Marriage of Convenience

Chapter 3 – The Villainess, Bianca (3)

Translator: Skye

Bianca had been married off to the Arno family at the young age of 7. Despite being a young 20-year-old man himself, Zachary was nothing but big and scary to a child.

He was a brusque person with hands as large as Bianca’s face and his humble, dark, wool clothes gave off the scent of death. He was handsome and masculine, but that was also what made him look like a gravekeeper in the eyes of the young Bianca.

Zachary wasn’t used to interacting with children and Bianca wasn’t used to interacting with grown men aside from her father. Bianca avoided Zachary and, in turn, the latter was unable to approach her easily.

Though Zachary did make efforts to treat Bianca well in his own way, the problem was that instead of using warm words or smiles, he used money and gifts to try and win her favor.

That had been the starting point of Bianca falling further into loneliness.

With her back still leaning against the headrest, Bianca surveyed her room. The floor was covered with a carpet made from high-quality wool that felt extremely soft under her feet. Its rich hues and intricate patterns were indicative of its high-value, and yet Bianca was sure she had been dissatisfied with it in her past life, grumbling about how it was inferior to a carpet made of silk.

The Arnos were well-off thanks to Zachary’s impressive feats, which garnered all sorts of valuables and rewards from the king, but they were still incomparable to Bianca’s family, the Blancheforts, which remained prosperous for generations.

Zachary was a blunt and unsophisticated warrior, and he wasn’t one to wear extravagant clothing. This was reflected in how his castle was decorated as well. Even so, he had made an effort to match the lavishness Bianca would have grown up with under the Blancheforts.

Dull carpets, drab ornaments, and wooden furniture decorated Zachary–the lord of the castle’s room. In contrast, Bianca’s room held vibrant tapestries, gold-trimmed furniture, and cloth dyed in precious colors. But Bianca had still been dissatisfied. No matter how hard Zachary tried, it was not easy to meet Bianca’s standards.

The Bianca in the past had belittled Zachary’s endeavors, calling them pathetic. Even when he had brought back priceless purple-dyed cloth from a foreign country, Bianca only grumbled about how there was no gold thread to embroider it with.

There was one time when the usual amount of allowance given to Bianca had been slashed. As war continued, warhorses needed to be bought constantly while arrowheads and swords were always in short supply. Bianca had been wanting to redecorate her room before the weather got colder, so she became angry once she realized she did not have the funds to do so.

Decorating her room was not just a simple act of indulgence for Bianca. As she had practically been deposited in an unfamiliar place with no one but her nanny, Bianca was on awkward terms with everyone in the Arno castle, including her husband. Hence, she had no person or thing to grow attached to. Decorating her own space was an action done to alleviate some of the loneliness she felt. She was able to feel a sense of familiarity whenever she spent time in the room she decorated similarly to the one she had back in Blanchefort castle while dressed in expensive garments.

However, an absurd amount of money was required to adorn the desolate Arno castle and have it resemble the opulence of Blanchefort castle. Having her allowance cut was such a dire problem for Bianca that it had made her go find her husband herself, despite normally always avoiding him.

‘Why in the world do you have to participate in the war? What’s the point of winning if it just makes us poorer and poorer every time?!’

‘This will be the only time your allowance is cut.’

‘There’s not a single joy of living in this castle, and you just took away the one source of happiness I had.’

‘…….’

Bianca had glared at Zachary with tears welling up in her eyes, and the latter only stared at her wordlessly for a while before swiftly turning around and leaving the room. It caused Bianca to tremble with contempt, believing that she had just been insulted.

But Bianca couldn’t remember if it had been from the inability to decorate her room like she wanted, or if it had been from the humiliation she felt by Zachary deciding to cut her allowance without consulting her first.

Zachary had achieved a sweeping victory in that war and the reward he was given was an amount that would make anyone envious. He had used it to not only make up for the amount he had initially taken away from Bianca’s allowance, but went above and gave her much more–as if he were trying to make up for cutting it in the first place.

But that wasn’t what Bianca really needed.

Due to the constant wars that broke out, Zachary had to leave the castle frequently. Bianca had no idea why he seemed to be so obsessed with the battlefield, though her husband wasn’t alone. All men were like that. Bianca always ended up having to stare at the figure of her husband’s back as he left for war.

