Chapter 6
Sienna, a young magician, rushed to the capital upon hearing news of her cousin’s death – the Duke of Dearrut.
There, she had a chance encounter with the abandoned prince.
That meeting was supposed to be the beginning of the novel.
However, that story… shouldn’t be happening yet.
When the Duke approached death, it was meant to occur at least 6 months from now.
Yet now, a letter had arrived.
“Young Mistress?” the butler asked worriedly, noticing Alice’s sudden rigidity.
Alice, unable to relax her stiff expression, said:
“…I’ll be going now.”
She hurriedly walked away, leaving behind the bewildered butler.
She felt eyes following her but couldn’t afford to pay attention to them.
The appearance of the Baroness Meltain now… meant the original story had been distorted.
The original plot had changed.
It was unexpected.
“Why on earth has the female lead appeared now…?”
Back in her room, Alice slammed the door shut in front of Maris’s disgruntled face.
She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Maris’s petulance right now.
Lady Meltain.
The butler had clearly said that the daughter of Baron Meltain was coming to the capital.
And that event was supposed to be the starting point of the story in the world Alice had possessed – the book titled “I Offer You the Crown.”
The book’s plot went like this:
Sienna Meltain rushed to the capital after hearing about her cousin Kylus’s death.
Although his death was shrouded in mystery, by the time she arrived, the aftermath of Kylus’s death had been perfectly handled.
The Duchess was already on trial for allegedly poisoning the Duke.
Lady Meltain attended that trial. Watching the Duchess deny the charges and weep throughout the proceedings, she grew deeply suspicious.
She believed there was another culprit behind the Duke’s death.
She naturally suspected Lady Quillian, the Duke’s stepmother, and began investigating her, but before she could gather evidence against Lady Quillian, the Dearrut Duchy completely disappeared from the Empire due to the machinations of the true villain.
Having already lost its head, no one was willing to help prevent the duchy’s downfall.
Enraged by the loss of the Dearrut Duchy, Lady Meltain searched for the scattered retainers of the duchy to clear its name.
It was then that she happened to encounter the ill-fated, abandoned prince.
Lady Meltain took in the injured, collapsed prince and nursed him back to health.
And the Third Prince fell in love with Lady Meltain at first sight upon regaining consciousness.
It was the quintessential romantic novel first meeting.
The two people who met like this overcame hardships and adversity, confirmed their love for each other, and finally reached their happy ending.
While this might sound like a typical romance fantasy novel, it wasn’t just a sweet story.
Although the protagonists were happy, the problem was that this novel had an unusually high number of supporting characters who died.
Starting with Kylus’s death in the first chapter, many of the supporting characters who helped the female and male leads died in the final conflict.
So even though the leads defeated the villains and reached their happy ending, the comments section was in an uproar.
Readers had grown fond of various supporting characters, only to see them die.
Comments like “This is a happy but unhappy ending. Bring back my favorite character!” were abundant.
Thus, when Alice accepted that she had possessed a character in this book, she resolved:
To never get involved with the protagonists of the story.
She didn’t have any extraordinary abilities to overcome dangers, and Alice Dearrut was originally such an insignificant supporting character that she was executed early in the story.
Given that even major supporting characters all died, if she foolishly got involved with the protagonists, she might lose the life she had barely managed to keep.
After all, death flags were deeply planted around them.
I want to live, she thought.
She especially hated the idea of being caught in the crossfire of others’ conflicts.
She had thought herself fortunate to have possessed the character before the story began, but…
Alice’s plan had been this:
Since she had possessed the character before the story’s start, she would leave the duchy as soon as possible and live quietly until the protagonists reached their happy ending.
She wanted to just observe their events from afar, like a passing extra.
And after everything had settled, she hoped to travel this new world and live happily.
Alice Dearrut was an insignificant character who appeared in just one line of the first chapter, so even if she survived, she didn’t think it would greatly change the future.
But was that not the case?
The female lead was coming to the duchy when it wasn’t her time to appear.
The timing being 6 months early was extremely strange.
While Lady Meltain was the beautiful female protagonist of the book, to Alice, she was like the Grim Reaper incarnate.
If Lady Meltain entered the duchy now, Alice wouldn’t be able to avoid her.
If she became entangled with Lady Meltain in any way…
Alice would likely end up boarding the same train to the afterlife that the pitiful supporting characters had ridden.
“Argh!”
Alice clutched at her hair.
“No, I haven’t done anything yet! I haven’t even managed to leave the duchy! Why is Lady Meltain appearing now?!”
The female lead’s premature appearance.
If she had twisted something majorly to cause this situation, she wouldn’t feel so wronged.
But Alice hadn’t even left the duchy yet, nor had she properly started anything to leave the duchy.
