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Chapter : 01
Prologue
The culprit who ruined my ordinarily uneventful life was obvious.
“May I… make a request?”
A man suddenly appeared, saying he wanted to make a “request”…
His name was Johan Veloster.
Twenty years old, head of the Veloster Marquess family.
And… the male lead of the romance fantasy novel The Flower Garden of Milaira, and my favorite from my past life.
“Damn it… Johan.”
The moment I met him, memories of my past life, which I had forgotten for 19 years, flashed through my mind like a panorama.
That’s when I realized that I had actually been living inside a romance fantasy novel all this time.
To be precise, I had been inside a game created by romance fantasy authors called Male Lead Maker.
It had been a while since web novels became popular in Korea. Among them, the romance fantasy genre—or ropan—was extremely popular in female-targeted web novels.
One day, as the popularity of romance fantasies skyrocketed, the Yellow platform came up with a revolutionary idea:
“Why not make a game that targets the romance fantasy fanbase?”
The platform decided to feature the male leads from 30 so-called “million-seller” romance fantasy works in a single game.
“Raise the male leads from the romance fantasies that made your heart flutter…?”
As advertised, the game allowed players to raise one male lead character and experience various endings.
Of course, being a game aimed at women, it also included romance and marriage endings.
Enchanted by the advertisement, I impulsively bought the game.
“I’m going to raise Johan!”
Among the 30 male leads, my favorite, Johan Veloster, was there.
“I’ll raise Johan’s affection level to 100 and get the marriage ending with him.”
Before starting, I set up my profile.
My randomly generated name was Siena Willow.
“Since I’ve been stuck with black hair in real life, I’ll set my appearance to ash-brown hair and golden eyes.”
After pressing the start button, I remembered nothing.
In other words… after starting the game, I had truly become Siena Willow inside it.
I had played Male Lead Maker, but instead of raising the male lead, I had been raised as the daughter of a count.
I, Siena Willow, was born as the youngest daughter of the Willow Count family and had lived in the Carnon Empire for 19 years.
For the past few years, I had been helping my second older brother with his business.
Amid all this, the sudden appearance of Johan Veloster made me realize the truth about my past life and this world.
“This is insane… I’ve had amnesia for 19 years…?”
Did this even make sense?
So shocked, I couldn’t speak.
Then Johan spoke.
“Um… is something the matter?”
I finally regained my composure.
“…Ah, I’m sorry. I was thinking about other work for a moment. I must have been rude to the Marquess.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“….”
“I’d like to request a service from the Willow Consultation Center. Would that be possible?”
In front of me, Johan’s blue eyes sparkled like stars.
“Really… really handsome.”
His eyes filled with intelligence and melancholy, his perfectly sculpted features…
His soft silver hair was like dandelion seeds, his broad shoulders like the doors of our house.
And of course, Johan’s trademark—his dimple at the corner of his mouth—caught my attention.
“Hah… I want to fall into that dimple and die.”
Meeting my favorite after 19 years, I was out of my mind.
I forced my racing heart to calm down and asked Johan:
“What exactly do you mean by this ‘request’, Marquess?”
“Well…”
Johan paused for a moment.
I noticed his ears gradually turning pink.
“…Actually, there is a woman I’ve had a crush on for a long time. But I’ve never had the courage to approach her.”
“….”
“I came to the Willow Consultation Center hoping you could create a natural meeting between me and her.”
At that moment, it felt like a boulder had dropped onto my chest.
Thud.
“A woman he has a crush on…?”
Honestly… I had suspected it from the moment Johan came to me.
After all, this place where I worked was a romance consultation center.
My second older brother, Chase Willow, Baron of Ijet, was very famous.
So famous that no one in the empire didn’t know him.
Because he was an incredible “Casanova.”
Honestly, he had probably dated over 300 women by now.
“Sir Chase, please give me one more chance. I can’t live without you.”
“Baron Ijet, why do you keep shaking my heart? I can’t live normally thinking of you.”
Women were hurt by a brother who hardly ever committed but still followed him.
“Such a man… you could never forget him, they say.”
