Chapter 9 – The Vandermir Duchy
“Damian Vandermir, you cunning little brat!”
A sharp voice rang inside the carriage as it entered the capital.
The speaker was Duchess Vandermir.
She and her family were rushing to the capital due to her second son’s unexpected marriage announcement.
Fanning herself in agitation, she suddenly snapped her head toward her husband.
“Of all the people he could marry—Lady Hugo?! That girl must know about the political marriage, doesn’t she?!”
“How should I know? Perhaps someone let it slip. Oscar, did you ever mention anything in front of your brother?”
The Duke of Vandermir turned to his eldest son with suspicion.
Oscar had inherited his father’s silver hair and brown eyes, but his overall features were a mirror image of his mother’s.
Staring boredly out the window, Oscar shook his head.
“I haven’t seen that bastard in over a year, Father. Maybe the little rat sent spies to the duchy.”
“How could he be so devious?! Such an ungrateful and vile creature!”
Despite it being a baseless assumption, the Duchess immediately convinced herself that Damian had planted spies in their estate.
“Darling, you need to discipline him properly! He never listens to me because I’m his stepmother, and he ignores Oscar because he’s only a half-brother!”
The Duchess clung to her husband’s arm, making a pitiful face.
Seventeen years ago, she had married the
Duke, but Damian was not her child.
Damian was the son of the Duke’s first wife, while Oscar was the son she bore after remarrying.
The reason she became a stepmother, despite being the mother of the Duke’s eldest son, was simple.
She and the Duke had been lovers while his first wife was still alive.
Not only had she given birth to a son while the Duchess was still alive, but when the first wife died, she took her place.
“He’s already scheming behind the scenes—what will happen if he becomes the heir?! We must stop him!”
“I know that. The problem is that the one who announced the marriage was Lady Hugo herself.”
The Duke massaged his temple, visibly troubled.
If they tried to call off the wedding, only Lady Hugo’s reputation would suffer, so the Hugo family would strongly oppose it.
Even though the Duke had both the power and justification to override their wishes and enforce a political marriage, he couldn’t completely control the Hugo family.
They were one of the most prestigious noble houses in the empire, after all.
‘Unlike his foolish mother, Damian is cunning.’
The Duke clenched his teeth.
He had never been on good terms with Damian’s mother due to his infidelity, and as a result, his relationship with his second son had always been strained.
Especially because Damian had once condemned him for it.
“Father, you’re nothing but a coward who hides behind women.”
That was the last thing Damian had said to him before leaving for his studies abroad.
Since then, the Duke had avoided him for years.
After all, people tend to feel uncomfortable around those who remind them of their guilt.
“We need to convince the Hugo family to cancel the wedding.”
“Should we bribe them? Or perhaps scare the girl into backing out?”
“Both are viable options.”
The Duke smirked.
With his chiseled features, even the fine lines on his face only added to his refined charm.
The Duchess, blushing slightly, nodded.
“Understood, darling. I’ll handle it.”
“I’m counting on you.”
“Oscar, you must help your mother.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Oscar half-heartedly replied.
Their carriage continued toward Damian’s townhouse in the capital.
Waiting at the golden-arched entrance was Damian Vandermir.
With his hands tucked into his pockets, he stood with his chin slightly raised, watching as the family carriage entered the estate.
“Commander, Lady Hugo has departed.”
Behind him, Colin approached and reported in a quiet voice.
Damian gave a slight nod.
As his father, stepmother, and half-brother stepped out of the carriage and approached, Damian removed his hands from his pockets and curved his lips into a cool smile.
“Thank you for coming all this way, Father. Duchess. And Brother.”
“Yes, what a great hardship it is, thanks to my son.”
The Duke responded coldly.
Beside him, Oscar let out an exaggerated yawn, while the Duchess spread open her fan with a displeased look.
“Why do you always go out of your way to make your father’s life difficult? The rest of us suffer because of you.”
“A Sword Master or not, you clearly have a fundamentally twisted nature. I wonder who you take after.”
Oscar mocked, clasping his hands behind his head.
For the first time since last year’s family gathering, the atmosphere between them was ice-cold.
Damian scanned the people who treated him worse than strangers and chuckled.
“Who knows, Brother? I hear all the time that I take after Father.”
“What? Did you just—”
“Come inside. I’ve prepared a luncheon. Lady Hugo is on her way as well.”
Damian cut off the Duchess before she could lash out, then turned away.
Feigning composure, the Vandermir family followed, setting down their belongings before heading to the dining hall.
By then, Aracila had arrived.
“Young master, Lady Aracila has arrived.”
“I will escort her in.”
As Damian left with the butler, Oscar finally spoke up.
“So, the woman marrying that bastard… She’s an outcast in the capital’s social circles, right?”
“A noblewoman declaring she’ll remain single and working as a mage? She must be uncultured and ill-mannered.”
The Duchess and Oscar insulted Aracila without ever having met her, relying solely on gossip.
Surveying the elegant hall, the Duke remarked,
“Well, at least the eldest Hugo daughter seems decent. We should arrange a marriage between her and Oscar.”
Just as they were casually planning Iris and Oscar’s engagement—
Knock, knock.
With a light knock, the doors opened, revealing Damian and his bride-to-be.
