The Fantasie of a Stepmother

Chapter 1

Prologue

The Blood-and-Iron Dowager. The Spider Widow. The Witch of Neuschwanstein Castle. The Shame of All Noblewomen.

To whom do these epithets refer? None other than the Marchioness Shuri von Neuschwanstein.

I wonder if anyone else in this empire has as many nicknames as me.

Of course, I shouldn’t boast about nicknames like this, but it’s been a long time since I cared about what other people said. Their opinions make no difference to me.

All that matters is that I protected House Neuschwanstein and its children until now.

Yes. I kept my promise in the end.

It felt strange to call the heirs of House Neuschwanstein my children when they were old enough to be my siblings. We didn’t share a drop of blood, but they were my children by law.

I raised those aggravating little monsters that were your children, even though they never once called me their mother.

Tomorrow is the day my efforts finally pay off.

Why tomorrow? Because it was the eldest, Jeremy’s, wedding day.

The second he makes his vows, that boy—Neuschwanstein’s Lion and the Crown Prince’s Sword—will become the Marquess of Neuschwanstein, according to his father’s will.

His fiancée also happens to be the most beautiful woman in the capital and Duke Heinrich’s daughter.

I was suddenly moved to tears.

It feels like it was just yesterday we feared he was dying of measles. When did he get so big?

My days used to feel so endless, but now I am finally being rewarded for my suffering! A toast to commemorate how far we’ve come!

But oh, how wrong I was.

They say a large enough shock can silence you. This describes my current state exactly; I wasn’t just speechless. Even my thoughts were paralyzed.

“What did you just...?”

“It is as I just said,” said the beautiful girl, interrupting my protest. “I am to inform you on his behalf that you need not attend the wedding, Mother.”

I held my head in shock and regarded the girl, who was none other than the star of tomorrow’s once-in-a-lifetime wedding: Ohera von Heinrich.

Her purple eyes and her wavy white-gold hair created a fantastic aura. Was the compassion in her gaze a figment of my imagination?

“Did Jeremy really say that? Why wouldn’t he tell me himse—?”

“You know how busy he is,” she said. “I, too, could barely make the time to come here. I’m sorry. I tried to convince him, but...”

“W-wait,” I stammered. “Even so, I am obligated to attend. How could he...”

I saw the reluctance on her face. “I can tell you exactly what he said.”

She took a deep breath and repeated Jeremy’s words one syllable at a time.

“The ‘obligation’ you never cease talking about ends the moment we make our vows tomorrow. Wouldn’t you rather be freed from it one day sooner?”

My jaw dropped. I was dazed.

As I embarrassed myself, looking like a fool, Ohera regarded me with a mixture of pity and contempt.

How am I supposed to respond to that? What do I say?

I had never experienced shame like this before. I didn’t know what to do.

The Jeremy I knew wouldn’t pass a message like this through someone else. It would be more like him to slouch arrogantly in his seat and deliver his sardonic, sharp remarks to my face.

And now he had delivered this message not even through his siblings but his fiancée.

Was he so sick of me now that he couldn’t stand to look me in the eye? After tomorrow, when our empty formalities would no longer be necessary, was he desperate to have no association with me at all?

Th-that bad...?

As I spoke, my voice cracked. “Why would he say—?”

“I know. His conduct is unfair, but you know how stubborn he is,” said Ohera. “And I’m sorry to say, but I believe you also played a part in things coming to this, Lady Neuschwanstein.”

It was a pretty cocky thing to say, but I was more surprised than offended.

My prospective daughter-in-law emitted a short, impatient sigh. She looked down at me, her prospective mother-in-law, who was only four years her senior, through her long lashes.

“I’m sure you know what your reputation is in society, Lady Neuschwanstein,” she went on, reproachful. “I know, of course, that you are a good person, but most people don’t. It is natural for your son to resent you. There is nothing to be done.”

“Jeremy resents me?”

“Think about it, my lady. You brought a new lover home barely a month after the death of the late marquess. There were constant scandals.”

“On top of that,” she continued, “you forbade Jeremy from seeing any relatives who shared his blood. You even exiled his aunt, who begged to see her nieces and nephews at least once after their father died. Of course he resents you. Why did you do that?”

