MHHC Chapter 2

Fraudulent Marriage

While her father and husband's argument proceeded in the reception room, Adelheid trembled as she stood guard at the door.

Was it because she had stayed awake all night with her eyes wide open? Her pale face, looking particularly shabby today, reflected in the cold glass window of the corridor.

It was then that she heard the sound of a table being slammed down. Following that, the enraged voice of the Grand Duke of Ansgar echoed through the thick wooden door to the corridor.

"Are you mocking me now?"

"Your Highness the Grand Duke. I promised to give you a daughter, but I never said I would give you Charlotte. Here is the contract with Your Highness's own signature."

Count Reichenau waved the contract and marriage certificate bearing both parties' signatures, standing firm.

"This jest goes too far. Reichenau had another daughter besides Charlotte? And you hid this all along? From where did you bring some bastard's wench who couldn't even..."

"Adelheid is a child whose name was entered in the stone tablet seventeen years ago. Doubting her bloodline is an insult to Reichenau."

"...Her name was entered in the stone tablet?"

The procedure for entering a name in the family stone tablet was complicated and demanding. It required three witnesses to prove that a woman who had not been with a man for over a year had conceived from the family head's seed, and ultimately needed a high priest's guarantee. The Grand Duke's plan to claim the marriage was invalid by questioning unclear bloodline was now completely blocked.

As Valentin's face turned ashen, the count continued with an extremely weary expression.

"If it were before signing the marriage certificate originally, perhaps... but didn't Your Highness even enter the bridal chamber yesterday?"

It was such an outrageous claim it was laughable. The Grand Duke glared at Count Reichenau with bulging eyes.

His encounter with the bride in the bridal chamber had lasted less than five minutes. Moreover, with Reichenau's witnesses sitting in a circle beyond a thin curtain, the count must have known there had been no contact between them.

Yet to maintain such a shameless attitude.

"It wasn't only Reichenau's witnesses in the bridal chamber last night. You already know I didn't lay a single finger on your daughter."

"Your Grace."

Count Reichenau leaned back in his chair leisurely and continued. His green eyes gleamed cruelly.

"What happened in the bridal chamber last night doesn't matter. What matters is what those who witnessed it will say they saw."

"..."

He was right. If Reichenau's witnesses spread false rumors that he and the bride had spent the night together, Ansgar's honor would plummet underground. Regardless of the truth.

'What lord would spread false rumors about his own daughter's honor?'

But looking at the count's eyes glittering with greed, he seemed fully capable of it. Only then did Valentin realize he had fallen into a very vicious trap.

It was a thorough fraudulent marriage, exploiting the loophole that allowed the groom to not see the bride's face until they entered the bridal chamber. If there had been multiple daughters from the start, he would have been fully prepared, but having only raised Charlotte openly as his daughter, he had carelessly overlooked this.

'After all, what was specified in the contract was the condition of receiving Reichenau's daughter.'

As Valentin's mouth was completely sealed with anger, Count Reichenau opened his mouth triumphantly.

"Our side has fulfilled all contents of the marriage contract. In such cases, filing for divorce without major cause for blame means excommunication, as Your Highness well knows."

Valentin gritted his teeth. Count Reichenau was right. A marriage vow sworn before God Morig could not be broken without major cause for blame. If there had been problems with the bride's bloodline it might be different, but it was a futile struggle from the start.

Valentin irritably kicked back his chair and stood up. The moment he flung open the door, he faced a small, pale woman standing rigidly. The fraud who had become his wife as of yesterday.

"..."

He was about to pass by Adelheid as if she wasn't worth dealing with, but paused briefly and looked down at the woman. Hair disheveled from being suddenly dragged out, a haggard complexion soaked with fatigue, an undeveloped body with no allure—utterly unremarkable.

The Grand Duke's disgusted gaze swept her from head to toe. He spat out his words.

"This half-grown thing is also a daughter and supposedly a woman? How well you graft things together."

Before that humiliating language, all Adelheid could do was bow her head and pray for her husband's anger to pass. Valentin clicked his tongue briefly and finally passed by Adelheid.

The door opened roughly and closed with a bang. And Valentin departed for the battlefield just like that.

Three years ago, when Adelheid had just turned seventeen.

"You were here again?"

Adelheid opened her eyes that had been closed at the voice calling her. She rose from Morig's altar where she had been kneeling. The hem of her clothes was damp from the moist basement humidity.

The middle-aged woman who hurried over draped a thin cloak over her shoulders.

"Offering prayers is good, but you must also take care of your health. The rain and wind were so fierce today."

"I'm fine, Greta."

Greta was Adelheid's nursemaid and chamber servant, the only person who had followed from Reichenau Territory.

She was one of the few who remembered Adelheid's deceased birth mother, and the only support that allowed Adelheid to endure in the cold, barren Ansgar Territory.

Though occasionally she would look at her with eyes so chillingly cold it made her heart sink.

"Oh my..."

Greta glanced at the talisman that had burned halfway on the altar and let out a long sigh like a lament.

"Were you praying for His Highness's safe return again?"

"......"

"What exactly is so precious that you offer prayers like this every single day."

