00001 00. Prologue ------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Seianti Academy. At that place which all nobles of the Palban region must pass through, a mud-slinging brawl was in full swing.
“She’s mine!”
“Nonsense! We’ve shared one heart since long ago!”
Two men were tangled together, rolling across the floor.
Those who had gathered wondering what was happening began to leave one by one. It was already the sixth time this year. They were probably fighting over ‘her’ again today. Antonio Grass, who held the position of Academy Chairman, shook his head back and forth.
‘Just hold out one more month. In a month, that vixen will graduate!’
Antonio tossed his gaze toward her as she watched the fight while crunching loudly on snacks.
That woman was none other than the famous young enchantress, Dia Ruzanik. The daughter of Countess Ruzanik, the merchant magnate, and she who had three older brothers in tow who wouldn’t even hesitate to feign death for her. In other words, a troublemaker.
Watching the men exchanging blows back and forth, Dia shouted.
“Oh my, the dust is making my eyes hurt.”
Despite having been wholly devoted to eating snacks just moments before, her mouth ran freely. The young ladies watching the fight furrowed their brows. Why on earth did men like that vixen? A girl who so blatantly went ‘I’m acting all demure~.’
The followers of her youngest brother, Pleger, flocked to Dia and made a fuss. Oh my, Dia, are you alright? Hey! Dia said her eyes hurt! There were even girls trying to block the dust with their breath.
The diamond of Count Ruzanik who ruled high society in the Palban region, the daughter of the magnate countess called the Ice Queen, the youngest child whom the Ruzanik trio couldn’t help but love. Dia Ruzanik crumpled the cookie bag with a shameless face.
“Aah, I want to drink some cool black tea.”
Not forgetting to blink her eyes dreamily either.
The women scrunched up their faces, and the men’s cheeks—except for Antonio’s—flushed red.
Soon the surroundings would be bustling with men bringing all kinds of cool black tea. It really was enough to die of curiosity. That art of false modesty!
*
Derek Ruzanik was a benevolent man, but his business ability fell short of average. It wasn’t merely lacking. He ruined everything he touched, so he lost most of the inheritance he had received after his father’s death. A viscount of some corner of the Empire, not even a central noble, and he had burned through even that inherited wealth, leaving the warehouses empty. The reason Derek Ruzanik could live as a proper human being was that his talent for wooing women could slap central nobles’ hands down.
With his intact limbs and an outstandingly handsome face as weapons, Derek Ruzanik captivated the daughter of the Grand Duke of the Rollistor Archduchy. Though it was called an archduchy and a grand duchy, it was a small and weak country, smaller and weaker than the territories of most Empire nobles, which made it possible. Still, she was a princess of an archduchy. Marriage to a backwater viscount would damage the archduchy’s prestige. The Emperor of the Empire, taking the archduchy into consideration, granted Derek Ruzanik the title of Count along with a territory, even if it was a dog-shit field of a place.
The princess, Clementine, after marrying into the Viscount Ruzanik—no, Count Ruzanik—household, the first thing she did was expel the servants who did no work but secretly siphoned off the fortune bit by bit. And she confiscated the Count’s seal so Derek Ruzanik could no longer squander the assets. Unlike her husband, Clementine possessed an outstanding ability to multiply wealth. Over several years, she meticulously put flesh on the gaunt skeleton of the household. Her talents didn’t shine only in business. She bore children with ease, one after another. Having given birth to three clever sons in succession who took after her, Clementine put the finishing touch by giving birth to a daughter whom her husband and those sons couldn’t bear to see hurt even if she were placed in their eyes.
Just how precious this youngest child was could be seen from her name: ‘Dia,’ the most precious jewel in the world, a word meaning eternity. Dia Ruzanik monopolized the love of the household’s men and grew up vigorously. Having received nothing but love, her temper grew foul. The men of the household doted on her no matter what she did—“Pretty, so pretty, our youngest!”—but her mother, Clementine, was different. Worried that Dia, having grown up receiving the entire household’s love, would become ill-mannered, Clementine became a strict mother. Already taciturn and expressionless to the point where no one could tell what she was thinking, she was also merciless. So Dia grew quick-witted as well.
