Beast of the Frozen Night

The room was clean, but there was hardly any trace of a human hand.
Maybe only the maid in charge of cleaning came in and out, and no one seemed to come here to read a book.

She thought no one would come, so Anne relaxed her mind and lifted her legs up onto the sofa.
She tends to stick to an upright posture, but after she came here, she decided to reduce her strict tendencies.
If she’s wrong, no one would lift a stick, and if she leaves anyway, this glamorous life will be over.

Leaning her back on the armrest where she should have put her arms, she put a small cushion around her waist to get seated firmly in place, creating a fairly comfortable position for her.

“I don’t think anyone is coming.
Why is it so nicely decorated?”

She guessed it had been built by one of the predecessors, and was lost ever since, and Anne opened the book.

「The founder of the Swenia Empire, Emperor Vernoir Elekn of Swenia… Among them, he gave five imperial officials families names… Grand Duchy Cromund, Duchy Mullite, Duchy Libelois….”

“Duchy Libelois….”

As Anne was reading the passage, she smirked at the familiar words.
This was the reason her father, Count Libelois, spoke about the family like a habit.
The reason why they insisted on their pride despite the declining pressure was because the Libelois family was a Duchy in the beginning.

The family that contributed to the founding of Swenia….
Although he had never experienced it herself, his father took great pride in the fact that he was a descendant of a dukedom.

“From a Duchy to a County, it’s amazing….”

Anne knew the path the Libelois had gone down from.
She doesn’t know exactly what happened, but she was told that from her predecessor they lost the name of a prestigious family.

It was often the case that a family that had not been successful for a long time or committed a great crime that could not be washed away was downgraded, but the fact that Libelois was downgraded from a Duchy to a County for no apparent reason was a big topic of discussion even at the time.

It was not clear why the Imperial Family was suddenly downgraded, but there was something more shocking than this.
At the same time, the family’s financial lines were all cut off, and the territorial pass given to them were confiscated due to minor mistakes, and the farmland was said to have been so devastated that it was impossible to pay any rent, let alone a bountiful harvest.
Even the business they started was ruined.

“It’s a good thing the family didn’t fall.”

It was already more than 400 years in the past.
Nevertheless, Count Libelois lived with pride.
From the time of Anne’s grandfather, they managed to re-establish the estate and finances and succeeded in stabilizing it to some extent, but they were currently in trouble because of her father, who had a dull greed to upgrade their family to a Duchy.

Her parents were spending money like water trying to maintain friendships with people from high-ranking families, and they tried to elevate the family’s name.
He said that he would reproduce the glory of his predecessors, and he educated his children excessively strictly from an early age.
The son to be a competent heir, and the daughter to be married to a high-ranking family.

And Anne’s case was quite successful.
She was engaged to the successor of Marquisate Whitmore, who managed the Treasury from generation to generation.

“They will like it more now.”

Whatever the case, her parents spread the word in social circles the day Anne left.
It was said that they became in-laws with the Grand Duchy.
Her parents don’t think that they sold their daughter, but just by making a connection with the secretive Grand Duchy would have caught people’s ears.

‘What kind of expression will they make later?’

A rather cool feeling settled over her melancholy.
It was a pity that she could not see their faces in person, but she had no intention of going to check them out in person.
Before she came here, she swore strongly to sever her ties with her family.

She turned the page again and tried to read the next article, but she soon lost interest in it because she knew what it was about.

Anne felt the sleepiness creeping in.
The library was cooler than the other rooms, but as she lay on the comfy sofa, drowsiness came to her.
It was as if the effects of the sleeping tea she drank a while ago to get her to sleep were starting to work.

In her dimming eyes, Anne grabs the shawl and pulls it to find warmth, and eventually falls asleep.
And it wasn’t long before the door of the quiet library opened.

* * *

Roughly scribbled black letters spread like spilled ink on the paper on the wooden desk.
The high-quality feather pen in his hand moved quickly, the Grand Duke’s face was sharper than usual.

Ashton, who was waiting on the other side with a bundle of papers, suddenly opened his mouth.

“Have you asked Madam?”

“Talk about something understandable.”

Grand Duke didn’t even look away, he only spoke coldly.
It was a nuance that showed he didn’t understand what he was saying, but it meant that he didn’t want to speak in circles.