Chapter 1
"There's something I need to tell you. I have no intention of loving you as my wife." Immediately after the wedding ceremony, a tired Melfina, who had just become Alexis's wife, received not words of consolation from her new husband but a chilling proclamation that couldn't have been more unsuitable. Marriages between high-ranking nobles are like a kind of celebration, a sort of festival. They involve days of parties and parades, and newspapers are filled with headlines proclaiming how splendid the wedding was, the size of the dowry, and the excellence of the cuisine served, making it the talk of the town among the common folk. Not only the nobility but also the people from around the church and the citizens of each spouse's capital city are treated to food and drink, and the union between Alexis, the Duke of Orland, who possesses the highest power in the North, and Melfina, the daughter of the Marquess of Crawford, who rules the vast southern territories, is...