Chapter 10
1140 Words
The Grand Duchess of Archique once said something profound.
【Power and money—you must possess one or the other. If you hold both, it is your opportunity, yet also your challenge.】
Marianne knew her gender would limit her journey toward power. Even her namesake grandmother, upon ascending the throne, faced the glass ceiling for female rulers. This included the limited military role of female rulers and the succession issues arising from childbirth.
Even Obsda's previous queen, Queen Marie—the last ruler of the Lorraine Dynasty—had to rely on her husband to maintain her rule. This imbalance in the upper echelons of power led to gender disparities and the male primogeniture principle in succession laws.
After all, when decisions shaped a nation's destiny, the safest choices were often the most favored. Marianne was neither the first in line to inherit the Grand Duchy of Archique nor the Calda territories. Her physical prowess and magical aptitude offered no remarkable promise. She understood her future lay either as a queen consort or as a regional lord or female governor.
Reality, however, had stripped her of any claim to the throne. To secure a life of luxury and privilege, she must become a wealthy female lord—and find an ally whose interests were intertwined with hers, someone who could strike down those coveting her fortune when the moment demanded it.
Her half-brother Lucius, sharing the same mother but different father, presented the ideal choice.
Sharing half their blood, Lucius could never be a suitor for Marianne. Moreover, they faced a common threat to their interests: Henry Lorraine Grand Duchess Akikui-Dunawa, the legitimate son of Grand Duchess Akikui and Count Calda.
Unlike the capable Lucius and the relatively grounded Marianne, Archique Grand Duchess Akikui's sole legitimate son bore a striking resemblance to Count Calda in both appearance and intellect, while inheriting the Archique Grand Duchess's fiery temper from her youth. It could be said that every vile trait imaginable found its embodiment in Prince Henry.
Lucius and Marianne endured no shortage of bullying from Prince Henry during their childhood. This made them acutely aware that unless they amassed sufficient power before Grand Duchess Archique's death or abdication, Prince Henry would show no hesitation in wielding his axe against them.
“I met the Cardinal responsible for the southern territories at Odin's palace...” Marianne hadn't returned empty-handed from Odin's court. Compared to the Duchy of Archique, Odin undoubtedly offered her greater standing: “His position is crucial to your standing within the Matar Knights. So I invited him to dine and mentioned him to Her Majesty.”
The moment matters touched upon Grand Duchess Archique, Lucius couldn't help but grow serious: “Does the Grand Duchess intend to support this Cardinal of the South in challenging the Pope?”
"... Do you think Her Majesty would side with the King of Obsda?“ Marianne scoffed. ”She despises my uncle—your biological father—far more than she does my second betrothed or the Pope."
Since the Pope's illegitimate daughter had replaced Marianne as the King of Cantreo's fiancée four years prior, it was widely assumed the Pope had aligned with Cantreo in the conflict between Obsda and Cantreo.
It was precisely to resist the encroaching Cantreo that King Obsda allied with Odin, then hijacked Marianne’s third betrothal.
After all, a niece could never compare to a biological daughter.
Moreover, King Obsda had a strained relationship with his brothers and had once been betrothed to Grand Duchess Archique.
Though Grand Duchess Archique never revealed Lucius's father's identity, anyone with sense understood that aside from King Obsda, no one else could have compelled Marianne's grandparents to clean up the mess and force the philandering Count Calda to return and take responsibility.
The previous Archique Grand Duchess—Marianne's maternal grandmother—feared that after her death, her grandfather would favor his eldest daughter from his first marriage (the current Duchess of Brittany) over Archique. This would threaten Archique's interests, so she entrusted her confidante— Queen Mary of Obsda—to care for her only daughter after her death. She also arranged the betrothal between the current King of Obsda and Grand Duchess Archique.
By all logic, the King of Obsda should not have refused this betrothal.
After all, Archique—who bore Lucius and Marianne—was an exceptionally rare female heiress at the time. Possessing both striking beauty and scholarly refinement, she shared a mother-daughter bond with Queen Mary, making her the ideal choice for Obsda's Crown Princess.
Yet reality delivered a harsh blow to all expectations.
The impetuous King of Obsda seduced the young Grand Duchess of Archique into bed, only to renege on his promise after she became pregnant, instead seeking to marry the daughter of a minor nobleman—a woman of mere beauty.
Despite Queen Mary's threats and enticements, and Prince Dunawa's long, earnest pleas, King Obsda refused to abandon his mistress, even threatening his parents with death.
Meanwhile, within the Obsda royal family at the time, the Queen's second son was a homosexual devoted to the gods, and her youngest son was an idle moonlighting youth.
Could such a vast kingdom truly be entrusted to them?
Left with no choice, Queen Mary decisively acted: she made the youngest son Count of Calda, then forced him to marry Archique Grand Duchess—who had already borne Lucius—thus stifling the scandal.
Given Grand Duchess Archique's fiery temperament, she would have severed ties with Obsda entirely—perhaps even aided Cantreo or Odin in conquering this nation that had brought her such profound humiliation.
Years later, the Grand Duchess of Archique had matured into a competent ruler, having long since tempered the fiery temper that once drove her to draw her sword against the Crown Prince. Yet this did not mean she would show the King of Obsda any favor, nor would she bow to the kingdom's every command. As for Lucius...
Though Grand Duchess Archique despised this child who had brought her shame, she understood that Lucius could not choose his birth. She, too, must pay for the mistakes of her youth. Thus, mother and son maintained a distant sovereign-subject relationship. After surviving his most trying childhood years, Lucius had even adjusted his mindset to address his biological mother as “Grand Duchess,” never once mentioning establishing a father-son bond with the King of Obsda.
In his view, a man so heartless he would risk his life to fight his own parents just to break his betrothal to Archique Grand Duchess would surely care nothing for the future of Lucius—a bastard child.
Compared to that, he might as well rely on his half-sister.
At least Lucius knew Marianne inside out, and they shared a bond of mutual interest.
- Writer