"Doing something like this makes my heart a little more at ease..."

She barely answered in a voice that was trailing off.

"...Speaking like you're atoning again. I've told you countless times there's no fault of yours in this marriage."

At Adelheid's shrunk appearance, Greta relaxed her frown. Although she grumbled, Adelheid's judgment was correct. Without at least this pretense, the Grand Duchess's reputation would have plummeted even further.

Each day was like walking on thin ice.

Greta gathered and cleaned the ashes from the altar while changing the mood with a joke.

"I can tolerate your visits to the temple a hundred times over, but what if you encounter the Dragon of Bitzleben wandering alone so fearlessly like this?"

A faint smile spread across Adelheid's pale face. Greta seemed to be in a relatively good mood today.

"You must see me as a very young child. I'm well past the age to be frightened by legendary tales."

"I say this because it might not be just a legendary tale. Even now, evil creatures seem to be sneaking into the livestock pens. They say the missing sheep are more than just one or two."

"Sheep have been disappearing?"

"The pen doors are broken, and carcasses with their entrails devoured are found dozens of meters away."

It was a horrible story, but at the same time, not particularly unusual in the Bitzleben region. All four northern territories including Ansgar Territory frequently suffered wild animal attacks in winter.

Remembering a cow's carcass she had accidentally witnessed last winter, Adelheid shuddered slightly.

"How terrible. No people were hurt, I hope?"

"The priest is diligently performing consecrations... Still, you must be careful. When I'm not around, always take guards with you."

She barely nodded her head.

"I was just being troublesome today. I didn't know when the prayers would end either."

"You've done enough for now, let's go back. Your hands are like ice. You'll go see the steward directly, won't you?"

"Yes."

For several months now, Adelheid had been helping the steward with small tasks. As soon as he learned she could read and write skillfully, the steward assigned her to organize old ledgers.

Count Reichenau had probably harbored the vain hope that she might develop healing abilities belatedly. Perhaps because of this, Adelheid received the same education as Charlotte until she turned fifteen.

Reading and writing, of course, as well as ancient Arian, embroidery, poetry, dance and etiquette...

'It must be because of that oracle the count received when I was born. I don't know the contents, but there must surely be a reason there.'

In any case, it was fortunate to have some skill. Without even this ability, she would have been treated as nothing but a parasite consuming food.

Even now, the old retainers shamelessly criticized Adelheid as the woman who deceived Ansgar. Though she too was a victim of the fraudulent marriage, no one thought deeply about such matters.

To the northerners, Adelheid was nothing more than an expensive defective product.

'They naturally expected a mistress with powerful healing arts. Not an ordinary woman like me.'

The Bitzleben region always lacked healers. Particularly Ansgar Territory, located furthest north, had the most attacks by evil creatures. In the winter, people often lost their hands and feet to frostbite due to the extreme cold.

In such dire circumstances, to have news of the marriage between Reichenau's daughter and the Grand Duke! All of Ansgar had been excited. Especially the knights in the household, who often suffered minor injuries, had tremendous expectations.

That hopeful optimism immediately turned to anger when the Grand Duchess brought at great expense proved herself to be a completely useless existence.

Fortunately, Ansgar's old steward was a fair man. Since she began helping with work like this, the quality and quantity of the meager daily necessities she received gradually improved.

"Your Grace. I'll take this shortcut back to the kitchen. Is it alright if I go first?"

"Of course. See you later."

Adelheid briefly watched Greta's hurrying figure disappear, then quickly moved her steps toward the right corridor.

"..."

However, she stopped after just a few steps. She could see an unwelcome figure at the end of the corridor.

Oskar, the man who was Valentin's younger brother from the same parents.

She had last heard he was forced to go on campaign as a knight-errant after frequently causing problems with women, so when had he returned?

"I hadn't heard anything about his whereabouts, not even this morning."

She was always uncomfortable with that man. Despite her wary gaze, Oskar closed the distance and greeted her with a grin.

"Adelheid. Are you returning from the temple?"

His sticky gaze swept her from head to toe.

"Even if you pray so fervently, my brother wouldn't know."

"......"

"What about for me? Did you pray for me too?"

Adelheid chewed her lips with a troubled expression. Whatever she said would sound inappropriate. The regret that she shouldn't have sent Greta ahead was too late.

"That dress..."

Feeling Oskar's persistent gaze, Adelheid tugged at her worn sleeve cuffs to hide them. It was a mistake to forget to mend them with work being busy these past few days.

Oskar's eyes darkened further. He gritted his teeth and spat out,

"I wouldn't treat you like this."

Adelheid anxiously looked around for servants or guards to call. As if her behavior was very amusing, Oskar lifted the corner of his mouth.

"The guards won't come."

"...Please maintain your dignity, Young Lord."

"How could I maintain more dignity than this?"

Despite her plea, the man who had drawn closer grabbed Adelheid's slender wrist. Adelheid pushed him away in horror.

"There are eyes watching... I am your brother's wife. Please..."

"You've never spent a night with my brother, so how are you my sister-in-law?"

At that shameless remark, Adelheid's face went completely pale.