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Chapter: 3
“What are you?”
Oh.
A woman dressed entirely in red was sitting on the sofa.
Red clothes, a red hat, red lips.
Perfectly put together, she glared at me with an oppressive air.
Now that the person she needed to impress was gone, her true personality had immediately surfaced.
This woman was Melisandre Bellas.
In the original story, she was the Duke of Bellas’s second wife—a character who, after a political marriage, strayed so far in her attempts to win her husband’s love that she ultimately became a criminal.
No matter how desperately she struggled, Melisandre could never obtain her husband’s affection. In the end, she redirected that twisted desire elsewhere.
Since she wasn’t loved by the duke, she tried to console herself by forming an overly intimate relationship with Adrian, who looked just like him.
But who was Adrian, really? His reaction was even colder than the duke’s himself.
When those blue eyes—identical to his father’s—looked at her with icy contempt, Melisandre began to hate Adrian instead.
What’s more, even if he was the young duke, Adrian was still small and young. As an adult, Melisandre had more than enough room to exert power over him.
Once she found herself in a position of superiority, she poured all the resentment she had accumulated from being rejected by her husband onto that small child.
It was the beginning of abuse so severe it was beyond words.
She even imprisoned Adrian in the basement while her husband was away on a monster subjugation campaign.
Of course, the day Adrian escaped that basement would become her death anniversary—but at this very moment, while he was still trapped, she was alive and well, staring at me with both eyes wide open.
“Wow!”
I blurted out an exclamation. Then I blinked a couple of times and added another.
“You’re a pretty lady!”
“…?”
I had only paused briefly to recall the contents of the book, but to her it must have looked like I was momentarily speechless at her beauty.
“Who are you, ma’am?”
“How annoying. Go over there—”
Melisandre, who had been about to push me away as I clung to her, suddenly froze.
The voice that reached my ear next was much softer and sweeter.
“What’s your name, dear?”
“I’m Rohesia Utel!”
“Oh my! You’re the Marquis of Utel’s daughter! How can you be this adorable?”
Wow.
Both Erden and I looked exactly like our father—practically identical. Anyone with functioning eyesight could tell we were related.
Even so, this sudden change in attitude was impressive. Her true character was really showing.
“Yes. Marquis Utel is my papa.”
But since I wanted something from her, I pretended not to notice and wrapped myself around Melisandre’s waist.
“You smell nice, ma’am.”
She didn’t.
“I’ve never seen anyone as pretty as you. Let’s be friends.”
Honestly, my late mother was prettier—though I’d only ever seen her in portraits.
I was only flattering her like this because I’d die if I didn’t meet her legal son within twenty-four hours.
No—now it was twenty-three hours, forty minutes, and eighteen seconds.
“You’re even prettier, young lady of the Utel family.”
The reply came back sweetly.
It seemed Melisandre had quickly revised her strategy to: If I can’t win over the marquis, I’ll target his daughter.
From what I’d overheard earlier, she’d been asking my father for something. He had firmly refused.
And knowing the original story, I had a pretty good idea what that “something” was.
In my head, I prepared a scenario to clear the quest and ran through it several times, combining it with the skill I’d just obtained.
While I was doing that, Melisandre finally said the words I’d been waiting for.
“It would be nice to get close. Would you like to come play at my house?”
Yes!
“I’d love to!”
“If such a cute child comes over, I’d be delighted. Even as soon as tomorrow—”
“N-no, tomorrow won’t work! It has to be today!”
“Rosha…?”
At that moment, a deep voice suddenly cut in from behind us.
It seemed my father, Marquis Utel, had returned after finishing some urgent business.
Entering through the doorway, he had red hair and striking green eyes—just like Erden and me.
In the original story, I was nothing more than a minor villain, but Erden was one of the main male leads who would later obsess over Lexia.
As if to announce that he belonged to the family of such an important character, my father’s appearance was anything but ordinary.
I’d never thought much of it before, but now that I’d regained memories of my past life, I realized how remarkably young he looked despite being in his forties.
“Rosha, why did you come in here? You’re startling the guest.”
“Rosha” was a nickname for my name, Rohesia.
“I suddenly collapsed and got scared. I wanted to see you, Papa.”
“I know.”
He must have already been informed about what had happened to me.
From what I remembered, my father cherished me deeply—more than his son Erden, even.
The furrow in his brow, wrinkled from serious matters, relaxed noticeably when he saw me.
But it tightened again when he noticed me clinging to Melisandre.
“Come here, Rosha. You shouldn’t trouble our guest.”
He stretched out his arms as if to lift me up. Just as my body instinctively twitched to run into them, Melisandre firmly grabbed hold of me.
“Trouble? Not at all, Marquis.”
She smiled kindly once again.
“The young lady is simply too adorable. If I could take her to the ducal estate for tea, I think all my stress would melt away.”
