I Got My Engagement Annulled… Even Though We Were Never Engaged - Chapter 2

The next morning—

“Adeline, this is terrible! What are we going to do about this?! At this rate, you’ll completely lose all your marriage prospects!”

I was hoping to escape reality in my dreams for just this morning and had slept in later than usual when—BAM! My bedroom door was thrown open with a loud noise.

The one who committed such rudeness was my two-years-older sister, Beatrice.

With her marriage to her fiancé, Mariotte, scheduled in seven months, she’s a beauty with golden hair and emerald eyes.

Even though we’re sisters, one is a beauty while the other has a face that’s far too plain. God is unfair, I think.

Since Sister Beatrice takes after Mother and I take after Father, well, I suppose there’s nothing to be done about it.

Mother is such a stunning beauty that even now at forty-one, she looks ageless, while Father, in contrast, has a flat, unremarkable face.

Mother is a powerful magician.

It seems that having strong magical power makes one age slower, and she’s still often mistaken for being in her late twenties.

Although Sister and I inherited our parents’ respective traits, one from each strangely enough, our magical talents were inherited in complete opposition to our appearances.

In other words, I inherited Mother’s extraordinary magical talent, while Sister, though not incapable of magic, inherited Father’s ordinary magical ability.

“Mmm… What is it so early in the morning?”

“It’s not early, it’s already noon! How long are you going to keep sleeping?! Get up right now!”

Father and Mother aren’t at our townhouse in the royal capital.

Father’s health has been poor for the past year, so he’s been bedridden at our estate, and Mother has been attending to him there.

Although Sister and I returned to the royal capital for the autumn social season, given Father’s condition, it’s likely both he and Mother will spend this entire social season at the estate.

Thus, naturally, Sister is currently in charge of the townhouse.

As her humble younger sister, I cannot defy Sister’s orders.

At Sister’s command, my maid, Allie, stripped the covers off me.

Well, I suppose letting me sleep this late was Sister’s way of being considerate toward me.

But even so, it must have been nearing noon, and she’d reached her limit.

“Mmm, so what’s so terrible?”

Stretching my body like a cat on the bed, I asked Sister.

Then Sister thrust the newspaper she was holding right in front of my face—WHAM!

On the front page were a picture of me and a familiar handsome man. Since it was taken with a magical tool camera, it was clear—no, that’s not it.

“What is this?!”

On the front page of the gossip newspaper was a huge headline: “Pitiful! Unengaged Young Lady Has Engagement Broken!”

Reading further, yesterday’s engagement cancellation incident was written about in an amusing and exaggerated manner.

“Adeline, they’re calling you the count’s daughter who lost to a man! If you had to lose, at least lose to a girl!”

“Sister, that’s not the issue here.”

First of all, it wasn’t me who lost to a man, but the real Adrienne Canteloupe, the count’s daughter. I was just mistaken for her. Moreover, that declaration of being a man-lover was a complete lie, so I didn’t actually lose to a man.

Out of habit, I put on the non-prescription glasses I kept by my bedside and got up from the bed. Sister looked at me with a pitying expression.

“Would you quit wearing those ridiculously unfashionable glasses already?”

“And you should fix that sharp tongue of yours before Mariotte breaks off your engagement, you know.”

Despite being a beauty, Sister has a sharp tongue. Mother also has a sharp tongue, so this must be Mother’s influence.

“You’re the one still holding a grudge over what Mariotte said to you. That was when you were ten, wasn’t it? That’s just the ‘teasing the one you like’ kind of thing, so don’t stay stubborn forever.”

“What are you talking about, Sister? There’s no way anyone would like someone like me.”

Our childhood friend Mariotte got along well with us sisters.

Mariotte is the second son of the Count of Orge, and since his family’s estate was next to the town we govern, we saw each other often from a young age.

Our estate is within the Duchy of Dauvergne, and when our fathers attended the ducal family gatherings several times a year, we children would be left at one of our houses. Since it only took about two hours by carriage to reach each other’s homes, we often visited to play.

I admired Mariotte, who was two years older, as a reliable big brother, and inevitably, he was my first love.

I still remember what he said to me when I was ten.

I don’t recall the context of the conversation, but Mariotte said:

—Adeline’s dark green eyes are like a witch.

I immediately understood that “witch” didn’t refer to a female magician, but to the sinister witches in stories.

In that moment, along with my faint crush, my heart shattered into pieces.

I’d always known I wasn’t a beauty like Sister, but being told to my face that I looked like a witch was something a young girl couldn’t recover from.

After that, I apparently shut myself in my room for three days and even said I wanted to gouge out my eyes and replace them with glass ones.

Unable to bear it, Mother bought me non-prescription glasses, and by blurring the color of my eyes with the glasses, I finally calmed down.

Since then, I’ve been fond of wearing non-prescription glasses, but Sister seemed to dislike it.

“Even Mariotte regrets it and has been feeling guilty ever since. Besides, I like your eye color? It’s beautiful, like malachite.”

“You’re the only one who says that, Sister. …Oh, except for Father and Mother.”

“I’m here too, Miss,” my maid Allie insisted with a furrowed brow, so I added, “And Allie too.”

Then a maid passing by in the hallway poked her head in and started saying, “Me too,” “Me too,” so while thinking how kind the servants in our house are, I said, “And all of you too.”

“With this many people saying they like it, isn’t that enough?”

Even though Sister says that, it’s not that kind of issue.

“The biased opinions of those close to you are different from the general public’s perception.”

“You’re so stubborn.”

Sister looked exasperated and seemed to give up on taking the glasses from me.

“Well, anyway, right now it’s about this newspaper. I had Robinson file a complaint, but since it’s already been published, there’s no stopping it.”

Robinson is our butler. He’s a rather dandy, gentle-looking man past fifty, but contrary to his appearance, he’s quite capable, and the only reason Sister and I can stay at the townhouse alone is because of him.

“Oh, speak of the devil it seems Robinson is back.”

The sound of the front door opening could be heard, and a maid came to announce Robinson’s return.

“I’ll go talk to Robinson first, so hurry up and get changed and come downstairs. It’s time for lunch! If you’re late, I’ll have it cleared away!”

Since I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I was quite hungry.

If I upset Sister, she might really make me skip the meal, so with Allie’s help, I quickly changed, then clutching the newspaper with its hateful article, I headed downstairs.