Upon returning to her bedroom after dinner with her family, the very first thing Grace did was order the maids to leave.
"I'm sorry, but I need to be alone. Please leave."
"Yes, my lady."
At her words, the maids bowed and left the room.
Grace hurriedly approached the window with a bitter smile, watching the actions of the girls who seemed eager to make fun of the marriage between her and the "monster duke."
She leaned against the window sill and gazed down at the open lake and forest.
'I never thought I'd see this beautiful scenery again.'
A few months ago, she turned down a marriage proposal and left the mansion, saying that she would become a nun after isolating herself from the family.
Her body was trapped in a monastery, and she turned her back on this beautiful landscape, dreaming of a life with freedom.
She didn't know that it was how her first life ended. Only two days after preparing for life as "Grace the nun" instead of Grace Alberton in the monastery, she was poisoned.
The birthday cake that her mother, the Duchess of Alberton, had made for her for the first time contained a deadly poison that could dissolve her entire stomach and intestines in just one bite. She ate the entire slice in a fit of excitement without realizing it, so it was only natural that death came for her.
At dawn, when everyone was asleep, alone in the cold monastery, coughing up blood and dying, she earnestly prayed to God.
"Oh God, save this poor thing. I can't die like this."
She couldn't just die like this.
It was too unfair to die without being able to live properly.
If she could live, even if it meant marrying a real monster instead of a monster duke, she would do it.
She pleaded with God to save her until her last breath.
Did God listen to that earnest plea?
Grace lost her consciousness from the horrible pain of her lungs rupturing and her stomach and intestines dissolving. But when she opened her eyes, she was "back" to that time when her family first proposed the political marriage to the monster Duke.
Waking up, not in a closed-off monastery with old ceilings and iron bars, but in a large, ornate bedroom, Grace realized at that moment that God had heard her prayer.
"I don't know how I came back alive, but I don't want to die by a wrong choice again."
After a thousand hardships, she got her "second life" and from that moment on, she thought about how to survive.
After struggling for a day and a half without eating or drinking, she came to a conclusion. It was to accept the political marriage that was once granted to her.
In her first life, she wanted to become a nun to avoid the marriage that His Majesty ordered and entered a monastery, and ended up dead.
This life she decided to accept the political marriage to free herself from the hands of the Emperor and her family.
"Then what?"
Will she continue her loveless marriage with the monster duke?
After much pondering, Grace figured out a way to get out of that cruel 'marriage to the monster duke'. She would use the rumor of the curse that if she got entangled with the monster Duke, she would die or go crazy.
The curse would cause her to be imprisoned on a foreign island by herself while acting like a madwoman.
Pretend to be completely insane and escape from the monster Duke Felix's castle and flee to the exotic island, then hide in the forest and disappear.
If she could hold out like that for a few days, people would give up their search eventually, and then she would have the rest of her life completely to herself. She would be able to shed the disgusting Alberton family label of "incompetent" and live as a human being named Grace.
"Perfect."
Satisfied with the perfect plan she had created for herself, Grace said another prayer of thanks to God.
It was a decision that would inconvenience Arthur Felix, but for Grace, her life was more important than feeling sorry for him.
She put her hands together quietly and closed her eyes.
"God, forgive me. I want to live. Please help me to live fully the second life you have given me."
Grace prayed incessantly, suppressing the fears in her heart and the remorse of her conscience towards the monster duke.
***
When Grace agreed to the marriage, preparations for the wedding proceeded in a flash. This was because the emperor's understanding that the spare bride would provide relief to his dying cousin, and the Duke of Alberton's interest in removing the shame of the only family born with no magical abilities, were perfectly aligned.
The complicated marriage formalities, such as the groom and bride exchanging gifts, preparing the wedding dress at the bride's house, and throwing a party for the daughter to be married, were all taken care of in just three days, simply because of the situation.
And it was a week after accepting the marriage proposal.
The wedding of Duke Arthur Felix and Lady Grace Alberton took place at the King St. Mary Cathedral in the imperial capital.
The magnificent cathedral, built upon the founding of the empire, was decorated with the finest white roses and lilies to bless the groom and bride, and dazzling white veils hung everywhere to bless them.
No matter what rumors spread behind the scenes, the cathedral was more extravagant than any wedding held here, as it was nominally the wedding of the empire's greatest knight and the daughter of the only wizard family in the empire.
Grace, the bride of that wedding, stood at the door of the cathedral in an elegant wedding dress that wrapped all around her neck and arms, with a veil that was three meters long.
With two maids of honor supporting her, Grace waited for the Pope who performed the wedding to call her name.
"Bride, Lady Grace Alberton, please come into the sanctuary."
Then, from inside the cathedral, she heard the voice of the Pope calling for her.
Grace, with the help of her maids, walked step by step to the podium where the bishop was. Lightly, Grace walked in silence, ignoring the gaze of those who poured on her every step.
When she arrived in front of the podium, Grace finally saw the groom, the monster duke, face to face.
'This man is that monster Duke...?'
Grace stared at him, forgetting to be frightful of her groom Arthur Felix, whom she was meeting for the first time at the wedding.
Arthur was vaguely visible behind Grace's thick veil, but was worthy of the title of the Empire's greatest knight, being at least a head and a half taller than her.
Dressed in a black uniform with a navy cloak over it and a black mask covering his entire face, he looked more like he belonged at a secret ball than a wedding.
Rumor has it that even approaching him will freeze you in place from the stench of blood from the battlefield and the curse that resides in him.
However, the masked man in front of her seemed very human from his obvious nervousness.
The sight of him was simply strange, different from the rumors, and Grace stared at him with an insistent gaze that seemed almost rude.
Then his eyes trembled curiously as he looked at her over the mask.
"The bride, Grace Alberton, take off your veil and look at the groom, Arthur Felix."
Did they have that much eye contact?
The pope, standing in front of the podium, turned to Grace and demanded that she remove her veil for the final step of the wedding ceremony.
At his words, Grace bent down and the maids of honor lifted the veil over her face as if they had been waiting for the order.
Hey there, Thank you for reading~! If you liked what you have read, do consider tipping us a little through by voting!