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Chapter 07
…What?
Despite my bewildered and incredulous stare, Michael laughed heartily without a care in the world.
“As expected, even Lyxion would be shaken by this much.”
He laughed heartily with an expression rarely seen on his face, then muttered to himself as he gazed fondly at the large bouquet sent by Lyxion.
“I never thought much of him as a person, but the Duke has a good eye for women. Yes, good men know how to recognize good women.”
Excuse me, but don’t you have a bad eye for men, brother?
“I don’t know about you, but that type surprisingly becomes devoted to their wives after marriage and cherishes them for the rest of their lives. Nowadays, there’s a lot of talk about affairs and such in aristocratic society, but from what I can see, the Duke is definitely not the kind of man who would ever cheat on his wife.”
What do you know, brother?
“For now, this brother approves.”
…? Approves of what?
I blinked in surprise at Michael, whose attitude had suddenly changed completely.
Just two days ago, he had been calling Lyxion every name under the sun, but now he was talking like this. What was going on?
Regardless of my reaction, Michael continued to smile pleasantly.
It seemed that the fact that the great Lyxion had fallen head over heels for me had significantly boosted Michael’s pride, which had been bruised by being rejected in every arranged marriage meeting I had attended.
“That Kaltan brat was bragging about his sister marrying the ninth prince of the Pedra Kingdom, but how does a man at the bottom of the line of succession compare to the head of the only ducal family in the Empire? Besides, he’s the only younger brother of the Empress of the Empire.”
Kaltan must be referring to Count Kaltan, one of Brother Michael’s longtime friends.
Apparently, his friend’s sister had recently married into a prominent family….
‘So that’s why this man has been so desperate to marry me off.’
I couldn’t help but overhear his monologue and stared at Michael with an expression that could have passed for the Azalenta Desert.
“Anyway, I have to go now. I’m busy preparing to leave for Azalenta and won’t be back for a few days.”
As he spoke, Michael’s large hand patted my back again.
I swayed weakly like a jellyfish floating in the sea, following the path of his hand patting my back, and lifted my gaze listlessly.
Come to think of it, Michael was already dressed for travel. His attire, from head to toe, was neat and tidy, and my appearance, which was still in its pajamas and had sleep in my eyes, was all the more shabby in comparison.
“Have a good time on your boat ride with the Duke tomorrow.”
Michael didn’t give me a chance to respond, thrusting the message card he had taken back into my hand and dashing away like the wind.
I couldn’t bring myself to shout after his retreating figure, ‘I have no intention of going on a boat ride with Lyxion,’ even though I knew he would hear me.
My brother’s current favorite, the ‘surprisingly devoted type,’ was the kind of man who would find his woman if she tried to run away, put shackles on her feet, and lock her up.
* * *
My time has been frozen in the summer of my twentieth year ever since I found that cursed book and read it.
It was the end of my first summer vacation after entering college.
At the city library I often visited, I happened to come across the romance novel, ‘The Saintess of Erendel’.
‘The Saintess of Erendel’, which turned out to be the first and last romance novel I ever read, was a trashy piece of work that focused more on romance than fantasy.
The original female lead, Ji Eunha, was an ordinary 19-year-old high school senior living in South Korea. She also happened to find and read ‘The Saintess of Erendel’ in a library, and was subsequently hit by the famous reincarnation truck and transported to another dimension, the continent of Erendel.
In the midst of the scorching desert, where not even a single blade of grass could survive, the person who appeared before her was, surprisingly, not the male lead but the supporting male lead, Michael.
The original story began when Michael, who was crossing the Azalenta Desert for business, discovered her by chance and took her to the Kaiden Empire.
In the early part of the original story, Michael’s romantic narrative with Eunha was so well-developed that it made one wonder if he was the male lead. Eunha was gradually drawn to Michael, the typical affectionate male lead.
However, the story took a drastic turn when Eunha arrived at the Kaiden Empire and came under the protection of the Imperial Palace.
By the Emperor’s orders, Lyxion was assigned to be Eunha’s escort.
