Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 1
The bride set to marry the Marquis was barely twenty years old.
She came from a lower noble family, and her poverty was something already known.
However, the estate of Quilluxia was even more worn-down than Ezekiel had expected.
Except for the small moat beyond the castle walls, it could barely be called a castle. The structure, built by fitting large and small stones tightly together, was from a time more than a century ago. Even then, time had carved gaps where the wind freely passed through.
Cluck, cluck, cluck… A couple of chickens roamed the narrow courtyard of the castle, craning their necks. In a corner, a small stable housed only a single aging draft horse. There was just one well. But even if there were more horses, they wouldn’t all fit in this cramped courtyard anyway, so perhaps it was a clever choice.
To put it politely, the castle was pastoral. But to put it bluntly, it was dilapidated to the point of being shabby.
And today, in front of that decrepit castle, stood a crowd of people who seemed completely out of place.
Twelve paladins of the Holy Order of Udal, the god of storms and thunder.
And two grand carriages.
A couple of attendants, clearly there to serve someone important, and a middle-aged man dressed impeccably.
Amid them all, a woman who appeared particularly frail was saying farewell to her family.
“Miss Iris, please stay healthy. And you too, Young Master Henri.”
“Missus Babbin, you stay healthy as well.”
The woman, called Iris, wore a beautiful and well-crafted gown, but it didn’t suit her very well.
It was only natural—it wasn’t a gown made for her in the first place.
Ezekiel already knew that the gown had merely been tossed to the imperial palace’s seamstresses like alms by the imperial princess some months prior.
It had somehow been mended and altered to fit her.
“Missus Babbin, don’t worry. I’ll protect my sister.”
The woman’s younger brother puffed out his chest confidently. But the nanny, who had been dabbing her tears, scoffed as if unimpressed.
“Oh my, Young Master Henri, you should focus on looking after yourself.”
“Ugh! Nanny!”
The boy stomped his foot, and their close relationship was clear from this little interaction.
But none of them seemed aware that their extended goodbyes were dragging on.
Of course, the paladins standing in formation didn’t mind. They were long accustomed to waiting through drawn-out ceremonies.
Eventually, the middle-aged man cleared his throat and stepped forward.
“Ahem. Miss Quilluxia, it seems the farewells are getting a bit lengthy.”
“Oh, my apologies, Marquis.”
The woman flinched and quickly apologized to the ‘Marquis’.
The man, addressed as the Marquis, waved it off with a smile.
“It’s nothing. Having a good relationship with your attendants is a commendable thing. But I’m concerned that the paladins of Udal standing behind us might find it a bit tiresome.”
“What a load of bull.”
There came a low comment from Shanka, proud paladin of Udal, in response to what he’d just heard. Without shifting his gaze from the front, Ezekiel spoke in a hushed tone.
“Quiet.”
“Though I say this as a mere human being, I know that even the venerable Udal would feel it justified to strike that man down with lightning for this. Heaven almighty. That’s the sight of a father and daughter, I say. Daughter.”
Despite Ezekiel’s warning, Shanka’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
The young woman, barely twenty, still had the youthful appearance of someone not fully matured.
On the other hand, the Marquis was a man past forty.
His hair had long since turned white, likely due to his use of magic.
The two of them…
“I find it pleasing that the woman who will become my wife has a kind heart.”
…were about to be married.
The circumstances were common and simple.
Kazakov, the water mage renowned across the entire continent. To bring him into their fold, the Emperor had offered not only an enormous amount of money but also the title of Marquis and an estate.
The cost of employing a mage was always exorbitant.
And this was a mage who could freely control water—a living miracle. So, no one would fault the Emperor for granting him a title and land.
But the mage had demanded one more thing.
A daughter of the imperial family as his bride.
The Imperial Princess, who turned only sixteen this year, fainted upon hearing the news.
For three days and nights, she cried and wailed, staging a protest, saying she would rather die than marry some old mage.
Eventually, after much deliberation, the Emperor devised a clever plan.
He would adopt a daughter from a lower noble family and send her to the mage as his bride.
The woman carefully selected as the Emperor’s adopted daughter indeed came from a family of unparalleled humility.
Iris Quilluxia.
Her father had saved the Emperor from a terrible fall thirty years ago, catching him by sheer reflex, and was rewarded with a barony.
However, the Quilluxia estate he received at the time had no farmland, making it utterly impoverished. And that wasn’t the only issue—the barony was a hereditary title in name only, so technically, his daughter wasn’t even considered a noble. As a result, she had remained unmarried without an engagement even by the age of twenty.
Initially, the mage was displeased, but upon seeing her portrait, he accepted. After all, the silver-haired woman was a stunning beauty.
Eager to claim her, the mage even volunteered to personally travel to the distant estate and escort her for the wedding. The Emperor readily agreed and generously provided a massive dowry as her adoptive father.
Thus, neither the mage nor the woman had anything to lose in this arrangement.
…Or so it seemed.
“Isn’t forty years old an age when you should already be in the grave? Yet here that guy is, dragging his sorry self all the way here to marry a twenty-year-old girl and rushing her farewells with her family. What a joke.”
But Shanka clearly had a different opinion.
Ezekiel eventually shot Shanka a warning glance, signaling him once again.
“Enough.”
Normally, Shanka would have had at least ten more things to say, but perhaps sensing the mood, he finally shut his mouth. Ezekiel refocused his gaze straight ahead.
“Anyway, we have a long journey ahead. It’s best if we leave as soon as possible, wouldn’t you agree?”
But whether or not he heard that, the Marquis, standing nearby, gently wrapped his arm around the woman’s shoulder. The woman flinched and instinctively turned to look in Ezekiel’s direction.
Although Ezekiel knew she was looking at him, he deliberately pretended not to notice and shifted his gaze past her.
The woman blinked a few times, her vision blurring, before lowering her eyes to the ground.
T/N: The chapters are halved, so 1 KR chapter = 2 ENG chapters, but I’ll try to compensate with more updates (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
