“Grand Duke Lucien de Ravenne. Marry him, Éloide. He needs a Duchess.”
Shock transformed the cheerful expression on Éloide’s face. The spoiled girl who was always whining a moment ago became a stranger, her shoulders trembling.
Duke Victor noticed the change. His expression turned gloomy as well, his brow drawing tightly together. But there was nothing he could do.
“Think about it... you’ve already had your coming-of-age celebration, too.”
He laced his fingers together and pressed them against the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment.
“Father knows you can’t accept this. But it’s His Majesty the King’s command. We can’t simply refuse.” He tried to explain, but every word that came out only felt like a thorn stabbing his daughter.
“Why all of a sudden?” With her head bowed, Éloide clenched her dress. Then she quickly lifted her face, wet with tears.
“Hic... Are you and Mother tired of my frail body?” she continued, wiping her wet cheeks with the backs of her hands. “I’m not as strong as my older brother. Waaaah! But why do you want to throw me away so soon?”
She cried even harder, making a huge scene and, of course, causing a commotion among the guards outside the door.
“What did you just say? Don’t cry, Éloide. We love you very much.”
An unmistakably anxious expression appeared on Duke Victor’s face. Before he could continue, he stood up in alarm when he saw Éloide collapse.
“My daughter!”
Taking advantage of her frail body clinging to him, Éloide relaxed her knees and legs, then weakly sank down onto the floor.
“Father, you’re a liar. You don’t love me anymore, and you want to throw me away by ordering me to marry a man as cruel as Grand Duke Lucien,” she sobbed, her eyes red and brimming with tears.
“Do you know how many women have suddenly died right before marrying him?”
“Never say things like that. You know how much your mother and I love you.”
Duke Victor stepped away from his desk and hurried toward his daughter, but Éloide’s hoarse, broken voice stopped him.
“No, Father. Don’t come any closer! I’m fine,” Éloide stopped him, deliberately taking ragged breaths as she raised one hand to halt Duke Victor’s advance.
Feigning a face full of pain, she gathered all her strength as though struggling desperately to face her father again.
“Reject the marriage, Father.” In a faltering voice, Éloide let out a hoarse, pleading cry. “No man would want to marry a weak woman like me. Not even His Highness Grand Duke Lucien. It would be a disgrace to him.”
“What are you saying... That isn’t true. My daughter is not a disgrace.”
“I won’t be able to bear an heir to House Ravenne.”
Éloide walked toward Duke Victor’s desk. Clutching her chest with one hand, she pushed a royal order bearing the king’s seal across it.
With a pitiful expression and an anguished gaze, she tried to convince him that her life would be filled with suffering if she truly married the ruler of the northern territory of Besançon.
“You’ll reject it, right, Father? Please, Father....”
“Hah, honestly. Stop crying.” He exhaled in frustration and embraced his trembling daughter, then added with a bitter expression, “Father won’t let you suffer. If you don’t want this, Father won’t hand you over to Grand Duke Lucien.”
“Thank you, Father.” Beneath her sobbing voice, the corners of Éloide’s lips lifted in triumph. Then she thought to herself, ‘Yes, it worked! I’m not going to live with that monster.’
“Where are we headed now, Miss?”
“Somewhere. Someone is waiting for me.”
Night finally fell over the Valérienne Empire. Éloide secretly left with Sophia in their usual disguises. They boarded a horse-drawn carriage. Her eyes remained fixed on the wooden box in her lap.
“Are you sure none of the guards saw us leave?” she asked as she opened the wooden box’s lid. Several bottles of medicinal potions were neatly lined up inside.
“I made sure everything was safe, Miss.”