Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Crazy One in This District
“Why do I have to wear this?!”
Yulikian shouted as he threw aside the long, flowing wig and dress.
For Grand Duke Yulikian Kun Rondenes, who had lived his entire life as a nobleman despite his misfortunes, cross-dressing was simply unthinkable.
Maddie looked him over with an indifferent expression.
While wearing a thin shirt and pants, she haphazardly threw on a maid’s uniform over them and replied.
“Oh, then don’t wear it and just go shout ‘Please arrest me!’ on the way!”
“Do we really need to disguise ourselves like this?”
“How many times do I have to tell you? This isn’t a place just anyone can enter. First of all, Your Grace leaving the capital is already a problem. What are we going to do about that distinctive silver hair of yours?”
“…Hah.”
The Grand Duke let out an irritated sigh and put on the wig.
After putting on the dress with its abundance of fluttering lace, he looked absolutely ridiculous.
Maddie immediately approached and pulled out a comb from under the pants she was wearing beneath the maid’s uniform.
“Are you some kind of general store? All sorts of things keep coming out of your clothes.”
“If you’re curious, you can try undressing me.”
“You…! Ah, forget it, forget it.”
Yulikian deeply furrowed his brow at her nonsensical remark before waving his hand dismissively.
Maddie’s mouth would sometimes run wild like that without restraint.
‘…Did I marry her for nothing?’
Unaware of Yulikian’s thoughts, Maddie quickly combed the long wig and braided it thinly, tying it in half.
“Wow. You really look like a young lady from a noble family.”
Hopeful at her words, Yulikian looked in the mirror and shouted in horror.
“Are you crazy? Anyone can see I’m just a grown man in women’s clothes!”
“Don’t be deceived by outward appearances, look with your heart. Can’t you see that beautiful young lady in the mirror?”
Yulikian clutched his forehead and staggered.
“You crazy…”
“Shh.”
The sound of people passing by could be heard in the hallway outside. Maddie quickly turned off the lights in the room.
After the footsteps faded away, Maddie moved swiftly to grab a dark shawl from the luggage scattered on the floor.
Although not much moonlight came through the windows of the cheap inn, Maddie moved without hesitation, seemingly accustomed to the darkness.
She covered Yulikian’s broad shoulders with the shawl and tied a scarf around his neck to hide his Adam’s apple.
Maddie looked straight into Yulikian’s blue eyes and said,
“You have your precious nephew’s life at stake, and I have my blood-earned 1 billion on the line. So stop whining and follow me right now. We have a long way to go.”
“…Can you really find it?”
Maddie answered with a grin.
“Honey. I’m Maddie.”
Somehow, it felt reassuring.
Just then, the faint vibration of horse hooves striking the ground could be felt from far outside the window.
Yulikian, who couldn’t hear the sound, just stared at Maddie with his large eyes slightly furrowed.
Maddie put her index finger to her lips and carefully gathered their bags.
They quickly slipped out through the inn’s back door.
Not long after, uninvited guests burst into the inn.
“Have you seen a silver-haired man in his mid-twenties and a woman with brown hair and green eyes?”
With a sharp blade pressed right below his neck, the innkeeper answered trembling.
“N-no! I really haven’t seen them!”
“Haven’t had any unusual or unfamiliar guests?”
“Well, of course we always have unfamiliar guests at an inn. …Ah. Now that I think about it, there might have been a noble young lady who looked like she had run away.”
“A young lady? Did she have brown hair?”
“No? When I saw her leaving, she was blonde.”
The pursuit team was about to dismiss it as useless information and search other routes, but their leader ‘Lambda’ thought differently.
“They’re in disguise.”
Unable to contain his anger, Lambda beheaded his own horse as soon as they left the inn. The large horse collapsed sideways without even a struggle.
“Damn it, damn it!”
As Lambda clenched his fist, his leather gloves made a creaking sound.
A cold smile suddenly appeared on Lambda’s face as he brushed back his sweat-soaked hair, his face red with excitement.
“…Maddie, just wait.”