The Vandermir family, filled with hostility, were briefly stunned.
Because the woman walking beside Damian was an absolute beauty.
She didn’t look odd.
She didn’t look uncultured.
In fact, she was so breathtakingly elegant that for a moment, all three of them were left speechless.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Aracila Hugo of the Hugo Marquisate.”
Lifting the hem of her delicate pink dress, Aracila offered a graceful curtsy.
From head to toe, she radiated refinement.
“Thank you for inviting me today. It is truly an honor to meet Sir Vandermir’s family.”
That was when the Vandermir family snapped back to reality.
Because Aracila had just referred to them not as the great House of Vandermir—
But simply as her fiancé’s family.
As their icy stares turned toward her, Aracila calmly took a seat across from the Duchess beside Damian.
Oscar stared intensely at her.
He still couldn’t believe that a woman this stunning was actually marrying Damian.
“You’re really marrying Damian?”
“Yes, Duke.”
“As far as I know, Lady Hugo is a proponent of single life. What sudden reason do you have for deciding to marry?”
The duchess interjected sharply, only to soften her expression with a pleasant smile a moment later.
“There have been so many young ladies who have deliberately approached my sons. You must understand why we can’t help but be suspicious of your intentions.”
“Yes, Duchess. I completely understand.”
Despite the rather unpleasant remark, Aracila nodded obediently without showing any sign of displeasure.
Is she the docile type?
As the duchess entertained that thought, Aracila spoke again.
“I decided to marry Sir Vandemir after seeing his face.”
“Cough—!”
Damian, who had been quietly sipping water beside her, suddenly choked. He hastily wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked at Aracila.
She, on the other hand, smiled brightly and met the duchess’s gaze head-on.
“It’s rare to find someone with a beauty worthy of my own. So I decided I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.”
Silence fell over the table at her completely unexpected response. The duchess, momentarily dumbfounded, finally spoke.
“Lady Hugo, marriage is not a joke.”
“Of course, I understand that well, Duchess.”
“I’ll be honest. I don’t approve of you as a match for our Damian.”
The duchess, feigning familiarity, deliberately called Damian’s name affectionately, as if playing the role of a doting mother. Damian’s brows furrowed slightly.
“Damian is a knight, while you are a mage. I want an ordinary noble lady as my daughter-in-law.”
“Ah, I see.”
Aracila responded indifferently and casually placed a piece of meat into her mouth.
The duchess opened her lips wordlessly at the unexpected reaction.
“Did you not understand what I said?”
“No, I understood. But adults don’t need parental approval to marry, do they?”
According to the laws of the Setron Empire, adults only needed a single guarantor each to get married.
Usually, family members served as guarantors, but a friend or even a third party could suffice.
“If two people are madly in love, all they need to do is sign the marriage certificate and submit it to the temple. Honestly, it’s already fortunate that we came to greet you like this.”
“Lady Hugo! Do you not feel any shame as a noblewoman for speaking in such an indecent manner?”
“No, because love isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
Aracila shrugged as she spoke shamelessly, causing the duchess’s face to redden with growing irritation.
She was just so infuriating.
“How dare you talk back so rudely…!”
“You asked, and I answered. If you respond like that, it hurts my feelings.”
Aracila interrupted the duchess before she could shout, lowering her eyes with a sullen expression.
Her strikingly beautiful yet delicate features created an air of pitifulness for a fleeting moment.
Oscar, nearly drooling, stared at her in a daze until his mother stomped on his foot under the table, snapping him back to his senses.
“In that case, I won’t answer anymore. If you have any questions, why not ask Sir Vandemir instead?”
Aracila raised her gaze again, this time turning her attention to Damian.
“I’ll start. Sir, the duchess says she disapproves of me. What about you? Do you not like me?”
Damian hesitated for a brief moment, as if caught in the depths of her clear, summer-lake-colored eyes, before shaking his head.
“I like Lady Hugo.”
His voice was low as he answered, before he turned to the duchess with an icy tone.
“So please stop nitpicking at Lady Hugo. I don’t mind that she’s a mage.”
“Damian, how dare you speak to your mother that way! ‘Nitpicking’? Apologize at once!”
At the seemingly trivial remark, the duke flared up in anger. At the word mother, Damian’s expression hardened.
Aracila, glancing at him, raised a hand to intervene between the father and son.
“Calm down, Duke. Personally, I don’t think Sir Vandemir’s choice of words was wrong. Isn’t the listener’s perspective what truly matters in such situations?”
While the entire ducal family was momentarily struck speechless again, Aracila let out an exaggerated sigh and wiped the corner of her eye with her hand.
For the record, not a single tear had actually formed.
“But this really breaks my heart. No matter what, Sir Vandemir and I are going to get married, but if you dislike me so much, won’t you sever ties with us after the wedding?”
“No, that’s not—”
“Since this will be our first and last meal together, I’ll do my best to eat cheerfully.”
Raising her voice deliberately to drown out the duchess’s words, Aracila resumed her meal.
Clatter, clatter.
As he watched her carry on eating with unshakable determination, Damian had a sudden realization.
Perhaps this woman was the most brilliant decision of his life.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ✧: *. ꕥ .* :✧ﾟ. ───
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