1. …So the Story Goes
There was once a tale that went like this.
An old man trespassed upon the domain of the Grand Duke who guarded the northern reaches of the empire. Having incurred the duke’s wrath, he was ultimately forced to offer up one of his daughters.
There were two reasons why a grand duke of all people would bother taking the daughter of a wretched, low-ranking noble as his bride. First, to stay entirely clear of the imperial throne’s watchful vigilance. Second, because he had been struck by a curse that left him with a hideous, monstrous visage.
No matter that he was a war hero boasting tremendous power, it was only natural that no respectable noble household would ever hand over their precious daughter.
In the end, the old man swallowed back his tears and sent his eldest daughter away to the Grand Duke. Yet amidst the barren harshness of northern life, that cheerful, refreshing eldest daughter… had an affair with one of the duke’s knights.
“Hmm…”
From this point on, the narrative took a sharp turn away from the well-known fairy tale.
As flirtatious as she was cheerful, the eldest daughter, Elijah, fell into a passionate love of a thousand years with one of the Grand Duke’s knights, turning the entire North upside down.
That was precisely why the old man had sent away his eldest daughter in the first place. Her ceaseless string of scandals with the village men made it impossible to secure a decent marriage prospect, leaving him eager for any excuse to get rid of her.
Yet a cracked pot leaks at home and abroad all the same. In the end, Elijah provoked the duke’s rage and was beheaded in true keeping with his terrifying notoriety. Her entire family was rounded up by the duke’s soldiers who raided them in the dead of night, and they were all flayed alive.
Wounded once again, the Grand Duke devolved into a true monster—yet, thanks to the protagonist’s plot armor, he eventually encountered true love.
The beautiful, virtuous heroine, Cecil, recognized the Grand Duke’s true worth. Sharing body and soul with him, she broke the dreadful curse at last, restoring him to his original, breathtaking form.
That was the broad outline of the story as I remembered it.
“…Ah.”
Clutching my head, I let out a groan of bitter lament.
I wanted to swear at what absolute, worthless trash this story was, but unfortunately, it happened to be the first and only R-19 novel I had paid full price to read.
What was far more tragic than the trashy plot, however, was that the moment I came to my senses, I had woken up inside this very story.
Not as the female lead, and not even as the eldest daughter, Elijah.
No, I was in the body of Bella—the one condemned to be flayed alive simply for being Elijah’s sister!
◇ ◆ ◇
‘The Beauty and the Beast of the Night.’
Embarrassing as it was to admit, that was the title of the novel I had read.
It had set the web novel world on fire as an unabashedly explicit romance with a dark, angsty edge. Well, the male lead was a beast who had conquered the entire continent only to hole himself up in the North. Shoving a man with such boiling blood into an isolated wasteland practically guaranteed that his baser instincts would simmer out of control.
His name was Grand Duke Kiers Valencia.
Sporting a name straight out of a romance novel, he was the Emperor’s younger half-brother. Blessed with noble blood and peerless skill, he had survived countless brushes with death since childhood. Once he was old enough to hold a sword, he was pushed out into the battlefield, but that was also where his legendary fame truly began.
Conquering Aren in the west and Pelona in the south without sparing a single blade of grass, he met the turning point of his life in the North.
Had he captured that region, the imperial throne would have fallen into his hands. But as fate would have it, everything went wrong at the very end when an archmage struck him with a curse.
“Kiers! Your sins in drenching this continent in blood shall be answered with agony that knows no end!”
To put this grand yet vague curse in plain terms: the entirety of the curse had concentrated solely on his face.
In truth, the Grand Duke possessed an astonishing beauty capable of haunting anyone who laid eyes on him, even in their dreams. Some even whispered that Emperor Cassellini’s decision to drive his half-brother onto the battlefield had been fueled by the lingering terror that his fiancée, Roena, might fall for him.
At any rate, they say another’s misfortune is one’s own delight.
