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Chapter 01
Shuwen Berg’s life had been safe.
A harmonious family. Loving parents. Wealth enough to want for nothing. And even a friend she wouldn’t hesitate to give everything but her life for.
“Marriage to His Grace, Grand Duke Ranied…?”
There had been nothing frightening or dangerous in Shuwen’s life.
“Me?”
So perhaps that was why.
“So you’re saying that I have to marry His Grace, Grand Duke Ranied, in Princess Titianna’s place…?”
Shuwen stared blankly at her parents’ darkened expressions. Her mother, Countess Berg, clasped Shuwen’s hands with a look of pity.
“Yes, Shuwen. Just as you heard.”
“……”
“It is His Majesty the Emperor’s command. We tried everything we could to stop it… but unfortunately, we were powerless.”
“…That makes no sense.”
Shuwen denied reality. This situation simply couldn’t be real.
‘Why all of a sudden? This wasn’t in the original story…!’
Her memories of her previous life had returned not long ago, when she’d been rushing down the stairs after hearing about a new novel from her favorite author—and tumbled all the way down.
In her previous life, Shuwen had been an ordinary college student. She’d been especially exhausted that day. She’d stayed up all night reading The Mad Duke’s Cure.
Of course, she hadn’t even made it to the ending.
‘I should’ve read something else….’
Half-asleep, she’d missed a step on the stairs. As her body headed toward death, the thought that crossed Shuwen’s mind was strangely out of place.
‘Still… it was kind of fun.’
That was probably the problem.
The Mad Duke’s Cure.
From the title alone, the novel had been anything but ordinary. It was so over-the-top that “insane” was the only word for it.
Shuwen was timid.
She’d been the same in her previous life. She couldn’t even watch a typical horror movie.
But R-19 grimdark romance novels weren’t that scary. Sometimes she cried because the heroine’s life was pitiful, but she didn’t have to read with her heart in her throat, so she’d underestimated it.
[It’s fun! But the male lead is even crazier than you’d expect. If you like this kind of thing, you’ll enjoy it. Highly recommended crazy bastard content!!]
She’d seen that review before buying it.
‘How crazy could he really be?’
She’d started the novel with that lighthearted thought. In the end, she couldn’t even finish half of it.
The Mad Duke’s Cure was missing the most important thing.
‘The male lead doesn’t even love the female lead…?’
No matter how grim a story was, shouldn’t it at least be based on love…?!
The male protagonist, Esellian Ranied, was truly insane.
What he did to the heroine would’ve been shocking even if it had been rooted in love—but it wasn’t!
The male lead’s horrifying actions toyed with Shuwen’s heart. And not in a good way.
Every setting in The Mad Duke’s Cure matched reality.
With some difficulty, Shuwen accepted that she had been reincarnated into the novel.
Even so, she didn’t take it too seriously.
‘Why would an extra like me—who barely appears—end up with the male lead?!’
The reason was simple: Shuwen was an extra who appeared briefly and disappeared.
Shuwen Berg.
A noble girl raised with love. A companion maid who chatted with Princess Titianna. Extra No. 1, with no connection whatsoever to the male lead.
‘Good. Great.’
Let’s live safely in this life!
…That’s what she’d thought.
“From the very beginning, it was a mistake. We never should’ve sent you to the imperial palace. This is all because back then—”
“Honey!”
The sudden shout snapped Shuwen back to reality.
Her father closed his mouth gloomily. Her mother shot him a warning glance.
One way or another, this was Shuwen’s reality now.
‘Why? Why did things turn out like this?’
Shuwen Berg was like seasoning in a grimdark novel.
A villain who tormented an already pitiful heroine and made her even more miserable.
Shuwen Berg’s end never appeared. She was an extra who showed up a few times early on and vanished.
“Are you sure His Majesty actually mentioned my name? Could there have been some mistake during delivery…?”
So this situation couldn’t exist—and shouldn’t.
Not long ago, there had been a triumphal ceremony.
Judging by the timeline, Shuwen had assumed the male and female leads would soon marry and the story would begin.
The man she was meant to marry was Esellian Ranied.
And the woman meant to marry him wasn’t the extra Shuwen Berg—but Princess Titianna von Lucenia, the female lead.
‘It can’t be me. I’m not the cure.’
There was a reason Titianna was the heroine: the madness afflicting Esellian.
This madness manifested only in the Lucenia and Ranied bloodlines. Though the two families seemed unrelated, their blood was intertwined if traced far enough back.
Cursed blood.
Among the descendants of an ancient mage burdened with an unbreakable curse, a mind-eating madness was passed down.
Plagued endlessly by hallucinations and voices, the madness eventually destroyed the mind.
The cure for the madness was extremely rare.
Only a holy being—a saintess loved by the gods—could cure it.
When a person with the madness had a child with a normal person, the child almost always inherited the madness. Between a saintess and a normal person, there were no records of saintesses being born.
But when a saintess and one afflicted with madness had a child, the child could be normal, afflicted, or a saintess—at random.
Madness appeared only in men; the purifying power appeared only in women.
Daughters born between them were highly likely to be saintesses. Records passed down since ancient times proved it.
However, unlike those afflicted with madness, the cures were weak by nature, and most were exploited for their abilities.
As a result, the cures either took their own lives or went into exile, hiding their identities.
