Chapter 1: ①

“Be happy.”
“Happy.”
“You should become happy.”

Those were words Dorothy had heard adults say to someone when she was little.
Dorothy had always found them strange.
What did “happy” even mean?

The breakfast table looked the same as always.

“Daisy, here, eat this too.”
“Brother, I really can’t eat anymore.”
“You’re far too delicate. You need to eat more or it’ll be bad for your health.”

Right in front of his wife Dorothy, her husband Silas and his sister Daisy were flirting like a married couple.
It would already be bad enough if it were only inside the house, but when they did it outside as well, people quite frankly looked at them oddly.
Until now, Daisy had been presented as a sickly sister and rarely attended evening parties, so only rumors circulated about Silas doting on his sister, but if they intended to keep behaving like this, there was no telling what kind of rumors would start spreading.
When Dorothy once pointed this out gently, Silas denied it outright, and Daisy’s eyes filled with tears as she began to cry.
What was wrong with worrying about a frail sister, Silas genuinely believed that, and while Dorothy thought there should be limits, she decided that common sense outside the house must simply differ from common sense within it, so she smiled and agreed.
Dorothy also knew that Daisy ate snacks quite frequently outside of meals, yet somehow those were recorded as Dorothy having eaten them, and the expenses were paid from Dorothy’s household allowance.

Seeing the two of them like that, Dorothy silently finished the breakfast prepared for her and promptly returned to her room.
Back in her room, which was empty as always, Dorothy conducted her usual inspection.
If she did not, there was no knowing when something would disappear from the room.

The first thing that vanished had been a hair ornament she brought from her parental home.
She thought she had lost it somewhere, since she could not find it no matter how much she searched, but weeks later Daisy was using it.
When Dorothy said it was hers, Daisy teared up and insisted she had bought it herself.
That ornament had been a souvenir from a cousin who had traveled to a faraway land, and it was not something sold anywhere in this country, yet Daisy asserted that claim anyway.
Silas backed her up, saying that Dorothy was trying to falsely accuse Daisy.
Exasperated, Dorothy gave up on the ornament and wrote a letter explaining the situation to her cousin.
She did so in advance because she did not know what Daisy might say if she happened to meet the cousin somewhere while wearing it.
Her cousin replied that next time, they would give souvenirs only in front of many people.

After that, Dorothy began to notice more things going missing from her room.
Small necklaces, earrings, little ornaments, items that could easily be dismissed, started to disappear, so Dorothy thoroughly cleaned her room and created an inventory of her belongings.
Every day, she put the same items back in the same places, and always checked them before leaving and after returning.
At first, she allowed maids and butlers into the room and let them watch her inspection.
It was an implicit message that if something went missing now, the culprit would be someone in this mansion.
Some of them turned pale, but she paid it no mind.
Thanks to that, after she began the inspections, Dorothy’s belongings no longer decreased, and Daisy’s did not increase either.
Seeing Daisy look displeased at that, Dorothy could only feel exasperated.

When her cousin bought souvenirs again, they kept their promise, handing them over at tea parties with friends present, or deliberately bringing them to the mansion while Silas was there and showing them to him before giving them to Dorothy.
Perhaps because Daisy thought there would be no excuse if she interfered then, items given in front of others were left untouched.

After finishing her usual room inspection, Dorothy brought over a large box and took out the embroidery tools inside.
She was currently sewing a cushion cover.
Embroidery was her hobby, but it was also her job now.
It was not work befitting a count’s wife, but Dorothy accepted it secretly without telling anyone in the mansion.
Even if someone saw her sewing, embroidery was considered an acceptable hobby for a noblewoman, and even if there were no embroidered items she had made anywhere in the mansion, she could simply say they were things friends had asked for.
In reality, she sold them through her friends.
Her friend Stacy had married into a baronial family that owned a well-known trading company in the capital, and Dorothy’s works were sold there as slightly upscale products.
The earnings were managed in an account she opened at the merchant guild.
That money had nothing to do with the count’s household and belonged solely to Dorothy.