Taking after her father in looks, not bad in appearance, and having inherited the most of her mother’s talents among her siblings, being skilled in calculations, and even acquiring perceptiveness through nurture, Dia had grown up knowing no hardship until puberty when she opened her eyes to the opposite sex. In other words, hardship struck Dia when she reached puberty. Having been adored simply for existing, Dia didn’t know how to win the favor of the opposite sex. Not only did she not know, but her foul temper was enough to send mad dogs running, so Dia Ruzanik got rejected every time she expressed interest. And badly at that, thwack thwack.
Your temper is too hard to handle.
I’d rather live alone my whole life than date you.
Your face isn’t bad, but your personality is a bit…
Sorry.
During those countless rejections, a nickname was born: ‘Lady Gong.’ It meant she got kicked away like a ball, thwack thwack. Every time she got rejected by a man, her brothers who wouldn’t hesitate to feign death for her would rush out and turn the man who rejected Dia into a pulp, but the wounds remained. Seeing his daughter wailing with tears and snot squeezed out, Derek Ruzanik made a resolution: I shall pass down all my techniques! Thus Dia inherited all the secret techniques of Derek, who in his youth had been renowned as a playboy. Thanks to the secret techniques Derek passed down, Dia no longer got rejected. Not only did rejections stop, but men who would bang their heads against walls just to catch Dia’s gaze began to appear. Her mother, Clementine, had a headache over it, but Derek was simply pleased that his precious youngest wouldn’t have tears in her eyes.
When Dia turned nineteen, her father Derek, who had cherished her so dearly, died from a fall off a horse. Dia learned that if a person shed too many tears, bruises formed on their eyelids. Seeing her mother, who hadn’t shed a single tear throughout Derek’s funeral, crying silently in secret from her children, Dia also realized that she had to protect the family in her father’s place. After her father’s death, Dia became a little more of an adult.
But a problem arose. Though he had been a count in name only, Derek Ruzanik had been a member of the Empire. After his death, when Clementine, who had been a princess of an archduchy, stepped into the forefront, a backlash occurred. Her mother’s merchant guild trade partners fell away under the pressure of jealous nobles. For the same reason, investment became impossible. A red light came on for the Ruzanik family.
Under Imperial law, a soldier cannot become the head of a household. The eldest son, Ruger Ruzanik, was the vice-captain of the Emperor’s direct knighthood order. The second son, Riseger Ruzanik, having inherited his father’s talent and seduced a count’s daughter, had early on become the count’s son-in-law and live-in heir, and was thus excluded. The third son, Pleger Ruzanik, who had been marked as the successor, was studying abroad in a foreign country with no end in sight.
Wrinkles began to form one by one on Clementine’s flower-like face. She tried blocking this way and that, but there was no suitable solution. Clementine had to make a decision. She called her sons and daughter together. And said:
“Dia, get married.”
Dia rubbed her ears, having heard something absurd in the dead of night. She thought that after staying up several nights, she must be hearing nonsense.
“Go. Get married.”
But Clementine’s eyes were dead serious.
*
The Hainek ducal family had been one of the most prominent households even in the past, but during the current Emperor’s reign, it prospered even further, grasping every privilege of the capital in its hands. And not just privileges. In martial arts, they possessed an elite knightly order led by the perfect successor, Nike Hainek, who brooked no comparison. The Duke of Hainek himself exercised the supreme voting right in the Council of Nobles. Everyone except the Emperor bowed their heads before the Hainek coat of arms and rubbed their hands together like flies.
Dia took a sip of the tea the butler offered and leaned her body deep into the sofa. She disliked the butler who acted arrogantly as if he were the master of the ducal household, she disliked the magnificent ducal mansion, and she disliked her own circumstances even more.
Mother had said it. ‘Get married.’ Clementine never went back on her word. Even if a knife were held to her neck, she probably wouldn’t retract it. Dia’s brothers had often protested their mother’s decision, and their mother, Clementine, had pulled out a club. Knowing that whenever she raised the rod someone ended up carried out, Dia’s brothers shut their mouths. But that didn’t mean Dia accepted it easily. She too resisted fiercely. It wasn’t that she was extremely filial, but she couldn’t go to the capital leaving her mother alone. She herself didn’t want to be betrothed to someone she had never met. Dia carried out a hunger strike for a full three days. Her brothers cried their eyes out, saying ‘our youngest,’ ‘my baby,’ but Clementine, who had actually given birth to Dia, didn’t bat an eye. On the fourth day, Clementine personally brought soup and something. It was a funnel. And she shoved that funnel into Dia’s mouth. There was nothing to do but surrender.