In order for a couple to even grow feelings such as dislike towards each other, they would have to at least see each other often, but even that was nonexistent for Zachary and Bianca. As she was unable to grow any attachment towards her husband, Bianca only grew lonely as she was left in the giant castle by herself. That lonesomeness only grew when her nanny, Jean, the only person who came with her from Blanchefort castle, surrendered to infectious disease. Bianca ultimately fell into her own little world, having closed herself off, and an even deeper crack formed in her relationship with Zachary.

One was normally considered an adult once they turned the age of 16, but Zachary and Bianca did not consummate their marriage until the latter had turned 18 years old.

When Bianca was 18 and Zachary was 31, the situation outside the castle walls became increasingly severe. As the conditions brought on by war reached a breaking point, Zachary’s vassals pleaded with him, urging for an heir. Though they had brought up the issue many times since long ago, Zachary had always pushed it off, but he knew he reached his limit and thus dragged himself to Bianca’s room. It had been one day in the fall, right before the start of the harvest.

The memory of Zachary’s piercing gaze staring at her as he stood by her door was still vivid in Bianca’s mind. He who usually never stepped a foot near her chambers had suddenly come to find her, and was staring at her without saying a word. Flustered, Bianca’s hands had trembled, causing the embroidery frame she was holding to visibly shake as well. Despite her uneasiness having been exposed, Bianca had feigned nonchalance, lifting her chin as she reprimanded him.

‘It’s rude to suddenly visit without any notice. You could have let me know in advance you were coming.’

‘Are you saying it’s rude of me to come to my wife’s room?’

‘…It’s unlike you. I’m sure you have a reason for suddenly coming to find me. Is it urgent?’

The corner of Zachary’s mouth curled disparagingly, easily recognizing Bianca’s hesitance. Bianca’s lips remained pressed together in a silent reply. Even if it was an urgent or important matter, she didn’t want to face him.

‘Unfortunately, it is. We’ve been able to push it off all this time, but the vassals are all yearning for an heir. We’ll be sleeping together in a week so be ready.’

‘Pardon?’

‘I’m saying that it’s now time for you to uphold your duty as my wife.’

Observing Bianca simply blinking her eyes–as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard–Zachary repeated himself. But Bianca still appeared lost, absentmindedly fumbling with the embroidery frame instead.

Zachary stared at her pale thin neck for a long time, scowling like he was dissatisfied with her slow response, and added one last comment.

‘One week. Don’t forget.’

Bianca was in disbelief. Their first night? It was so sudden, seeming to have come out of nowhere.

She wasn’t unaware of the relations men and women would have behind closed doors. At the very least, she held a ‘necessary’ level of knowledge regarding it. The day after Bianca started her menstruation for the first time, her nanny had declared she was now an adult and explained the intimate relations between a man and a woman.

That occurred when she was 13 years old–and five years had already passed since then. Her nanny had done everything she could to make sure Bianca would grow up as a fine lady of the house. She also tried to help erase any prejudice and negative feelings Bianca held against Zachary.

Jean genuinely loved Bianca. If she had lived a little longer, her nanny surely wouldn’t have sat back and allowed Bianca to become entangled with a man who was not her husband. No, rather, if her nanny hadn’t passed away, Bianca wouldn’t have become so lonely to the extent she would fall for Fernand in the first place.

Her nanny had undeniably done her best. The problem was that following Jean’s early death, Bianca began living her life in her own way. She only did things she wanted to do and turned a blind eye to anything she found bothersome.

But what Bianca wanted to avoid the most in her short life were matters involving her husband, Zachary. However, no one around her would bring up the duties and responsibilities required of her as the lady of the house, not even Zachary. As a result, the thought of sleeping with her husband was nonexistent, and Bianca ended up spending her time doing whatever she wanted while her relationship with Zachary continued to worsen.

After Zachary left the room, Bianca fell into a state of panic and bewilderment, her easy-going, carefree life suddenly bombarded by the prospect of coition.

♘♞♘♞

T/N: Whipped this one up while running on little to no sleep, so apologies if there’s a lot of mistakes. Will check and fix any at a later date.