As she worked on her embroidery absentmindedly, a maid knocked, entered the room, and placed a letter addressed to Dorothy on the desk.
In the past, even letters had not reached her.
Someone had been stopping them somewhere.
But one day, her friend Frederica, the daughter of a marquis, sent a letter in the morning saying she would visit the count’s mansion that afternoon.
A servant from Frederica’s house delivered it, and Frederica did indeed arrive that afternoon, but Dorothy, who had never received such a letter, was bewildered.
When Frederica, angered that the letter had not been properly delivered, questioned her servant, she was told it had definitely been delivered and that they had been instructed to hand it to Dorothy immediately.
Knowing that trying to find the culprit would be pointless because they would collude and blame everything on Dorothy, Frederica opened her fan in front of the butler managing the household, the head maid, and several servants.

“To think the servants of this house cannot even deliver a letter properly, it really shows their level. The quality of a count’s servants directly affects the count’s reputation as well. It seems someone wishes to damage the count’s standing. Oh ho ho ho, well, very well. Dorothy, I shall make this quite clear to everyone. From now on, servants are to be instructed to hand letters directly to Dorothy herself. Otherwise, it seems not even a single letter will reach her. Oh, and it appears some people have sent tea party invitations as well. There were those confused by the lack of reply from you, so I shall explain it properly for them. Very properly indeed.”

Saying that, she laughed elegantly.
Additionally, it was arranged that when Frederica’s servant brought letters, Dorothy could entrust her own letters to them, and they would deliver them directly to the respective households.
Frederica, who was diligent about correspondence, found it suspicious that despite writing many letters since Dorothy married, she had never once received a reply, and that was why she had visited that day.
After being told so much, letters that had never arrived before finally began reaching Dorothy.
Important letters came through Frederica, but apparently there had been other letters as well, and those began to arrive too.

Dorothy did not particularly blame the servants over this matter.
Even if she told Silas, it was obvious no one would be punished.
Even if someone were dismissed now, the next person would simply do the same thing.
If that was the case, then having the current servants, who had been indirectly warned that their treatment of the countess would be made known, behave more quietly was still the better option.

Silas apparently cherished his sister deeply, but that did not justify neglecting his wife.
Much less should the household servants be dragged into it.
Yet the people of this house seemed unable to understand that.

Silas and Dorothy’s marriage had been decided between their families.
Silas was about two years older, but both were from count families of equal standing.
Her parents praised themselves, saying they had arranged a husband too good for plain and quiet Dorothy.
Dorothy had dark brown hair and amber eyes, a woman who always seemed to stand quietly.
She had an older brother and a younger sister, but they were bright, flashy, and lively, which made Dorothy seem even more subdued by comparison.

After embroidering for a while, Dorothy looked at the finished piece with a satisfied expression.
This was something she could only do alone, since having someone nearby would be distracting and make it impossible to concentrate.
That was why being neglected like this was, in a way, welcome for Dorothy.
Originally, as a wife, she should have managed the household and gone out into society, but here, there was no need to do any of that.
She had been told by Silas and the butler not to interfere in the mansion’s affairs, so no matter what happened, Dorothy did not involve herself, and as for socializing, Daisy, flustered at no longer being the only woman in the house after Dorothy arrived, had changed her sickly persona, declared herself recovered, and insisted on attending events with her brother, so Dorothy no longer needed to insert herself there either.
Thanks to Frederica’s warning, nothing was done to Dorothy’s food, and she thoroughly enjoyed this lifestyle.

Thanks to Frederica, her life was stable, and thanks to Stacy, she had income.
If it came down to it, Dorothy could live even if she left this house, so she felt no attachment to it.
The feelings she had when she first met Silas had long since vanished.

What was happiness, really?

Her parents had said that someone with no redeeming qualities like her should be happy just to be married.
Silas had declared that becoming a countess should make her happy.
Daisy had said, with jealousy, that someone as plain as her should feel happy to stand beside her brother.
Her brother and sister from her parental home had said similar things, she thought.

When she first met Silas, she had harbored faint expectations, but they soon disappeared.
Dorothy could not understand whether her current situation, being married and a countess, was truly the happiness they spoke of.
She felt there was a vast gap between the happiness they imagined and what she actually felt.
The times when Dorothy felt happiness were not when she acted as a countess, but when she worked like this, read books, and accumulated knowledge.

“…No, this is hopeless. It’s something I can’t understand.”

