Chapter 6
In fact, the baroness right in front of me had been busy inciting Charlize while exaggerating her misdeeds and mocking her behind her back.
Charlize seemed to know about it but had just let it slide.
I needed to put an end to this right here.
I watched her hurried retreat with cold eyes until the very end, and only after everyone had disappeared did I let out a long groan and collapse onto the sofa.
“Ah……. I thought I was going to die from the dizziness……!”
What the hell was the proof on this liquor? I barely clung to consciousness and checked it, nearly passing out in the process. What? Stronger than whiskey? This is insane.
I’d never gotten this hammered even at company dinners with the boss.
“Ugh, I’m dying. This is ridiculous……”
And Charlize had downed eight bottles of that stuff without batting an eye……
But why couldn’t I even handle less than two? What’s going on here……?
No, it was just a soul swap—why on earth would my tolerance change……?
Truth be told, snapping at that baroness earlier had been fueled by the booze, too.
Of course, I’d gone in intending to make a scene from the start.
At any rate, I now had a crystal-clear picture of my fiancé’s reputation.
“……Surprising.”
I blinked up at the ceiling.
‘Is it possible no one knows about my fiancé’s stunning looks?’
Remute Duke. I remembered that man vividly.
He was a side character who’d perfectly captured my heart.
If the male lead hadn’t been my brother, I’d been genuinely baffled as to why the heroine hadn’t added Remute to her harem—my fiancé was that handsome.
Refined, cool, ascetic……. What else had there been?
‘Ah, premarital chastity advocate.’
Was that why he’d been left out of the harem? This was a 19+ dark romance novel, after all.
Maybe men who wouldn’t share a bed didn’t make the cut.
I’d begged in the comments to include him.
Whatever the reason, I knew he almost never appeared in public, to the point where hardly anyone recognized his face.
“Urk……”
The ceiling spun wildly.
Oh, with this level of buzz…… tomorrow’s hangover was going to be brutal.
I closed my eyes just a little.
* * *
Deep into the night.
The Remute Duke’s study was so shabby, no one would believe it belonged to a duke.
Of course, it was average compared to what ordinary nobles used, but it fell far short of the prestige befitting Duke Remute.
“Duke.”
The man who had just pushed open the door was Ben, the duke’s adjutant and knight.
He was one of the few who knew exactly why the workspace of a duke didn’t live up to his station.
He swallowed the sigh rising in his throat and stepped forward.
“What is it?”
It was late, but Duke Remute was still buried in work.
Most of the documents he handled concerned his territory or debts.
That was right. House Remute was drowning in massive debt.
“……”
As Ben hesitated to speak, Duke Remute slowly lifted his head.
Askin Remute.
The empire’s mightiest swordsman, known as the Guardian of the West.
He was a breathtakingly beautiful man, like the moon made flesh.
According to Martha—Ben’s closest confidante and the duke’s wet nurse—his looks were so extraordinary that claiming no equal existed in the empire’s five-hundred-year history wasn’t hyperbole.
For a westerner with a sturdy build, his face alone evoked a priest, radiating a sacred, pious aura.
Martha would swoon that “beautiful” suited him far better than “handsome.”
Ben wasn’t one to fuss over appearances, but he’d concede anyone would make an exception for his lord.
‘That’s why…… even that vicious woman craves him.’
Yet reality had forced a man of his caliber to sell his sword for coin amid those crushing debts.
“A letter has arrived from Duke’s Daughter Altzveit……”
“Throw it out.”
Ben held his breath at the voice cold as ice.
“Do you realize? This makes the thirtieth one you’ve sent back.”
“……I never told you to return them.”
“That was my call. Sending them back intact is less of an insult than tossing them, and it avoids stirring up trouble.”
Ben rattled it off in one breathless rush.
Indeed. Ben had returned invitations from his lord’s fiancée—that vicious duke’s daughter—thirty times already.
Oddly, they’d been coming far too frequently as of late.
And her refusal to take no for an answer was stranger still.
“It’s odd. Hasn’t she ever pursued you this relentlessly before?”
