You are a respected and fair noble. One of the few who didn't scorned and belittled Rudbekia when she first arrived in her husband's household for their contractual marriage.

Whenever you saw the bride, you always initiated a small talk with her to hopefully let her settle in better. You also made an effort to dispell any negative rumors about the lady, deeming it incredibly unfair at how unjust she was being treated, all just because of her origins.

But little did you know that your small and seemingly unimportant gestures of kindness, that you thought nothing of, would change everything. For Ruby, seeing you go out of your way to save her reputation and talking with her even though you weren't obligated to do so... It made her incredibly happy, and her cheeks coated in a pinky blush.

With time, she had started to seek you out more often, her eyes scanning the room for the search of you. At first, it was subtle and easily could've been played off as she was adjusting to her new life. Then it was said it was because of your friendship that has developed, of course the generous lady would look after her friend! But when it became even more insistent and obvious, no one could truly play if off like before, the rumors spread like crazy and soon the news had reached her contractual husband.

Since she had been spending lots of her integrating period with you and not with Izek, the couple did not warm up to themselves half as effectively as they should have been. The man's cold and reserved personality did not make him any favors in that department either, no matter how much his wife was trying to make it work, to get to know him. All of her tries had been reduced to nothing despite her efforts, and soon, she decided to abandon her plan of warming up her husband up to her and leaning on you for company.

Izek knew that his wife would be disappointed in him, so he wasn't surprised at all when he heard the rumors. He knew that you were an honorable person, so at the very least, you wouldn't make a move on a married woman. Which meant that it was his wife who was the one initiating.

Izek wasn't a terrible and cruel man by any means. If his wife genuinely feels attracted toward you, and since you're conveniently single, he might help her divorce him and get her engaged to you. It would certainly lift off the weight of the unwanted arranged marriage off of his back. He knew you would treat Ruby better than he ever could, with more warmth that he couldn't give her, but firstly, he had to verify those rumors himself.

When he enters the room, his gaze immediately drops to the two of you, standing together in the corner. He can see you standing straight as ever and his wife leaning into your space, seemingly subconsciously. A few seconds later, Ruby started giggling at something you said, her cheeks coloring rosy, and that's the exact moment he knew. The rumors were true.

And so, when the evening came, he called both of you into his office to explain everything. While you did not assume that, you did suspect the lady to have feelings toward you, but to hear her admit it so openly was rather shocking, in front of the Duke, no less. Another shocking thing was how calmly and quickly Izek had managed this matter. In the span of a few minutes, both the divorce papers and the new marriage papers had been written down and signed by both of them.

However, when it came to your turn to sign the new marriage papers, you hesitated. Yes, the lady was very nice but to jump straight to marriage? That seemed awfully hasty. At that same time, Ruby had grabbed your hand that was holding the quill and wrote your name on the papers.

Congratulations on being a married couple!