She understood that her way of thinking differed somewhat from other noble ladies.
During her school days, she could understand their thinking as they searched for men with good conditions, but she could not sympathize.
She had even considered taking the examination to become a palace lady-in-waiting after graduating.
However, due to family circumstances, she was engaged during her school years and told she would marry immediately after graduation, and that this was her happiness, so she thought it would be faster to experience it herself and went along with the marriage.
One reason was that she thought being a countess would allow her to do more than being a count’s daughter.
It was strange how, as a daughter, people would say things like “an unmarried girl should not,” but after becoming a wife, those restrictions eased.

It had been fairly well known for a long time that Silas doted on his sister, and Dorothy had thought that as long as he focused on Daisy, he would not notice whatever she was doing.
But once she actually saw it for herself, the level of neglect was beyond her expectations, and Dorothy did think that this was outwardly quite problematic, but since no one had any intention of listening to her, she quietly closed that lid again.
After carefully observing Silas’s actions, Daisy’s actions, and the behavior of the household servants after marriage, and with help from Frederica and Stacy, Dorothy decided to enjoy the freedom she currently had.
She felt that this freedom would change depending on whether Daisy married or caused some major incident.
If she merely married, that would be fine, but if she caused trouble, even a count’s house might not escape unscathed.
In that case, arrangements had already been made for Dorothy to be employed by either Frederica or Stacy.
She assumed ruin as a premise because the Emperor was said to be merciless.
Avoid involvement as much as possible.
As someone shunned by her family, that had been Dorothy’s motto since she could remember.

“Good. I made it in time.”

This cushion cover was something she had promised to bring to Frederica’s house that afternoon.
She had been asked to make five in total.
The floral embroidery turned out well, even by her own assessment.
Frederica would choose one from among them to use, and the remaining four would be sold at Stacy’s shop.
When guests came to Frederica’s house, she would casually bring up the cushion cover in conversation.
By doing so, she could spark interest, and when she mentioned they were sold at Stacy’s shop, many people would end up buying them.
After carefully wrapping the finished items together in white cloth, Dorothy left the room carrying them.
If she walked leisurely to Frederica’s house from here, the timing would be just right.

“Oh my, are you going out?”

When she stepped out of the room, Daisy was right there, blocking Dorothy’s path.
She wore a delighted smile and looked at Dorothy with eyes filled with obvious superiority, though Dorothy had no idea what she found so amusing.

“Yes. I’m going to a friend’s house.”
“Oh really. You always leave my brother behind and go to see your friends. I wonder if there’s some nice man over there.”

She was making a contemptuous and baseless remark, but since Frederica’s house was a marquis family, it was something that could easily provoke a formal complaint, yet Daisy seemed unaware of that.
However, since Daisy usually appeared before Dorothy together with her brother, and this time she was unusually alone without a maid, Dorothy decided to take the opportunity to ask her something.

“Daisy, may I ask you one thing? What does happiness mean to you?”
“Huh? What’s with you all of a sudden?”
“Then, what do you believe Sir Silas’s happiness is?”
“What? What are you talking about? My brother is happy as long as I’m happy!”
“Then, what is your happiness?”
“That’s obvious, isn’t it? That my family treasures me. Well, someone like you, who’s been shunned by her family, probably wouldn’t understand.”

As Daisy laughed loudly, Dorothy nodded in understanding.
Daisy’s happiness was being cherished by her family.
The word “cherished,” in Daisy’s mind, likely meant that the household revolved around her.
Creating a family that revolved around herself.
That was Daisy’s idea of happiness.
Daisy said that Dorothy had been “shunned by her family,” but more accurately, she still was.
That had been the case in her parental home, and it was the same in this house.
In her parental home, Dorothy had not been included in the category of family.
Outwardly, nothing blatant had been done for appearances’ sake, but from everyday words and actions, that household consisted of father, mother, brother, sister, and sometimes Dorothy.
In this house as well, Dorothy’s treatment was only occasional.

“I see. So that’s how it is.”

After thinking it through, she finally understood.
To Daisy, Dorothy was not family.
A brother’s wife should normally be included as family, but in Daisy’s mind, that was different.
The family Daisy envisioned consisted of her parents, her brother, and in the future, her husband and her own children.
There was no place there for the unnecessary foreign object called her brother’s wife.

