#2. Not a Bridal Chamber, but an Interview Room
“C-cold…”
Inside a carriage headed for the Grand Duchy of Winterwald, the northernmost region of the empire.
The Fourth Imperial Princess, Eleanor von Valdemar, curled up her trembling body and pulled her thick coat tighter around herself.
But the knife-like wind seeping through the gaps in the carriage pierced easily through even the finest wolf-fur cloak.
“Sniff, Your Imperial Highness… What are we to do? How could His Majesty drive you into such a terrible deathtrap?”
Sitting across from her, her personal maid Marie kept wiping away tears as she sobbed. Eleanor forced a faint smile and patted Marie’s hand.
“Don’t cry, Marie. This is a duty I must bear as an imperial princess.”
She said that aloud, but Eleanor’s insides were burning black with dread.
Illegitimate child. Lowborn. The shame of the imperial family. They were the labels that had followed her like a tail all her life.
The place she had fled to in order to escape the contempt of imperial society and the bullying of her half-siblings was the library of the Imperial Academy.
A library was a quiet place, and also a place where one had to be quiet.
To her, who was treated like an invisible person everywhere else, the library—where everyone was equally silent—had been her only refuge.
And so, though she had studied like a madwoman throughout her school days and even graduated at the top of her class,
what awaited her was not her family’s recognition, but a political marriage to the monstrous grand duke of the North.
What the North wanted was abundant material support, but the emperor was trying to settle the matter with a single illegitimate daughter who was an imperial princess in name only.
Given the situation, there was naturally no chance she would be treated well once she arrived there either.
‘Kailan Winterwald.’
Eleanor repeated the name of her prospective groom in her head.
A bloodless, tearless murderer. A northern barbarian who tore into human flesh and drank wine from goblets made of his enemies’ skulls. A Sword Master whom even the emperor feared and did not dare touch lightly.
At least, that was the kind of man Kailan was according to the rumors.
‘What if he takes out his anger toward the imperial family on me? I might be locked in a spire where not a single ray of light enters for the rest of my life and whipped every day.’
Just as her imagination began to run wild without end from fear, the carriage stopped with a heavy rumble.
Creeeak!
“It seems we’ve arrived! Your Imperial Highness!”
Marie cried out, her face as pale as death.
The carriage door opened.
Amid the fierce snowstorm, knights clad in pitch-black armor stood in formation.
‘It’s spring, and yet the weather is like this…’
The overwhelming pressure made her breath catch.
Their gazes were different from those of the mild knights of the imperial capital. They even reeked of blood, as if they had just finished cutting down monsters moments ago.
In the center of the knights stood a man of overwhelming build, a black wolf pelt draped over his shoulders.
‘Black hair and tall… So that’s the man who will become my husband…’
As she stepped down from the carriage, Eleanor stared at Kailan in a daze for a moment.
She had certainly thought he would be a barbarian with a face full of scars and a thick beard.
But Kailan was more beautiful than any noble young master Eleanor had ever seen in her life.
Hair as black as if the northern night sky had melted into it, features that seemed to have been carved with care by a sculptor, and blue eyes that froze the heart.
The only thing was that he was frowning deeply.
In truth, it was the face of a tired office worker who had spent the whole night wrestling with ledgers in the red, but Eleanor had no way of knowing that.
‘He’s definitely angry at me! He’s angry that a lowborn princess sent by the imperial family dared to make the Grand Duke of the North wait…!’
Eleanor was trembling like an aspen leaf, clutching her skirt and about to offer a greeting.
Thud, thud.
Kailan strode toward the carriage on his long legs. Eleanor reflexively squeezed her eyes shut. She thought she might be slapped across the cheek.
“Are you Imperial Princess Eleanor von Valdemar?”
“Y-yes! Th-that is correct. It is an honor to meet Your Gr—”
“Did you bring your diploma for graduating at the top of your class?”
This was even more unexpected than being slapped.
“…Pardon?”
Eleanor let out a foolish sound of confusion.
Not the marriage contract bearing the imperial crest, nor His Majesty’s personal letter, but her academy diploma?
At her blank reaction, the crease between Kailan’s brows deepened.
“Follow me. There is no time.”
Without warning, Kailan seized Eleanor’s slender wrist and began striding into the castle.
“Eek!”
A short scream burst from Eleanor’s mouth.
The knights and servants lined up nearby dropped their jaws.
Their taciturn lord, who regarded women as if they were stones, had grabbed the wrist of an imperial princess he had just met and was dragging her away roughly!
