Lucia: episode 5

As a result, Lucia had attended many noble social parties together with her husband, or alone as his wife. She had to attend these parties like it was her job, so there were many instances when she had met the Duke of Taran. There was always a crowd of people around that man. It was as though a cackle of hyenas were fighting over a hunk of meat.

Count Matin had tried all sorts of methods to earn the Duke of Taran’s support, but he always failed. Up until that point, she hadn’t known the man very well at all. She had assumed he was just a great knight of some sort. She had only come to know him better quite a long time later.

About two years after Lucia had gotten married, the Duke of Taran got married. His marriage had caused all of high aristocracy to go into an uproar. He had married a young miss from an unknown noble family without any sort of influence. She was just a cute young female. She wasn’t pretty at all, and nobody could understand why the Duke had chosen that female as his wife. The Duke had never responded to anyone, so many rumors had flown around town.

The hottest rumor had been that the Duke of Taran was head over heels in love with the girl, but everyone was suspicious and nobody wanted to believe that was the case.

Lucia had come to know the truth a long while later. The information had come from the back doors of high aristocracy but it had a lot of credibility to it.

Like the rumors had assumed, the Duke was not in love with that young miss, nor was her noble family of rich background. The two noble families had made an agreement of some sort.

Her usefulness lay exactly in the fact that she was a noble without any influence or wealth. He’d needed a wife in name, who could not influence his dukedom. Thus, he had married that woman. The duke had remained unresponsive to the rumors, and soon the rumors became fact.

‘Of course that would be the case.’

‘Why else would the Duke of Taran marry such a woman.’

The noble women were talking with such passion, that they were close to coughing up blood. It was the only way to vent their anger for losing out on such a good deal.

‘What’s wrong with her? Aren’t you guys all the same?’

A man would look for a woman with a healthy womb to continue the family line, while the woman would look for a man with great wealth in exchange. It was a form of strategy bound by contract.

Although the process of the Duke’s marriage was different, it was more or less the same as any other noble in the land. In any case, she was still an official wife of a duke. So what if she was only a wife in name; she was still his wife. The duke had not taken any concubines, and although it was unknown whether he had any secret lovers, no rumors about such a thing had gone around. At least the Duke of Taran was not such a bastard as Count Matin.

—–

The Taran Knight Platoon had already passed while Lucia was stuck in a daze, and a different knight platoon were marching past. As Lucia watched the Taran Knight Platoon grow more and more distant, she had been gripping onto something very tightly. She looked to see what she was holding; it was Norman’s novel.

‘A contracted marriage…’

The theme of Norman’s most recent hit novel was contracted marriage. It was an idea Lucia had proposed without much thought. She must have unconsciously thought of The Duke of Taran’s marriage from her memories.

‘Contracted marriage…’

A light began swimming in Lucia’s eyes.

‘A wife in name.’

Her body shook with a sudden realization. It felt like all the blood in her body had drained, leaving only a sinking coldness behind.

‘The Duke’s wife…’

Lucia bit her lips. This plan might be the key to successfully escaping her fate.

‘Should I try?’

First, she needed to meet the Duke of Taran. But how? Just because she wanted to meet him, she wasn’t a person who could do so. Even the King himself could not order him as he pleased.

‘That’s right…a party! There is a victory celebration tonight.’

From the 3rd to 5th there would be a ball every night. The Duke should attend more than one of these balls the first night being the most probable. Getting an invitation was easier on the first night, because the party location was grand, all in order to host the celebration of the victory of war. It was a good thing she was a princess.

Her identity was more than enough to attend a ball, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

There were too many things to prepare for tonight’s party. First, she needed a dress. The time to use the money she had saved had finally arrived. She thought of all the things she needed to do and quickly moved her body forward.

“There’s…none left?”

The female employee nodded her head apologetically. Lucia fell to the floor right there. She had run to this place without stopping; it was her last hope, but it was all for naught.

There were not many dress shops that made dresses with a good enough quality to suit such a ball, yet still within her budget. Normally, the shops would stocked to the brim with dresses, but now was a special case.

It would be an extravagant ball hosted for the first time in a while. Every noble women in the capital would attend, and carriages would be lining up to get in. There were many nobles like Lucia, who didn’t have much money, so buying these affordable dresses was like going to war.

It was too foolish to think that she could buy it last minute. She should have pre-ordered one a month earlier. She would have been able to obtain some malformed or barely passable dress a week before at the latest.

‘What can I do about it, when I only thought of going to the party today?!’

“There is… That one piece…”

The female employee must have felt pity for Lucia, who looked to be in great despair.

“There is one left?”

“Erm, it’s been a few years, so the style is a bit… Well, with a bit of repair work, it will do….”

“That’s alright! I will buy it. No matter what, it’s mine!”

“No, but the dress is a bit too small.”

“It’s too small?”

“If you will be the one wearing it, it will fit. But, you’re not going to be the one wearing it, right?”

“I will!”

Lucia hurriedly replied, but then reworded her response.

“I mean, the person who will be wearing it is exactly like me. She has my exact body frame, so there is no problem.”

“Is that so? Then please come in and try on the dress. Let me see if we need any extra mending.”

The female employee dug very deeply into the storage and came out with a dress. Lucia’s expression brightened up. It was a modest and simple pastel blue dress. Although it was a style from years ago, it didn’t give off a cheap feeling.

She changed into the dress and looked in the mirror. The dress didn’t have a corset or a panier (something that goes under a dress to puff it up), so it looked like a great mess. She had her hair tied in a messy bun and her make up was a mess, so nothing matched at all. The female employee twirled around her while fiddling here and there.

“Young miss, how can you have such a skinny waist? Probably none of our corsets will fit you. It seems we have to re-adjust the hips. The length is a bit short, so…you’ll probably need to cover up with something. The lace here is ripped so we need to cut it off and stick a new piece… We have to refit the dress a bit.”

“Can I do that here?”

“Um… It seems like a lot of work, so I’m sorry. We already have a lot of other dresses waiting to be refitted.”

“If I wear this without refitting it…”

The female employee shook her head with all her strength.

“That must never happen. You’ll only make a fool out of yourself.”

They said once you climb over a mountain there would be another mountain waiting for you. Once the female employee saw Lucia’s struggling face, she offered another helping hand.

“My mother has already retired, but… She has been refitting dresses for a very long time. If you’re okay with that…”

“Of course that’s okay!”

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