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Chapter 1
“Ugh, my head…”
Was it already morning?
Rovellin Dines slowly opened her bleary eyes.
Her head felt like it was splitting apart from the hangover.
On top of that, every inch of her body ached violently.
It felt as though she had been beaten up somewhere.
“Ahh…”
As she tried to sit up, a groan escaped her lips naturally.
Rovellin waited a moment for the pain in her waist to subside before finally managing to sit upright.
Cheerful birdsong echoed outside, and warm spring sunlight streamed into the room.
Up to that point, everything felt perfectly peaceful.
Except for one small problem.
“…Where the hell is this?”
Judging from the spacious room and the luxurious furniture surrounding her, this was clearly a noble estate.
With a confused expression, Rovellin tried to recall what had happened last night.
‘My last memory was definitely the banquet hall…’
The previous night, Rovellin had attended Count Kale’s banquet together with her friend, Cornelia.
At the party, she had struggled for quite some time trying to fend off the sticky gazes constantly directed at her friend.
Those leech-like men had kept offering Cornelia suspicious drinks, and Rovellin had intercepted every single glass before she eventually…
‘Oh my god. So I drank myself unconscious?’
This seemed to be one of Count Kale’s guest annexes.
It wasn’t unusual for noble families hosting banquets to let guests rest in separate quarters afterward.
Of course, it was a different story entirely for an unmarried young lady to stay alone.
“Haa…”
Rovellin let out a deep sigh.
Just imagining the judgmental stares she would receive from high society for the next few weeks was enough to make her head pound.
Once she returned home, she planned to stay quietly locked inside for a while—
“…What the hell?”
As she absentmindedly tried to stand up, a curse slipped out loud.
Only then did she realize she was completely naked.
Panicked, Rovellin hurriedly gathered the blanket around herself.
But being naked wasn’t the biggest problem.
‘This is… a chest!’
The moment she pulled back the blanket, she nearly screamed in shock.
Beside the spot where she had been lying was a massive chest.
A sturdy physique, firm muscles, sculpted shoulders, and a narrow waistline—completely different from her own.
Covering her mouth with both hands, Rovellin froze like a statue.
“D-don’t tell me… this person too…?”
The man was still asleep with his head turned the other way, so she couldn’t see his face.
But he was dressed—or rather undressed—exactly the same as she was.
‘Aaaah, my eyes!’
Without thinking, Rovellin lifted the blanket further to check below, then immediately dropped it with a horrified expression.
‘What was I even thinking checking that?!’
The blanket collapsed back over the man’s body instantly, but Rovellin’s psychological damage lingered.
Still, one thing was certain.
The person lying next to her was definitely a man.
‘What the hell happened last night?’
Desperately, Rovellin tried to remember what had occurred between them.
But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t recall anything after stealing and downing Cornelia’s rosé wine.
Yet instinctively, she already knew.
The disheveled bed.
A naked man and woman.
And herself, thoroughly drunk the previous night…
Even listing the clues made the situation sound scandalous.
There was only one conclusion.
‘…I really messed up.’
Rovellin was dumbfounded.
Not only had she woken up drunk in a stranger’s house, she had apparently spent the night with an unknown man!
She had never done anything like this in her life.
Not in this lifetime, and not even in her previous one.
Most importantly, ever since reincarnating into this novel world, she had sworn to stay far away from men no matter what!
‘Damn it, Rovellin. Are you really becoming the promiscuous villainess from the original story?’
Rovellin buried her face in her hands in despair.
At that moment, the soreness in her waist painfully confirmed what had happened during the night.
It was frustrating beyond belief that she remembered absolutely none of it, but Rovellin forced herself to calm down.
‘What’s done is done.’
There was no changing the past now.
Rovellin slowly got out of bed.
The man still showed no signs of waking.
‘Surely we didn’t promise to date or something, right? Ugh, not remembering is driving me insane.’
There was no way she was going to do something old-fashioned like start a relationship or promise a future together with a man she didn’t even know—all because of something she couldn’t remember.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to talk things out and bury this as a one-night secret?’
If he was a noble too, he wouldn’t be able to ignore appearances either.
A scandal involving an unmarried noble lady he had never met before would be troublesome for him as well.
Having decided to discuss things calmly, Rovellin cautiously leaned toward him.
The man was still deeply asleep, his brilliant golden hair completely tousled.
“Excuse me, could you wake up for a—huh?!”
