Monday, February 20, 2012

Migawari Hakushaku no Kekkon

Volume 2: Marriage of the Substitute Earl 


For the second time, Mirelle was forcibly taken to Artemaris again by Richard to act as her twin, Fred in the high court. Before Richard arrive at her door step to escort her to Artemaris, Fred had sent her a letter, saying he's off on a journey to heal his broken heart so she'll have to take his place again. At first, Mirelle planned to ignore Fred's letter but unfortunately for her, when Richard arrived at her home town in Sangelway of Riezeland Kingdom, he brought with him a letter from Zeke, Artemaris Crown Prince 'ordering' her to come to Artemaris to be Fred's substitute. Her refusal upon the order will cause her father and brother (Edward and Fred) terrible punishment, so left with no choice, Mirelle grudgingly followed Richard to Artemaris.



After she arrived at Greenhilde, the capital city where the royal palace is located, in the Earl of Bernhardt townhouse, Mireille couldn't wait to go to the palace and get the job done as soon as possible. The reason was, her father pampered her and 'toyed' with her too much! Edward tried to sleep together with her at night, dressing her like a doll, making her changes clothes for every few hour and a lot more. Reaching her limits, she snapped, and just in time Richard came in, and she went out of the house with him to meet Zeke. Another reason as to why she was in a bad mood was, this time she was forcibly brought to Artemaris for no reason(in her opinion) while she wanted to concentrate on her bread making training to defeat her archenemy, Roy who had challenged her to take over her grandfather's bread shop.

When she arrived at the White Lily Knight Platoon Salon at the palace, the first thing she did was taking revenge on the knights by making them her slaves, a punishment for deceiving her and toying around with her before. They knew she was a girl but they still make vulgar jokes, trying to take off her clothes, walking around half-naked, and also did various harassment to her. After she succeed in making the knights her slaves, she gave them her home made bread to show them her gratitude for even though though they toyed around with her before, they did save her life when she was in danger during the kidnapping incident. They graciously accepted the bread, but, after taking a bite, they all threw away the bread begging for forgiveness accusing her holding grudges against them.


She left the salon, fuming with anger, and after countering a few obstacles like an attack from Prince Wilfred, she finally meet with the crown prince. Zeke was having his little sweet time with his fiancee, Lydianne, when Mireille arrived. He explained about why she was needed again this time as Fred's  stand-in. This time, a guest, Princess Sylfreia, a heir to the Duchy of Confield, who also the third in line for Artemaris's throne and their cousin is here at Greenhilde and Fred was expected to escort her as her fiance candidate during her stay. However, since he has gone missing, Mireille had no other choice other than to follow Zeke's order and once again, to work in Fred's place. The Princess is visiting Artemaris for her succession ceremony as the heir to the duchy and to tie an alliance with Artemaris. An eighteen years old young Princess, holding enormous wealth and power attracted a lot of unwanted attention, especially from the power-hungry gentlemen, called for an extra caution and strategy to ensure her safety during the stay. Her engagement with the Earl of Bernhardt will probably stop most of the pest from flocking by her side vying for her attention.

Even if Fred is missing, his original job still need to be done. Fred left her an unfinished assignment, to organize a test of courage competition for the Princess. During her meeting with Zeke, Mireille was handed a written report about Princess Sylfreiya. It was written in the report that the princess was said to be a witch, with a special ability of fortune telling and has quite a deep knowledge about curses. That's why to entertain her during her stay, the competirtion was held.

In order to decide which route to take during the competition, Mireille had to stay back and stroll the palace at night, with Richard as her guard. Mireille is actually quite a scaredy-cat, so during his night stroll, when somebody covered in blood suddenly appeared in front of her, she fainted. When she woke up the next morning, a man was waiting on her by the bedside. It was Cain, Viscount Zelfield, the Vice Captain of White Lily Knight Platoon. During Fred's absence, Cain was assigned to be Princess Sylfreiya's guard. Other than planning the test of courage competition, Mireille also had to accompany Princess Sylfreiya as her fiancee candidate to brush away the pest.


