Chapter One

Bathed in glorious rays of light, the bride shows off a beaming smile.

It’s her moment of supreme bliss—the very scene that every maiden dreams of and longs to experience one day. In her pure white dress, she is more joyful, more beautiful, than anyone else in the whole world. If she is sharing that day with the one she loves, her spirits cannot help but soar even higher. It’s as though she has transformed into a fairy tale princess.

But...the dream does not end there. It continues ever onward. The journey to the ceremony may have been fraught with peril, but even after successfully reaching that goal, life is bursting at the seams with possibilities.

And so, the story does not simply conclude with a “happily ever after.” Quite the contrary—this was only the beginning.

After the ceremony came the reception. I doubt I’ll ever forget what a frantic experience it was, or the degree to which my nerves were frayed. House Flaubert is one of the most distinguished noble houses in the country, so its circle of acquaintances is vast, and even the number of relatives in attendance was quite large. The guest list also included some highly esteemed individuals with lofty social ranks, so I couldn’t let myself relax no matter how exhausted I was. I knew that, but it truly was a struggle. I was used to being beyond even a wallflower. I was typically a shadow cast by the wall, a part of the scenery that went unnoticed by everyone. That day, I had to be the exact opposite: the main focus of a large-scale celebration.

I certainly didn’t have time to enjoy it! I wondered,How on earth do fairy tale princesses cope with all this? I had to dedicate all my efforts to enduring behind my smiling facade so that I didn’t make any mistakes.

I said hello to people over and over—more times than I could count—and the last stretches are largely a blank to me, my memories too fuzzy for me to recollect much. I don’t even remember leaving. At any rate, by the time I got through it and reached our bedroom, it was late at night. After I had a bath and was blessedly able to change my clothes, the brand new silk bedsheets called to me. When I slipped into the large four-poster bed and felt its soft comfort, that was that. The next ti