How to Survive as the Wife of The Monster Duke

If Ilyin hadn’t seen it in her dreams she would have ignored it. But Ilyin knew the answer.

“If you don’t believe it, would you like to look at the cart yourself then? We’re just getting ready.”

“Okay,” she said, and the Lord guided her to where the cart was being prepared.

It was the same as Ilyin had seen in her dream. The only difference was that it was not early in the morning, but late in the afternoon. The cart was steadily being filled with cotton buffers. When Ilyin looked at the buffer, the Lord grinned, “It’s necessary when going to the North. There aren’t many roads good for the cart to go on.”

“I know that.” Ilyin pressed down on the buffer as if the cart was bigger than she thought and her hand went in quite deep.

“Even though it’s quite chilly, it’s still too warm to move fresh things. If you use too much cotton and deliver to Boro, everything inside will go bad,” he explained as she pulled out a piece of cotton. “I don’t know how you got interested in our things, but…”

Ilyin interrupted him, “If you are going to the Winter Region, this all makes sense.”

The Winter Region was another name for Biflten, a place where the weather was permanently wintered. It was also a much more formal name than the other nicknames it had been given, such as ‘Land Abandoned by God’, or ‘Land of Monsters’.

Ilyin took out the letters she had brought with her. One was a letter written by herself, and the other was the bridal recruitment letter from Biflten. Ilyin showed the Lord the letter with the Biflten family’s seal. “If I wanted to be this man’s bride, would you change your mind?” she spoke.

At that moment, the face of the Lord changed strangely. Anyone else would think that he was going to start laughing, but Ilyin knew this wasn’t the case.  As a noble, she had seen countless maids strangely changing their attitudes, mainly the new maids, when they realized what Ilyin’s position was in the mansion and they began to look down on her. But the Lord was the opposite and Ilyin spoke again, “Biflten won’t do business with many places. It’s a place where everyone is reluctant to interact.” She handed the letter she had written to the Lord instead of the letter bearing the Biflten family’s seal. “I don’t think it’s impossible to say that someone who is delivering goods to Biflten, at times like this, is not related to them.” Even in the summer, Biflten was well known for its harsh weather, Ilyin was certain that this Lord was indeed who she was looking for. “You’re at least in a friendly or perhaps loyal position to the Biflten’s. Then, you have the responsibility to deliver my letter.”

“How come?” The Lord asked, not denying what she said.

“As always, if no one is willing to be married at this time, I’ll be on my way as mistress of Biflten right away, without any competition,” Ilyin spoke softly. “Then at least I’ll be the mistress of the Biflten family or stay as a guest.” She tilted her head slightly. “Is there still not enough reason to deliver my letter?”

“As you wish.” The Lord eventually bowed his head. “We’ll deliver it to them as soon as possible.”

“You may check the letter if necessary,” she added. It’s not like I’m sending a warm love letter that no one should see.

The Lord shook his head. “No, but…” the Lord paused, curious, “How did you know?” He meant the relationship between Biflten and himself. However, Ilyin replied obliquely implying that she would not answer.

“I want to hear what the Duke has to say.” Even if she told him about the precognitive dream, there was no way he would believe it.

*

It was exactly a week later when a letter bearing the seal of the Biflten family arrived. It took about three days from the capital to reach the Boro estate. Ilyin wondered how it only took a week to get to Biflten which was located in the far north.

‘We’ll send a carriage to be on standby in front of the Arlen mansion. You can get in the carriage whenever you want.’ The contents of the letter were polite, but they also seemed indifferent. It sounds like they’re saying, ‘Come if you want to. We won’t wait eagerly’. Ilyin wondered if she was just overthinking it.

Looking up from the neatly written letter, she looked out of the window and over the fence of the mansion where she saw a strange carriage parked, but there was no sign of a seal to define which aristocrat family it was from. Then, she noticed that the horseman carried the mark of the Biflten family. If this was true, there was no fear of miscommunication and there was no reason to waste any more time, since what she’d been waiting for had arrived. Ilyin got up from her seat.