Prologue

Creak, slam!

 

With a loud roar, the massive doors that had remained unopened for a long time shook off their stale, accumulated years.

 

The rundown castle, on the verge of collapsing at any moment, twisted bizarrely to welcome the unexpected intruder.

 

The shifted airflow brought Elisa to her senses.

 

‘He’s coming.’

 

Her heart pounded at that single fact alone.

 

She couldn’t tell if it was fear, tension, or anticipation.

 

One thing was certain: she desperately needed that man. If she failed to persuade him, she wouldn’t survive.

 

Just as the short moment before the man stepped inside felt unbearable—

 

Thud.

 

The heavy door swung open, shattering the sinking air. Soon after, the man appeared.

 

The Grand Duke of the North, with his silver hair and silver-gray eyes.

 

Stepping inside, the man spotted Elisa and stopped in his tracks for a moment.

 

Blood-red eyes and translucent silver-gray eyes met in mid-air. The two stared at each other with unreadable gazes.

 

Before long, the man took a step forward. He strode toward Elisa without a single hesitation.

 

Even as the distance closed, his silver-gray eyes remained fixed on her.

 

After what felt like an eternity, he finally stood before Elisa.

 

“Your Imperial Highness.”

 

The man bowed his head.

 

It was a deep, resonant voice.

 

When Elisa held out her hand, he respectfully kissed the back of it.

 

The breath and lips touching her hand were burning hot.

 

Elisa blinked slowly.

 

The terrifying man was standing right before her; he was not an illusion.

 

“Grand Duke Ignate. I am Elisa Hinaik.”

 

As she curtsied using her mother’s surname, Elisa’s long, black hair swayed gracefully along her shoulder line.

 

Following the flowing end of her hair, the man’s gaze drifted back to her face.

 

Elisa lifted her softly lowered eyes, looking at him with a subtle smile playing on her lips.

 

The master of the cold winter land. The ruler of the frozen earth. The king who governs the vast northern territory.

 

Kalagon Ignate.

 

The Grand Duke of the North, boasting a military renown as massive as the titles attached to him.

 

Standing close, the man was much taller than she had expected. His clear, silver-gray eyes—transparent like snow—looked both alien and perfectly suited to him.

 

“I heard you have something to tell me.”

 

“……Yes.”

 

Elisa was grateful that the letter she had sent had safely reached his hands. Although she had used all her remaining jewels, it had been worth it.

 

With this man standing right before her—

 

Determined not to ruin the opportunity she had barely seized, Elisa cut straight to the point without beating around the bush.

 

“I am going to propose a contract marriage, Grand Duke.”

 

“……A contract marriage.”

 

Her own words echoed from the man’s mouth.

 

The Grand Duke knitted his brows, but kept his mouth shut and waited for Elisa to continue.

 

“Ignate is too far removed from the center. It exists entirely on its own in the North. Although its duty is vital, help from elsewhere is a distant hope.”

 

He remained silent, as if telling her to go on.

 

“You and the people of the North are doing your utmost to defend the Northern Wall, but in our current situation, it could collapse at any moment.”

 

“……A current situation, you say.”

 

“A situation where no one helps, and the Imperial family simply hopes the North will be abandoned and destroyed.”

 

At her blunt words, the Grand Duke frowned.

 

“What exactly are you trying to say, Your Highness?”

 

“Don’t you need a gateway connecting to the center, Grand Duke?”

 

“……!”

 

Understanding the implication behind her words, the Grand Duke’s gaze sharpened.

 

Seeing him radiate a fierce aura, Elisa wore a faint smile.

 

Actually, this was better. If he had accepted the proposal instantly, she wouldn’t have been able to trust him anyway.

 

She had heard that Kalagon Ignate hated anyone touching his things or trespassing on his domain without permission. But in return, he swore to protect his own people no matter what.

 

‘Then I just need to become his person, and he will protect me to the end.’

 

Not that she intended to remain a helpless object of protection in his arms.

 

“Marry me, Grand Duke. If you do, I will solve your dilemma.”

 

“Why are you speaking with such confidence, Your Highness? You have neither backing nor political power.”

 

The man continued indifferently.

 

“What happens if I join hands with you, only for the Emperor to isolate the North even further than before?”

 

“If the North isn’t already isolated right now, just what kind of isolation are you talking about? Isn’t the North already in a difficult position?”

 

“……!”

 

Kalagon’s face hardened at Elisa’s pointed remark.

 

“Without breaching the Gelu Mountains, the North will see no change moving forward, Grand Duke. So—”

 

Elisa paused for a moment. Then, catching her breath, she slowly continued.

 

“Marry me. I will give you Kinis, the gateway to the North.”

 

At her words, Kalagon laughed. A sharp, dry laugh echoed through the ruined castle.

 

“Kinis.”

 

The sole gorge gateway penetrating the Gelu Mountains.

 

“Yes…… If it’s Kinis, half of my troubles will be resolved.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

At the Grand Duke’s affirmation, Elisa nodded.

 

“Kinis is the only gateway connecting the North and the center. Once it falls under Northern jurisdiction, Ignate can come and go to the center freely at any time.”

 

“Do you think the Emperor will allow that? In a situation where the North might stab him in the back?”

 

“Isn’t it already a given that the Ignate Grand Duchy and the Huischult Imperial family cannot get along amicably?”

