Prologue~

A flower blooming dazzlingly, blindingly bright. A fragrant scent that stimulates the sense of smell. Everything lost its shine and meaning in front of the man before my eyes.

In just a few months, such landscapes that could come out of a painting became familiar. Leisurely tea time. What an absurd phrase. Amelia swallowed a scream that felt like it would burst out of her mouth. The sharp scent of black tea that touched her tongue made her mind flash.

“Is there a problem?”
“… No, there isn’t.”

In fact, there were many problems. First, I wanted to escape from this place and the man in front of me right now.

“I guess you don’t plan on going out today.”

Going out. Can that really be called going out? It was an escape under the pretense of going out. I couldn’t remember when it started, this game of cat and mouse between him and me. It’s a strange game of tag where no one gets to run away, there’s only a tagger.

“No, I don’t.”
“Well, that’s a good choice.”

Amelia’s face momentarily darkened at the words ‘good choice,’ but she quickly regained her composure. It was foolish to show emotions at this point. The end was near. All preparations were done, and all she had to do was make a decision.

She couldn’t understand how she ended up in this situation. It was supposed to be an easy path… This absurd tea time shouldn’t have happened according to her plan. The original Raphael should have ignored his wife, Amelia.

‘But who is this man sitting in front of me now?’

Blond hair that seemed like melted gold of the purest kind. Pure golden eyes that could captivate people with just a gaze. She couldn’t take her eyes off him as if he was the only source of light in the pitch darkness. Raphael Lloyd Siegfried has a dazzling appearance that could blind one’s eyes.

Those eyes were fixed on her right now. It wasn’t a gaze filled with love. It was closer to the eyes of a beast that might bite her neck at any moment.

“Is the childish game finally over?”
“Game…what do you mean?”
“Thanks to you, it hasn’t been boring for the past few months.”

Every time he opened his mouth, Amelia struggled tirelessly to keep herself from shaking with her innate fear. The Raphael Lloyd Siegfried before her was a different species altogether. She didn’t know why such a man was suddenly obsessed with her.

Raphael should have loathed his wife, Amelia. A useless beggar that only spent money. It was normal to see her that way. He shouldn’t have had tea facing her like this.

“It’s been very fun.”
“……”
“My wife finally requested tea time with me after a long time, but it seems like she’s not enjoying it?”

It was Amelia who used to cling to him. so fiercely had she pounced on him, eager to see him face to face, to nip at his collar. But within just a few months, the situation had turned around. She ran away from Raphael and he found her every time.

“I have a request for you, Your Grace.”
“You can tell me anything.”

Amelia’s thin fingers holding the teacup handle trembled. Even at this moment, he didn’t take his interested gaze off her. The man that all the women in the empire wanted. That was still true even if he became a married man. Even now, many women are suffering from lovesickness about him.

Raphael already lost his sense of wariness and emitted an openly dangerous atmosphere. That’s who he is. The world’s greatest villain and a man who feared nothing. He was also the father of Leonel Siegfried, who would eventually become the ultimate villain.

“Please divorce me. I’ll raise the child.”

I barely managed to say it, no matter how many times I practiced and rehearsed this sentence, but the other person didn’t respond at all. He just had a fierce and stern expression on his face, it’s the first time I’ve seen him like this. My trembling lips were so nervous that they trembled uncontrollably.

Amelia was baffled as to why he was so angry at her request for a divorce.

“I promise I’ll never appear before you again.”
“Where will you go?”
“I’ll leave the empire and go somewhere else…”

She wanted to say that she planned to run away far away where they would never see each other again, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“If you go somewhere else, I will erase that place from the map.”
“……”
“If you go to another man, I will kill him.”

So, you.
Whether you live or die, you will stay by my side.

Raphael Lloyd Siegfried. He had another woman whom he loved.

Chapter 1

One day, when I opened my eyes, a new world unfolded before me. I couldn’t have imagined that such an unbelievable story would happen to me.

It all started with a simple cold. My weakened body, due to excessive work and frequent overtime, easily fell ill. The problem was that even if I was sick, I couldn’t rest due to my demanding schedule. Continuing to work in a poor condition, my body couldn’t withstand it.

Heart failure due to overexertion. Living in a dark office alone, staring at the monitor until the end. Even in that moment of death, there was only one thing she worried about.

‘Ah, I still have to finish writing the report… otherwise, that b*stard, Manager Kim, will go crazy.’

She didn’t want to get up again. If she opened my eyes, it felt like piles of documents and emails would greet her. But this is a completely different world!

“What…?”

An unfamiliar sight in front of her eyes. It didn’t look like any architecture from modern society but rather had a medieval feel. Tall canopies and clotheslines were welcoming her.

This was a nightmare that seemed worse than seeing 999 new emails in the inbox.

Of course, she screamed on the spot, and the servants who heard the sound appeared and restrained her. Even the people who came to calm her down were wearing maid outfits, not modern attire.

“Let go of me!”

“P-Please calm down.”

“I said let go!”

She had to get out of here right away. This couldn’t be reality. After working so hard, her mind must have gone crazy. She was just an ordinary citizen, and if she had a wish, it was to escape from the piles of annoying documents by winning the lottery. Not to be dropped off in an unknown place like this.

“Your Highness!”

“Madam!”

