Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Black clouds blanketed the sky.

Each time the raging waves slammed against the side of the merchant ship, its hull creaked and groaned.

Rainwater streamed across the deck like a river, and even the sailors struggled to remain standing without gripping the ropes.

The instant lightning split the night sky, the figure of a woman standing at the very end of the stern was illuminated in stark white.

Rumble! Crash!

Countess Isabel.

Her deep navy dress was already drenched and clinging to her body, while her short black hair, which barely reached behind her ears, stood stiffly on end.

Despite the thunder shaking the ship, only her blue eyes remained cool and composed.

Standing before her was the ship’s captain, wearing a black captain’s hat.

The middle-aged man, whose face was covered in a coarse beard, gripped the railing with one hand while holding a pistol in the other, its barrel aimed at Isabel’s chest.

“So this was your plan all along, Raymond.”

A cold voice slipped between Isabel’s lips.

The ‘Raymond’ uttered in that hollow voice was not the man pointing a gun at her.

This man had merely been bribed by her husband, Raymond Chester.

“Don’t hold too much of a grudge against me, Countess. A woman’s lingering resentment is bad luck for a voyage, after all.”

Rainwater trickled down the man’s face.

“Just one question. Is this about the insurance money?”

Recently, news had reached them that one of Raymond’s merchant ships bound for the North Sea had run aground.

For about a week after that incident, a dark shadow had hung over Raymond’s eyes.

But at some point, his expression had cleared, and the familiar light had returned to his eyes.

Then he had asked Isabel to cross the Eryl Strait and travel to Oden.

He claimed he needed her to obtain a signature regarding the spice trade.

Amid the storm, the captain looked at Isabel with eyes full of mockery and sneered.

“How should I know?”

Lightning flashed.

“Why the Count wants to kill his wife, whether he has a mistress or not, how much your insurance payout is worth… I couldn’t care less about any of that. The only thing that matters to me… is that I’ll get paid when the job is done.”

A gold tooth gleamed between his dry lips.

Isabel quietly studied his face before slowly raising the corners of her mouth.

Her voice was astonishingly calm.

“Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting an answer.”

“What?”

“I just wanted to buy some time.”

The captain furrowed his brow.

It happened in that very instant.

Plop. A strand of wet rope slipped from beneath Isabel’s wrist.

Throughout their conversation, she had been subtly twisting her wrists, little by little.

“Well, well.”

The captain tried to pull the trigger, but Isabel seized the barrel and twisted it aside.

Bang! Bang!

The bullets struck a rolling wooden barrel, and rum came gushing out.

“Urgh!”

The moment Isabel kicked him in the groin, the captain let out a scream and dropped his gun.

She spun around like a bird riding the wind.

The hem of her soaked dress billowed wildly.

“……!”

Below her, the dark, turbulent sea lay open like a gaping mouth.

To anyone watching, it was no different from suicide.

Isabel glanced back, and a flash of lightning illuminated her figure as it tore through the night sky.

Rumble…

As thunder roared, Isabel took a short, deep breath before throwing herself into the waves without hesitation.

The black sea and the relentless rain.

Her dress spread like wings in the storm as her body plunged into the darkness.

The captain staggered, clutching the railing as he peered down.

“……”

There was nothing to be seen.

It was a sea no one could possibly survive.

**

The sound of rain tapping against the windows of the study echoed softly.

Raymond Chester, the head of House Chester and representative of the Chester Trading Company, had dark brown hair and gentle gray eyes that curved softly at the corners.

In the dimly lit study, he leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling.

Contracts and loan documents lay scattered in disarray across his desk.

Only a few years ago, the Chester Trading Company had been thriving.

But excessive business expansion, coupled with several failed investments, had left the situation far worse than he had anticipated.

No one knew the truth. In high society, he was still regarded as a successful young count and businessman, but…

The House of Chester was slowly sinking.

“……”

Raymond closed his eyes.

He recalled the day he had met Isabel Violetta of the Ellias Mercenary Corps.

It had been raining that day, too.

He had visited the headquarters of the Ellias Mercenary Corps to negotiate an escort contract for his trading caravan when the meeting room door opened and she walked in.

Short black hair, an impeccably neat outfit, and a tall, slender figure.

She hadn’t dressed extravagantly, yet she was impossible to overlook.

Raymond still remembered what she had said as soon as she sat down in front of him, before even offering a greeting. Her eyes had gone straight to the medals plastered all over his chest.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable, wearing so many of those?”

He had gone there intending to haggle over the escort fee, as any merchant would, but Raymond had ended up offering thirty percent more than the original amount.

And from that day onward, Raymond had deliberately found several more opportunities to cross paths with her.

She carried out her duties as a mercenary flawlessly and demonstrated an unwavering sense of responsibility.

Before long, he began devoting his time and attention to winning Isabel over.

She was no easy opponent and didn’t give in readily, but even the strongest fortress could weaken when a great storm swept into one’s life.