 

“Ha.”

 

The Grand Duke let out a scoff.

 

It was absurd for a woman of the Imperial family—moreover, the Emperor’s own bloodline—to so openly declare that she and the Imperial family were in a hostile relationship. Even though she herself was a member of that very Imperial family.

 

“So, what do you want from me?”

 

Having wiped away his smile, Kalagon asked seriously.

 

“As I said, I propose a contract marriage. Take me as your Grand Duchess.”

 

“Are there any benefits to marrying you other than Kinis?”

 

His tone was polite, but his eyes were cold.

 

“The Emperor is considering marriage as one of the ways to subdue the North.”

 

It was a common story in noble society.

 

While marriage alliances were often used to expand one’s influence, sending one’s faction into a hostile territory for surveillance and discord was also a classic tactic the Imperial family had used for ages.

 

“If I become the Grand Duchess, the Imperial family will no longer force matches upon you. Furthermore—”

 

Elisa lowered her head slightly.

 

“Because of me, the Grand Duke will become a member of the Imperial family and an imperial son-in-law, meaning the Northern Grand Duchy will no longer be subject to Imperial interference.”

 

“Will the Emperor permit that?”

 

“We must make it so that he has no choice.”

 

At his cold words, Elisa’s gaze met his again.

 

Her eyes, tinged with a reddish hue as if holding a flame, stared straight at him.

 

“I will help the Grand Duchy be reborn as a sovereign principality.”

 

“……!”

 

Kalagon’s face stiffened at Elisa’s declaration-like proposal.

 

A principality.

 

Not just words, but truly breaking the Grand Duchy free from the Empire?

 

It was something he had never even considered, simply because the Ignate Grand Duchy had never failed to show loyalty to the Empire.

 

Because Ignate was the shield of the Empire.

 

Kalagon slowly scanned Elisa from head to toe.

 

A woman who did not bear the colors of the Imperial family. A woman standing alone with different colors in a realm dominated by blond hair and blue eyes.

 

As if proving the fact that her mother was a foreigner. She possessed an alien appearance.

 

A witch.

 

Looking at her, letting her black hair fall down to her waist while her red eyes gleamed, that word came to mind first.

 

And.

 

‘Hereditary Princess Elisa Hinaik Huischult.’

 

Kinis, the dowry handed down by the late Emperor. The powerful authority to become an imperial son-in-law and escape Imperial interference.

 

If she became his wife, independence as a principality was not a far-fetched story, just as she said.

 

The Grand Duke let out a low chuckle.

 

Independence as a principality.

 

It was hard not to covet it. Wasn’t severing that tiresome tie with the Imperial family his own long-held wish?

 

“If I accept your proposal, what will you demand of me?”

 

At the Grand Duke’s question, Elisa’s expression shifted.

 

Her carefully drawn smile twitched, and the smile vanished from her lips. A pain she couldn’t entirely hide flashed across her eyes.

 

When she lowered her gaze and then lifted it back up, trying to hide her transparent inner thoughts—

 

A deeper smile than before lingered on her lips.

 

“Protect me from the Emperor.”

 

Elisa looked straight at him. Her eyes shone with the most intense light since the moment they had first met.

 

“I want to live, Grand Duke. You saw it at the banquet. At this rate, I cannot survive.”

 

He suddenly remembered investigating her before coming to Langen.

 

After the late Emperor’s passing, she had been living entirely alone without even a maid in a place called the Palace of Ruins.

 

It wouldn’t have been strange if she had died at any moment, yet she was still clinging to life.

 

He knew it was merely the Emperor’s whim—that he left her alive simply to use her as a source of amusement, knowing he could kill her whenever he pleased.

 

“The only person in this Empire—nay, across the entire continent—who can protect me from the Emperor is you, Grand Duke, and you alone. Therefore…….”

 

Elisa caught her breath once more and said,

 

“Protect me, Grand Duke.”

 

“Even if it means killing the Emperor in the process?”

 

It was a bold question thrown to test her. Yet Elisa showed not a shred of agitation.

 

“You may take the throne, or you may hand it over to someone else and act as regent—it does not matter. If you wish, you can even erase this millennium-old empire. The only thing I desire is one thing.”

 

The woman’s gaze turned cold for an instant. An unnamable pain flickered across her beautiful eyes, and as if trying to hide it, she closed them.

 

A moment later, the revealed red eyes had settled back into coldness as if nothing had happened.

 

“I want to live, Grand Duke.”

 

“…….”

 

“That is the only thing I wish for.”

 

The man gazed quietly at the woman.

 

A lone moon shining brightly, dyeing the pitch-black night red.

 

More than all the economic rights she was offering, Kalagon felt a deep fascination toward the Princess herself.

 

Before long, he slowly reached out his hand to her.

 

“I will accept your proposal.”

 

The man didn’t miss the look of relief settling into the woman’s eyes. Even while trying to act cold, was what she hid underneath simply fear?

 

Hiding his own quiet chuckle, the man said to her, “From now on, you shall be the Grand Duchess of Ignate.”

 

The man gripped the thin, white hand of the woman that had come into his grasp, as if refusing to ever let go.

 

So much so that, seeing her eyes widen in surprise at the strength of his grip, a satisfied smile naturally formed on his face.

 

“I will dedicate everything I am to protecting and guarding you.”