For the Emperor, nothing could have been more welcome news than the duke’s disfigurement. Conveniently forgetting how he had driven him off to war, the Emperor laid all the blame squarely on Kiers, claiming his curse was divine retribution for his wicked conduct.
He cloaked it in fine words, bidding Kiers govern the North and discipline his heart and mind, but the underlying message was unmistakable: just stay there quietly and rot.
Thus, Kiers became the ruler of the North.
The man who had once made the continent tremble squandered his days on hunts and heavy drinking. He eventually entered his first marriage, only for the scandal to drag him even deeper into despair.
During his bloody retribution against his first wife, Elijah, and her kin, his revived madness forced the central military to intervene—though by then, Elijah’s family had already been reduced to mere hides.
“…I’m losing my mind.”
Smothering my frustration, I rubbed my dry face with both hands, only to stop and pick a stray leaf out of my hair.
All of these memories had come rushing back in a flash after I tumbled down a hill while gathering firewood in place of my older sisters.
My name was Bella.
The name itself sounded as sweet and good-natured as could be, but by my standards, this wasn’t being good-natured—it was being an utter fool.
While my older sisters indulged in vanity and luxury, I was the one saddled with all the dirty work just to keep the peace at home. Even today, gathering firewood was supposed to be the task of the second daughter, Melanie. But after she put on a show of tears and whined about her aching legs, I ended up coming out instead.
Still, banging my head had jarred loose the memories of my past life. Whether I had ended up inside this book after dying or slipped into it through some random fluke, one thing was crystal clear: I was living inside a novel.
And worse, as the younger sister of the male lead’s first wife, destined to be flayed alive.
“Haa…”
Seriously, what kind of life was this?
Being treated like a pushover and slaving away for my own family was unfair enough, but I wasn’t even fated to live a long life.
The author had clearly taken inspiration from ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ but tailoring it strictly to an adult audience meant the brutality was turned all the way up. To emphasize the male lead’s savagery, nobody was ever allowed a peaceful death.
What on earth had I ever done wrong?
To be blunt, my eldest sister was the one cheating, while I did nothing but work until the skin peeled from my hands. Even the second daughter managed to keep up the pretense of noble dignity, but the trade ship my father had invested in sank the very year I was born. I had never tasted a single luxury, yet I was forced to live with my head down, bearing the blame for supposedly bringing misfortune with my birth.
Not that my family was entirely villainous.
Father was simply irresponsible, and my eldest sister was far too free-spirited. My second sister, Melanie, was a selfish brat who cared only for herself, and our youngest, Rose, was far too little. For a family like this to hold together at all, someone had to shoulder the burden—and that someone had been me.
Did that mean I was cursed with nothing but misfortune?
It wasn't as though the archmage's curse had hit me. There was no way.
Crawling forward on all fours, I made my way toward the brook a few paces away to wash my face.
“Whoa…”
Look at this face.
Overcome with sudden awe, I covered my mouth with one hand. Even with smudges of dirt clinging to me from rolling down the hill, the reflection gazing back from the clear water transcended human limits.
Every member of the first wife Elijah’s family boasted striking beauty, but alas, that was where it ended.
The novel had lumped it together into a single dismissive line, but in reality, my beauty defied description. A cascade of rich, platinum-blonde hair swept down to my waist, framing eyes that were at once innocent and breathtaking. And those deep violet irises couldn’t be compared to any gem in the world.
I was ready to plunge headfirst into the water myself just staring at it, let alone anyone else.
“…”
Yet the line ‘alas, that was where it ended’ was painfully accurate.
All I had going for me was this dazzling, radiant face, yet my entire body was slated to be torn to shreds before I could ever enjoy it. Even the modest dream of simply living off one’s looks required being alive in the first place.
“Haa.”
Swallowing a sigh that slipped out unbidden, I bit my lip hard.
The Bella of yesterday might have accepted this, but after rolling down that hill, I had to be different. Gathering my tangled hair and tying it up securely, I made a solemn vow to my reflection in the stream.
…There was no way in hell I would let a face like this go to waste.
