Chapter 2
“Ah, no!”
What? I shot up from my seat.
‘No, my coins! I have to get them back!’
The duke looked a little surprised at first, but his face soon settled into a cold acceptance.
“Hah, I told you so many times to behave yourself.”
“Ah, no, Grandfather. Absolutely not!”
A refined masculinity flashed across the duke’s face.
‘How dare she act so impudent when she has nothing to her name…’ His voice rang clear in my mind.
“I have no intention of allowing a broken engagement. Don’t say anything foolish and keep a close eye on your fiancé.”
“Y-Yes!”
After saying that to me, the duke turned his head and addressed the person beside him who had been secretly glaring at me in displeasure.
“The Remute duke must have some solid grounds to demand a broken engagement so confidently. Find out immediately.”
“Yes, my lord duke.”
Regardless, only one fact swirled around in my head.
Exactly one year. I just had to maintain the engagement with that man for one year…!
But the other party was fiercely demanding the breakup.
‘I need to meet that man no matter what, first.’
As I resolved myself like this, the duke’s gaze turned toward me.
It was a gaze filled with displeasure.
“Do whatever you want as usual, but don’t even think for a second about accepting the breakup because of that bastard’s pretty face. Of course, you don’t have the money to pay him back either.”
I could feel his unwavering determination to never allow a broken engagement, no matter what.
Determination? This was like a gift from the heavens.
In my eyes, he looked like an angel with wings.
My goodness, he looked like an angel who would return my coins to me.
I nodded firmly.
“Yes, Grandfather!”
At that, the duke paused for a very brief moment and looked at me in bewilderment.
* * *
Life as the villainess was quite luxurious.
Of course it was.
Charlize was, at her core, the world’s top chaebol heiress and the empire’s beloved golden flower, the duke’s daughter.
On top of that, as far as I knew, her relationship with the male lead, the tyrant, was on good terms.
So naturally, she had to get her way whenever she wanted something, and she had to acquire whatever caught her greedy eye—that selfish, extravagant, spoiled villainess who only slept soundly after satisfying her whims.
‘I died without spending billions, only to wake up with diamond spoon eyes.’
What a great proposition…
If only this villainess didn’t have a death flag hanging over her soon.
Once the female lead appeared, this villainess would die without fail due to all the karma she had accumulated!
In simple terms, she had already bought too much resentment.
Moreover, the point at which I opened my eyes was just before the female lead was set to appear.
‘One year… I have to work hard to avoid the karma this body has piled up while also maintaining the engagement with that man.’
But my fiancé hadn’t shown his face once and was only demanding a breakup.
The karma this villainess had accumulated could come back to bite me at any moment.
That was why I couldn’t fully enjoy these past few days of living with a diamond spoon in my mouth.
Fortunately, Charlize’s memories had been surfacing bit by bit over the days, and by now, quite a lot had come back, so there were no major issues living as Charlize.
I was just astonished at how she had managed to rack up so much karma.
I fiddled with the necklace in my hand.
“My daughter, my son. You siblings have to get along, okay? Otherwise, Mommy will get mad.”
This was the necklace that Charlize’s mother, the now-deceased Late Empress, had left for her.
For some reason, she had earnestly instructed Charlize to wear it anytime, anywhere, and Charlize had faithfully kept that one promise—even on the day I opened my eyes, it was around her neck.
‘By the way…’
I turned my head.
“……”
The maid standing there coughed awkwardly the moment my gaze reached her.
“S-Sorry, my lady!”
The maid sister dropped to her knees with a thud.
In my hand was the envelope and letter the maid had delivered.
“P-Please spare my life, my lady!”
I turned the letter this way and that.
As for this letter, it was an invitation sent to my fiancé, whom I hadn’t even seen once yet.
It was a plea for him to meet just once, even though he was demanding a breakup that I had no intention of granting.
And it had come back untouched.
‘Wow, what a clean rejection.’
And the maid sister who had brought this letter was trembling and kneeling on the floor.
It wasn’t her fault, and I had no intention of scolding her, but I kept a straight face.
“……Was there no other response?”
“I-I was chased away from the door…”
Wow. On top of that, a door-in-your-face rejection?
At my fiancé’s situation, where he hated me more seriously than I’d thought, I let out a sigh.
As a reader of this book, I understood all too well why my fiancé, Askin Remute, hated ‘Charlize.’
