Cesare let out a snort.
"Isabella from the start! She's been the perfect woman for me. The most beautiful women are paired with the most powerful men. Do you have any idea how I felt when your father pushed you in rather than your sister?"
With her mouth open, Ariadne stared blankly at Cesare.
"Your sister was the most lovely young lady in all of San Carlo." She put in the marriage proposal, and she fucked you! What a jerk I was! "What am I missing?"
Cesare expressed his sadness in front of Ariadne because he had been rejected. Ariadne was a virtuous woman. She used to accept this nonsense from her man on a regular basis. That was the only way she could learn to love. She couldn't compete on looks with her exceptionally beautiful sister. She enjoyed studying, but her nervous stepmother actively discouraged her writing studies, claiming that it was not a girl's virtue. As a result, she did not learn much. Ariadne needed to be "good." She was not born docile or friendly. However, by letting go of herself, yielding, accepting, apologising, and submitting, she has carved out her own place in a world that does not allow her to express herself. She did, she reasoned. Until today, that is.
"Do you mean I was a stand-in?"
Cesare, who was as handsome as a god carved in marble, had a befuddled smile on his face. It was a laugh that bordered on insanity.
"replacement?"
He approached, extended his hand, and lifted the tip of Ariadne's chin. He spit out word after word, as if spitting it through his teeth.
"A replacement is a replacement. You're not even a stand-in." Ariadne shivered as she examined Cesare's expressions one by one. When angry, the upper lip is raised to show fangs, the high bridge of the nose and the handsome red-brown brows that follow, the high forehead bone and the movement of the forehead muscles above it that pounce. as well as blue eyes. Those blue eyes, filled with incomprehensible rage. Cesare was well-known to her. He was an incomprehensible man, but he was embodied in the pattern in his mind. Perhaps today would be her last chance to see Cesare. That sensation arrived. He yanked her right hand from under her chin. Ariadne collapsed on the floor of her bedroom, unable to overcome the strength of her man's arms.
"Get out of my way. Don't bother showing up again."
She had numerous hints. She was the one who sat there stupidly, chewing her hopes like a cow. She expected it to be like this. * * * Cardinal de Mare entered the clergy, but he had several children, as did many other clerics at the time. Lucrezia, his mistress, was of noble birth, had three children with the cardinal, and acted like a mistress. The three children were also raised as if they were the children of a great aristocrat. Isabella, the second and eldest of these, was still seventeen years old, but her beauty made her famous in society, the treasure of Lucrezia and the pride of Cardinal de Mare.
"Dad. I don't want to marry that man."
With peach skin and flaxen hair, she whined sweetly to Cardinal De Mare. Her two eyes, resembling amethyst, twinkled pitifully.
"They say he's savage like a beast. And there are rumours that he's a bastard."
Cardinal de Mare stroked the hair of his angelic daughter.
"Yes, yes, this father knows too. Although he is declared to be the prince's cousin, he is in fact the king's bastard. I have no intention of marrying my daughter to a bastard."
It was as if the cardinal's son could be the son of the royal family. Isabella laughed softly. As soon as her innocent and beautiful face showed a smile, she looked like a cute fairy.
"Dad always told me to make the name of the De Mare family. I will be the most beautiful and noblest woman in the country. I will never end up as a countess."
"Let's pretend our Isabella is sick for a while. You can't force a sick child to marry."
"But you can't ignore Count Decomo's marriage proposal, can you?"
A cool voice interrupted from behind. It was Cardinal De Mare's mistress, Lucrezia.
"I'm about to become a Marquess, so don't make me sad."
The Marquess was a position to defend the borders of the kingdom, and it could be seen as being kicked out of the capital, but it was a position to have military power. However, if he was not lucky, he could lose his life in a skirmish with the kingdom of Gallico, so he was not suitable as a marriage wife for his daughter. However, if the Marquis did not give her daughter to the Marquis who had soldiers, and the Marquis harboured a rebellion and marched on the capital, it would be a big deal. Even if he couldn't give you the most precious child, he had to keep the strings on. Since he is a hand that doesn't know when to break it, the less precious the string the better.
"A bastard goes well with a bastard. Send Ariadne, Your Majesty the Cardinal."
"Ariadnera… … . That's a name I haven't heard in a long time."
