IDRNG 05

Chapter 5

I let out a scoff and shook my head.

“No. I don’t know about other things, but he wasn’t a strange person.”

“You met Duke Pictian?”

“Yeah. At the tea party earlier.”

“What kind of person was he?”

“He’s extremely handsome and kind. He smiles a lot, is perceptive, and seems to have a great personality.”

I described Linus as calmly as possible.

I almost added that he was tall, had good skin, and was very polite, but I stopped myself because it felt like I was only praising him too much. Ruby narrowed her eyes and gave a sly smile.

“My lady… don’t tell me…”

“What?”

“Was it love at first sight?”

“What? No, it wasn’t.”

“Oh my, oh my.”

“I said it wasn’t.”

Even after I firmly denied it again, Ruby’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she smirked and nodded along.

“Alright, my lady. So it wasn’t love at first sight.”

She said she understood, but anyone could see she didn’t believe me at all.

Ruby finished tidying my bedding and left the room with a teasing smile.

I told you, it’s not like that…

Linus is a honey-sweet kind of man, and I do like honey a lot—but our first meeting was in far too barren a setting for romance to bloom.

Besides, Linus had seen me rummaging through a magical beast’s head.

Even if he was a decent man and didn’t show it, he must have thought I was a strange woman inside.

And the problem was that it wasn’t just about being seen as strange.

I got up from the bed and took out the magical beast core I had stored in a drawer.

The pale-blue gem shimmered so beautifully that I couldn’t help but sigh.

The fact that it existed meant gates and dungeons were real too.

This is insane.

There are limits to breaking canon—why are there dungeons in a romance fantasy novel?

Could it be because of me? Because I got isekai’d into this world?

The fact that a dungeon appeared where none existed before, right after I entered this world, made it feel like it had to be my fault no matter how I thought about it.

“This is ridiculous…”

Why do I have to become the villain who ruins my favorite novel’s world?

What if dungeons keep appearing in this world?

At the terrifying thought, I grabbed my head and silently screamed—then suddenly snapped back to my senses.

If dungeons really were appearing because of me, no one could ever find out.

This is on a completely different level from being exposed as an isekai’d person.

If they find out, they’ll definitely try to kill me thinking, “If you disappear, this will all stop too!”

I can’t die because of dungeons again in this life.

I just want to live long and comfortably as a noble lady, enjoying a sweet life.

I decided that when I met Linus tomorrow, I would make sure to silence him again.

* * *

The next day began with another rumor Ruby brought in.

The moment she set down the basin of wash water, she asked excitedly,

“My lady, something strange appeared at the imperial palace yesterday. Did you see it?”

I froze while scooping water into my hands.

I tried to act normal, but my voice stuttered.

“A-a strange thing?”

“They say a black hole appeared in the sky. They also say that’s why His Highness the Crown Prince’s engagement announcement was canceled.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that.”

“I’m glad, my lady. It seems the palace was in chaos because of that ominous thing.”

I had hoped it disappeared quickly so no one would notice it, but hope was just hope.

Well, something that big couldn’t possibly go unnoticed.

The thought that someone might have seen me with Linus made my blood run cold.

It had been in a secluded part of the garden, and the space distortion around gates should help obscure visibility… right?

I stood frozen, not even noticing the water slipping through my fingers, when Ruby continued.

“The mages and scholars were all summoned because of it. Even the duke went to the palace early this morning.”

So it really was chaos.

Come to think of it, when gates first appeared on Earth, the world turned upside down.

When monsters poured out of them, it wasn’t even something you could describe with a cute word like “chaos.”

“So what is that black hole?”

As I nervously waited for words like “gate” or something similar, Ruby gave a completely different answer.

Lowering her voice even though it was just the two of us, she mentioned a familiar name.

“Rumor says Duke Torned is behind it again.”

“Duke Torned?”

“Apparently so. People say there’s no one else who would dare harm the imperial palace.”

“But didn’t the imperial family and the Torned ducal house reconcile? The Crown Prince and Lady Lariénne are supposed to be engaged.”

“They say it might just be a show of peace on the surface while they’re plotting something behind the scenes.”

No one in the Diolenta Empire believed that reconciliation was truly genuine from the start.

The Torned House was the leading anti-imperial faction, and the novel Secret Dance in the Butterfly Garden revolved around the conflict between the imperial family and the Torned dukedom.

That was why the romance between Crown Prince Hade and Lariénne would go through a painful, almost unbearable journey—but that was still later in the story.

Right now, they were supposed to be in a brief period of peace after the engagement alliance was announced.

If the variable called “gate” hadn’t appeared, things would have followed that path.

Duke Torned would probably be furious, but if this gate incident ended up being attributed to him, it wouldn’t be a bad outcome for me.

It was true that he was involved in behind-the-scenes scheming anyway.

The conflict between the imperial family and the Torned House might escalate earlier than in the original story, but right now, the original plot didn’t matter.

As long as no more dungeons appeared, it didn’t matter at all.

Yes—so long as no more dungeons appeared.

I stayed up late last night thinking and suddenly remembered something I had overlooked.

Maybe yesterday’s incident wasn’t my fault—but that talking chubby cat’s fault.

The moment that cat said nonsense, the gate appeared.

Honestly, a talking cat is more impossible than a dungeon.

That thing must have done something.

“I need to find that cat…”

“Huh? A cat? My lady, do you want a pet cat?”

“N-no. Forget it, Ruby.”

I brushed it off and washed my face.

Since I met it in the imperial butterfly garden, I’d probably find it if I went there again.

I decided to ask my father how to enter the palace once he returned from there.

By lunchtime, instead of my father, Ruby came running while clutching her skirt.

“My lady! A letter has arrived from the Pictian ducal house!”

It was Linus’s message announcing his visit.

Reading his letter, written in an elegant handwriting as refined as his face, I fell into thought.

And Ruby did too.

I tried to think of a way to explain the magical beast core extraction without looking insane, while Ruby busied herself decorating my body with things.

“My lady, how about this necklace?”

She made me sit in front of the mirror and tried on dozens of necklaces one by one.

“They’re all pretty. Just pick any.”

“Any? But this is your first date!”

“It’s not a date.”

“Alright. Not a date. Then this necklace isn’t it either. Red jewels suit your hair best, my lady.”

Ruby nodded along to herself and placed another necklace around my neck.

The necklace with the red gem sparkled beautifully against my pale skin and pink hair.

Even I had to admit—my reflection was breathtaking.

It was exactly like the character I had imagined when I thought of being inside a romance fantasy novel.

And I had noticed this before, but even though I had possessed another body, my original face and this one were strangely similar.

If you took my original face and applied a romance-fantasy-style beauty filter, it would probably look like this.

The facial features were nearly identical, and even the body type was similar.

For a body that had been lying down for over ten years, it was surprisingly well-built too.

Is this magic too?

What a strange world.