Chapter 1.1
Romance Guide
Setting/Genre: Western style / Romance fantasy
Work Keywords: Regression/time slip, revenge, in-law world (marriage/family politics), marriage before love, fated love, virgin male, formal-speech male, large-dog-like male (loyal/clingy), younger male, capable woman, scheming woman, story-driven
Male Protagonist: Aiden – A brusque, military man and the younger brother-in-law. But when Irene was falsely accused and stood on the execution platform, he was the only man who ran to protect her. Though he has complexes about his scar-covered body and unskilled personality, he always honestly and directly moves forward with Irene.
Female Protagonist: Irene – After losing her parents, she married as her uncle ordered, only to be falsely accused by her husband and his mistress and executed. She regresses to three years prior, rejects her former husband’s proposal, and prepares her revenge.
When to read: When you want a revenge drama against the in-law world and a mistress, when you want to see a cool-headed man and woman in front of others stumbling and falling into marriage-before-love.
Relatable quote: “You said you didn’t want to marry my older brother, didn’t you? Aiden Freier, second son of the House of Freier, wishes to make the Vow of Protection, granted to only one woman in a lifetime. Will you marry me?”
Chapter 1
It’s not something I should say after getting married, but.
My husband had been somewhat insufferable from the day he proposed.
“Beautiful Irene. Will you become the flower of our Marquis’s family?”
I should have run away back then.
But I was in a position of being indebted to my uncle, Count Dunbury, after my parents passed away, and this was a marriage arrangement my uncle had arranged.
Without thinking further, I accepted the bouquet.
He, not even happy, nodded as if it were natural and put me in the carriage. The carriage headed to my husband’s house, the Marquis of Freier’s residence.
Every single phrase he uttered inside the carriage was a sight to behold.
“You also think words like ‘I love you’ or engagement rings are just formalities and vanity, don’t you? We will definitely become an ideal couple. Ah, you’re asking if we don’t need wedding rings? Haha, Irene. You’re surprisingly materialistic. There’s a ring that has been passed down to the women of the Freier family for generations. I think my mother had it? I’ll go ask.”
I decided not to expect anything more from my husband.
My husband’s name is Ernst Freier.
With blonde hair and blue eyes, he was a handsome man with a gentle impression.
His work abilities were outstanding, and he was the eldest son, receiving abundant love from the Marquis.
On the other hand, I was the useless niece my uncle Count Dunbury had been saddled with.
Because I grew up receiving only the education of ‘behave yourself quietly’ from my uncle, I had almost no experience in social circle activities. I don’t even have any friends.
I thought it was a tremendous stroke of luck that someone like me married ‘Ernst Freier.’
There was no love between us.
I simply believed in Ernst, the only stroke of luck in my life.
On the night of the wedding, Ernst said this.
“Irene, don’t do anything. Just sit there looking pretty and smiling. You liked reading, didn’t you? I’ll at least open the library for you.”
“But the Marchioness wouldn’t want that.”
I’m not an idiot. I know that a noble lady’s role is not just sitting elegantly, but that she is the manager of a household. Surely the Marchioness would educate me, the wife of the eldest son, starting the day after the wedding.
But Ernst was firm.
“You don’t know how to do anything anyway, right? You said you couldn’t learn anything from the Count’s family!”
“……But.”
“Enough with that ‘but’! Don’t pick a fight with me. I’ll promise you this one thing. As long as you remain my beautiful wife, I will do my utmost to protect you.”
If ‘but’ is taken away from me, I have nothing left to say.
In front of me, now quiet, Ernst smiled triumphantly and said.
“I got a quiet and beautiful wife, and you got a husband who will protect you. It’s perfect. As long as we don’t utter the stupid word ‘love,’ our relationship will be maintained well.”
And so, our loveless married life began.
Whenever I tried to do anything, Ernst would appear like a ghost and sabotage my work.
Shouting that I shouldn’t assign difficult tasks to his wife.
I occasionally participated in social circle events, but since I didn’t know much, I kept making mistakes. Whenever that happened, my husband would say, “My wife couldn’t learn properly due to an unfortunate family history.”
offering something akin to a defense.
He would stroke my silver hair almost every night and tell me I was beautiful. His voice was sometimes loud enough for the maids passing through the hallway to hear.
Outwardly, he was a loving husband.
But I felt like a pet on a leash.
I became pregnant in the second year of marriage.
The child born the following year was a son.
Even the Marquis and Marchioness, who had treated me like I didn’t exist, smiled brightly at that time. They praised me for finally fulfilling my duty.
So I also smiled for the first time since marrying into the family.
I thought I could now integrate as a member of the Marquis of Freier’s household.
But my parents-in-law entrusted the child to a nanny and a home tutor, saying, ‘How could someone like you educate a child?’ I could barely even see the child. I had no chance to form a bond.
Moreover, around that time, Ernst stopped coming to the marital bedroom, and…….
By the time I belatedly thought that something was going wrong.
I was dragged to court.
“Defendant, Irene Freier. You embezzled supplies that should have been used for national defense. Do you admit it?”
“That’s nonsense! I never did such a thing!”
“Here is evidence of your corruption. You abused your position as a member of the Marquis’s family to divert ores that should have gone to the western fortress to a personally owned store…….”
Documents I didn’t recognize piled up one by one.
Signatures I had never made appeared.
Of course, I denied it. Ashamed as it is, I also said I wasn’t capable of doing such a thing.
But the evidence was mountainous, and the judge was unmoved.
No one from the Marquis’s family tried to protect me.
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