A week passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, I had no choice but to stay busy, tying up loose ends before leaving for the Duke of Decaraznan’s territory and arranging for someone to manage my responsibilities in my absence.
On the surface, I might have seemed like a carefree loafer doing nothing, but in reality, I had a lot of responsibilities, so certain preparations were necessary.
In other words, I couldn’t simply vanish on a “honeymoon trip” with Bianca without warning, as I had done before.
Not that I had any say in that damned honeymoon trip in the first place.
But handling those affairs was nothing compared to the real headache—two particular women who had made themselves at home in the Duke of Estel’s residence.
Iris el Devhart and Ariel Thiers now treated the duchy as if it were their own, indulging in meals with nonchalant expressions.
Setting aside Aria, who rightfully belonged to the Estel Duchy, and Bianca, who had made it abundantly clear she would never return to the Castana Marquis family, I couldn’t understand why those two were still here.
Why were they clinging to the Estel Duchy like leeches instead of returning to the Imperial Palace and the Holy Land?
They spent their days doing nothing but glaring at each other and causing trouble—so why go through the stress of staying here?
For an entire week, I felt my lifespan shrinking in real time due to these three women—Bianca, the princess, and Ariel.
Fortunately, there seemed to be an unspoken rule among them, preventing the Duchy of Estel from being reduced to ashes through physical confrontation. However, that restraint didn’t extend to underhanded tactics.
Every encounter between them turned into verbal warfare, with raised voices being the mildest of offenses. Slander, manipulation, and mind games that belonged on a battlefield rather than in a noble household were exchanged endlessly. Their schemes were so elaborate that I couldn’t even understand what made them so desperate.
After countless rounds of subtle battles and vicious mind games, the once-unified Duchy of Estel, which had stood firm for a thousand years against threats and crises, was now divided into three warring factions—within just a week.
My father clearly favored Bianca the most, but Elena had occasionally made remarks suggesting that it wouldn’t be so bad if Ariel became part of our family. It was hard not to suspect that someone was manipulating her, taking advantage of her kind and sheltered nature.
“…Really, that woman is up to something sneaky. I never liked her from the start,” Bianca grumbled. “She always acts like a saintess, smiling gently, but deep down, she’s hiding a whole nest of vipers. Be careful, you hear me? If you let your guard down, she might just kidnap you.”
‘…I don’t think that’s exactly how it works,’ I thought to myself.
I glanced at Elena, who was frowning and avoiding Bianca altogether.
Meanwhile, Bianca, completely ignoring her own history of badmouthing other women, was whispering conspiratorial nonsense to me.
The situation had already shifted. Whether due to Ariel’s influence or something else, Elena’s attitude toward Bianca had grown increasingly hostile. And to be fair, I couldn’t exactly blame her. The “flaws” Elena pointed out about Bianca weren’t exactly false.
‘I can’t deny she has an eccentric personality.’
While Ariel subtly maneuvered to isolate Bianca, the princess took a different approach. Rather than focusing on my immediate family, she turned her attention to the knights and servants of the Duchy of Estel.
With her natural charisma and a few well-executed sparring matches, she managed to win over the muscle-brained knights in mere days.
Soon, the duchy was filled with voices praising the “kind, benevolent, and beautiful” princess.
Meanwhile, Bianca, aside from my father, had few supporters within the household.
Just like that, the Duchy of Estel was divided like a birthday cake, split among three women playing their own games.
And as I watched it all unfold, I felt my sanity crumbling. More than anything else, I couldn’t understand why I had no power to stop them.
‘…D*mn it.’
According to the romance novels floating around in the streets, when multiple women are interested in the same man, they’re usually depicted as lonely figures who lack siblings and form sisterly bonds rather than rivals.
Bianca and the princess were both only daughters, and Ariel, having grown up in an orphanage, had no family either. By all accounts, they should have formed a close-knit bond. Yet instead of treating each other like sisters, they were constantly at each other’s throats.
It was frustrating…
Thanks to them, the past week had been nothing but a draining nightmare. I couldn’t even tell if I was trying to recover my energy or if I was just dragging three tyrants along with me.
One small relief was that, as of a certain day, Aria had become remarkably well-behaved. She bowed respectfully and used honorifics not just with the princess and Ariel, but even with Bianca. Her shift in attitude was so drastic that even Bianca, who had a history of bloody battles with her, seemed hesitant to provoke her.
Finally, after a week of chaos, the day arrived for me to leave the Duke of Estel’s estate and head to the Duke of Decaraznan’s territory.
Aria was the only one accompanying me.
The others had wanted to see me off, but I desperately stopped them. The last thing I needed was to witness another screaming match at my departure.
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