During one of her night duty, which is finding suitable routes for the competition, Mireille accidentally stumbled upon Zeke's night rendezvous with a beautiful woman. However, before she can say anything, Richard ushered her away from the scene. Her impression on Zeke worsen with the incident however, unbeknownst to Mireille, the lady Zeke was meeting that night was actually Princess Sylfreia's acquaintance. According to that lady, Rudy, Princess Sylfreiya is under a threat. Princess Sylfreiya's main purpose coming to Artemaris was to have her succession ceremony as the rightful heir to the Duchy of Confield. In order to do that, she needed her country treasured sword, which was stolen by the culprit who had threatened her. As the exchange for to sword, the culprit wanted her to name him as her fiance. But, living up to her name as the one who stands at the top of a country, her pride didn't allow her to succumb to such a threat, and wanting to solve the problem by herself, she kept the situation hidden from the Artemaris side. Her request to have a test of courage competition was in order for her to move freely in the palace to search for the sword hidden place by herself. Cain who was entrusted as her escort during her stay at Artemaris had decided to keep silent about the matter and helped her searching for the sword.

After hearing the situation from Rudy, Zeke ordered Richard to find out the whole situation from Princess Sylfreia. Rudy is actually Sylfreia's sister disciple and which is also a witch. In Artemaris, a witch wasn't someone who used magic, but more like an inventor, making various suspicious potions, medicine, like the one Richard used when he put Mireille to sleep in order to bring her to Artemaris for the first time before, and also weapons, like the bombs Prince Wilfred used before. Fred and Prince Wilfred can be said to be her regular customer, for they always play pranks and mischief on others.


The next day, Mireille woke up in the morning and found out that Richard was sleeping with Rudy on a bed just right beside the one she was sleeping. Unable to go home at night, she was staying at the salon resting room, and when she saw the scenery in front of her, she imagined that Richard was doing indecent things right next to where she was sleeping, resulting in a misunderstanding. She fled the room after arguing with Rudy and cut ties with Richard.

The night of the test of courage competition comes. Quite a few unexpected people participated in the game, like her father, a Duke, and the royal couple, Zeke Lydianne. During the event, all participants were to move in pairs. Mireille was paired with Princess Sylfreiya, leaving her father in tears. During the event, Marquess Eygine, the culprit who had stolen the sword made his move.  Using the palace underground route, he brought in accomplices from the outside, and launched an attack on Princess Sylfreia. During that attack, coincidentally, Mireille and Prince Wilfred was also caught up in the mess. One of the culprit, Dietrich Randolph, son of the Duke of Izury who was responsible for killing Sylfreia's parent 7 years ago, appeared. He drew his sword and pointed it to Prince Wilfred. Mireille immediately moved forward and covered Prince Wilfred at the back. When she was about to be killed, Richard came, saving her by killing the enemy. Soon after, White Lily Knight Platoon found them, and the matter was settled.


A few days after that, Princess Sylfreia safely had her succession ceremony and was officially announced as the Duchess of Confield. During the celebration banquet, Fred returned and it was revealed that he was actually on a mission, acquiring information about a neighboring country, the Grand Duchy of Xiaran. To avoid any suspicion about his whereabouts, Mireille was needed to act as his substitute in order to fool the eyes of Xiaran Grand Duke. When he went to greet the Princess, the Princess accused Fred as a liar, and she actually knew that Mireille wasn't Fred. In the middle of the party, Richard invited Mireille to a rose green house to clear up some misunderstanding about them. During the previous incident, Richard had killed people in front of Mireille to save her. Witnessing the scene and remembering how cold Richard's eyes at the time, Mireille was left with mixed feelings. After they clear up the misunderstanding and awkwardness between them, Mireille pointed out that Richard is a natural airhead and he should be careful so that he won't be deceived by bad woman. Richard rebutted saying he didn't want to hear that from Mireille who is the real natural airhead in his opinion. They suddenly started arguing, without realizing that not far from where they were standing, a group of people was watching the whole thing. A secret bet was made without the couple's knowledge, which is whether Richard will make a move on Mireille or not. In the end, Fred was the only one who won the bet, as Richard didn't make any move on her. In the middle of the fight, suddenly, Rudy barged in and interrupted the couple. The event take turn for the worst as Mireille started arguing with Rudy, for she called her flat-chested woman. Sylfreia the came in, and revealed the fact that Rudy was actually a guy with a cross-dressing hobby. Being called a flat-chested woman by a cross-dressing guy, Mireille snapped and immediately turned to Fred demanding the promised turtle shell that was said can help to boost her bust growth.