Chapter 2. Even Now, Touching Something Quite Inappropriate

〈Titles and territories are inherited by the firstborn son. If there is no legitimate male heir, the title and all rights associated with it are extinguished.〉

〈Women’s property rights are not recognized. A married woman’s dowry belongs entirely to her husband.〉

Matila’s notorious inheritance and marriage laws had created countless problems throughout their long history. Lottie’s case was one of them.

Crown Prince Patrick, who had seduced and successfully married the only daughter of Count Ixe who had no sons, cleverly manipulated the law to inherit the family as his son-in-law.

Once he achieved his purpose, what came next?

‘I would have been grateful if he had completed the inheritance procedures right after marriage and then abandoned me.’

On the train bound for the capital Ronvernon, where the social season was beginning.

From the grand wedding to the divorce, losing her home and everything, being confined to Polton’s castle, and then dying from a bullet……

While reflecting on her bitter past, Lottie suddenly sighed.

In a day and a half, she would meet her ex-husband, whom she could drink like water and still not feel satisfied.

When Lottie returned to the moment just before meeting her ex-husband, her first thought was naturally that she should avoid the marriage that had been the beginning of all her misfortune.

To do that, she needed to prevent meeting her ex-husband in the first place.

However, when Lottie suddenly insisted on not going to Ronvernon, what she received in return was Great-aunt Isabelle’s threat to send her to a convent if she didn’t open the door immediately, and her father’s tears.

In her past life, the incompetent daughter who had pushed not only herself but also her father into an abyss of despair through a wrong marriage feared her father’s single tear more than becoming a nun.

Lottie, who had firmly locked her door, had no choice but to surrender after a few days.

And so now, Lottie was on the train to Ronvernon, the source of all evil, with her great-aunt as her chaperone.

“When we get to the hotel, the ostrich feather decorations for you should have arrived. They’re special items I obtained by paying extra.”

Great-aunt, sitting across from Lottie, said with a disapproving expression.

“I find it distasteful that one must decorate oneself like a flower arrangement, but these days young men are so fixated on appearances, what can we do? A lady should be beautiful on the inside by nature……”

Though she couldn’t remember, the feather decoration she had worn at age 20 must have been something like ‘specially tacky feathers’ at best.

‘While I may not remember the shape of the feathers I wore that day…… the circumstances of how I first became entangled with that man remain vivid down to the smell.’

A play that seemed coincidental but was actually perfectly orchestrated by her ex-husband to capture her heart.

“Great-aunt, I……”

“If you’re about to make another absurd request about going home, write it in your diary instead.”

Great-aunt responded with a crisp tone and turned her head sharply toward the window. Then, as if reading Lottie’s frustrating thoughts, she added matter-of-factly:

“Lottie. A woman, unlike a man, cannot live in this world alone without a husband. It’s a harsh and difficult world.”

‘But if I go to the royal ball like this, your grandniece’s life will be ruined……!’

Though she wanted to shout those words with a feeling as tall as a mountain, it was useless. Even she herself could hardly believe the miracle that had happened to her.

And so, on the day of the royal ball marking the first day of the social season.

‘These really are specially tacky feather decorations……’

With three oddly purple feather ornaments in her hair that would be hard to find outside the Dempis region, Lottie entered the grand ballroom of the palace with Isabelle.

The marble floor, which would make one slip if not walking with force in the toes, greeted Lottie first.

Next were the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, the gold-leaf ceiling decorations, and beautiful paintings on the white walls……

If not for the excited energy of young men and women floating around the grand hall, Lottie would have thought she had returned to the time when she was the queen of Matila.

“Great-aunt, I……”

“No.”

“……”

“Oh, isn’t that Mr. Mons? This is my niece, Charlotte, the only daughter of Count Ixe.”

Isabelle, who had instantly deflected Lottie’s timid rebellion, smoothly introduced her to a man. He was a tall man with neatly combed brown hair.

“I am Philip, the eldest son of the Mons family. I have met the Duchess of Dunchester and Count Ixe a few times at charity events, but this is my first time meeting the lady.”

Ah, I see. I don’t think it’s me though.

The name Philip Mons sounded familiar because he had been on Lottie’s remarriage list in her past life.

He was a man who had been on her blacklist for being a womanizer, but whom she had reluctantly considered at the end. He had even harshly rejected her!

“Would you honor me with a dance, beautiful lady?”

“No.”

She fired off a rejection filled with past life anger, but because of Isabelle glaring fiercely beside her, Lottie had no choice but to accept Philip’s dance request.

The first song was a gentle waltz.

“I had guessed, but I didn’t know you would be so beautiful. Especially your sunset-colored hair……”

Suppressing the urge to retort that his hair was a boring brown without fun or emotion, Lottie peeked over Philip’s shoulder to survey her surroundings.

Her ex-husband didn’t seem to have arrived at the grand hall yet, and Isabelle, obsessed with marrying off her grandniece, had already left to scout for other dance partners.

