The gears of fate are sadly unhinged!

Chapter 02

Lucia and Arthur's engagement was announced and went on without incident for the next years.

There were days when Lucia considered breaking off her engagement after seeing the insistence of Arthur to show her how much he loves her, she considered it sweet but too much to bear.
However, after the desperate persuasion of those around her and Arthur's persistent apologies and whispers of love, she has forgotten those ideas.
They are also 18 years old, which means they will be recognized as adults next year.

The end of their long engagement and their wedding will be the next year. The preparations have kept her busy lately. 

Especially, Arthur's enthusiasm was amazing, he was seriously participating in the preparations, leaving Lucia, the bride, aside, making her feel alone.
 

But then, disturbing news came to the Royal Castle.

It was the break off of a royal engagement and the re-establishment of a new official bride who was a noblewoman of lower status than the previous bride.

While broken engagements themselves are rare, they are not unlikely.
But it was how the event took place what mattered the most.
 

A man of the royal family told the whole Kingdom of his betrothed's wrongdoing in public and unilaterally declares his decision of breaking the engagement without giving her a chance to refute or defend herself.
 

He even shouted that he was getting newly engaged to another woman, at that moment on that same place.
The whole continent was in a state of excitement over a rare occurrence: an incident caused by a royal family member.

So much that even in a very far away country, like Rajia, everyone is talking about it.
But after all, it's something that happened in another country separated of the kingdom for a big river and a number of mountains. Soon the topic faded from people's memories.

Lucia and Arthur also wondered if there was such a thing when they heard the story, but they soon got so caught up in their daily lives that they forgot about it.
But the incident was reminded not long after because something similar happened again.
She heard that a royal engagement breakup had occurred in another country as well.

"...isn't that what happened in the Grindale Nation?"
"I thought so too, and asked them about it, but apparently not. They say it happened in Sirna country. It's another case of same characteristics"
"as well..."
 

Lucia's eyes widened at Arthur's words.
The country of Sirna is one of the countries with which the country has trade agreements, even though it is far from Rajia geographically.
And it was a country with a lot in common in culture, traditions and history with the country of Rajia, more than with the country of Grindale, where the first engagement break-up incident took place.

"Was it a royal member this time too?"
"Yes, but I've heard that the engagement was amicably dissolved. But...."
"What's bothering you?"
"I hear he has now a new betrothal, a Baroness."
"Oh..."
"There are strange coincidences," Lucia said, letting out a surprised sound.

Unlike the Grindale nation, which the broke-off of the engagement was forced by the prince, the Sirna nation seemed to have broken off the engagement amicably, but the problem wasn't there.
Both countries princes are re-engaging with ladies of much lower status than their first betrothed.
The breaking off was also at the urging of the royal family.
Even though they are both inferior, they are the daughters of a nobleman, so the people must have agreed and accepted the change of fiancée.
However, if it's the same so far, it feels a bit contrived.

"There might be another one, right?"
"Hmm?"
"There's been an uproar over the breaking of an engagement in another country too"
"It doesn't happen that often, of course. For the moment, it's an act that deserves to be scrutinized." Arthur shrugs and grabs a cup of tea.

Hearing that, Lucia was convinced.

Breaking up an engagement is, quite frankly, ugly news.
It should be considered a last resort and It's not something that happens in succession so easily.

--I thought, but soon realized that I was being naive.

In the years that followed, there was an engagement-breakup ruckus that changed the country, changed the shape of the status quo.
It was not only the breaking of engagements between royalty and nobility, but also the breaking of engagements between superior nobles.
In addition, the number of people with whom to renew the engagement begins to vary.
Not only the lower nobles, but also the daughters of the great merchants and the daughters of the local landowners had started to become their brides.
In other words, it is a great romance that transcends the differences in status between the nobility and royalty and the common people.
The singers of the time started to sing and tell this story everywhere.
Book sellers have also written beautifully of this love romance and transmitted it to the world.
Thus, a beautiful Cinderella story known to everyone from the common people to the nobility was born.
Just the other day, when she heard that a commoner's daughter got engaged to a royal family member from a neighboring country across the river, Lucia had secretly made up her mind.