In time, cures disappeared from the world entirely.
Then, in the neighboring country of Jerad, a saintess was discovered.
The Emperor of Lucenia, who suffered severely from the madness, conquered Jerad together with Calyx Ranied, Grand Duke of Ranied.
The war ended in Lucenia’s victory.
By marrying the saintess, the Emperor monopolized the cure.
The problem came afterward.
Calyx Ranied—the greatest contributor to the conquest of Jerad and the Emperor’s most loyal subject—refused every reward the Emperor offered.
Instead, he made a single request.
‘If the princess born in the future is a saintess, give her to my son.’
He declined land, titles, and even jewel mines.
Given his exceptional devotion to his son, there was no reason to refuse.
[The Princess of Lucenia and the heir of House Ranied shall marry without exception. If this cannot be fulfilled in this generation, the order shall remain valid indefinitely. The wedding shall take place after both reach adulthood.]
The contract, notarized by a high priest, remained valid even after Calyx Ranied’s death.
In time, a princess was born.
The traits of a cure were beauty and green eyes.
And the green-eyed princess was undoubtedly a cure.
As the promised day drew nearer, the Emperor grew anxious.
Esellian Ranied.
The son adored by the previous Grand Duke Ranied. A madman unlike any in the Empire. A cunning, venomous snake.
His infamy was widespread.
The Emperor loved his daughter. So he sent Esellian to the battlefield—from the age of fourteen, for nine years.
The Emperor had hoped the nuisance would die in war, but Esellian always returned alive.
And this time, too, Esellian was victorious.
His demand never changed.
Marriage to the cure.
For nine years, the Emperor avoided it. But if the Ranied forces marched on the imperial palace, there would be no solution. He had already received troubling reports of unusual movements within the Ranied army.
Fearing war, the Emperor handed the princess over to Esellian.
And thus The Mad Duke’s Cure began.
But suddenly—me?
“Something has to be wrong. I’m supposed to marry in the princess’s place, and even pretend to be her?”
Shuwen had three reasons to be horrified.
First, she had to marry the Grand Duke of Ranied.
Second, she had to impersonate the princess.
Third—and worst of all—it was all an imperial command.
“Who said that? I’ll go to the palace right now—no, I’ll go at dawn tomorrow and find out—”
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Count Berg produced a sheet of paper. Its golden border glinted ominously.
[Shuwen Berg, the only daughter of Count Berg, shall marry Esellian Ranied, the 12th Grand Duke of Ranied, in place of Princess Titianna von Lucenia. All matters regarding this shall be kept strictly confidential.]
It was an imperial edict.
“…I’m sorry.”
Shuwen’s mouth fell open. An edict bearing the Emperor’s seal? This hadn’t existed in the original story!
“Why would His Majesty suddenly do this… to me…?”
Something like this…!
The Emperor didn’t like Shuwen. That wasn’t something she knew from the novel—it was from experience.
‘Remove her.’
A cold voice she’d once heard echoed in her ears.
Being the princess’s companion maid wasn’t a position just anyone could hold.
Even daughters of prestigious families were filtered out.
The Emperor was meticulous in selecting attendants.
That a young daughter of a mere count with only a few plots of land had secured a trainee position was bound to invite envy and jealousy.
Ten-year-old Shuwen wasn’t used to such resentment.
Thinking she was hated, Shuwen cried. As she walked with her head down, she recalled the slander she’d overheard.
‘Isn’t Shuwen strange? How did someone that clueless even make it to the final selection?’
‘Don’t tell me she was already preselected?’
As Shuwen bit her lip and wiped away falling tears, the area suddenly grew noisy.
Startled, she looked around and saw the few people present staring at the floor.
She followed their gaze, then tilted her head and rubbed her eyes.
She thought someone had called her.
But she only realized what had happened after crashing into something solid, like a wall.
‘Ouch.’
Raising a small hand to her head, Shuwen looked up—and her eyes widened.
A red cloak fluttered.
A man in uniform stared down at her with cold eyes.
She’d thought it was a wall—but it was a person. And she knew who he was.
‘T-the Emperor….’
Before she could even bow, the Emperor moved.
‘Remove her. Make sure she never appears before me again.’
He passed her coldly, brow furrowed.
The words that fell over her head were icy, and there seemed to be a hint of contempt in his narrowed eyes.
Shuwen knew her place.
She never thought the Emperor personally disliked her.
She dismissed the incident from her childhood as her own misunderstanding.
But it was clear that the Emperor believed she was unqualified to serve as the beloved daughter’s companion maid.
That was all.
Despite openly showing his displeasure, the Emperor never expelled her.
So what was this imperial command now?
‘Did the future change because I watched the triumphal ceremony?’
A face naturally came to mind.
The man who had returned after conquering Tyban not long ago. With silver hair as cold as winter snow and eyes red as blood.
Esellian Ranied.
‘No. That can’t be it. I only saw him from afar. We didn’t even make eye contact.’
Esellian was a man who stirred the capital into chaos.
Shuwen had come to the capital around the age of ten due to her weak health. At the time, fourteen-year-old Esellian was conscripted to the battlefield.
Stories of the young hero who never stopped winning were popular throughout the empire, including the capital, Bernier.
But Shuwen had no interest in him.
If she hadn’t recovered her past-life memories, she wouldn’t have gone to see such a terrifying man at all.
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