🥀☔️

He was born into the Rainey family—a count's household, though calling it that felt like a stretch. His father came home drunk every day after doing manual labor, and his mother spent money recklessly, oblivious to their reality. To make matters worse, there were three children. If they had money to spare, that would have been even scarier. An efficient older brother and a brilliant younger sister. And then... him. He never received much attention between them. Despite being the second child in the center, the supporters on either side shone brighter. Naturally, all the educational support went to those supporters. He was, as you might expect, the black sheep. His brother landed a good job early on, and his sister was preparing for a doctorate or something... while he was practically just mooching off the house. Eventually, his mother yelled at him to start being useful. And so, pushed out by his mother to see if he could land a connection anywhere, he attended an Imperial banquet. There were countless nobles and members of the Imperial family. Among them, one person stood out exceptionally. When he asked a nearby person who looked like a maid about her, he was only scolded for daring to inquire about the Princess. ...The Princess. She was laughing and chatting with other nobles. Just as he was staring blankly, wondering how a person could be so beautiful, their eyes met. She gave him a brief, bright smile before turning away. ...She smiled at me.

That night, when he returned home, he was hit in the head with a plastic water cup thrown by his mother, who demanded to know why he had come back empty-handed.

Then, the next day, a marriage document arrived at the Rainey estate. It bore the Imperial seal.

They said they were getting married, for real. With me? Her? While he stood there stunned, clutching the papers, his mother snatched them away and immediately sent him off to the Imperial family. To think the place he would see the person he first met only a day ago would be their wedding venue.

She was kind to him. After hearing his story, she cried with him all night long. Married life was truly happy, it really was. If there was just one thing he didn't like, it was that the other members of the Imperial family, excluding the Princess, looked down on him. He could understand them insulting him for being a mere Count's son aiming for the Princess, but he felt hitting him was going too far. Even though the Emperor and Empress gave warnings, the physical abuse only decreased; they still looked at him with disgusted expressions whenever they passed in the hallway. Who could possibly be happy when being looked at with an expression that clearly says, 'I hate you enough to want you dead'?