Clementine was truly incredible. Contrary to thinking she would remarry into some wealthy noble family or a second marriage, what was this? The position Clementine had arranged was that of the prospective daughter-in-law for none other than the great Hainek ducal family.
The Rohail Empire had a peculiar custom unlike other nations, namely the ‘prospective bride system,’ also called the child bride-in-training system. From a young age, a prospective fiancé candidate would be marked and educated directly by the male’s household. If the marked child grew to be fitting for the family, they would be engaged; if the bride candidate proved unsatisfactory even after education, she would be cast aside. It was a system useful for the male’s household and disadvantageous for the female’s.
Dia had become engaged to the Hainek duke’s son. To be precise, a prospective fiancée. No matter how capable Clementine was, the ducal family, and that Hainek ducal family that was said to be able to shoot down not just flying birds but even dragons! Dia asked Clementine what magic she had used, but she only said something suspicious: ‘This is why you must check contracts without missing a single character. Remember that.’
“The room opposite the one you will use, my lady, is the young madam’s room, and directly above on the upper floor is where the great madam resides.”
Cheshire, the second butler of the Hainek ducal family, spoke. Here, ‘young madam’ meant the Duchess, and ‘great madam’ referred to Lady Filmonia, the Duke’s mother. In short, it meant she should watch her conduct day and night. After a few formal explanations, Dia moved from the parlor to her room and unwittingly let her mouth hang open. It was a room large enough to comfortably accommodate light exercise, if not croquet. She had thought her own family earned and spent quite a bit of money thanks to her mother, but the truly wealthy were on another level. The room, decorated prettily in white tones, came with a bedroom, of course, as well as a dressing room and a small parlor.
“Your luggage has been unpacked by the maids.”
“Ah, thank you.”
She ran her hand over the table, its craftsmanship obvious at a glance. To think she would ever use such expensive furniture in her lifetime. Seeing Dia’s eyes sparkle with interest, the butler continued.
“The Hainek household’s waking hour is 6 AM.”
“Thank you for your kindness. I will be lacking going forward, so please look upon me favorably.”
Dia pursed her lips into a circle and chirped.
In the ducal residence, there were the Duke’s mother Lady Filmonia, the Duchess, and that… well, anyway, there were three women, but all had born sons, so there were no young women. At the coquetry of a young woman he hadn’t seen in a long time, the butler’s lips slowly relaxed.
“As much as possible, at night inside the mansion… No, never mind.”
The butler who had been about to add something closed his mouth. His relaxed lips stiffened again.
Why? Dia wanted to ask about the words she hadn’t fully heard, but decided to be considerate of the butler. Generally, such consideration returned as goodwill. After a perfunctory farewell, the butler left Dia’s room, and Dia planted herself on a sofa that looked expensive even at a glance.
‘Yes, well, since it’s come to this, I might as well enjoy it while I can.’
Her father, Derek, had said: enjoy winning people’s hearts. If you think of it as a sport that uses your brain, there’s nothing difficult about it. Her father had never been wrong. That her nickname changed from Lady Gong to the Young Enchantress was all thanks to her father’s efforts.
No matter how she looked at it, Dia had nothing to endure. Wasn’t it as if she had become the protagonist of a novel? What was the protagonist of those novels that her hometown friend had blabbered on about like? After fighting and bickering, they had developed feelings and lived happily ever after, hadn’t they? Though reality wouldn’t be as sweet as a novel, the game of moving people’s hearts always ended in her victory. Facing an unprecedentedly grand stage for the game, Dia steeled her resolve.
---------------------------= Author's Note ---------------------------=
I've brought out the classic guide to acting demure that I'd had stored away^.^
*
To be precise, Clementine is the daughter of a Grand Duke, but she is referred to as a princess for convenience.