“Oh my, heavens!”
“Our lord has finally awakened to his instincts as a man!”
“To lead her away in such a hurry—don’t tell me he’s heading straight to the bridal chamber in broad daylight?!”
The servants’ fussing whispers reached Eleanor’s ears in full. Her pale cheeks turned red in an instant.
‘In broad daylight? On our first meeting, without even a proper conversation, straight to the bedroom? The rumors that he’s a beast must be true!’
Tears welled in Eleanor’s eyes, but pressed down by Kailan’s strength and charisma, she could not resist even once and was dragged along.
After entering the castle, Kailan went straight past the reception room and dining hall to the very innermost area, stopping before a heavy oak door.
Bang—!
Kailan threw the door open roughly and entered with Eleanor. Then he firmly locked it so that no one could come in.
“…!!”
Eleanor stared at the door closed behind her and despaired. It was a sealed room. There was no one outside who could save her.
“Y-Your Grace. We have not even held the ceremony yet, and to share a bed already… Imperial propriety— Eek!”
Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut and clasped both hands in front of her chest, assuming a defensive posture.
But what came toward her face was not a man’s lips, but a huge bundle of parchment.
Thump.
“…?”
Holding what had been handed to her, Eleanor cautiously opened her eyes to slits.
The place she had been dragged to was not a bridal chamber, but an office thick with the smell of ink and dust.
In the middle of the room, two desks faced each other, and as soon as she entered, Kailan dropped into the chair behind the opposite desk and folded his arms.
It was the scene of a workplace office, without the slightest hint of romantic atmosphere.
“Imperial propriety and the like do not apply here in the North.”
Kailan spoke coldly.
“Th-then why have you called me here…”
“Your Imperial Highness. Because I was curious about your abilities. Whether the title of top graduate of the Imperial Academy is merely an ornament or not.”
Eleanor was confused by the sudden situation.
She had thought he would order her to take off her clothes, but now he was suddenly telling her to prove her abilities?
Was his plan to make various excuses and send her back to the imperial family?
“Open the ledger.”
At Kailan’s order, Eleanor checked the ledger she had received.
[Third Quarter Munitions Supply and Maintenance Settlement for the Territorial Defense Forces]
It was a title that stimulated the scholarly zeal of Eleanor, who had lived obsessed with numbers.
“Page 74. Look at the settlement details at the bottom.”
Eleanor turned the pages of the ledger with trembling hands.
“Find and explain what is wrong with that item. I will give you five minutes.”
***
Kailan propped his chin on his hand and observed her sharply.
In truth, that ledger was one of the double ledgers Kailan had personally dug up in order to figure out how the military supply officers in the territory had been embezzling the budget.
‘I wonder if knowledge learned through scholarship will work even in this rotten field.’
Eleanor was flustered only for a moment before she immediately began focusing on the ledger.
“…Time is up. Did you find anything strange?”
At Kailan’s question, Eleanor snapped the ledger shut and raised her head.
The girl who had been trembling until just now was nowhere to be found.
“Your Grace, this ledger is… garbage.”
“Oh?”
The corner of Kailan’s mouth rose slightly.
Garbage. It was the exact expression.
Eleanor continued, enunciating clearly.
“The import unit price of magic ore has been set thirty percent higher than the market price in the capital. Even accounting for transportation costs to the North, this is an abnormal figure. The bigger problem is the weapon repair item below it.”
She pointed out every error in the ledger.
By comparing the knights’ deployment logs by period, she pointed out that even though there had been only one large-scale subjugation in the third quarter, the repair cost claims were recorded as having reached the monthly limit every single month.
Her expression hardened, and after closing her mouth for a moment, she carefully spoke.
“I fear it may be presumptuous of me to say this…”
It’s not presumptuous! Hurry up and say it!
“I suspect that the military supply officer colluded with an outside merchant guild to inflate the unit price of magic stones and created fictitious repair records to siphon off funds… No, this is unmistakable embezzlement.”
‘That’s it!’
Eleanor’s words did not end there.
“According to Chapter Four, Article Twelve of the Imperial Tax Law, this is a serious crime for which the assets of those involved must be seized immediately and they must be subjected to formal interrogation. Since one thousand gold was siphoned off every month for three years, with interest included, the amount would exceed forty thousand gold.”
“…”
Kailan stared blankly at Eleanor.
His heart was pounding.
As if he had met his first love all over again.