“…Then what about Sir Silas’s children, I wonder?”

Since she was his real sister, Daisy could not become Silas’s wife.
That meant Silas needed a wife for the sake of the household, and he also needed an heir.
Adoption was an option, but it was a last resort.
Would children born from a wife Daisy did not recognize as family be included in Daisy’s family at all?

“…That’s a mystery…”
“Hey, what have you been thinking about this whole time?”

Daisy looked at Dorothy with suspicion as Dorothy muttered in a voice too quiet for her to hear.

“No, pardon me. I think I understand Daisy’s happiness now, and I also understand that Sir Silas thinks the same way. Please excuse me.”
“H-Hey, wait!!”

As Dorothy bowed and left, Daisy tried to say something more, but Dorothy walked away without stopping.

“And so, that happened just before I left, and I think I finally understand what that house’s so-called happiness is.”
“…Dorothy, I don’t think that’s quite right… or rather, it might be part of it, but I don’t think it’s the whole thing.”
“Is that so? But it is true that the house revolves around Daisy.”
“That’s true, but what happens if Daisy marries and leaves? Wouldn’t Daisy’s idea of happiness collapse?”
“?? If Daisy is happy in her new home, wouldn’t Sir Silas be happy as well?”

From Daisy’s perspective, that should be the case.

“He wouldn’t be. It’s not that simple. Living in the same house, seeing each other every day, Daisy becomes the person Sir Silas most wants to make happy, but once she’s gone from his sight, she won’t be that anymore. Then he’ll finally realize that Sir Silas has his own happiness, and Daisy has hers. That they’re not one shared happiness anymore.”
“I see. Now that you explain it, Sir Silas and Daisy do share the same happiness at this stage, since Daisy’s happiness is Sir Silas’s happiness. But that isn’t Sir Silas’s own happiness. It means he is in a state where all his happiness depends on Daisy. Even I feel happy when Frederica and the others are happy, but that alone isn’t my happiness.”
“I’m the same. When you’re happy, I feel happy too, but that isn’t everything.”

They lived separate lives, so that should be natural, yet in the case of Silas and Daisy, the two had merged into one.

“…Hey, there’s something I want to ask. You’ve been married for a year now, right? What about children?”
“Frederica, allow me to teach you one important thing. In order to have children, one must share the marital bed.”
“I know that. …Wait, don’t tell me you haven’t?”
“Yes.”

Dorothy answered calmly without changing her expression, while Frederica was the one who looked shocked.

“What? Really? Why?”
“On the day we married, Sir Silas apparently drank too much with his friends and passed out. From the next day on, perhaps thinking he had disgraced himself, he would not even meet my eyes. Then Daisy fell ill and began demanding her brother’s attention, after that I caught a cold and was bedridden for days, and naturally I slept in my own room so as not to spread it. Somehow, I simply continued sleeping alone in my room, and our wedding night vanished naturally.”
“A wedding night just… vanishing… is that something that happens?”
“It happened, so I suppose it does.”

Seeing Dorothy so matter-of-fact about it, Frederica felt a headache coming on.

“And Silas hasn’t said anything about that?”
“When people miss their chance once, they often fail to move forward afterward. Sir Silas must feel it’s too late now, and our relationship hasn’t improved at all, if anything it’s worsened. Without some kind of trigger, I feel we could go straight to divorce like this.”
“Um, you can divorce after a year and a half, right?”
“Yes. There’s also the matter of an heir. Rather than continuing a marriage with someone like me who can do nothing, wouldn’t it be better for Sir Silas to build a new relationship with someone else?”
“…Well, I suppose that might be true…”
“…Frederica, I don’t understand. What is love? What is happiness? In the stories I read, it says that those who fall in love become happy. At first, I thought that would be with Sir Silas. But Sir Silas rejected that. By neglecting me, he showed that he had no feelings for me…”

Unlike before, Dorothy spoke with visible pain, and Frederica gently placed her hand over Dorothy’s on the desk.

“…Dorothy, let’s look for it. Your happiness.”
“…Do you think I have one?”
“You do. I’m sure of it.”

At Frederica’s words, Dorothy replied softly, “Yes.”