Chapter 1
“Is he out of his mind?”
Charlize stood on the balcony of the grand ballroom, her thoughts circling the words he had said that night.
“Why do you love him?”
Achilles had somehow figured out she had feelings for Valter—and yet, he still went to the Emperor and asked to marry her.
Charlize couldn’t wrap her head around it.
She wanted to confront him, but he didn’t even live in the capital. As Tower Master, he had no permanent residence here. Even though he played chess with the Emperor often, he always stayed in the palace’s guest wing.
Their connection to the Empire—truthfully, half of it was because of Charlize.
When she was young, she had been ambushed while playing with her older brother, Oscar. Seriously injured by assassins, her life was saved thanks to the Tower Master.
Charlize’s body was immune to both divine power and conventional magic. Desperate, the Emperor sent for help from both the Tower and the Holy Temple.
It was Achilles who arrived first—swift and efficient.
Despite being only two years older than Charlize at the time, he was already Tower Master. He quickly healed her wounds and revealed she wasn’t devoid of magic—just different. She had something far deeper: Primordial Mana.
That event created a lasting connection. Achilles became a frequent visitor at the palace.
But even so, he wasn’t someone Charlize interacted with regularly. He was the Emperor’s chess partner—nothing more. Yes, he had healed her, but she had been unconscious at the time.
Aside from that, they’d only met a handful of times.
Once at a ball.
Once at another event.
Once standing beside the Emperor.
That’s it. Only three times!
And one of those times, he walked right up to her and asked that impossible question.
She’d been so flustered she barely stammered a reply, and before she could say anything else—he vanished.
“So why am I marrying him?!”
Charlize ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
Meanwhile…
“Hmph! He’s far better than that Valter Bianchi.”
Emperor Arthur scoffed.
He hadn’t planned to lose the recent chess match, but the result couldn’t have pleased him more.
Achilles was close in age to Charlize, and Arthur had wanted him as a son-in-law for some time.
Sure, the Bianchi family was impressive.
But there were eight ducal houses in the Empire.
No matter how talented Valter was—even as a Sword Master—he didn’t bring anything special to the table.
Even worse, Valter used the fact that he was Charlize’s childhood friend and first love as a weapon to manipulate her—causing his standing with the Emperor to drop sharply.
“Achilles might be a bit stiff in personality, but when it comes to the empire’s interests, choosing the Tower Master over that brat is the clear choice.”
“You’re an adult now, and I trust you understand your responsibilities. You are a princess. It’s time you made choices not for yourself, but for your country.”
The Emperor recalled what he had said when he ordered her to prepare for marriage to the Tower Master. He also remembered the expression that crossed her face then—her pale complexion and despair-filled eyes.
He felt guilty. After all, Charlize had no personal connection with the Tower Master, and she was clearly in love with someone else. It must’ve been overwhelming.
But marriage, especially for nobility—no, for royalty—was often about duty, not love. Between Valter Bianchi and the Tower Master, there was no question who was more beneficial to the Empire. The Tower Master held power nearly equal to the Pope and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Emperor himself.
“Charlize, you must let go of your feelings for the young Duke. He’s already seeing someone else, isn’t he?”
At those words, Charlize flushed red and lowered her head. Though she and Valter had been close, she had never won his heart.
Watching Valter grow close to other noblewomen while Charlize could only suffer in silence made the Emperor seethe. Especially when the Bianchi couple acted as if the princess were already their daughter-in-law!
“At least now, I won’t have to watch the Bianchis act so smug in front of me,” he thought with grim satisfaction.
But as the memory of his daughter’s tearful face resurfaced, his chest tightened again.
“That guy doesn’t care about you, Charlize. You know that, don’t you? He treats you like a fish already caught.”
Crown Prince Oscar’s words made Charlize’s face flush crimson. Her earlier blush before the Emperor had been from sorrow—this time, it was from shame.
“I-It’s not like that! Valter is…”
“That bastard knows you’re in love with him, Charlize.”
His words grew sharper—from “that guy” to “that bastard.” When no attendants or maids were around, the siblings often spoke freely with each other.
