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Chapter – 01
“Make me divorced.”
Times may have changed a lot, but divorce was still a disgrace. As a divorce-specialized lawyer, I wasn’t exactly viewed favorably by most people.
Then one day, an unexpected client came to me.
“Did you not hear me? I said, make me divorced.”
“…Pardon?”
“Why. Are you not a divorce lawyer?”
“No… I mean… are you saying His Majesty the Emperor wants a divorce? And you want me to handle it?”
“Yes. If you succeed in securing my divorce, I will make you Empress. Isn’t that enough as a legal fee?”
I had been cornered by my father, who intended to sell me off into marriage, when the Emperor extended his hand to me.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. However, you must execute this divorce perfectly. If you fail, I will hang you in the marketplace as decoration—like a wooden ornament—so that you will never again call yourself a divorce lawyer or anything of the sort.”
Should I… accept this request?
Three months earlier
I died in the same way as the man I had always hated—my father.
That man, who spent his life drowning in alcohol and beating his family, had stumbled drunk in the street and died alone. And I, too, died so pointlessly.
On my way home from overtime work, I had simply helped an elderly man crossing a flickering crosswalk. A foolish act of moral impulse I developed after becoming a lawyer. Because of that, I was hit by a truck.
As if to prove my efforts meant nothing.
“There’s… no old man either…”
Through my fading vision, I couldn’t even see the elderly man I had helped. I realized it then. This world was deliberately pushing me down, as if telling me I had no right to live.
And so I died.
“I’m… unfairly treated… I’m so unfairly treated…”
The voices of people shouting—Someone’s been hit! Is she dead?—grew fainter.
I had no family, no loved ones, no friends. But I had just started my career as a lawyer, and I was genuinely satisfied with my job.
“I want to live…”
Unable to move even a finger, I died like that.
And then I opened my eyes again.
“Get married!”
Under the warm sunlight in a garden, I found myself seated at a white table.
Across from me sat two men and one woman. One elderly man and one younger man with fiery red hair like spilled paint. Beside them sat a silver-haired woman quietly sipping tea.
And beside her… was me.
“…What?”
“How dare you talk back!”
I tried to ask what on earth was happening, but he didn’t even give me time to speak.
He only shouted louder and louder.
And then—suddenly—memories I had never seen before flooded into my mind.
I had lived my entire life doing as my family demanded. They cared more about marrying off the sickly youngest daughter of a baron’s family than about my health. I hate this life. If I marry this time, it’s truly over… I don’t want to live like this. I want to live like everyone else…
Reincarnation.
Memories of this body.
Both I and the original owner of this body shared the same wish: to live.
I didn’t know why this happened, but one thing was certain.
This was the worst situation imaginable.
Raviel, the youngest daughter of the Avelon Baron family, had been confined to her room most of her life due to poor health. Only recently had she regained a little strength. Yet instead of letting her live freely, her father intended to marry her off to an old wealthy man.
“Anyway, prepare yourself. You’ve only been a burden to this family under the excuse of illness. This is the only way you can repay us.”
I’m not the one who burdened this family financially.
“….”
“Why aren’t you answering me!”
If this were the original Raviel, she would have obediently said yes after a lifetime of being controlled and gaslighted.
But I am not Raviel.
Even if I don’t know why I ended up in her body, I know one thing for sure—I was not given a second life just to live that kind of existence.
“I think you need to invest before expecting returns.”
“Excuse me?”
“If you just present an empty cup, what do you expect? Father, expecting profit without investment is unreasonable. Therefore, I refuse to marry that old man.”
“Do you think you have a choice?”
“Yes!”
I didn’t back down even slightly.
“Then why didn’t you marry me off a year earlier? When I was still a minor—when I had no choice. That would’ve been the smart move.”
The baron didn’t hit me immediately as I expected.
Instead, he threw a teacup.
I instinctively turned my head, but it struck me directly in the forehead.
He was always violent. Drunk or sober, he hit anyone who displeased him.
“Ah.”
“W-what are you doing to the child!”
My mother rushed to me, her hands trembling as she touched my head.
“Raviel. Are you okay?”
“This is your fault! You failed to educate your daughter properly! Useless woman!”
His violence then turned toward my mother.
“Don’t you dare defy me!”
“Please… Raviel is sick… so don’t… don’t do this to her…”
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
He grabbed her hair and yanked it.
Trash.
My previous father and Raviel’s father were the same kind of human.
Useless garbage who cannot be recycled—people who use violence whenever things don’t go their way.
I stepped between them.
“What, are you trying to take the hit instead?”
“Yes. Hit me instead of my mother.”
“Fine! If pain will make you come to your senses—!”
But I had no intention of giving him what he wanted.
“But will you be able to handle it?”
“What?”
“If you injure my face and leave a scar, will that be okay? It will damage your precious product.”
“….”
“If your expensive ring scratches my face, what then? If you break my bones? If my weak body becomes disabled from your violence and I become unsellable?”
His expression cooled sharply.
“You must have a problem in the head.”
“So what will you do?”
He clicked his tongue.
“My mood is ruined. Don’t do anything unnecessary and behave yourself. The wedding will be arranged as soon as possible.”
“Sure, sure.”
I casually nodded.
Then I turned to my mother.
“Please go inside.”
“Raviel… are you really okay? That kind of marriage…”
As I helped her up, she looked deeply worried.
At that moment, the eldest son of the family spoke up.
“So what if she doesn’t want it? A woman must sacrifice herself for the family.”
How could someone say such garbage?
A man who could spit nonsense so naturally.
I looked at him.
“Brother, you should also learn to sacrifice yourself for the family.”