Yes, my brother was a master of romance who had captivated hundreds of women.
One day, with his usual audacity, he declared in front of the family:
“I’m going to start a business.”
Naturally, the family—including me—reacted poorly.
Chase’s personality… didn’t exactly scream ‘businessman.’
“…Business? You, who can’t stick to anything for three days?”
“Three days… I mean, I can last a week if I start a new relationship.”
“Whatever. What business are you starting?”
“I’ll do it well, you won’t.”
And just like that, he opened a romance consultation center.
My eldest brother, Soren Willow, disapproved.
“A romance consultation center… typical of you.”
But even he couldn’t argue for long.
The business became an immediate success.
“If you go to the Willow Consultation Center, you’ll marry the person you like!”
In this world, people bad at romance blindly trusted a Casanova.
After running the business for a while, Chase quickly grew tired of it, just as expected.
And so… he started sending me to work in his place.
“Brother, why am I coming to the center? It’s the third day already.”
“You’re free, but our Siena has nothing else to do.”
Busy, indeed.
“More than four appointments with women a day…”
Actually, I wasn’t busy either.
With no argument left, I became the head of the consultation center in his place.
“Honestly, he gave me too much allowance to refuse.”
The Willow Consultation Center had simple tasks:
- Romance consultations.
- Writing romantic letters on behalf of clients.
Surprisingly, I was good at my job.
The staff my brother hired were also competent.
But… thanks to Johan, a problem that had never existed arose today.
His “request” wasn’t the type of work we had done before.
“So… Marquess Veloster’s request is…”
“….”
“You want us to… manipulate your love affair with the woman you like?”
Johan’s lips curved into a line, and a small dimple appeared.
“Yes.”
Another boulder hit my chest.
“First, my favorite visits the center, and now… he wants me to match him with the woman he has a crush on…?”
I had heard of one stone, two birds—but this was two stones, one bird.
“Johan… when did you even start liking someone?”
Logically, I should refuse Johan’s request.
I was already busy with letter-writing and pending consultations; I shouldn’t take on more work.
But… who was in front of me?
“None other than Johan Veloster.”
How could I possibly refuse him?
I couldn’t bear to see him leave looking disappointed.
Finally, I sighed softly.
“…Let’s start by filling this out.”
When I handed him the form, his eyes curved beautifully.
“Thank you, Center Director.”
The dimple on his face bloomed again.
I felt my chest tighten.
“Manipulate a love affair… how am I going to explain this to the staff?”
6 PM.
I called the four employees who were about to leave.
“Sorry for catching you at quitting time, but there’s an urgent announcement.”
After explaining Johan’s request, an icy silence fell.
A natural reaction.
“I’m still in disbelief; you guys must be even more shocked.”
The first to break the silence was Heaven Delgado.
“…You’re telling me Marquess Johan Veloster asked us to manipulate his love life?”
“Not letters, but actual meetings… you mean, the situation?”
Isadora Mendoza, sitting beside him, adjusted her glasses and repeated.
I silently nodded.
Then Finn Harber frowned.
“How can we do that? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Honestly, I agreed.
We weren’t magicians—how could we manipulate people’s meetings?
If I could control the game system, maybe it would have been possible.
“But unfortunately, I’m just citizen #1 living in the empire.”
Sure, our center had a 99.9% success rate for romance.
Johan had probably heard the rumors and sought us out.
But we only helped people with pre-existing familiarity achieve marriage.
And none of the staff had ever succeeded in real-life romance—not through letters or words.
I silently chewed my lip.
“…But how do I tell them we’ve already taken a deposit?”
All of this was my fault for losing reason in the presence of my favorite.
Then, suddenly, a voice spoke.
“Manipulate a love affair… sounds fun.”
All of us turned toward the source.
A tall figure leaned against the doorway.
Black hair fell naturally, crimson eyes calm yet commanding, and a polished, confident expression.
As soon as our eyes met, my eyes narrowed.
“…Why hasn’t he said anything until now?”
His name was Rian de Vichel.
He spoke bluntly, but amusingly, he was the youngest and oldest member of our center at the same time.
