Chapter 2
After Count Cline took me in as a newly orphaned child, I naturally became childhood friends with his only son, Emile.
With light brown hair and blue eyes, Emile was an intelligent and elegant handsome man. He was also exceedingly kind to me. Quite naturally, I followed him as if he were my real older brother.
〈Yvonne, here’s a present for you. I bought it because it reminded me of you.〉
〈Thank you, Emile.〉
My room was filled with gifts Emile had bought me—teddy bears, flower bouquets, books, and more.
Being of similar age, we gradually came to perceive each other as a man and a woman. With his gentle impression and my soft silver hair and green eyes, we made quite a fine pair standing side by side.
Yet behind my back, fingers were always pointing.
〈She’s just a woman lucky enough to catch the eye of the Count and Countess Cline.〉
〈Isn’t Countess Cline truly noble-hearted? How could she even think to take a woman no different from a commoner into the Countship?〉
〈How shameless. If it were me, I would bow flat on my face before Young Count Emile.〉
It was precisely because of my status.
‘Who am I, really? Am I a commoner?’
Now, I couldn’t even remember my mother’s face, and the only thing I knew was the memory of that night when I fled on the back of a beautiful jade-colored dragon.
‘Considering the dragon tried to protect me, I must not have been an ordinary person.’
Even so, there was no way to prove that a dragon had tried to protect me.
My only proof of the dragon was nothing more than this round-headed, knitted baby dragon doll.
“…Ah, I don’t know.”
Staring at the baby dragon doll for a moment, I pulled out my knitting basket.
‘Knitting is the best thing for a headache.’
The thing troubling my mind right now: Emile’s proposal.
As I picked a suitable ball of yarn from among the colorful, round choices, I recalled what had happened a few days ago.
***
“Yvonne.”
Emile was no different from usual. Wearing just a comfortable vest with slightly wrinkled sleeves, looking as though he had just stepped out from reading a book, his large hand held a bouquet of vivid crimson flowers.
“You used to like these flowers, right?”
Truth be told, I didn’t particularly like the color red. Seeing red reminded me of that day when the great dragon, Pepe, collapsed.
“Thank you.”
Even so, I accepted the bouquet with a bright smile. After all, relying on the hospitality of the Countship of Cline, there was no need for me to say anything uncomfortable to Emile.
‘Ugh.’
However, looking at the bouquet the exact color of blood made my head spin. Feeling dizzy for a moment, my brow furrowed of its own accord.
Emile extended a large hand toward me and formally requested: “Yvonne, marry me.”
“Ah.”
At Emile’s proposal, I froze with my eyes wide open.
It wasn’t that I disliked Emile. In fact, it was closer to liking him. But I had never considered marriage with Emile.
Because everyone around me told me not to dream such extravagant dreams.
‘An elegant, aristocratic lady suits Emile. Someone who could assist him later when he rules the territory as Count Cline.’
Above all, marriage proposals flooded in for Emile. Among them, there was bound to be a lady of grace and deep learning suitable to rule Countship Cline alongside him.
I bit my lip tightly.
‘All I can do is knit.’
So refusing was the right thing to do. But before I could even utter words of rejection to Emile, someone interrupted our conversation.
It was none other than Emile’s mother, Countess Cline. With tears welling in her eyes, she spoke in an emotional voice: “Oh my, to think you two have grown up so beautifully to speak of marriage! I am so very happy!”
Shouldn’t the person weeping with joy be me? I could already clearly picture what people would say if I accepted Emile’s proposal.
‘They’ll call me the Cinderella of Countship Cline.’
A girl who rolled in from goodness-knows-where, a fairytale story of ending up as Countess Cline.
At the Countess’s sudden appearance, I bit my lower lip. Emile drew a boundary with his mother in a low voice.
“Mother, Yvonne hasn’t answered yet.”
“Oh dear, oh dear. I was just so delighted that I couldn’t help but burst out.”
