Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

When I turned 12, I became engaged to the “The Cute Princess of the Elderberg Empire”. She was the same age as me, but received a much more endearing nickname than I. While she was “little and cute”, I was “Hostile and intimidating”. My full title was “The Hostile Duke of the Herrmann Household”. That wasn’t my real name of course, but I was called it so often that one might think that it was. Our wedding was in three months. That was all the time I had to call off the engagement. In truth, I was already in love with another girl. She was the Baroness of Lenjo. Soft, poise, and full of elegance. I was only twelve, yet I knew she was who I was destined to be with. Her name was Erina, and she was the most beautiful girl in the whole empire. People often compared her to the royal family, saying she must be their long lost daughter. Many said Erina’s grace outmatched the princess’s. But her face isn’t what truly stuck out to me. What caught my attention was her long silver hair, and striking blue eyes. I had never seen such color before in my whole life. I first met Erina at a party in the garden. I remember she looked at me with the most confused look on her face. That was when I asked her to dance. She declined me, it was the most peculiar thing. In fact she slapped my hand away and ridiculed me for being so forward. That just made her even more endearing. After that encounter I made up more and more excuses to meet up with her, and eventually we became friends. I was planning on asking for her hand in marriage when we got a little older, but before I could I became engaged to the princess. Despite my (quote-on-quote) hostile resting face, I was known to be quite beautiful. The next empire over wouldn’t marry the princess, so instead of marrying some neighboring prince, she was marrying me. I half expected Erina to laugh at me when I told her the news, but instead she cried. We both cried that day. A lot. Penny, the princess of the empire was not considered beautiful, but instead cute. She had a round face, a bubbly personality, and big pink eyes. Her hair was the color of the morning rays, and her skin was as smooth as marble. I had nothing against her personally, but the fact that she was keeping me from Erina made me resent her. After we were betrothed, I moved into the castle. Luckily they didn’t make us share rooms, but I knew if we were to be wed, that would change. I had met Penny a couple months back at her birthday ball, but I only spoke to her for a few moments. Now I had more time to talk to her. The Emperor and Empress were known to adore their children. My plan was to be polite, but also the opposite of what Penny was looking for in a partner. If my plan succeeded, she would beg her parents to call off the engagement, and I would be good to go. Now I had to make sure I wouldn’t be disgracing my family in the process as well. We would simply end things off on a mutual note. Sure, it would most certainly be a scandal, but it would all go away once Erina and I were married. When I reached the castle on my first day, I was overwhelmed by how big it was. To my surprise, Penny was waiting for me at the front gate.