MHC Chapter 2

Chapter 2 The Duke’s Loner

Chloe’s legs gave out as soon as she got back to her room. She slid down the wall of the door and came to a stop.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Chloe clutched her throat and grunted. The harder she tried to breathe, the harder her breathing became.

Clear liquid poured from her eyes, nose, and mouth. Only when she gave up the will to breathe, exhausted, did her body calm down.

‘… How the hell.’

She couldn’t forget.

She could still see the man’s face as he spoke of love.

‘You know how much I love Helena. I’ve been pretending to be your husband for the past year without incident, now let me live my life.’

He should have sounded apologetic.

Then Chloe would have no choice but to understand him.

It was an abomination to see Callis smugly claiming that he had done his duty as a husband.

Doesn’t he remember what he’s been doing for the past half a decade?

Ever since ‘the thing’ happened, Callis has treated Chloe like she’s not even in the mansion. Even the permanent residents and members of the ducal family.

In social gatherings, she was barely treated as a person. Without power, she would have been nothing more than a bug.

Moreover, Callis had been away from the mansion for weeks, refusing to return. The room she was given afterward was barely more than an attic.

When she suffered a severe case of the horns, unaccustomed to the northern cold, and when she was attacked by a demon that invaded the mansion and saw her blood, she turned a blind eye.

And yet, it was the guilt she felt toward him that prevented her from rebelling.

She had endured the insults to his character because she wanted to ease his anger.

She hoped that someday things would be okay between them. She hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would forgive her.

‘It was all for nothing.’

But all her efforts were rewarded with another insult.

***

There were many things that led to Chloe and Callis’ marriage.

Most importantly, it was a marriage neither of them wanted.

It all started three years ago, when war with the Empire erupted.

The peaceful kingdom of Vallont had been approached with an unexpected offer.

To unite with the Empire and become a part of it.

If the kingdom refused, war would be declared, and they would be blackmailed.

The offer must be accepted. Or reject it. After much debate, the Emperor ultimately choose to refuse.

“I cannot turn my back on my country,” he said, “even though being under the Empire may help both of our nations, I refuse to become a vassal of the Freeheid Empire.”

With the Emperor’s opinion confirmed, the Empire predictably declared war.

The war began on the Rian River, an empty wasteland that bordered each other to minimize casualties.

Compared to the Empire, the kingdom was a small power. The kingdom’s knights fought hard, even when they realized they were facing defeat.

To defend their families, their friends, their men, and their country.

Among them was the Royal Princess, Chloe.

Congenitally weak, she was unable to use force like the knights. Instead, she nursed the knights day and night in secret.

But their sweat and tears couldn’t change the harsh reality.

Soon, the number of knights available to fight in the war was running out.

Eventually, the Knights of the Realm decided to make a last stand. They decided to send a member of their order to the Imperial side.

The sick knights would be sent to the Imperial barracks. Their mission was one of two things.

Assassinate the King of the Empire, or succeed in negotiating with him.

It was a mission with a near-zero chance of success. The knights were lucky if they didn’t die on the mission.

Ten days into this absurd mission. Thirty-one knights had been sent, and twenty had failed to return.

“Negotiations with the Empire have been successful, and the Empire has declared the end of the war…”

When the twenty-first knight returned to the Imperial barracks, the war was over.

Surprisingly, he had succeeded in negotiating with the Emperor.

“Who was the successful knight?”

The twenty-twenty-second knight who saved the kingdom was Callis Argent.

Everyone was surprised to hear such an unfamiliar name. He had no brains, no swordsmanship, and was a mediocre swordsman!

Moreover, Count Argent had been slowly falling into a pile of debt left by his ancestors!

“Callis Argent, the hero of the century who saved the kingdom!”

But the past has been wiped clean by the glorious deeds of Callis.

Callis Argent, their hero!

His name has spread far and wide across the kingdom. In his moment in the spotlight, he became a god the kingdom worshiped.

The royal family initially recognized Argent’s accomplishments. They rewarded him with gold and silver and even knighthoods.

But when his fame surpassed the royal family, the Emperor realized the gravity of the situation.