“No, that won’t be poss—”
“Rohesia wants to as well, doesn’t she?”
At the claim that I wanted this too, my father looked between me and Melisandre with suspicion.
“Yes! Papa, I want to play at this lady’s house!”
I answered with a bright smile, but my gaze was fixed on the quest timer floating beside my father.
[TIME LIMIT: 23 : 35 : 58]
Please, Papa. If you say the wrong thing right now, your daughter could die a horrific death.
My father had likely already seen through Melisandre’s intentions.
Since she couldn’t get what she wanted, she’d retreat for now.
But with the excuse that his daughter was cute, she could come back anytime and make demands again—that was her plan.
That was why he kept checking my intentions again and again.
Each time, I had to act like I genuinely adored Melisandre, which was exhausting.
Thankfully, my efforts weren’t wasted. I was now inside the Bellas estate.
“Wow, it’s so pretty.”
“Hehe. If you need anything, just tell me.”
Between Melisandre and me was a beautifully arranged tea table.
I mechanically picked up one of the colorful desserts and put it into my mouth. When juice burst across my tongue, I finally realized it was something made with strawberries.
More than an hour had already passed. I’d succeeded in getting into the Bellas estate, but my insides were burning with anxiety over whether I’d be able to meet Adrian before the time limit ran out.
Still, moments like this were when I needed to keep a clear head.
Melisandre was looking at me with gentle eyes now, as though she’d never been irritated when we first met.
But that kindly expression wouldn’t last long.
She was only using me as a means to get what she wanted.
My father did cherish me, but he wasn’t the kind of man who would make the impossible possible just because someone was nice to his daughter.
Once she realized that being kind to me wouldn’t help, Melisandre’s attitude would revert to its original irritation.
Even so, I needed to keep coming to the ducal estate.
The immediate quest was “Meet Adrian within 24 hours,” but thinking about it, this was inevitable.
What had the administrator suddenly said in chat?
[Only Rohesia can save this world. Clear quests to prevent the characters’ corruption and receive rewards!]
[Childhood experiences hold great power. Meet the characters and lower their corruption levels.]
I had to meet the characters—that is, the three men who would later turn into lunatics—and reduce their corruption.
But I wasn’t some white-knight superhero. I couldn’t prevent corruption with a single meeting.
Just like I had to keep nagging Erden, I’d need to build a relationship with Adrian too—coaxing and soothing him over time.
With my life on the line.
“Damn system! Damn administrator!”
That was why I needed a long-term excuse to come and go from the Bellas ducal estate.
Fortunately, I knew exactly what Melisandre wanted.
“Lady Bellas, look at this!”
The item I pulled out innocently, as if it had just come to mind while snacking, was the mysterious potion Erden had given me.
“What’s that?”
As soon as she saw the bottle, Melisandre’s eyes—previously filled with fabricated kindness—sparkled.
Eyes brimming with greed and longing. This was her true self.
I knew it.
Maintaining the purest expression I could manage, I whispered the answer she wanted to hear.
“My papa said this is a love potion.”
—Ding!
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of the skill ‘Fraud Lv. 3,’ the effect ‘I lied, but I didn’t scam anyone’ has been activated.]
[Your lies become more natural.]
I almost burst out laughing after lying so smoothly.
So this is how the skill activates?
I had invested in the Fraud skill precisely because I needed to deceive Melisandre.
But since there’d been no explanation of how to use it, I’d been fumbling along blindly. This was perfect.
Melisandre was clearly paying closer attention to me now. Her slightly slouched posture as she held her teacup straightened.
Among the ancient secrets of alchemy, it was said there existed a way to turn someone into a slave to love.
The so-called love potion.
In the original story, Erden also attempted to brew one to give to Lexia. As for the perverted acts he committed to obtain the ingredients… ugh. Let’s not go there.
Anyway, as the story showed, what the duchess truly wanted was her husband’s affection.
Though she wasn’t explored in much detail since she existed only to bring misery to Adrian, she was still the mistress of the Bellas ducal house—the empire’s sword and the most renowned family of swordsmanship. Other than love, she likely lacked nothing.
In this empire, the only thing I don’t have is…
The next line after what I’d overheard when I entered the parlor was probably this:
“His love.”
I couldn’t understand the psychology of tormenting the son of the man you wanted to love you—but that aside.
There was nothing else she would ask of my father, the empire’s greatest alchemist.
Even if what she’d requested wasn’t exactly a “love potion,” it didn’t matter. There was no doubt she needed something like this.
“A love potion?”
I leaned closer to her and whispered casually.
Maybe thanks to the skill, my tongue felt even smoother.
“There’s a secret technique passed down in my family. It’s a potion that makes the person you like fall in love with you!”
And just like that, the potion Erden had kneaded together with his tiny hands for his mentally questionable little sister was reborn as a secret treasure of the Utel family.