“She’s back from her trip and itching for wicked games to line her pockets again, it seems.”
The tale of Charlize Altzveit’s “trip”—really an exile to clean up one of her scandals—was infamous in the capital.
Famous enough to reach even Askin, who shunned public appearances.
Not that he could’ve missed it, with her incessant letters hounding him from abroad.
“……That might be it, but didn’t she always lose interest after you turned her down five times or so?”
Charlize Altzveit was flashy and luxury-obsessed.
As capricious as her love for treasures.
She’d pick days to torment Askin mercilessly now and then, but if he refused, she’d usually back off.
Amused lines like “You’re the only man who rejects me” before dropping it.
Askin said nothing.
Ben sensed the icy dismissal from his lord: What do I care?
“No matter how it plays out, it’s irrelevant now.”
Askin spoke in that cool tone.
“I’ll handle it myself, so just play ignorant for the time being.”
His voice rang with unshakeable resolve, as if he truly had a plan.
Ben bowed his head in silence.
‘Is there really no way to cut ties with that woman?’
Ben tamped down his unease.
* * *
I had a dream.
“Huh, what’s this? All this money?”
Bills towered before me like a mountain. I counted diligently before giving up.
Even a rough glance told me…… this was my payout.
‘The profits from my coins are back!’
I swam through the sea of cash, then snapped my head up.
Once I came to my senses and looked around, I was dressed in a sleek designer suit.
And glowing even brighter in my phone’s mobile banking app was a sum dwarfing the stacks of bills.
Enough left over after buying a house.
I gazed contentedly at the endless digits, then stepped into that luxury boutique I’d once eyed in a magazine, swallowing hard in envy.
As the clerk greeted me politely, I delivered the line I’d always dreamed of saying just once in life, cool as can be.
“Who’s the VIP manager here?”
I spun around excitedly, reciting lines from luxury vlogs and dramas.
“I’ll take everything from here to there.”
And just like that, I blew through cash like water.
The numbers never dipped—I’d become the wealthy shut-in of my wildest dreams.
Bliss unlike any other.
‘God, please let me yolo through life just like this forever……!’
Shockingly, that’s when my eyes fluttered open.
I’d woken from the dream.
“Ahh, my head……”
No sooner had my eyes opened than a pounding headache hit, as if reality itself were pounding the message home.
By every sign…… a hangover.
The maid presented warm honey water and chilled ice water the instant I stirred, just like always.
‘Even a lush like Charlize must’ve dealt with these.’
The injustice stung anew.
‘Why’d my tolerance have to change!’
What was done was done. Clutching my head, I staggered out of bed.
I stared at my hands. The dream’s fortune lingered vividly.
……My coins. My money.
Maybe after a lifetime of scraping by, the tide of cash slipping away felt heartbreaking—and the life I’d died without ever spending it stung just as fresh.
“No. This won’t do.”
I shot to my feet and strode off.
Before long, the maids I’d summoned fussed over me, dressing me while treading carefully.
“……Duke’s Daughter, your hair is finished. Shall we add some ornaments here……?”
“No need.”
They eyed my morning bustle with puzzlement, then paled at how I kept kneading my temples.
A few looked desperate to rein me in.
Such sweet souls…… Some actually cared for Charlize.
“Um, Duke’s Daughter, where should I tell the coachman we’re headed?”
“Remute Duke’s Mansion.”
“……Pardon?”
The maid’s jaw dropped, but she bowed hastily.
For a split second, deep doubt and pity flickered in their eyes.
I wondered whose pity it was—mine or my fiancé’s.
‘Head hurts too much to ask.’
“Any remedy good for hangovers?”
“Yes? Yes, I’ll fetch it at once!”
As one maid bolted off, the others finished primping me, bowed, and retreated.
The mirror revealed a strikingly pretty woman gazing back, hangover pallor be damned.
‘……Her beauty really is lethal.’
She was gorgeous, no question.
If only she hadn’t wasted it on villainy.
I sighed faintly and pressed my temples.
In the reflection, I caught one maid stealing a glance, gauging my mood.
“You. Something on your mind?”