It was clear that the royal dignity would suffer. Furthermore, the risk of rebellion from Callis could not be completely ruled out.

Searching for a way to restrain him, Emperor Valmont XV soon came up with an idea.

He soon came up with a solution: marry my daughter to Callis and bind the hero’s feet to the royal family.

By accepting him into the royal family, he would receive countless benefits, but his place as Emperor would be untouchable.

Chloe, the third Princess, was the perfect candidate to be the Hero’s wife.

The older Princesses had already chosen, and the younger ones were too young to have come of age, so it would be immoral for them to take the lead in arranging a marriage.

Chloe was supposed to marry the most virtuous man she could find. There were some who argued that he was unfit for a Princess, but was not a bad way to bind the hero of the century.

Balont unilaterally informed his daughter that her hand in marriage had been chosen, but not that it would be Callis, just in case.

Callis, the heroine of the century, accepted Balont’s arrangement with surprisingly little fuss.

A ducal title, a vast estate for the duke to build, and a monthly royal subsidy. The rewards were too great to ignore.

In fact, it was an unexpected windfall for Callis, who had no intention of contemplating something as troublesome and headache-inducing as treason in the first place.

On the day of her much-anticipated wedding, Chloe faced the man who would become her husband.

Standing in front of her, being prayed over, was, unexpectedly, the hero of the century.

Her father had told her that the hero had fallen in love with her at first sight and asked her to marry him.

So, did the hero who saved the kingdom and her peace fall in love with her?

‘The hero has asked me to marry him.’

A marriage proposal from the hero who saved the world couldn’t be more fantastic.

It was inevitable that Chloe, who had always admired heroes, would fall in love.

Their honeymoon was fine. Although Callis is puzzled that he hasn’t actively shown affection for her.

‘You are a very clever woman,’ he said, ‘and the Duchess would not be so great without you. You are my wife, my benefactor.’

Trusting and helping each other, they believed, was also a kind of love.

Everyone was kind to her, both members of the ducal family and the commoners. This helped Chloe, who was used to living in the palace, adapt quickly to the life of an exile.

The peaceful days seemed to continue.

Until it happened.

Half a year into their marriage, a huge scandal broke that would shake the kingdom.

‘An unfortunate Cinderella’

The largest newspaper, the Million Paper, published an article about Callis’s former lover.

The story of a woman who had always been selfless to him, but was miserably abandoned as soon as he became a hero.

It was a story Chloe had never heard before.

The man he’d claimed to have fallen in love with and courted actually had a longtime girlfriend?

She never got a chance to ask, though, as Callis left the mansion, scared to death of the story.

His answer came the next day, in an article published by the same newspaper.

“An Unlucky Hero After an Unlucky Cinderella?”

The article read.

‘It is true that he had a longtime lover before he went to war, and even afterward.’

But he never intentionally turned his back on his lover, and this was all down to the royal family.

The crown insisted on his marriage to the Princess, something he could not refuse as a member of the royal family.

‘What is this… Didn’t my father tell me that was courting me?’

Chloe’s confusion was palpable.

But that was just the beginning.

The kingdom’s most expensive newspaper, the Million Paper, was not above the royal family’s notice, and they spread the duke’s scandal even further.

Callis didn’t stop there, either.

It was clearly stated in the contract, and it didn’t violate the agreement not to disclose the contents of the contract, so in principle, the royal support would not be cut off.

The Duke of Argent’s subsequent article on the spill created a sympathetic public opinion. Accusations that the hero of the century had been sold to the royal family like a whore were hurled in their direction.

‘How on earth could you do such a thing to the Duke…!’

Meanwhile, in the Duchess, Chloe became the target of criticism.

‘Honey. Can we talk a little…’

‘Honey?’

‘…’

‘You don’t realize how disgusting it has been to be with you for the past half year. Don’t call me that anymore. Chloe Vallonte.’

Callis, who had been on good terms with her for half a decade, also reprimanded her.

Seeing her husband say that their marriage was terrible, Chloe couldn’t bring herself to ask him if he didn’t love her.

It wasn’t until much later that she realized that everything she knew was a lie.

In the end, all that remained was the love she had nurtured on her own.