Charlize loved beautiful things obsessively, and in her eyes, the most beautiful man besides her own brother was this Askin.
So, when he desperately needed a large sum of money, she exploited his situation and wheedled her maternal grandfather into using the family’s power to lend him a huge amount and demand an engagement in return.
On top of that, the Altzveit duke had gone even further by attaching enormous interest.
It was a slave contract where he’d pay interest for life or offer his own strength in lieu of it.
Askin had accepted the engagement and signed the debt contract at the same time, and the reason that was possible was as follows.
First off, this man was the empire’s strongest swordsman, but his family was on the brink of ruin!
To salvage his family’s crisis, he had no choice but to accept the Altzveit’s demands.
He had taken on a massive debt, pledging both his excellent retainers who stayed loyal despite the poor pay and his own skills, renowned as the empire’s best.
The reason his family had been driven to the edge of bankruptcy and needed such a large sum boiled down to one thing: his one and only younger sister.
‘Because his only younger sister had an incurable illness.’
Moreover, with no specific cure, maintaining her life required enormous medical fees at all times.
The money from the engagement with the Altzveits had also been used for treatment fees when his sister’s health had rapidly deteriorated and she was at a critical point.
“Should I go there myself…”
“Sh-Shall I prepare your things?”
The maid sister looked up with wide eyes, and she seemed a bit pitiful.
Yeah, as they say, pull out the iron horns while they’re hot— I should at least see his face once.
It was as I was about to stand up.
With a knock, the door opened, and another maid sister entered with a pale face.
“M-My lady! H-His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has come to visit!”
I froze midway through standing.
Huh? The emperor? Then the tyrant?
The emperor. The male lead of this book and Charlize’s brother.
Strangely, quite a few of Charlize’s memories had surfaced, but disappointingly, things about the tyrant brother and the fiancé were still hazy.
‘What do I do…’
I rested my chin on my hand and pondered, then turned my head.
“Tell him I’m not seeing him right now.”
“……Pardon?”
“What about Grandfather?”
“Th-The duke is out on important business today.”
Oh no. I can’t use Grandfather as an excuse now?
“Then just say I’m not seeing him.”
I still couldn’t quite remember how Charlize had dealt with that tyrant brother.
I didn’t want to act awkwardly and raise suspicions.
I really wanted to get my coins back.
“B-But, my lady, that…!”
“No need for that.”
At that moment, a low voice rang out.
I turned in surprise.
“I came in person, after all.”
I saw a man leaning crookedly against the doorframe.
Jet-black hair and deep red eyes the exact same shade as Charlize’s.
The emperor and my brother.
And the male lead, Roxidian.
‘Why does he look so intimidating?’
Charlize was such a beauty, and as the male lead, he was of course an incredible handsome man, but somehow he felt less like a person and more like a wild beast.
He grinned at me, baring his teeth.
“Hello, little sister?”
Those eyes aren’t smiling at all, are they?
At that instant, memories flooded into my head.
Memories of Charlize so vivid it was strange they hadn’t surfaced until now.
“Princess?”
“Don’t call me that!”
Oh, now that they were surfacing, it seemed Charlize hadn’t particularly liked being called princess.
Technically she was one, but she didn’t like not living in the imperial family.
“Don’t call me that.”
No sooner had I said it than Roxidian strode in.
And with that same grinning face, he pointed his sword at me.
……A sword? This lunatic!
“Haha, daring to defy your sky-like brother? Shall I correct your manners today too?”
And then it all came rushing back.
Unlike what I’d read in the book… this man wasn’t showing any doting big-brother side toward his sister. Why?
Fortunately, he held it to my neck still sheathed, but who could feel calm about a book tyrant doing this?
‘……Wow, he was crazy in the book too, but he’s a real madman.’
Even in the book, he was more villainous and insane than most villains, making readers question why this guy was the male lead.
I hadn’t expected him to show his eccentricities even to his own blood sister.
And from the memories surfacing now, it seemed Charlize’s personality wasn’t one to back down from this either.
Roxidian smirked and pulled the sword back.
Then he casually plopped down on the sofa.
As if it were his own bedroom, he stretched out his legs and propped his chin on the table.
“Aigoo, so stiff. So stiff.”
Seeing him sprawl out languidly, instead of admiring his build or face, I couldn’t help but feel exasperated.
‘……What is it? This sense of déjà vu.’
Something was on the tip of my tongue—or rather, in my chest, in my head, just about to surface.