Why did I do that?

I had many reasons, but none escaped my lips. No matter what excuses I tried to make to Ohera, I sensed they would be pointless, even if I listed all the reasons that I had no choice.

My nose stung. I thought I was used to the children’s coldness. Why did I feel so sorrowful?

I swallowed. “No matter what anyone says, I am that child’s—”

“You must be aware,” Ohera said, cutting me off again, “that he has never thought of you as his mother. It is preposterous, don’t you think?”

It was. It would have been ridiculous for him to think of me as his mother when he was only two years younger than me. I agreed.

But...

“I, however, want to get along with you as well as I can, Mother, so I hope you will cooperate with us. Weddings only happen once. I don’t want any trouble. You understand, don’t you?”

I didn’t say anything.

“I must go. There is still much to prepare. I will do my best to convince him still, but I advise you not to expect anything to come of it.”

As Ohera gave me one last look of pity and stood, I could only stare at her. I was frozen in my seat. The thought of seeing her out didn’t even occur to me.

Jeremy. Jeremy...

That boy had glared at me with such hostility the moment I stepped across the threshold into this house. I was fourteen.

At his father’s funeral, he had refused to shed a tear, but when he thought no one was around, he cried his heart out.

When he had measles, I stayed up countless nights to attend to him.

He had never opened his heart to me, but I had still devoted my heart and body to protecting him.

He was all grown up, and I didn’t know him anymore. He was casting me aside.

***

They say you shouldn’t take in black-furred beasts, but Jeremy was blond. It made no sense.

They say you will regret having kids. Yes, the ancestors were wise. Having kids is nothing but a mistake!

“Are you all right, my lady?”

“Gwen. I can’t... I feel like I’m dying.”

“My lady...”

“That evil boy! That evil, arrogant boy! After how I raised him! How could he do this to me?” I sobbed. “Gwen, you don’t know the pain I’ve just gone through!”

I was in such a state that I didn’t even care how I looked in front of the head maid. There was nowhere else I could turn. I didn’t even have a single friend I could vent to.

Ugh, how dreary my fate is.

I had lived my life so anxiously busy that I never spared a moment to look back. Now, I realized what a lonely and solitary life I had lived. I had no one to blame but myself.

“How could they do this to me?!”

They were heartless. Neither Elias, the second child, nor the twins, Leon and Rachel, seemed likely to defend me to Jeremy. Instead, they glanced at each other uneasily and suggested it might be better not to embarrass myself and do as he asked.

I was so hurt! Despite everything, I was the one who raised him. How could he not even let me go to the wedding?

Fine. I wouldn’t go to the wedding. But that wasn’t even the problem; the problem was what those kids thought of me.

I had no appetite. Instead of eating, I sat and stared through the window with my feet wrapped in blankets. It had been a long time since I let myself wallow like this.

The sky looked like it had the first night I had come to this place nine years ago, but maybe I was just imagining it. The inky night sparkled with countless stars. Back then, I could have never known that there were as many stars as tears I would cry.

When I looked back at my childhood, my memories were the same as always.

A father crazed from gambling and dogfighting. A materialist mother who ignored her shabby reality. An older brother who was a new but avid learner of the detached lifestyle, lacking both common sense and skill.

Our snowballing debt left our property barren. In the end, our family had nothing left but its name. I was that poor viscount’s daughter.

My parents made every effort to marry me off to the richest family they could. Their wish finally came true on the day I turned fourteen, in a twist of irony they wouldn’t appreciate for several years.

It was at my aunt’s estate in Wittelsbach. Thanks to my mother’s desperate efforts to have me debut in society, I attended my aunt’s banquet.

There was a man there who said I reminded him of his first love. He was my father’s age and a widower. He was the Marquess Neuschwanstein.

He offered to pay off our family’s debts in return for my hand in marriage. My family was over the moon. They agreed right away.

My own family sold me off to an old codger who had never forgotten his first love.

I cried, saying I didn’t want to go, and my parents, admirable as they were, beat me and called me an ignorant wench.