Cardinal De Mare showed his teeth and laughed. * * * Ariadne's mother was the maid of Lucrezia's mistress. On a rainy day, Cardinal De Mare, drunkenly, took a maid instead of Lucrezia, and Lucrezia went into a fit of rage when he found out. But her maid already had the cardinal's seed in her bosom. Her maid said that shortly after giving birth she was locked in a room on the top of the tower, and the child born to her was neither her son nor her daughter who did not even resemble the cardinal at all. Ariadne grew up in the servants' quarters. Due to her lack of education, Ariadne did not know how to write, paint or play a musical instrument at the age of fifteen. But suddenly, in the spring of the year she turned 15, Cardinal de Mare's butler, Nicolo, notified Ariadne 'the lady' to pack up and move to the inner city. At that time, she thought that her father had finally remembered her. I had thought that now I had a family too, that the aristocratic family beyond the castle had finally forgiven her mother for her humble status and accepted me into her family. what is family If it is a family to stick a straw into the bone marrow, suck it out, and then stab it in the back of the head if it becomes less useful, then Cardinal De Mare's three children and Ariadne were a family that could not be blamed. * * * "I accept your request. The daughter of the De Mare family is betrothed to Count de Como." When Cesare de Como accepted this reply, he was overjoyed. Isabella, the only daughter of Cardinal de Mare to society, was the lover and ultimate goal of every man's heart. Getting her was her confirmation that she had become the most handsome man in her capital. Peach-colored blush on porcelain-white skin, Isabella, with her flaxen hair, was like an angel in a fairy tale in her beauty. Somehow, when she even smiled in those amethyst eyes, she was playful like a fairy from ancient mythology. But she was by far the best of her looks, and she was when Isabella was stern. When she felt sadness at her noble and innocent statue, she was at a loss for what to do, wanting anyone to relieve her sorrow. And so was her appearance in her Isabella now in front of Cesare de Como.
"Miss Isabella, why are you looking so pensive?"
"… … ."
"Don't you like me? Although he holds the title of nobility instead of succession to the throne, he is still the king's cousin and Count de Como. My estate, which I will soon receive, is rich and beautiful. Currently, among the aristocrats in the city, there is no marriage that goes beyond that. I risked my all to make the young lady happy... … !"
"It's not me."
"yes?"
"I am not the one who became engaged to Cesare Bag."
Cesare was taken aback.
"But the marriage proposal clearly had a positive reply..."
Isabella raised her amethyst eyes, stared at him with pity, and spoke in a thin voice.
"The 'daughter of De Mare' written on the marriage proposal is my younger sister Ariadne, a pitiful little sister who is not well known in the world of society. My sister asks her father if there is anything in her life, even if it means marrying the best man in this Etruscan kingdom. They made a fuss about it, and no one could stop them because they were so stubborn."
Isabella sighed, lowering her golden eyelashes.
"I... have lived with more than my younger brother. This time, my father told me that I should yield to my younger brother, so stop..."
Appealing tears welled up in her violet eyes. As if she didn't want to show her tears, she bowed her head.
"I cannot go against my father, Cesare Bag."
The slightly lowered head looked pitiful.
"I have always admired the Cesare bag from a distance at a large service. But we're a family now, right? Loving hearts are not allowed among family members. Please bury this feeling deep in your heart, and remember me only with affection and goodwill."
"but… … !"
"Shh."
Isabella raised her finger and covered Cesare's lips. Isabella's white, translucent fingers lightly pressed against Cesare's lips, touching the soft mucous membranes of his lips. Cesare inhaled and breathed in at the body temperature that he had come in contact with defenselessly.
"Ariadne is also a good child. Please treat me well. I just came to tell you this."
Leaving those words behind, Isabella de Mare made her way back from the chapel to the family table. Cesare stared devastatedly at Isabella's back, then suddenly found Isabella's gauze lace handkerchief on the floor, picked it up, and carefully placed it in her arms. She wanted to smell it, but even that seemed disrespectful to her. She felt the faint warmth of her handkerchief tucked across her chest. He placed her right hand over her heart, which contained a handkerchief. - Pounds, throbs. Her heart beat, and he couldn't tell if it was her heart beating because she was excited to see Isabella, or if it was the sound of her heart beating in anger at having her taken from her right in front of his nose. As he raised his head, Cardinal Marais and a dark-haired girl standing with her head bowed next to him immediately came into view while chatting with people from afar. Her girl was unnecessarily tall, her hunched back looked like that of an oddball worker rather than a high-ranking aristocrat, and her sun-tanned skin was tacky. He glared at the white-clad cardinal and at the dark-haired girl standing hunched over next to him. The golden trophy was just a step away from being put in her hand. Those two ruined my life. * * *
"Giacomo!"
"Yes, Your Excellency the Regent!"
"Take Ariadne to the top of the western tower for recuperation. She's mad and can't possibly perform the queen's work. It's ugly to look at, so handle it secretly so that no one else can see it."
"Yes, sir!" - Crackle!