‘Now’s my chance!’

“If you would give me the opportunity to have a more private conversation with you after the ball……”

“This way.”

“Eh? Whoa……!”

Lottie began to drag Philip in the opposite direction of the dance line moving to the left.

They almost collided with several couples along the way, but she dodged them so well, like a flying squirrel, that the rogue couple’s misbehavior went remarkably unnoticed.

By the time Lottie reached her destination, the dance had conveniently ended.

“One more dance……”

“That was enjoyable. Goodbye.”

Philip, who had been used as a shield to evade surveillance and was quite exhausted from it, bowed awkwardly at Lottie’s cold rejection.

‘It’s a bit mean…… but it’s not so bad to reject a man who once rejected me first.’

Suppressing her twitching lips, Lottie quickly scurried away before Isabelle could discover her.

If there was one good thing about having been queen, it was knowing the intricate structure of the palace inside and out.

Like other castles, the grand hall built for various royal events had secret spaces unknown to outsiders.

Among them, Lottie was trying to hide in a small room hidden in the sub-hall of the grand ballroom.

Entering a corner concealed by a curtain, she felt along the wall for a painting, and found a handle that had appeared to be just part of the picture.

After carefully twisting it open, she slipped inside faster than the wind.

The small room with thick curtains was filled with complete darkness once the door closed.

‘I’ll just hide here until the seventh dance ends.’

Around the end of the seventh dance, a rumor would spread about some foolish young couple sneaking into the forbidden outdoor garden to enjoy shameful pleasures.

When the guards shouted, both people fled in a hurry, so their faces couldn’t be seen, but the problem was that they left evidence at the scene.

And that evidence……

Lottie sighed as she looked up at the purple feather decorations dangling above her head.

Three. All intact.

She didn’t know why the firmly secured feathers had fallen in the outdoor garden where she had never set foot.

But Lottie was labeled as the female protagonist of the scandal without a chance to explain, and she, who believed at the time that marriage was a woman’s happiness, despaired as if she had received a death sentence.

— Who else could have gone to a place only accessible to members of the royal family?

At that moment, her ex-husband appeared.

A beautiful prince from a fairy tale, coming to rescue the princess trapped in the high castle of scandal.

The crown prince who was rumored to never even glance at ordinary women.

Just by the fact that she had been chosen by him, the contemptuous gazes directed at Lottie turned into envious ones.

Lottie, who had suddenly become the protagonist of the romance of the century, stared blankly at the crown prince.

Her heart raced before she could even process the bewilderment that a crown prince she had never met had stood up for her.

— Why…… did you stand up for me? You are far too noble to be compared with someone like me, so why would you……

Dancing with the prince after the commotion had settled, Lottie asked in a trembling voice.

— Don’t feel burdened. I would have done the same for anyone else in your place.

The crown prince, looking down at her with an ambiguous smile, answered.

Of course. She mocked herself inwardly. What was I thinking?

The budding first love that had bloomed without her knowledge came to an end without a trace. That’s what she thought.

— What I said about doing the same for anyone else wasn’t true.

On the balcony showered with moonlight.

— It was you. The only woman in the world who could turn the crown prince of Matila into a man blinded by fever.

The kiss on the back of her hand that followed those particularly sweet words.

— Will you marry me, my lady?

If only he had been a little less beautiful.

If only the night air hadn’t been so exceptionally warm.

If only tears hadn’t welled up at those words for some reason.

Then that worldly-ignorant girl would never have responded with a marriage contract promising to give everything.

— Lottie. People like you are called thieving women. A petty thief blinded by money who repays love with betrayal.

She wouldn’t have spent years in hell embracing a love that was deception and lies from the beginning.

‘Am I afraid of being deceived like that again?’

Lottie, who had returned from hell, decided to close her eyes to the principles that had made this miracle possible.

She feared that if she investigated too thoroughly how this had happened, this dreamlike time might disappear like a mirage.

But the reason why such an impossible, magical thing had happened to her, of all people, was clear even with her eyes closed.

It was God’s will to correct the life that had gone wrong because of her bad choices.

It was obvious without saying that the first step was to not choose her villainous ex-husband.

‘Then, what comes after not marrying my ex-husband?’

A thought that had never occurred to her because she had been so focused on avoiding entanglement with her ex-husband suddenly struck Lottie’s temple.

Startled, she stepped backward as if the thought had physically pushed her.

Thud. Something dissolved in the darkness touched Lottie’s leg.

Something hard and cool. Perhaps furniture. Perhaps a sculpture not on display.

If not that, then bones abandoned for years.

It had to be. Even if what touched her body was as soft as human skin, and even if regular breaths were steadily coming in and out.

“I think it would be better if you didn’t move.”

Lottie, who had been hoping the other party was just some wild animal that had somehow discovered the secret space, silently screamed at the quiet voice coming from behind her.

And then once more at what followed.

“Even now, you’re touching something quite inappropriate.”