Even as she said that, the Countess showed no sign of backing down. Grasping my hand firmly, she said: “Though the answer will naturally be positive. If you reject the proposal, you’d have to pack your bags and leave the Countship immediately—would you really decline? The world is a frightening place. A girl like you cannot live alone.”
At the mention of being thrown out of the Countship right away, my shoulders flinched involuntarily. And as if catching on to my anxiety, she spoke with a benevolent smile: “We could have simply abandoned young you in a harsh world, but we took care of you, didn’t we? So you ought to be grateful to us. And this is the only way you can repay our grace: becoming Emile’s wife. From the moment you first came here, you were destined to become part of our family.”
“…”
Because she was so overwhelmingly assertive, my throat choked up instead. Strength automatically gathered at my fingertips holding the red bouquet.
‘Why is the Countess so strongly in favor of our marriage? What merit is there in taking me as a bride?’
Everything was confusing. It was right then that Emile called out to her again in a stern voice.
“Mother.”
“Oh my, look at him. Taking your wife’s side already?”
“Mother.”
“Alright, alright.”
Though making a fuss, the Countess did not withdraw. Instead, she kept her mouth shut. Once it fell quiet again, Emile looked at me with calm eyes and asked: “Will you give me an answer to my proposal?”
Could I make any other choice in this situation? Fiddling with the bouquet with my fingertips, I answered in a small voice: “…Of course, naturally I accept.”
At my answer, Emile’s eyes creased softly as he smiled radiantly.
“Yvonne, I’m happy you accepted my confession.”
His pure, smiling face somehow felt painful to look at, like stepping on glass shards. But before I could even realize what that strange sensation was, the Countess grabbed my hands and showered me with warm words.
“Please take good care of my son, Yvonne! No matter what happens, you must never leave Emile’s side. You must always be his strength. And divorce is absolutely, strictly out of the question!”
“Yes.”
Though confused, I answered submissively. Smiling brightly, she spoke to me: “Then shall we set a wedding date?”
Skipping the engagement ceremony altogether, talk of the wedding ceremony immediately popped up.
***
‘Just like that, in an instant, it was decided we would hold the engagement ceremony on Emile’s next birthday, and the wedding a month later.’
It was fortunate we didn’t hold the ceremony that very day. The Countess wanted us married as quickly as possible, but Count Cline, hearing about our story belatedly, put a brake on the Countess’s decision.
〈Even commoners do not marry this hastily. I understand your excitement, but let us take things a bit slower.〉
‘Whew, that was a real relief.’
My heart was still like a leaf swaying to and fro. If the wedding were right around the corner, my head might burst open.
‘It’s not that I dislike Emile.’
In fact, I liked him very much. Emile was a polite and kind gentleman, after all—just like a prince in a fairytale book.
‘Still, somehow, becoming husband and wife with him doesn’t feel right.’
What is marriage in the first place? What kind of mindset should one have to become a man’s wife?
〈From the moment you first came here, you were destined to become part of our family.〉
Was the future set, just as the Countess said?
‘I really don’t know a single thing.’
Perhaps because my mind was so complicated, I couldn’t even bring myself to touch the knitting yarn I would normally pick out with joy. Rummaging through the yarn basket, I pushed it aside and pulled the small, jade-colored knitted doll toward me.
It was the very knitted doll that had dropped with a thud in the spot where the colossal dragon disappeared on that night I met Count Cline.
Gazing blankly at the knitted doll, I tapped the baby dragon doll’s head with my finger and muttered: “Pepe, what should I do?”
It isn’t right to enter a loveless marriage. Yet if I refuse this marriage, I will be kicked out of the Countship with nothing to my name. And that would also mean betraying the Countess, who rejoiced over our marriage.
‘I don’t know.’
It was when I let out a sigh.
The baby dragon doll, which had fallen over to the side because I pushed it, suddenly snapped upright. And it muttered in a small voice:「Ugh, what on earth is this?」
It had spoken.
