In a Political Marriage, Isn’t It Normal to Treat Your Fiancée Well? - Chapter 18

When I awoke, Lord Ravil was not beside me.

Instead, there was an elderly maid.

“Are you awake, Lady Sophia?”

“…Yes.”

My throat was sore.

My body felt heavy too… I struggled to sit up.

“You’ve been through much. The bath is prepared. The maids waiting here will attend to you. I must take my leave now to report to the master.”

Having said only that, the elderly maid left the room.

What did this mean?

Still confused, several maids helped me bathe.

My body was so heavy I could barely move, so their assistance was greatly appreciated.

Then they fed me… helped me change… and before I knew it, evening had fallen.

Since I had woken in the afternoon, I must have slept quite late.

The maids didn’t speak a single word.

They simply attended to me in silence.

Like dolls…

“We will escort you to your room.”

“Please do.”

The room they led me to was in a different location.

I had assumed they would take me back to that room.

“Please call if you require anything.”

After saying only that, the maids left the room.

The moment I was alone…

“Ugh… uuugh…”

Tears overflowed.

I didn’t understand anything anymore.

Why was this happening?

What did I do wrong!

I haven’t done anything!

“This is awful… too awful…”

Even though it was our wedding night, not a single word of love.

He took me as if it were merely an obligation.

“This marriage… it’s too much.”

The tears wouldn’t stop.

I cried so much my head hurt.

Still not understanding anything, I continued to cry.

The next day too, the maids attended to me in silence.

Preparing meals, helping me change, bathing me.

They did only that and left the room quietly.

Not even conversation…

At that time, I hadn’t realized.

That both rooms I’d been escorted to were guest rooms.

That I was expected to bear at least three children.

Without knowing anything… I simply continued crying.

Even after marriage, I had no personal interaction with Lord Ravil.

There was nothing between us except the act of making children.

It seemed my existence was permitted only as a vessel for bearing children.

The same continued after moving to the duchy.

I never received treatment befitting a wife or married couple.

Just days of being taken out of obligation.

Only the number of children increased.

Before I knew it, I had become afraid of men.

I couldn’t stop trembling just from them approaching.

Lord Ravil must have grown irritated with me like that.

His treatment of me gradually worsened.

While Lord Ravil was the initial reason I became afraid of men, he wasn’t the sole cause.

My father and brother were also among those I feared.

When my first child, my eldest son, was born and I visited my parents’ home, that was when…