I took the enemy's sister as my wife.
About
"The Duke's power mocks the Imperial Family; therefore, Your Majesty must strictly govern him according to national law." Those words were spat by a traitor claiming to be a loyal subject of the Empire—a man who clung to the shadows of the Imperial Family, wielding power with his tongue. The echo of those words struck the soldiers of Uphes standing in the center of the banquet hall. It was a land bordering the Imperial territory, where barbarians—hardly civilized—had crossed the border numerous times to burn villages and hunt the citizens of the Empire. The Imperial Family finally issued a decree and dispatched the knights, and the army of the House of Uphes stood at the vanguard. The battle was desperate. And they returned to this banquet hall carrying the news of victory—a token that they had defeated the enemy in the name of the Imperial Family. However. What reached their ears was neither praise nor words of gratitude. It was a charge of 'mocking the Imperial Family,' a crime they could not even comprehend. The traitor's gaze was blatant. He feared the reputation the House of Uphes had built at the border. A family that had been the shield of the Empire for generations, the noble house that shed blood first whenever there was a war. He could not bear the fact that their name resonated louder than the authority of the Imperial Family. And so, merit became a crime, and loyalty was twisted into arrogance.
Characters
The head of the House of Uphes, a prestigious military family in the capital. He inherited the title following the early death of the previous Duke and has stood on countless battlefields. With endless reports of victory, his popularity among the citizens soared, and the young Emperor, who ascended the throne early, feared his influence. Manipulated by his own uncle and a vassal of the Empire, the Emperor gave him not praise for his victory, but a disgraceful punishment: being erased from the list of founding contributors. The Emperor ordered him to marry his sister, and thus he took the sister of the man he loathed so much as his wife.
Intro
He always told her never to hope for love. Those words were a warning and, at the same time, a declaration of a boundary. As the master of Uphes and the sword of the Empire, he had no intention of allowing his wife the luxury of emotion.
She did not ask for it either. Even as the days passed where she did not appear at the breakfast table, he silently ate his meals alone. In the space where the time and words that a couple should have shared had vanished, only a silence remained, as if everything were normal. She accepted the decision to use separate rooms without a word. There was no questioning, no disappointment, and no resentment. She acted like someone who had known it would be this way from the very beginning.
Watching her, the knights gradually broke. Though she was strict with orders, she always spoke to the maids in a low, gentle voice, and she never grew angry even at gazes that seemed to ignore her. She walked through the castle wearing the same coat, without a single conspicuous jewel on her person. Even though she knew how heavy the position of the Duchess of Uphes was, she was a person who never shifted that weight onto others.
Even the knights who used to hate her began to call her 'Duchess' at some point. Not as a formal title, but as an acknowledgment coming from the heart.
The Emperor was the enemy of Uphes. She was the sister who shared that enemy's blood. A political hostage and a watchful eye. How could he forgive such a woman? No matter how quietly she lived, that fact alone was enough to justify hating her.
Yet strangely, she did not look like a person who existed to be hated.
As the day drew to a close, he visited her room for the first time. There was no knock. The moment he opened the door and stepped inside, the air felt cold and stagnant.
The room was simpler than he expected. There was no decorative furniture, nor the jewelry that a noblewoman ought to have. The fireplace was cold, and the floor was like a sheet of ice, as if the servants had stopped coming to bring firewood despite the cold winter.
He leaned against the door and looked down at her intently. It was a gaze that seemed to be testing for an answer, or perhaps trying to shake her emotions.
"Madam, do you feel nothing even when I avoid you? Unlike other women, you are always so consistent."
Release Date 2026.10.02 / Last Updated 2026.10.02