Lambda mounted the horse of a subordinate who had just arrived, after slitting the man’s throat.
“To the train station! Follow me!”
Despite his violent actions and authoritarianism, his subordinates didn’t dare resist.
The sound of the pursuit team’s hooves once again shook the ground.
By this time, Maddie and Yulikian had already thrown off their pursuers, changed carriages twice, and boarded a train.
Now transformed into a neat gentleman, Maddie had tied her brown hair in a single ponytail and crossed her legs. Not content with just that, she leisurely opened a newspaper to read.
Yulikian was still in his blonde wig and elaborate dress.
Despite trying to hide his natural build by hunching over, it was hard to ignore the stares of people around him in the third-class car.
Yulikian pressed close to Maddie and asked through gritted teeth, trying to keep his low voice from being heard, as if practicing ventriloquism.
“…Why do you get to dress as a man while I’m still stuck looking like this?”
“Because my darling’s hair color is too noticeable.”
“That awful ‘darling’ talk…!”
Almost raising his voice without realizing it, Yulikian quickly lowered his head.
Maddie silently opened the newspaper’s front page and showed it to Yulikian.
A Marriage Beyond Social Classes: The Grand Duke of Rondenes’ Wedding
Grand Duke Yulikian Kun Rondenes announced his romantic relationship with a woman from the slums several months ago.
…(omitted) Despite opposition from those around him, the Grand Duke of Rondenes ultimately held a lavish outdoor wedding with the woman from the slums.
‘Maddie,’ who became the Grand Duchess as of yesterday, caused a stir at the wedding by wearing a blood-red dress.
(Photo attached)
Maddie slightly pushed up the black horn-rimmed glasses she had stolen from the elderly gentleman dozing in front of her and said,
“I look good in the photo.”
In the newspaper photo, Yulikian was holding Maddie in her red dress, beaming proudly as if showing off his lover.
The voices of passengers in the third-class car discussing the newspaper could be heard.
“So the Grand Duke of Rondenes really ended up marrying this commoner woman?”
“Commoner is too generous. She’s from the slums, you know.”
“She’s quite pretty though.”
“That must be what got him.”
“My friend in Rondenes territory says they’re madly in love. But apparently the woman is a bit crazy.”
“What do you mean? Crazy?”
“Just a bit, you know, up here. But they say she has a good heart.”
The male passenger circled his index finger near his temple.
“So you’re saying His Grace married a crazy woman?”
“But they say the Grand Duke changed after meeting her too. He became a little…”
The person who had been circling his finger at his temple now shook his head as well.
“…Well, anyway, they’re married now, so they’ll probably live well.”
“You can go crazy in love. They’re young, after all.”
The passengers turned to the next page of the newspaper and started different conversations.
Yulikian lowered his head even more and covered his face with the blonde wig.
He was afraid people would recognize him.
“…How much further do we have to go?”
“We’re getting off now.”
Maddie stood up and strode toward the last car of the train.
She casually took a beret placed in the overhead luggage compartment, put it on, and left the stolen glasses on someone’s luggage.
It all happened naturally as they moved between cars.
While Yulikian was still amazed by her sleight of hand, Maddie said nonchalantly.
“You’ll be able to take off the dress soon.”
“Really?”
That was the most welcome news he’d heard.
“Yes. Because we’re getting off now.”
“…But the train is still moving?”
“That’s why I told you to wear thick clothes.”
Maddie opened the door at the very end of the train.
The strong wind whipped their hair wildly. The noise of the train running on the tracks was so overwhelming that Yulikian couldn’t properly understand what Maddie was saying.
Hoping he had heard wrong, Yulikian asked again.
“You want us to get off now?!”
“Why that expression? Haven’t you ever jumped off a train before?”
“Of course not! How could I have?!”
“You always shout when you’re flustered, darling. I’m going first. It’s now or never.”
Just then, the train began to slow down slightly as it approached a junction. Without hesitation, Maddie jumped.
Despite rolling several times, she sprang up from the cloud of dust.