But the moment Rovellin saw his face, her own turned deathly pale.
‘Why is he here?!’
Her hands trembled violently.
Because the man who had spent the night with her was—
‘Crown Prince Ian Heriette!’
Ian was the very man who became entangled with Rovellin in a filthy love scandal in the original novel.
In other words, the absolute worst man—the one destined to drag her life into ruin.
And she had slept with the one person she absolutely had to avoid.
This was a disaster.
“Mmm…”
While Rovellin stood frozen stiff, Ian frowned and groaned.
His low, husky voice sounded attractive despite the roughness of his hangover, but Rovellin had no room to think about that.
“…Who’s there?”
Half-opening his eyes, Ian turned toward the presence beside him.
He clearly wasn’t in his right mind either.
As he tried to sit up, he collapsed back onto the bed.
Apparently blinded by the sunlight, he raised a hand to cover his eyes.
“Damn it… what happened last night? Explain.”
“W-well…”
Rovellin started to answer, then abruptly shut her mouth.
Watching Ian ramble in confusion, a spark lit up in her head.
‘Ian doesn’t remember either?’
Wasn’t this practically a gift from the heavens?
If she escaped quickly enough—
‘Maybe I can at least hide the fact that I spent the night with Ian!’
Rovellin quickly scanned the room.
There were too many eyes around for her to leave openly through the door.
Then what about the window?
‘Yes. That’s it!’
Her eyes sparkled.
Thankfully, the room was on the first floor.
And since it was still early morning, there were no servants working in the garden yet.
‘First, I need to get dressed.’
Rovellin hurriedly gathered the clothes scattered beside the bed and put them on.
Without a maid, she couldn’t tie the ribbon at the back properly, but covering herself was good enough for now.
Besides, time was running short.
“Ugh…”
When she turned back after hastily dressing, Ian was still covering his eyes and groaning.
His hangover seemed severe.
‘Looks like he drank himself senseless. Well, what else would you expect from the original novel’s infamous playboy?’
She had thought maybe he had changed since he supposedly never attended banquets anymore.
Apparently not.
Clicking her tongue at his unchanged behavior, Rovellin lifted one leg over the balcony railing.
Just as she carefully tried to climb over—
“Hey! What are you doing over there?!”
“Eek!”
Ian had somehow gotten out of bed and was staring at her in horror.
He still looked confused about what exactly was happening.
Even so, he staggered toward her in an attempt to stop her.
“Are you insane? Are you trying to fall to your death?”
“Aah! Don’t come any closer! Stay back!”
Without even a second to mentally prepare herself, Rovellin was once again confronted with his naked body and screamed.
‘Damn it, there’s no more time to hesitate!’
If they caused any more commotion here, the count’s servants would rush in immediately.
Rovellin took a deep breath and jumped straight down.
Riiip.
Her skirt snagged on the railing and tore, but she had no time to care.
“Watch out—!”
Ian, now hurriedly pulling on trousers, rushed onto the balcony shouting after her.
The moment Rovellin landed on the ground, she sprinted toward the exit without looking back.
‘What the hell was that woman?’
Standing at the balcony railing, Ian stared blankly at her retreating figure.
The fluttering hem of her skirt gradually grew smaller before disappearing from sight entirely.
It felt like he had been bewitched by a ghost.
Just as he turned around in bewilderment, fragments of last night’s memories surfaced in his mind.
They weren’t complete, but the scattered pieces clearly—
“…Good lord.”
As flashes of the heated moments from the night before returned to him, the air around him suddenly felt unbearably hot.
The crumpled sheets and scattered clothing supported those memories perfectly.
No, he didn’t even need to look at the sheets.
The warmth of the skin pressed against his and the heated, ragged sounds were still vividly etched into his senses.
“Ha.”
Ian let out a hollow laugh.
As the crown prince who always stood at the center of public attention, he had always managed his relationships with women carefully.
And yet, last night he had gotten drunk and slept with a woman.
“…!”
Ian, who had been rubbing his face dryly, suddenly froze at the change in his own body.
Even those fragmented memories alone were enough to make his blood heat instantly, proving just how intoxicating the previous night had been.
At the same time, the fact that he couldn’t properly remember her face only deepened his frustration.
Everything had happened so quickly that he couldn’t even clearly recall the color of her hair.
Still, one clue remained.
“…”
Silently, Ian picked up the torn strip of white fabric caught on the railing.
The only trace the woman had left behind.
