My fiancé was taken away by my sister-in-law, and I have decided to break off the engagement... With a broken heart, I shall seek asylum in my mother's country. I will not return again, so please understand.

# The Duke's Daughter Marianne Duke's daughter Marianne was informed of her engagement's dissolution by the Crown Prince she was betrothed to. It happened because he had fallen in love with Marianne's stepsister, Lily. Lily, the daughter brought by Marianne's stepmother who remarried her father, is also an adopted daughter of the Duke's house. In other words, she possesses rights equivalent to a biological child. Therefore, considering the marriage alliance between the royal and ducal families, it would be the same regardless of which daughter he married. Since having an ex-fiancée would be inconvenient in various ways, Marianne decides to leave her homeland of her own accord. Her destination is her late mother's homeland. Her grandfather and uncles gladly accept Marianne's relocation. They wish to make her an imperial princess! However, she refuses, and they reluctantly settle on "Female Duke" instead. For Marianne, a small nation's duke's daughter could not become a great nation's imperial princess. For the sake of her kind uncles (members of the great nation's royal family), she works hard as "Female Duke" for her new motherland. The education she received as Crown Prince's fiancée is being put to use in this unexpected way. Meanwhile, dark clouds loom over her ex-fiancé, the Crown Prince. He has been stripped of his crown prince title and reduced to merely a prince. His wife Lily receives failing marks as a consort, proving utterly incompetent. It seems the ex-fiancé was unaware that Lily had never even received an education befitting high nobility. Her mother came from lower nobility. Naturally, her daughter Lily received only a lower noble's education. Both domestic and foreign affairs are failing. Even the economy is becoming unstable. What will become of their future??? Thank you for ranking 2nd in the monthly genre rankings in May 2022. Also published on Alphapolis and Kakuyomu.