FWRP 08

Chapter 8

In both her previous life and this one, she had failed to fulfill her father’s wish all the same.

Still, she should be grateful simply for having escaped that hellish life.

With that thought as consolation, Vanessa once again skimmed through the contract.

Perhaps because the ink on the gold-trimmed paper had not yet completely dried, each letter seemed to move as though it were alive.

When Vanessa absentmindedly lifted the contract—

“…Hmm? A letter?”

She picked up the envelope that fit perfectly into the recessed center of the case.

The moment she unfolded its contents, she had to draw in a sharp breath.

[Items Required for the Ceremony]

[Personnel Required According to the Order of Events]

[Auspicious and Inauspicious Dates]

[Expected Weather and Time Required According to the Schedule]

[Estimated Cost According to the Number of Guests]

The contents of the letter went on and on with one headache-inducing item after another.

…Good grief, what is all this?

This wasn’t even a marriage between two people who loved each other. It was merely a marriage based on a contract, so why…?

Wasn’t all they needed to prepare the date, location, and invitations at most?

Since he had said he would take care of everything, Vanessa had simply told her father that she would let him know once the date had been decided.

And yet, starting with the dress, there were jewelry stores, shoe stores, types of bouquets and florists…

Why on earth do they need a gardener?

And why is he personally preparing all of this?

Even if he was one of the people getting married, preparations like these could normally be left to servants.

It would already take considerable time for different people to handle each item and category individually.

Besides, Vanessa had already said that she was perfectly fine with having a modest wedding.

Even Carlyle, who had tried so hard to swallow up her family’s entire fortune, hadn’t put much effort into their wedding ceremony.

But the moment Vanessa saw that even every individual gemstone to be set into the bride’s dress had been listed according to the items handled by various jewelers, she quickly got ready to leave.

“Dia, I’m going out for a little while.”

Just as her maid arrived with some light refreshments, Vanessa informed her of her outing and hurried past her.

“Miss! Where are you going?”

“If this continues, we’ll be holding a funeral instead of a wedding!”

“What? What do you mean by that…?”

At the very least, she had to prevent her future husband from collapsing from overwork and dying of exhaustion on the wedding day.

Leaving behind the dates listed one after another under [Auspicious and Inauspicious Dates], the wedding date Ian had chosen was exactly one month away.

He’s crazy.

She had assumed that because he’d piled condition after condition onto their agreement, he wasn’t interested in the wedding at all.

And on top of that, the name written down under the officiant was one she could not possibly fail to recognize.

[Tese Descartes]

The Crown Prince of the Empire was going to officiate their wedding?

A wedding officiated by the man who would one day become Emperor?

At this point, wasn’t it starting to look as though Ian wanted to marry her even more than she wanted to marry him?

It’s confusing… and it’s overwhelming!

Vanessa arrived without hesitation at the Ruscliff ducal residence.

The moment she appeared, the butler flinched.

She lifted the corners of her lips toward him.

“I’d like you to tell Ian Ruscliff that his future wife has come to see him.”

“W-Well, Your Grace, His Grace is currently away on an external engagement for a short while…”

“Did he go to a jeweler?”

“…Pardon?”

“Or perhaps that flower shop with the yellow sign in the capital mentioned in the letter? If not…”

“…”

“Is he having a pleasant chat with His Highness the Crown Prince, who has agreed to officiate the wedding?”

She deliberately looked toward the unmarked carriage standing just outside the mansion.

The butler let out a sigh.

“…Please wait a moment.”

“Unless he intends to make me a widow on our wedding day, tell him to stop.”

“Yes. I will be sure to tell him.”

Watching the butler hurry away, Vanessa finally let out the breath she’d been holding.

The things that had come with the letter were pamphlets from various salons.

One of them was for the “Sovina” Carlyle had once mentioned to her.

If he had gone so far as to enclose their pamphlets, that meant he had already looked around practically everywhere nearby.

He had even singled out dresses that he thought would suit her.

And yet, he acted as though he wasn’t interested at all.

He had always maintained that bored, indifferent expression.

Was he actually more eager to get married than anyone?

Vanessa had been forced into this choice simply to avoid marrying Carlyle, but Ian had no reason to put this much effort into their wedding.

That was why she would have been perfectly satisfied with a simple ceremony in the Holy Kingdom, where they merely declared before God that they had become husband and wife.

