The Tragic Male Lead Chose the Wrong Partner

* * *
‘What kind of relationship do the Duke and Anna have?’
In the marketplace alley, there were homes where the townspeople lived.

The Duke of Recanosa and Anna stood in front of one of those houses, speaking together.
“Mr. Makia, would you mind going ahead and buying the cake? I just saw someone I know.”
Makia, who had been looking in the same direction as Cynthia, smiled gently and nodded.

“I promise I won’t eat it on the way.”
‘How did he know that was my biggest worry?’
Once Makia left, Cynthia hid nearby with the soldiers and watched Anna and the Duke.

The soldiers, as always, followed her like shadows—present yet silent and obedient.
‘That must be Anna’s house.’
The Duke of Recanosa left first, and Anna went inside.

Cynthia instructed the soldiers to wait nearby and knocked on the door Anna had entered.
“Duke, did you forget something—ah!”
Anna, who had opened the door with a bright look, froze as if she’d seen a ghost.

Cynthia quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind her with a bang, standing face to face with Anna.
“Anna! You’re alive?”
“Cindy? No, L-Lady Cynthia?”

“It’s the first time we’ve met since you dressed me up at the mansion, right? Don’t worry, I’m not here to kill you.”
Cynthia didn’t know the nature of Anna and Anita’s relationship, but she herself didn’t have good memories of Anna.
‘Vain and a master of false accusations.’
Anna once got caught for stealing leftover silk scraps and pinned it on Cynthia.

“Let’s skip the pleasantries. Why were you with the Duke of Recanosa? Talk.”
Her face was bright and cheerful, like a friend asking about a love story—but her tone was cold and blunt.
Realizing Cynthia wasn’t going to kill her, Anna relaxed and straightened her shoulders.

“Why do you think? Just as you’re imagining.”
“What I’m imagining is that you suddenly got very bold.”
Anna gave her a confident smile.

A man saves a woman’s life, gives her a home and money, visits her every weekend—what else could it mean?
“And why are you asking about our relationship? Because he’s your sister-in-law’s fiancé, whom you treated like a servant all your life?”
Cynthia looked utterly baffled.

“Huh? I thought maybe he was blackmailing or using you.”
Anna flared up.
“He’s not! The Duke helps me and visits me every weekend. Who knows? I might even become the Duchess instead of Lady Helene.”

As Anna puffed herself up with the confidence of someone newly empowered, Cynthia fell into thought.
‘How did they even meet? I can’t find any overlap between them…’
“Then why is the future Duchess being hidden in a backwater village, meeting him in secret?”

Cynthia’s piercing question made Anna’s face flush scarlet.
In a society ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) governed by strict class hierarchy, aspiring to marry upward was normal for both men and women. Marriage was a transaction for a better life.
‘But breaking up someone’s household isn’t something that can be justified.’

Cynthia sighed and rubbed her forehead.
Scolding her about the unforgivable sin of adultery would change nothing.
The real issue was the one using false hope to string someone along. Cynthia was increasingly disappointed in the Duke.

“So you’re happily carrying on an affair. Nothing to worry about then. But what’s wrong is still wrong. You’d better end it soon. If this causes any trouble, I won’t be able to help you.”
Anna stared at Cynthia, as if trying to decipher her intentions, then slowly looked bewildered.
She recalled seeing Cynthia at the market helping Anita.

Realizing that Cynthia didn’t mean to harm her, and was in fact worried, Anna asked awkwardly,
“By the way, did you take Anita in? I saw her at the market before.”
So Anna had seen Anita that day.

It would be a problem if the fact that Anita was alive got out, but Anna had no reason to go around blabbing.
Cynthia shook her head with a sigh and turned away.
“No idea. I’ll be going now.”

There was nothing more to gain from talking to Anna. She’d ask the Duke directly.
How he met Anna, and why he was hiding her here.
* * *

“You visit someone in this neighborhood every week, don’t you?”
Cynthia confronted the Duke of Recanosa directly.
Seeing the disappointment in her eyes, the Duke looked flustered.

‘So she happened to see me with a maid. This princess seems to run into coincidences like clockwork.’
At this rate, he’d look like nothing more than a woman-obsessed degenerate, unworthy of respect.
He subtly tilted his head, signaling the soldiers to leave them.

“……”
But they didn’t move.
So he had no choice but to say it aloud.

“I’d rather not have any ears listening in.”
“Sergeant Chaet! Corporal Petey! His Grace says we’re about to have a secret conversation, so don’t listen! No, that doesn’t mean stand there covering your ears…”
After receiving a clearer order, the soldiers stepped aside, and the Duke finally began speaking, scanning the area first.

“I have no intention of causing trouble for you, Princess. Please don’t misunderstand.”
“…Trouble for me?”
Cynthia asked back, and after a moment’s thought, the Duke met her eyes seriously.

“I know about your past. That a servant, driven by greed for noble blood, stole you as a baby—and you were raised as a maid because of it.”
He also knew she was a fake, but chose not to reveal everything.
The Duke looked as if trying to recall a memory.

“That maid you saw… her name was Maximilia, I think.”
‘Who the hell is that? You got it completely wrong! Not even a single syllable is right!’
The image of the Duke, unable to even remember Anna’s name correctly, clashed absurdly with Anna’s dreamy expression of aspiring to become a duchess.

‘What the hell is going on here?’
Cynthia’s face filled with confusion and doubt.
“So, what exactly happened?”

She asked in a stern voice.
The Duke didn’t want to miss the chance to earn her gratitude.
“There was a purge of servants at the Count’s estate. I hid her here so she wouldn’t be discovered and killed, or used as leverage against you.”

“Why?”
Cynthia looked puzzled rather than touched.
The Duke cleared his throat and looked away.

“Because I didn’t want you to be troubled.”
“No, really—why?”
“I don’t know.”

He couldn’t bring himself to say, “Please don’t revoke your respect for me.” He didn’t even understand why he was so desperate for such a trivial acknowledgment.
Just then, Cynthia grabbed his arm.
“Ah, look out!”

At her warning, they saw soldiers on skis speeding down the road on patrol.
“Ahh! I can’t stop!”
“Me neither!”

With shouts like startled yelps and nothing but afterimages left behind, the soldiers zipped past the two of them.
“……”
The Duke looked at Cynthia, who had pulled him out of harm’s way.

She had the look of a princess who had just saved the prince on a white horse straight out of a fairy tale.
Snowflakes kicked up by the soldiers sparkled in the air around her. Perfectly timed.
‘Lady Luck…’

As Cynthia leaned in, checking on him with concern, the Duke’s face turned bright red.
A feeling he had never experienced before in his life struck him like an unexpected accident.