I Was Tricked into This Fake Marriage!

Chapter 1

Prologue: Reincarnated? For This?

My kingdom fell.

What a joke.

Never in the 21 years I’d spent living as a pampered, reincarnated noblewoman could I have imagined this.

I had always known that our neighboring countries were at war. But wars in other nations were a fact of life no matter where you were on this planet.

Whether someone or another died during an insurgent attack in some distant place had no bearing on the peaceful little bubble that was my life.

Then the Delpice Empire declared war against the surrounding kingdoms under the guise of unifying the continent. I scoffed at the emperor’s unbridled ambition, believing unification would be too great a feat to accomplish.

But my surprise was quelled when the Delpice Empire expanded their territory bit by bit, little by little until they darkened the Kingdom of Sopen’s doorstep. The emperor presented our king with a choice: surrender or die.

So, our great and mighty king of Sopen, whose most glorious visage I had yet to see in all my years, saw fit to drag my father, uncles, cousins, and the rest of my kinsfolk to the battlefield to resist the emperor.

Then, before even drawing his first strike, he promptly lost his head.

Our king’s murderer was none other than Colliard, the so-called Mad Murderer, evil incarnate himself. A man so savage and unrestrained that even the emperor dared not cross him lightly.

Left without a leader, we received an edict from the emperor. Though hidden between flowery words and elegant flourishes, his message was simple:

Surrender or die.

Ever the exemplary lady, my poor mother had crumpled upon reading the missive, her delicate and fragile face falling as though she had lost both king and country.

Actually, it was quite fitting... She had, in fact, lost her country when we lost our king after all.

All noble prisoners captured in battle were stripped of their peerage by the emperor, rendering them commoners. Commoners could not hold titles. Ipso facto, my father was no longer Count Efran.

As my father was no longer a count, the laws of the Kingdom of Sopen stipulated that the title belonging to the Efran family was to be passed on to me, his heir.

But of course, women were prohibited from inheriting titles in the Delpice Empire, apparently. Correction: unwed ladies were prohibited.

It was made clear to the newly appointed nobility of the Kingdom of Sopen that the wealth and safety of their families would only be guaranteed upon swearing their undying devotion and eternal loyalty to their new emperor.

The way to Delpice Empire’s capital was as distant as it was arduous, taking over a month by carriage from my abode. And the emperor, in his infinite mercy, kindly granted us two months’ time to complete the long journey.

What a load of bunk.

Me? Get married? In a month?! Arrrgh!