From the various titles she was called, it was clear that her status was quite high. It was obvious from the fact that maids appeared in the first place.

“I said I wanted to have fun and eat! I didn’t say I wanted to go to a different world!”

There was no use struggling. Fortunately, she was someone who adapted to reality very obediently and avoided causing trouble. It wasn’t good to stand out in South Korea.

“Are you really okay?”

“…Yes.”

“Should I call a doctor?”

“I just had a nightmare for a moment.”

The names she heard and the titles directed at her amidst the previous commotion. They were fragmented pieces of information, but it seemed like she knew what kind of place this was. There could only be one reason for something like this to happen to her. Pushing aside the maids who were reluctant to leave, she lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, but nothing changed.

It was the same ceiling as before. An antique interior that she could never get used to.

“No, it can’t be.”

She denied it in her mind, but her body had already accepted that all of this was reality. Adaptability is the most important trait for a worker in modern society. It was a moment when she, who faithfully worked harder than anyone else while expressing a desire to quit, disliked herself.

Right now, there were maids waiting for her in front of the door, and in the mirror, there was a woman with silver hair and violet eyes. And she called herself Amelia Seraphin…

“So, I am Amelia Seraphin.”

That wicked and pitiful woman? Both words were contradictory, but other than those, there was no way to describe Amelia.

A small gift from a friend who felt sorry for her because all she did was work. She called it a gift but it was more like passing on an unread book. Her friend had a hobby of reading romance fantasy novels, and surely she gave her the book she cherished the least because she didn’t have any more space at home.

The title was too tacky, and the edges and cover were very worn out. ⟨The Woman of the Sun⟩. The book, which already seemed quite outdated, was also lacking in content. It unfolded from the perspective of the antagonist, not even the protagonist. No matter how much I immersed myself and read, the end for the antagonist was always death.

The name Amelia Seraphin was very familiar.

“Why of all things…”

The woman whom she seemed to have possessed. Amelia Seraphin was the antagonist of ⟨The Woman of the Sun⟩ and the mother of Leonel Siegfried, the villain who drove the entire story. The problem was that she was supposed to have died a long time ago.

* * *

There was not even enough time to be deeply lost in thought. She had to be examined by a doctor as a result of her commotion that was not really a commotion.

“Your Highness, is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable?”

“No, there isn’t.”

It would be foolish to say here that she had lost her memory or that she wasn’t actually Amelia.

“I just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

“We should conduct a proper investigation…”

“There’s no need to cause a fuss.”

Amelia brushed off her hair as if she were annoyed, and her face became heavily wrinkled. Then she waved her hand to shoo away the unwanted guests.

“That’ll be all. You can leave now.”

“But…”

“If I make a real scene in here, will you leave then?”

“I-I understand.”

Even after the doctor left, one maid remained by her side with a stiff expression. It was easy to guess who she was without asking. Headmaid May. She was the faithful maid of the Duke Siegfried household, tasked with monitoring her nominal mistress.

“May.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Amelia spoke as if she were not trembling with anxiety. As expected, it was May. Her indifferent expression, light brown hair that looked like it would fall out, and cloudy gray eyes were all just as they were described in the book. It suddenly dawned on her that this place was really like a scene from a book.

“I’m a little tired and want to go back to sleep.”

“…….”

“What are you going to do? Aren’t you leaving?”

So, it was time for her to leave as well. May had to have understood that much, but she still stood there, guarding her post.

“If you sleep too long, it’s not good for your health.”

“That’s for me to…”

“I’ll bring you some food.”

The Duchess had no power over the maid of the house. Amelia let out a sigh at May’s words and watched her disappear after saying she would bring food. It was really giving her goosebumps how much the contents of the book matched what was happening now. She had only read the book by chance, despite being busy with work.

She had seen it by chance. She thought it was only natural to throw away such a gift. But strangely enough, it kept catching her eye. Even though she had never read a romance novel before.

Before she knew it, she had become someone who carried the book around with her. She couldn’t let go of it because she felt sorry for the protagonist Leonel and because he was somehow similar to her. When he was in pain, she was also in pain, and when he was sad, she was sad too. She realized that this was what it meant for emotions to be conveyed through a story.

In fact, the friend who had given her the book had forgotten that she had ever given it to her. And when she told her the title, she didn’t know what it was about.

“Let’s try to summarize the details first.”

Unfortunately, she hadn’t read ⟨The Woman of the Sun⟩ several times. She had only read it once, but the emotional toll of falling deeply for Leonel made it feel like she had read it many times.

“Still, fortunately, it hasn’t been that long since I read it…”

It had been about two months. She couldn’t accept Leonel’s death to the point where she had to take sick leave. The story begins with Leonel’s parents. His father was Raphael Lloyd Siegfried, the Iron-Blooded Grand Duke.

“Son of a b*tch.”

The mere mention of the name sent an uncontrollable rush of anger through her. Was this really true? Amelia anxiously ran her hand through her hair several times.

Knock.

She was startled by the knocking sound, but before she could answer, the door swung open.

“It worked this time.”

“…….”

His voice and tone were filled with annoyance. Even his brows were deeply furrowed. The unwelcome intruder was directing his anger towards her.

“Why did you call me again?”

A breathtakingly handsome face, hair, and eyes shining brighter than gold. Raphael Lloyd Siegfried, the beginning and cause of all this misfortune.