Eunha turned her back on Michael, the gentle and affectionate man who had been so kind to her, and fell head over heels for the handsome but trashy Lyxion.
The well-built-up narrative was shattered, and the original male lead, Lyxion, took center stage, relegating Michael to the role of a mere supporting male lead.
Eunha, seen as the emissary of God who had appeared from the land of death, became a political pawn in the conflict between the Empire and the Temple.
The Temple, which had fallen into disrepute, sought to restore its image and credibility by using her, while the Kaiden Empire aimed to bring the Temple under its control.
The Temple and the Empire each had their own motives for trying to get their hands on the Saintess, Ji Eunha.
In the process, Saintess Eunha suffered greatly, being used by both sides, but her love line with the male lead, Lyxion, continued to develop strongly.
The two, who had fallen in love at first sight and were inseparable, seemed destined for a rosy future.
That is, until Eunha saw her family, whom she had been missing, in a dream.
She missed her beloved family and the land where she was born and raised. Suffering from severe homesickness, she could no longer see even the beloved Lyxion.
Eunha, who had always wanted to return to her original world, soon found a way to leave this land and go back to where she came from.
On the continent of Erendel, what was simply called the grace of God, a giant pillar of light that descended to this land only once every 100 years, was in fact a path that crossed dimensions and led to another world.
Eunha intended to return to her original world through that path and secretly left the Kaiden Empire, leaving Lyxion behind.
In the process, she was helped by the supporting male lead, Michael, who had loved her, and other supporting characters.
When Lyxion learned that Eunha had left him, he was completely devastated by the shock of being betrayed by the woman he loved. He could not accept the fact that the one person he had come to trust besides Empress Serena had abandoned him.
Lyxion searched for Eunha by any means necessary. And when he found her, he forcibly imprisoned her by his side, begging her to come back to him.
He did not hesitate to commit the madness of brutally murdering the supporting characters who had helped her right before her eyes.
Lyxion, who held her in his arms and whispered that he loved her while she was almost half out of her mind, seemed not to be in love but rather driven by madness.
I hoped that Eunha would run away from Lyxion to the end and return to her original world. Or I hoped that the hero, Michael, would defeat the demon king, Lyxion, and reclaim Ji Eunha.
However, ‘The Saintess of Erendel’ did not give me the ending I wanted.
In the end, Eunha decided to stay by the side of Lyxion, who was infinitely cruel, maddeningly beautiful, and had shackled her with love. She resolved to live in this world, forever buried in that excruciating love.
I had started reading ‘The Saintess of Erendel’ without knowing that the original story was such a cruel wreck, and after reading that far, I belatedly came to my senses and threw the book away.
What on earth was ‘The Saintess of Erendel’ trying to say? What were Eunha’s feelings for Lyxion? Pity? Fear? Or Stockholm syndrome?
Either way, I hated Eunha, who made such a decision, and Lyxion, who forced Eunha to make such a decision.
I figured I would never understand or accept those two for the rest of my life.
I tore my gaze away from Michael’s back and crumpled the message card in my hand with all my might.
The Duke and the boating trip, my ass.
‘Am I crazy?’
Anyway, once the original female lead, Eunha, shows up, he won’t be able to think straight.
‘He’s a dangerous man who might do anything to his ex-girlfriend to look good to Eunha.’
If he thinks my existence is hindering his pursuit of Eunha, he might try to get rid of me, his ex-girlfriend, from this world altogether.
He’s Lyxion, a madman.
Why should I disrupt my peaceful life now and take on the role of the male lead’s ex-girlfriend, putting myself in danger?
I threw the crumpled message card on the floor and crushed it with my shoe.
I didn’t know what his intentions were, but I had no intention of being used.
Besides, I’ve been called Elizabeth Kristenner for the past 23 years, and I’m quite proud of it.
Sorry, but… I will never allow the name Elizabeth Kristenner to remain as Lyxion Luhanes’ ex-girlfriend in the original story.
I’d rather die.