“I know you’ve become entangled in a troublesome incident with the mercenary corps. I also know that if you simply walk away, you could be expelled from the Empire immediately because of the charges against you and the complications surrounding your status. But if you marry me, all of that can be settled without a hitch.”

“Marriage isn’t a game.”

“Do I look like I’m playing games, Isabel?”

He tried to persuade her as she frowned at him.

“If you can’t see me as a man, you can simply think of me as a friend. And if you ever wish it, I’ll gladly agree to a divorce. All I ask is that you let me help you.”

“Raymond. Why are you…?”

“I’ve always wanted this. For a strong and beautiful woman like you to become my wife. The House of Chester needs a mistress like you.”

Isabel had rejected him until the very end, insisting that she had no feelings for him.

But when she discovered that the bouquets of flowers left on the grave of a certain mercenary she visited every rainy day were always from Raymond, her eyes wavered.

“Isabel. The people precious to you are precious to me, too. I’ll honor his memory alongside you for as long as you wish.”

At last, Raymond had managed to reach the deepest part of Isabel’s heart, the part that had weathered so many storms.

He slipped an insurance contract among the various documents required for their marriage and handed it to her.

“If anything happens to me, you’ll receive an insurance payout that will allow you to live comfortably for the rest of your life. And if something unfortunate happens to you, I’ll receive the same. It doesn’t mean much, but mutual insurance contracts are common in merchants’ marriages. You just need to sign it.”

Having earned recognition for her strength and abilities within the Ellias Mercenary Corps, Isabel’s insurance premiums as the Countess of Chester were low, while the payout was enormous.

Truthfully, back then, whenever he saw Isabel sitting by the window, gazing into the distance as the autumn breeze brushed past her, he would find himself wondering:

If I get lucky and manage to turn the business around, perhaps we could live an ordinary life together.

But things only continued to get worse.

The merchant ship he had sent to the North Sea had even run aground, finally bringing the Chester family to the brink of bankruptcy.

And in the end, he had crossed that line of his own accord.

“……Isabel. You’ll never understand, will you…? But…”

Raymond murmured quietly, his meaningless words scattering through the empty study.

“……I had no choice, either.”

Outside the window, the rain sounded just as it had on the day he first met her.

Before long, a compensation payment of one million Reik would be deposited into the company’s business account.

It was enough to repay all his loans and still leave him with enough to purchase a new merchant ship.

Knock, knock.

Just then, someone knocked on the study door.

Raymond slowly opened his eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and a young woman dressed in a maid’s uniform entered, accompanied by the delicate fragrance of black tea.

“You’re working again. You’ll ruin your health if you keep this up.”

Raymond looked at her.

The woman, who had once been his lover, placed a silver tray bearing a fragrant teapot on the desk.

“Raymond…”

Before she could finish speaking, Raymond wrapped his arms around her waist.

Cold rain streamed down the windowpane.

Far away, a storm was probably still raging over the sea.

And somewhere within that storm, Isabel’s lifeless body was sinking endlessly into the depths.

Raymond closed his eyes.

“Comfort me, Ria.”

***

Cough!

Isabel curled up and coughed up seawater.

“Cough… Gah…!”

With each violent cough, more and more salty water spilled onto the sand.

Every time her lungs drew in air, her ribs hurt as though they were about to split apart.

“Haa… Haa…”

Breathing in ragged gasps, Isabel lay on the sandy shore of an island and stared up at the sky.

It was still raining.

“……I’ll kill you. You bastard. You piece of trash!”

After uttering that chilling vow toward someone, she let out several labored breaths before slowly pushing herself upright.

The memory of Raymond’s face, smiling so warmly and casually as he watched her board the ship, made her throat burn with the urge to scream in rage.

Those damn bouquets, placed every single day on that miserable grave that no one but her ever visited…

If only it hadn’t been for those flowers…

I wouldn’t have fallen for his lies.

Isabel clenched her trembling fists.

But now was not the time to lose herself in anger and rage.

She needed to clear her head and start moving.

“West… An archipelago, perhaps 150 nautical miles southeast of Oden Harbor.”

The Eryl Strait, a dangerous sea route connecting the eastern and southern parts of the continent.

Hundreds of reefs and small uninhabited islands were scattered throughout the area, making it a route that ships rarely dared to take.

Judging by how long she had drifted and the direction of the current, she must have washed ashore on one of the islands in the Eryl Strait archipelago.

She roughly memorized the coordinates in her mind.

Then, without wasting another moment, she walked toward the upper part of the beach, stopped, and began frantically digging into the sand with her hands.

The wet sand was easier to dig through than she had expected, and soon she had made a hole about knee-deep.

She gathered several suitably sized stones from the surrounding area and arranged them around the edges to hold the shape in place.

The rain clouds were beginning to thin, so she had to hurry.

Next, a container.

Without hesitation, Isabel grabbed the inner lining of her dress and pulled it free.

After tying the waterproof lining into a pouch, she spread it over the stones and secured all four sides.

It was an improvised rainwater collector, designed to catch clean rainwater.