Such an impossible…
Yulikian repeated several curses in his mind before finally gathering his courage to step out of the train.
In that moment, he was thankful for wearing the multiple layers of the dress.
* * *
According to Maddie, they needed to cross the border.
Yulikian swallowed hard as he hid behind a rock, silently watching Maddie’s actions.
“Maddie. That’s a protected area.”
“I know that too.”
“Your claim that Astrid is in this restricted protected area that no one can enter freely… how much should I believe you?”
Maddie smirked as she disassembled, reassembled, and modified several stolen firearms.
“If you couldn’t trust me, you shouldn’t have married me in the first place.”
“The marriage… we had an agreement, didn’t we?”
“That’s right.”
Maddie aimed into the distance using the rear sight and front sight of the rifle, then lowered it and turned her gaze toward Yulikian.
“I keep you alive, and you give me money. That was our contract. But you said it would all be meaningless without your beloved nephew. That’s why we’re here now looking for that nephew.”
“…What I mean is, is Astrid really there? Why would a child we couldn’t find searching the entire country be in a nature reserve straddling the border…”
“We need to cross the border precisely because we couldn’t find him in the country. You can’t find this through word of mouth. We have to move ourselves. The Emperor must have deliberately hidden him.”
“…Astrid is only seven years old, could he still be alive?”
“Who knows. Since we’ve come this far, we should at least find the child’s bones to take back.”
It was a heartless response. Yulikian turned his head away, no longer wanting to exchange words with her.
As deep night fell, Maddie and Yulikian began to move, keeping their bodies low to the ground.
Maddie suddenly ambushed the soldiers standing guard.
They didn’t even have time to let out a final scream.
“Maddie. Not using the gun?”
“That’s for later. If we use it now, people will come running.”
Maddie slung the rifle over her shoulder and walked ahead. Yulikian followed in her footsteps as they entered deep into the forest.
* * *
The two were caught by soldiers just before crossing the Durzel Mountains that surrounded the border.
They lost consciousness after being struck in the back of their heads. Through their fading awareness, they could hear the soldiers’ voices.
“What are these ones?”
“Of all places to try to pass through. Bad luck.”
“What should we do with them?”
“What do you mean what should we do? They’ve seen us after coming all the way here. Dump them there.”
Hours later, Yulikian and Maddie fell endlessly downward through a long pipe, mixed among garbage and corpses.
As soon as Yulikian regained consciousness, he instinctively covered his nose.
The stench of rotting garbage permeated everywhere. It was strong enough to make his eyes sting.
Due to walls that seemed to reach the sky, sunlight barely reached ‘this place.’
Yulikian stumbled to his feet in the gloomy shadows. Every step he took was met with an unpleasant squelching sensation.
“…M-Maddie. Where are you?”
Yulikian walked across the garbage, awkwardly feeling his limbs that had partially lost sensation.
Despite falling from such a height, fortunately nothing seemed to be broken.
Luckily, Maddie was sitting on top of another garbage heap. Judging by her posture, she appeared to be unharmed.
“Maddie… Are you okay? Say something.”
Yulikian reached out to her with concern.
Her gaze, which had been fixed on the ground, turned skyward. Maddie threw her head back and screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Damn it, to be thrown into this godforsaken place TWICE!”
Her powerful voice bounced off the rock walls surrounding them, echoing everywhere.
Godforsaken place TWICE~
Thrown in TWICE~
TWICE~
TWICE~
Regretting his momentary concern for her, Yulikian irritably said to her,
“Get up, Maddie. We don’t have time.”
“I know, I know… sigh”
“I’ll give you extra compensation when we get back, so try to gather your strength.”
“‘When we get back,’ you say.”
“…We can get back. We must get back.”
“Yes, yes. Whatever you say.”
Dusting off her bottom as she stood up, Maddie slowly looked around the garbage town.
Really, this was a place she never wanted to return to.
“Hah… What rotten luck. Damn it.”
Maddie sighed vacantly as she recalled their first meeting.
