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Chapter 1
“What the…….”
I grabbed my hair as I stared at the man lying peacefully on the bed. Even after looking again, his black hair was unmistakable. On top of that, there was only one person who was this handsome, this large, and covered in wounds.
Cedric Monterose.
The Northern Grand Duke Cedric was the unfortunate male protagonist who was constantly sent to the battlefield as the Emperor’s sword.
Then was I the heroine, lying in the same bed as him?
No.
If that were the case, I would have woken up, screamed that I had hit the jackpot, and caused a huge commotion.
This whole situation was my fault because, in my desperation, I hadn’t even properly checked his face.
Even if it was a marriage of convenience, I should have at least checked the face of the man I was going to marry!
I should have realized it when a ridiculously sexy man was tied to the bed in the darkness, practically saying, Please eat me.
“You seem to have slept well.”
I slowly turned my head at the cold voice, accompanied by a faint hint of amusement.
Only then did his face become clearly visible under the bright light.
Jet-black hair and eyes bluer than any sky.
Why on earth was he in the same bed as me?
“……You weren’t supposed to be my marriage partner.”
“You’re saying something strange. From the beginning, the person who was supposed to become my wife was Claire Anne Rose.”
He said my name perfectly.
Claire Anne Rose, the half-sister of the heroine. The villainess who was abandoned after having her husband stolen by the heroine, Princess Isabelle Gwen Talia.
There was definitely some misunderstanding.
Why was the man who was supposed to marry Isabelle lying beside me?
No matter how much I thought about it, this made no sense.
I had married him specifically to avoid this situation.
……It seemed like my husband had been switched.
To explain my story, I have to go back a few days.
Or perhaps I should start from the day I possessed this body?
This place was inside the crazy novel .
Princess Isabelle Gwen Talia, my half-sister and the heroine.
Then who was I?
Out of all the countless characters, I had become Claire Anne Rose.
The role of the woman whose husband would cheat on her with the heroine and eventually become corrupted.
Not only was she abandoned by her cheating husband, but after he fell into darkness, she was even killed by the very man who had once been her husband.
“Aigoo, how unfair!”
The children who inherited the Emperor’s blood were granted special abilities, and Isabelle’s ability was controlling the weather.
“If you had married Cedric from the beginning, none of this would have happened! You refused to marry him and pushed him onto me, but the moment you saw him, you fell for him and seduced him?”
Isabelle had the exact ability the North needed, so what crime had Claire committed?
If the author wanted to make the heroine special, why create side characters just to ruin their lives?
‘Ah, my life.’
I was born from the mistress whom the Emperor had once loved. The only reason I was tied to the Imperial Family was because I possessed golden eyes.
Golden eyes meant that one possessed an ability.
Anyone born with an ability had to belong to the Imperial Family.
For the sake of the Empire and the Imperial Family, people like us were no different from tools to be used.
But fortunately—or unfortunately—no noticeable ability manifested in me.
The truth was, my ability had appeared long ago. But even if I had said it was useless, it would probably have been treated the same as if it had never appeared.
“Chirp, chirp.”
“I know. I know I’m strange.”
“Chirp chirp chirp.”
“You think I’m crazy? Yeah, I probably am, so could you stop bothering me?”
That’s right.
I could communicate with animals.
What use was this ability supposed to have?
I would be lucky if people didn’t mock me for it.
Others didn’t know that this ability meant I could communicate with divine beasts. Naturally, they reacted that way.
On top of that, I could also heal animals.
There was one downside, though.
Using my ability came with a price.
I still didn’t know what form that price would take. I could only guess that it would probably be proportional to the strength of the power.
For now, there was only one thing I had to do in order to survive and safely escape the Imperial Family.
Make my future husband, Cedric Monterose, and Isabelle’s marriage succeed.
My days became incredibly busy.
Luckily, this was right after Grand Duke Cedric had returned from the battlefield.
Which meant that my marriage with him had not even been arranged yet!
If I could change Isabelle’s mind and make her marry Grand Duke Cedric, I planned to escape the Imperial Palace immediately.
The Emperor would probably try to marry me off somewhere strange anyway.
Since I was a useless existence to him, he would most likely try to use me for political purposes.
Just then, I spotted Isabelle and immediately rushed toward her.
I put on a professional smile, like a salesperson approaching a customer, and spoke to her.
“I heard the news. The Monterose Grand Duke has returned?”
“……Yes. That’s why I’m on my way to see Father.”
“To Father?”
Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this.
I blocked her path and blinked.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to refuse marriage with the Grand Duke?”
“Yes, luckily! Come with me and help me tell Father.”
“If I go, wouldn’t Father become even angrier?”
It would be fortunate if he only shouted that a useless illegitimate child was interfering.
The Emperor disliked Claire.
He thought the only thing she inherited from him was her golden eyes and that she had nothing else resembling him.
Since he ignored me, I considered it a blessing.
“Isabelle, are you really refusing the marriage? You absolutely have to do it.”
“I don’t want to. I want to marry someone I love. I don’t want a marriage forced through such a cruel and barbaric arrangement.”
Well, a Northern Grand Duke probably did have a barbaric body.
Very wild.
Very rough.
Without realizing it, I nodded.
Then I quickly came back to my senses.
“……You’ll regret it.”
I narrowed my eyes while looking at Isabelle.
“Why are you so determined to make me marry him?”
“Because the Monterose Grand Duke is handsome, and he’ll only love you.”
“How do you know that? Someone who is constantly sent to war by Father every day won’t have time to love me.”
“……I know everything. I can tell.”
“If you want it so badly, then you marry him. I’m waiting for a fateful encounter.”
A fateful encounter, my foot.
That fateful encounter ended up being seducing a married man.
And not just any married man.
Her own sister’s husband.