“But I don’t even know what kind of person the Tower Master is. I don’t want to marry someone like him, Oscar.”
Charlize’s voice trembled as she spoke, tears threatening to fall. Oscar’s face clouded over. If he could, he would have kept his little sister close, never letting her go.
If not for the fact that Valter was from within the Empire, he might have been the better option—there were no other eligible young men of her age among the Empire’s seven other ducal families.
The same was true for Valter. The other ducal houses lacked young ladies his age as well.
But despite that, Valter spent his time charming lower noble ladies, hurting Charlize in the process. Recently, rumors had it he’d grown especially close to a count’s daughter.
“That irritating bastard.”
Oscar had disliked Valter Bianchi from the beginning. Though he had tolerated him as a friend due to the lack of suitable noblemen close to Charlize’s age, the truth was—he was arrogant.
And the Bianchi couple were no better.
Instead of telling their son to treat Charlize kindly or sincerely, they whispered manipulative advice to her, as if grooming her to become their daughter-in-law.
“If Your Highness would just try to lift his mood, I’m sure he’d change.”
“What if Your Highness tried being more affectionate?”
“Perhaps if Your Highness dressed more modestly—my son prefers demure styles…”
Oscar had always tried to ignore gossip between noblewomen, but after every one of these conversations, Charlize’s face would fall. He needed to know what they were saying to her.
Every time, he wanted to jump out from behind the garden trees and yell at them. But Charlize, too hurt to protest, simply nodded and said she’d think about it.
Oscar raked his hands through his hair, visibly frustrated.
“Your only real path to staying in the Empire was as the future Duchess of Bianchi. And Valter? All he does is string you along! Honestly, the Tower Master’s a better choice. He’s close to Father, so you could probably come home often—ugh, damn it!”
Then, catching a glimpse of Charlize’s tear-streaked face, Oscar pulled her into a hug. Her tears quickly soaked his shoulder.
“I don’t even know what kind of person the Tower Master is…”
The truth was, neither did Oscar.
The one who had a relationship with the Tower Master was the Emperor—not the Crown Prince. The man never made an effort to speak to Oscar. His only interest seemed to be the Emperor.
Those icy golden eyes that occasionally glanced his way—they belonged to a man as cold and beautiful as a statue carved from frost. If Valter was a rough-cut noble with the features of a knight, then the Tower Master was an elegant young man with a piercing, delicate beauty.
“For a mage, he’s well-built. I doubt he’s ever used a sword, but those eyes—he’s definitely fought before.”
His gaze was sharp. He didn’t look at people kindly.
Still, the Emperor seemed to like him for some reason. Whenever the Tower Master visited, the Emperor dropped everything to greet him as an honored guest.
He wanted to tie him down—make him a noble of the Empire. The ultimate goal was to absorb the Tower into the Empire.
The Tower might physically be within Imperial territory, but its existence was politically neutral. The Empire only pretended to respect that.
“…As soon as you marry him, His Majesty plans to grant the Tower Master the title of Grand Duke. He’ll also be given an estate and mansion in the capital. You can use any excuse to leave the Tower and live there.”
“If I live there alone, won’t people say I was abandoned by my husband the moment we married?”
“You’re the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, and the only sister of the Crown Prince. No one would dare mock you.”
But Charlize wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t the same Charlize as in the original novel.
The original Charlize was a villainess who used the Emperor and Crown Prince’s favor to dominate high society. But the current Charlize couldn’t do that.
“Why did I have to remember the novel after falling for Valter?”
She had only recalled her past life after throwing herself in front of a blade meant for the Crown Prince.
That was when she realized she had been reincarnated into a romance fantasy novel titled “The Duke Falls at Her Feet.”
Charlize had been the villainess—engaged to her childhood friend, Valter. She tormented the heroine, Rebecca, out of jealousy, committing countless cruel deeds.
In the end, after attempting to kill Rebecca, she was exposed and cast out—married off to an aging foreign noble as punishment.
“But I never hurt Rebecca…”
