”
Her prophetic dreams had never been wrong since she was young.
Even when she tried to avoid what they showed her, it always came to find her in the end.
Eileen folded the letter and placed it on the table.
If she couldn’t avoid it, she wouldn’t allow herself to be dragged along helplessly.
Only the wedding night had been foretold.
But how she would live in Viphalten was up to her.
She rose to take her fate into her own hands.
“Did you call for me?”
After Eileen pulled the bell cord, a maid knocked on the door some time later.
“Where is the person who brought this letter?”
A letter sent from Viphalten could only have been delivered by someone from Viphalten.
Even if someone from Viphalten had used another courier here, that courier would still know how to get in contact with the people of Viphalten.
It was time to send a reply.
I will become your bride.
Eileen found herself in a bit of a predicament.
Until the moment she received this letter yesterday, she had never once considered marrying the Duke of Viphalten.
Naturally, her thoughts had changed after having the dream.
Because of that, she hadn’t been able to immediately send an acceptance back through the courier.
That was only natural.
The problem was that the courier had left the estate immediately after delivering the letter.
“You don’t know which organization he belonged to?”
“No.”
The maid answered briefly.
Eileen waved her hand, dismissing her.
There was no point pressing a maid who had no loyalty toward her for more information.
But that didn’t mean there was no way.
“Father, it’s Eileen.”
Eileen went to see her father, Viscount Arlen.
“What do you want?”
Viscount Arlen didn’t even want to look at her face.
Despite living in the same estate, this was the first time in more than a decade that they had properly spoken.
Even so, Viscount Arlen didn’t want to spend a moment longer looking at her.
His gaze conveyed only one thing.
Something horrifying.
“May I use some of the people from the estate?”
Viscount Arlen’s face twisted.
He knew about her prophetic dreams.
He had to.
Eileen’s first prophetic dream, when she was seven, had been the death of her younger brother, Sid.
After the dream came true and his son died, Viscountess Arlen gradually went mad. From then on, Viscount Arlen had treated Eileen as something horrifying.
“Did you have another dream?”
It was true.
But Eileen answered no.
“No.”
She had already decided what she would say.
“I think it’s time for me to start looking for a marriage prospect as well.”
“I see…”
After Sid’s death, the mentally broken Viscountess Arlen had been unable to introduce Eileen to high society.
As a result, Eileen didn’t even have a way to meet the young noblemen of the empire.
“Are you planning to attend a ball?”
Viscount Arlen asked reluctantly.
That wasn’t what she intended, but Eileen gave a small nod.
“I’m going to look for a merchant company first.”
What she actually intended to do was something else, but there was no reason to explain it.
He would only bring up dreams again if she did.
There was a reason she hadn’t spoken to her father for more than a decade.
Viscount Arlen was always suspicious of her.
He assumed that every action she took was based on something she had seen in a prophetic dream, and therefore refused to listen to her.
“You must never talk about your dreams outside.”
But apparently, marriage prospects were an exception.
Eileen suppressed a bitter laugh.
Of course. He doesn’t want to keep something so horrifying inside the house any longer.
“Go. You may use the people here.”
At his dismissal, Eileen silently withdrew.
She had gotten what she needed, and that was enough.
There was no need to continue speaking with someone who treated her like a monster.
The woman treated like a monster is going to marry a duke treated like a monster.
Could there possibly be a more fitting match?
Still suppressing a bitter laugh, Eileen called for one of the viscount’s knights.
“Find me a list of merchant companies traveling north, along with the locations of their branches in the capital.”
The knight knew exactly what the daughter of House Arlen meant to her master.
So he scoffed.
“There are more than one or two, my lady.”
His face clearly showed his contempt.
He called her my lady, but he didn’t treat her with even the slightest bit of respect. One could easily believe that he only used the title because he didn’t want to call her by her name.
He treated her like someone who had grown up entirely inside the estate and knew nothing about the world.
It was the treatment she had received for nearly twenty years.
She was used to these looks and words.
“Then find merchant companies that regularly deliver large quantities of goods to the north. Most of those goods should be food that can last for several months, and they should consist only of things produced in warm regions.”
That should narrow it down to a few companies.
There were hardly any territories near Viphalten that could consume such large quantities of food.
After all, there weren’t many people who would want to live near a territory crawling with monsters.
“But why are you looking for this?”
The knight asked insolently even as he received her order.
“I’m looking for a marriage prospect.”
She heard him quietly scoff.
A marriage prospect.
He probably thought there was no one who would marry her.
Eileen thought to herself.
By now, rumors about Eileen de Arlen had surely spread throughout high society.
A noble lady in her mid-twenties who hadn’t even made her debut in society.
There must be something wrong with her. Why else would she be like that?
As for what exactly was wrong with her, perhaps they had imagined it among themselves, turning it over and over until they’d created something truly monstrous.
“Leave.”
The knight turned around and walked away without even answering.
He had not the slightest shred of manners.
“……”
Eileen endured it.
She was human, too.
Of course she would get angry.
But it was fine.
This is what I’ve always done.
It’s fine.
I won’t be coming back to this estate anymore.
So it’s fine.
Just as she always had, she soothed herself into silence.
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