‘There was a law like that!? Forty thousand gold would be more than enough to cover one month’s deficit…’
Kailan, who had not even been in this possessed body for a few months yet, had no way of knowing such a law.
Kailan sprang up from his seat. Then he strode toward Eleanor.
***
Watching Kailan stride toward her, Eleanor was suddenly terrified that her impudent attitude might have offended him.
‘Ahh, I must have lost my mind! Acting like I know something in front of the monstrous grand duke! He must be about to cut off my head!’
As she squeezed her eyes shut and flinched, Kailan grasped her shoulders.
“Eleanor.”
Kailan called her name for the first time.
“Y-yes…”
Kailan stared intently into her eyes and whispered in a low voice.
“Stay by my side.”
“…Pardon?!”
“Your cleverness. That beautiful intellect of yours—I seem to have fallen for it. Unfortunately, my loyal retainers know only how to fight, not how to read numbers. And the ones who know how have been busy committing corruption… Winterwald desperately needs a mistress like you.”
At the sudden confession, Eleanor’s mind went completely blank!
‘Beautiful? He fell for me? He wants me to stay by his side…?!’
It was a direct confession she had never heard even once since she was born.
And from the ruler of the North, who was said to have neither blood nor tears.
From a man with a body so attractive no woman could possibly resist him.
Eleanor’s heart began to pound as if it would burst.
Kailan took a ring from his pocket.
While the imperial princess was still unable to come to her senses, he took her hand and slipped the ring onto her ring finger.
“This is my sincerity toward you.”
With trembling eyes, Eleanor looked down at the ring on her hand.
It was a diamond ring.
The meaning of a diamond was eternal love and devotion.
“From now on, you are the wife of the Grand Duke of the North. This ring is the proof, and in the name of the Grand Duke of the North, I will not leave be anything that threatens your safety. Will you accept it?”
‘Ah…!’
Eleanor drew in a breath.
He was swearing to throw his whole body into protecting an illegitimate child no one had wanted.
She carefully nodded and shyly lowered her gaze.
Tears of emotion were just about to gather in her eyes… when it happened.
“Now then, let us end the vows of love here. Since Your Imperial Highness has now become the finance officer, I must ask you to handle your first task.”
“…Pardon? Wh-what task…”
Kailan exaggeratedly hugged his own shoulders and shivered as if he were cold.
“Isn’t the room cold? These days, the price of fire magic stones has skyrocketed, so we lack the budget for heating the territory. What a dilemma.”
With a shameless expression, Kailan looked at Eleanor.
“Ah, I hear you possess solar mana. Since the room is cold, may I ask you to use your mana for a bit of heating magic?”
“…!!”
Eleanor’s shoulders stiffened in shock for a moment.
She had once burned down her own room with her solar mana.
It was when, unable to endure the harsh persecution, she had suffered a stress-induced mana rampage.
After that, the imperial family began mocking her solar mana as proof of a cursed bloodline.
From then on, Eleanor had lived her entire life suppressing her mana.
Yet was Kailan treating the very power she found most shameful and frightening as if it were nothing at all?
As if it were simply ordinary, with an entirely casual attitude.
“Y-Your Grace… This power is difficult to control and considered ominous by everyone—a cursed mana they all avoid. If I am careless, I might injure you…”
“A curse?”
Kailan snorted.
“It lights a warm fire. How is that a curse? In the North, heat is life and a blessing. Do not concern yourself with the gazes of others. Use your power to your heart’s content.”
In truth, it was nothing more than the miserly statement of a poor lord driven to the brink of bankruptcy, but to Eleanor, it sounded entirely different!
Because she had never before met anyone who acknowledged her value as it was, and even needed her!
‘His Grace is trying to cover even my cursed mana with love. He is seeing me as I am…!’
Eleanor shed the tears she had been holding back.
Then, as if she had made up her mind, she straightened her shoulders and threw open the mana circuits inside her body that had been firmly shut.
Whoosh!
The air in the room, which had been like ice, warmed in an instant.
Judging from the fussing sounds of the servants outside, it seemed the entire castle had probably become warm.
“Excellent. I like it very much. At this rate, we will save several gold on the castle’s heating costs. Ha ha.”
“Th-thank you, Your Grace…”
As Eleanor wiped away her tears and smiled shyly, Kailan pointed to the mountain of documents piled high.
“Now that the room is warm, let us begin work in earnest.”
“Yes! Just leave it to me!”
However, the imperial princess’s eyes, which had still been shining brightly when she ate her late-night meal… were already dead by the time they began working overtime.