"I'm just saying Your Grace, just so you know, I made a lot of women cry because of my handsomeness." Baron Edmund with his eye brows raised sarcastically.
Lord Nicholas entered the Duke's office to ask about the arrival of the Lady of Wyrmsley in the Manor. Lord Nicholas Richard Orlo Fenwood was the son of the brother of Duke Heinrey Theodore Orlo Fenwood, the current Duke. Lord Nicholas father is the former Duke of Fenwood; Duke William Louis Orlo Fenwood. Former Duke William died from the hands of the Emperor. Little did the Emperor knew, Duke Heinrey Fenwood have seen him stabbed his brother with a sword. Even in the present, the whole event is still clear in the head of Duke Heinrey Fenwood.
"Nicholas, how is your day today?" Duke Heinrey stares calmly to Lord Nicholas, his nephew.
"Your Grace, my day is fine as ever. The maids told me that a lady from the Wyrmsley Countdom will be staying in the Manor. Is the lady your soon to be wife?" Lord Nicholas gazes at Duke Fenwood with puppy eyes as he sat down in the couch.
"Nicholas, you should prepare for your study instead of meddling in my business if you want to be the next Duke Fenwood." Duke Fenwood replied while organizing the pile of documents in his table.
"Your right Young Master, our duke here is as stingy as a bee. He always prioritize the Dukedom than his life." Baron Edmund gazing at Lord Nicholas with sympathetic eyes in his table.
"You should find your spouse Your Grace since you're still in your prime, but why is the lady staying in the Dukedom?" Lord Nicholas Sparkling eyes glares at Duke Fenwood with curiousity.
"It's an imperial decree, Nicholas. You ought to go back to your study to become the next Duke Fenwood, if you keep doing this, I will not make you my heir." A serious nonchalant tone as Duke Fenwood talks to Lord Nicholas.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your precious time Your Grace, I'll be back to the library so please take it easy, don't push your self that hard." Lord Nicholas said as he walk to the door of the office to go back to the library.
"Your Grace, you and Young Master Nicholas looks like a father and son. Young Master Nicholas resembles you a lot when you were younger." Baron Edmund smiled at Duke Fenwood as he gazes to the duke in his table.
Days have passed until Lady Clementine started her journey to the Fenwood Dukedom. One day before the trip to the Fenwood Dukedom, Countess Claudine cannot ease her worries about the long journey to the Dukedom.
"Clementine my dear, are you sure you want to proceed to the Emperor's proposal?, my dear the Fenwood Dukedom is a dangerous place for you, please reconsider your decision Clementine." Countess Claudine talks with Lady Clementine in her garden pavilion.
"Your father is really worried in this idea my dear, we can't afford to send our only daughter to a lion's den." Countess Claudine held Lady Clementine as she tries to persuade Lady Clementine.
"Mother, I already made my decision to visit the Dukedom, it's only a rumors that the Dukedom was full of blood thirsty people. After all, rumors can't be trusted sometimes. You need not to worry mother, the imperial knights will be escorting me from the whole journey. Lady Clementine looks at her mother and talks with a calm gentle tone.
"Oh dear, please be safe in your journey my dear Clementine." Countess Claudine hug Lady Clementine as her way of showing how she loves her daughter Lady Clementine.
Meanwhile at the Kreuzer Marquisate, the Kreuzer family is having a heated Conversation, they're talking about her daughter's potential Betrothal with Duke Fenwood. The House of Kreuzer was famous for gambling illegal potions from the capital to sell in the neighboring Empire.
The house of Kreuzer loses it's respect and power when the emperor discovered their gambling scheme, the emperor almost executed the whole Kreuzer family but the former Marquess beg the emperor to let the Kreuzer go and just execute him or in other words, he sacrifice his self for the sake of the house of Kreuzer that now exist only by name.
"Why did you call us father?, this is urgent since you invited the whole family to a dinner, this is so unlike of you father." Lord Arden Kreuzer with a nonchalant face in the dining table.
"Arden, you're always impatient, I heard a lady from the Wyrmsley Countdom is staying in the Fenwood Dukedom by an imperial decree. The emperor is scheming something we didn't know." Marquess Dunstan slicing his steak as he talks menacingly in the dining table.
"My darling, aren't you overreacting?, the emperor wouldn't do that besides who would do such thing to a house that only exist by name." A menacing smile from Marchioness Catherine as she drink her wine.
"My dear daughter Arabella, it is imperative that we demonstrate our unwavering resolve to the Emperor and the nobility, lest our family's standing be diminished. To this end, I entrust you with a most delicate and crucial task: to captivate the affections of the Duke Fenwood. We cannot permit the lady of the Wyrmsley Countdom to usurp this opportunity, for our carefully laid plans hang in the balance. The fate of our family's resurgence rests upon your shoulders, Arabella. Should your charms prove insufficient to ensnare the Duke, I fear we may be compelled to resort to more...unconventional measures. I implore you, dear child, to succeed in this endeavour, that we may regain our former glory and assert our rightful place among the nobility." Marquess Dunstan glares at her daughter as he talks nonchalantly.
"How dare you, Father! You would sacrifice your own daughter's virtue and happiness upon the altar of your ambition? You would cast me into the very jaws of ruin, to be devoured by the beastly appetites of that licentious Duke? You, who claim to cherish my well-being, would so callously barter me away like a pawn on the chessboard of your vainglorious aspirations? Fie upon your paternal affections, father! You have ever cared more for the cold glitter of glory than for the tender feelings of your own child!" Lady Arabella stands in his table as he glare and talk at her father with anger.
"Enough Arabella, you will do as I say or I will sell you to the lustful Vicountess in the Southern Empire." Marquess Dunstan bottled up his anger and continue to eat.