So what on earth had changed to cause this rotten turn of events?
Alice let out a deep sigh before suddenly raising her head in indignation.
“Is it really such a terrible thing to just want to live?!”
She had only made up her mind, yet it was as if she was being told not to even dream of it by making the female lead appear!
She had been grateful, thinking she might have been granted some holy power buff, but…
As Alice was making a rude gesture towards the damned god who must be somewhere up there beyond the ceiling, she was startled by a sudden voice.
Knock knock-
“Young Mistress!”
“Goodness!”
As the saying goes, a thief is startled by their own footsteps – for a moment, Alice mistook Maris’s voice for one coming from above.
Just as she was calming her startled heart, the door burst open.
“What on earth are you doing that you don’t answer when I call?”
Maris entered the room with a sour expression, indicating this wasn’t the first time she had called.
Had Alice been too deep in thought?
But there was no need to explain herself to Maris in detail.
Looking at Maris’s sullen face, Alice tucked a slightly disheveled strand of hair behind her ear and asked:
“…What is it? Is there something urgent?”
“It’s time for you to go attend to the Duke.”
“Attend?”
As Alice’s eyes widened in confusion, Maris replied with her characteristically arrogant gaze:
“Yes. The Grand Madam ordered that from today, you are to take care of even the Duke’s minor needs.”
Minor needs, is it.
Is she trying to stick me to the Duke’s side like glutinous rice cake?
To prevent any of his close aides from getting near him, perhaps.
This was unwelcome news for Alice, who had much to think about and prepare.
But with Maris as a watchdog, there was no way to slack off.
“Why are you standing there blankly? Let’s go,” Maris said, raising an eyebrow.
Such an impertinent attitude that made Alice want to smack her on the head.
It’s okay, even if I don’t hit her, Maris is destined to be dealt with along with Lady Quillian anyway.
Alice knew their future, and it was far from beautiful.
So she could endure this level of tyranny.
Imagining the day Maris would be out, Alice smiled brightly.
“Alright, let’s go to the Duke.”
* * *
Despite it being a bright sunny afternoon, deep darkness enveloped the Duke’s bedroom.
Tightly closed windows and blackout curtains preventing even a speck of sunlight from entering.
In the middle of that bedroom devoid of any warmth, Kylus lay.
Early this morning, upon regaining consciousness, he had immediately headed to the butler’s room.
Uncertain how long he had been collapsed, he worried the butler might have been replaced, but fortunately, the butler hadn’t been dismissed.
Seeing the Duke awake, the butler was shocked as if he’d seen a ghost, then immediately burst into tears.
He then began to divulge everything that had happened in the duchy after the Duke had collapsed.
“As soon as Your Grace collapsed, the Grand Madam moved her quarters from the annex to the main building. Then she drove out the aide and the captain of the knights from the duchy, claiming they had failed to properly serve Your Grace.”
The Black Lion Knights of the Dearrut Duchy, who had distinguished themselves in war.
They were a knightly order with skills and reputation no less than the Imperial Knights.
And they were completely Kylus’s men.
So they must have been thorns in Lady Quillian’s side.
Kylus asked with a cold gaze:
“Has the knightly order been completely disbanded?”
“…There are still a few members left, but it’s as good as disbanded. The Grand Madam cut their wages by more than half and drove out the remaining members by framing them with absurd crimes. I couldn’t prevent it…”
“Without Tessiri and Davit, you would have been powerless.”
After he collapsed, his right-hand men were the first to be driven out of the duchy.
So there would have been no one left to protect the remaining knights.
“…Adolf, how long have I been unconscious?”
“A little over 6 months, Your Grace.”
“6 months… Enough time for Lady Quillian to take control of the duchy.”
“…”
The butler couldn’t bring himself to tell Kylus that it wasn’t so.
The Dearrut Duchy had all but fallen into that woman’s hands now.
To think 6 months had passed.
Kylus furrowed his brow at the unexpectedly long time that had elapsed.
The one saving grace was that Lady Quillian hadn’t completely snuffed out his life in those 6 months, and that the butler remained.
“I should have found some way… I’m sorry.”
Kylus asked the butler, who couldn’t raise his head:
“It’s not your fault. Besides Tessiri and Davit being driven out and the knightly order being nearly disbanded… Is there anything else important I should know?”
“Almost all the duchy’s servants have been replaced with the Grand Madam’s people, and a man named Helkin has become the duchy’s physician. And…”
The butler trailed off, his face devastated.
“Speak.”
At Kylus’s command, the butler took a deep breath and carefully began:
“…Your Grace has been married.”
For the first time, his expression, which had remained unshaken by any news, showed dramatic agitation.
“…What? Who got married?”