"I guess it's finally my turn."
 

Lucia muttered when she heard about the breakup of the neighboring country's royal engagement.
Hearing this up close, Martha's eyebrows distorted in a troubled way. 

"Do you really think so?"

"...I'm thinking."

"Princess, how can you think so in this situation?"

"..."

Lucia is currently under "house arrest" in the Tea Room of the Royal Castle.

The reason for this is Arthur, who professes he won't be able to survive if he doesn't see Lucia's face at least every three hours, so The Royal Palace thought a way to stop him from abandoning his office's work in search of Lucia and running away from Palace to the Marquis Residence.
Arthur is smart and skillful, he has mastered more than a certain level of swordsmanship as well.
However, when he notices Lucia was observing the practice from a close distance, he became less than a clunker and went down at the first move.
Even now, he comes to see Lucia's face every three hours, to check how she's and let her know how much he loves her.
And returns to the Oval Office like an arrow to work after receiving Lucia's words,
"It's nice to see you doing your job".

"It can happen, but it's unlikely. His Highness would never break off the engagement. Of course, I don't think they'll let you break the engagement, either."

"I don't know..."

"I can tell you certainly ! Because His Highness is the Crown Prince of the Rajia Nation!"

Lucia's face changed lightly at those words.
When she understood the meaning of those words correctly, Lucia knew that her fate was already sealed long ago.
The Rajia State has never had a change of dynasties since its founding.
From the time the country was founded to the present, the Diering family has guarded the country.
The Diering family has great characteristics as leaders for every generation but there's also a feature that could be called a curse passed down.
The Diering family falls in love at first sight.
And once they fall in love, they don't look for anything else at all.
They'll use all the moves they can find to keep their opponents in check.
And after they get it, to pamper and dote their beloved as much as they can.

"If you only hear the story, it's wonderful! There are some people who say that it's wonderful to hear about it, but it's hard to bear to be in love with someone at first sight. They are coming to get you with every move they can think of. Even if you run away, they'll be waiting for you at the end of the run."
But it's never been an issue until now. I have no record or recollection of they, forcing their partner to agree to the marriage, so in the end, they were happily married.
Furthermore, the Kingdom never suffered any problem caused by the-love-at-first-sight partner, they always selected the children of good families who were strangely well-behaved and kind-heart.

"If we don't call this a curse, what do we call it?"

Lucia is no exception, a woman who is well-behaved with a good status and very clever hard-working and responsible for her age.
Hence, Lucia became a fiancée when she was only five years old.
Above all, there was no way that a person from the Diering family who fell in love with her at first sight would let her escape, so there was or wasn't a plan to make him abandon her fiancée....
Regardless of the impetus, Lucia loves Arthur and is happy to be his fiancée.
Love is definitely out of balance, but that's something they're going to work hard on and improve on.

It was during that time that she heard the commotion about the breaking of the engagement.
"What's more, it is spreading across the countries like a propagation. When you hear that it has finally happened in a neighboring country, you can't help but imagine the worst."
"I don't think that's the case with Arthur, but there's a chance that it might happen, you know."
"Hmmm...His Highness going to declare the cancellation of the engagement with Miss Lucia?... I can't imagine. I can imagine His Highness crying and clinging to your dress like a child just by the mention of the idea..."

At Martha's words, the other maids in the room nodded their heads.
Lucia wisely pretended not to look, though.

"In addition, it doesn't seem that the royal family will break the engagement, so maybe another engaged couple will be in the newspaper of this country"
"That's why I'm not too happy about it."

--If you are not destroyed, you cannot be happy while seeing anyone else be destroyed.
 

Still, knowing that Martha had said it in an attempt to comfort her, Lucia smiled and thanked her.