But if everything went according to Ian’s plans, she would become the protagonist of the grandest wedding in the Empire and be the subject of noble gossip for days on end…

Carlyle certainly won’t let that happen.

The Leonard Marquises, who had spent so long biding their time in order to swallow up the entire fortune of the ducal family, wouldn’t back down over something as trivial as this.

They would definitely try to ruin the wedding.

And on top of that, her mother-in-law, who was still pretending to be a kind and gracious woman, would undoubtedly join in and shed her tears.

Vanessa already knew that her reputation among the wives of the aristocracy had gradually been deteriorating.

They were saying things like she had seduced her innocent, good-hearted son only to abandon him in the end, claiming it had never been true love.

Others said that the behavior between the two of them had been practically an affair.

Considering rumors of an affair and claims that she’d caused some kind of scandal had already begun circulating, it seemed likely that the story would appear in the newspapers soon.

They’re just rumors anyway.

She could endure any number of rumors, as long as they weren’t the truth.

In her previous life, she would have desperately tried to correct them because she didn’t want her deceased mother to be dishonored.

But perhaps because she had already been torn apart by every kind of gossip and scandal in her previous life until she felt like little more than a rag—

She felt almost nothing.

No. In fact, it might be better if they talk as much as they want.

Rumors had a way of growing like a snowball.

Right now, everyone might be distracted by the blazing fire directly in front of them, but once some time passed, they would remember that the Duke of Charose was notoriously strict when it came to etiquette.

When someone who normally wouldn’t do something suddenly behaved in an unexpected way, people naturally became curious.

So if rumors eventually arose asking whether there might be something wrong with Carlyle Leonard, all those ridiculous bits of gossip would disappear on their own.

Besides, a wedding this magnificent was something anyone might dream of at least once.

If only it involved a lover.

If her married life was destined to be cold and loveless anyway, Vanessa would much rather have as little trouble as possible and avoid becoming the subject of people’s gossip.

I don’t want to get my hopes up and be disappointed again.

Suppressing the unpleasant memories of her past, she sat in the room the butler had led her to.

When she saw someone approaching from a distance, she deliberately pulled the corners of her lips into a smile.

“Ian.”

Ian stared at Vanessa, who was smiling fiercely at him.

His gaze briefly dropped to the papers in her hand before returning to her eyes.

“Is there anything among the preparations that you don’t like?”

Seeing how he indirectly offered to make corrections, Vanessa let out a hollow laugh.

“It’s too much.”

“I’m glad it isn’t insufficient.”

“Ian. I said it’s too much.”

“Is there anything wrong with making it lavish?”

“There really isn’t any need to go this far. We could just have a simple ceremony in the Holy Kingdom…”

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime wedding.”

Ian cut her off without hesitation and looked at Vanessa with unwavering eyes.

“I’m fine either way, but you’re a woman. You must have at least some romantic ideal about your wedding.”

“…”

“If there’s something you dream of, you can tell me. It will make the preparations easier.”

Vanessa hesitated for a moment before speaking a little later.

“…If I tell you what my dream is, can you actually make it happen?”

“Perhaps. Tell me first. I’ll decide whether I can.”

His voice remained indifferent, and there was still a trace of fatigue in his expression.

Yet his gaze toward her was unwavering.

And so, a desire she had never been able to voice slipped out on its own.

“…A marriage between two people who love each other.”

Something she had failed to have in her previous life, and something she could not have in this one either.

Rather than worrying about the formalities dictated by the Empire’s laws—dowries based on social status, permission to marry, and all the other superficial requirements—she had wanted a marriage born from genuine love.

“I mean the kind where you love each other so desperately that neither of you could imagine being with anyone else.”

To be loved and to love in return.

She wanted there to be nothing impure mixed between them.

A love that might grow old beneath layers of memories as time passed, yet would never fade.

A love where simply being together at the beginning and end of every day was enough to make them happy and smile.

But not anymore.

Vanessa smiled at Ian, who was looking at her with an odd expression.

“You can’t do that, can you? So let’s just have a simple ceremony in the Holy Kingdom…”

“Let’s do it.”

“…What?”

“A love so desperate that it feels as though neither of us could live without the other. If that’s your romantic ideal…”

Ian spoke as though fulfilling something so trivial would be easy.

He looked strangely unfamiliar to her.

“I think I can make it come true.”