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There are those in this world who desperately wish to be deeply involved with a criminal sentenced to death for a horrific murder.
Like it's happening now.
“What did you just say?”
“Sign here, please.”
“...No, what did you say before?”
“I asked you to marry me.”
In the visiting room of an underground cell filled with the smell of mold.
I recently proposed to a murderer, and I am now in the process of concluding a contract with him.
“So... you're saying that you'll prove my innocence if I marry you.”
“Yes, dear uncle..
Your Highness the Archduke, all you have to do is sign the contract here, and the matter is solved.”
“……”
He looked at me with a look full of doubt.
I had no choice but to put on a business smile as I looked at the man in front of me.
He was a man with strong features, a straight nose, and carefully drawn lips; He was Archduke Benedict Richard, the villain from the novel I had recently read.
“I guarantee you one hundred percent!
I will prove your innocence, Your Excellency.”
“The condition is that you get half of my property.”
“Of course, isn’t that simple?
You can count on me now.”
I looked at him with eyes full of confidence and assurance.
The man held the necklace as if he was under my spell.
When the moment of his signature occurred, my eyes sparkled like the eyes of a hungry hyena, but he suddenly stopped and raised his head.
“Wait a minute.”
"For...why?
What's the problem?"
I was surprised and worried.
His looks were unusually serious.
“Let's amend the terms of the contract.”
Upon hearing this, the smile left my face immediately.
Giving up part of the reward was not something I could accept.
I answered him seriously.
“Sorry, but modifying the success reward is not possible...”
“There will be no personal feelings between us.”
“Excuse me?”
His words were strange.
“Especially love, never allowed.”
“Yes...well, as you wish.”
Despite the strangeness of his request, I nodded in agreement.
It was most important for me to complete the contract immediately.
To explain why a contract like this, held in a lonely dungeon, contained words like 'marriage' and 'love', we have to go back to what happened a few days ago.
***
“This is kind of simple as hell.”
That was what I felt when I suddenly woke up and looked at the strange ceiling.
Because I'm definitely dead.
The cause was a car accident, and the other party was a huge truck.
Amidst the excruciating pain, I remembered Article 3, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Special Law on Dealing with Traffic Accidents.
I was the one who crossed the center line.
“Lawyer, you should have chosen your side wisely.”
I realized from what the truck driver said when he approached me that this was not just an accident but a murder.
In the eyes of society, I was a lawyer crazy about money.
My priority was not justice or truth, but rather the reward the client paid when the case was successful.
So I made a lot of money defending bad people, and I was a good lawyer.
Although I won a bloody case between two rival gangs, the other gang decided to take revenge on me by pushing me under a truck.
“The weather is great, good for going to hell.”
That was the last sentence I heard before I died, and I was sure I was going to hell.
Looking at my life, I knew that my place would not be in heaven.
I looked around.
“Isn't this as good as hell?”
Considering the villains I had defended in my previous life, I was expecting to face hellfire.
But despite the mold and dirt in the place, the heat and humidity were tolerable.
“What's the matter?
Are you still lying down, you lazy b*tch!”
Then I heard a loud sound coming from afar.
Ah, it seems it's time for the Guardian of Hell to appear.
And with those words of blame, I thought maybe this is the hell of laziness.
'But, I've never been so lazy in my life…'
Just when I was starting to wonder what kind of hell I was in, a middle-aged man, very drunk, grabbed my wrists and lifted me out of bed.
“Elena Christie!
You useless girl, aren’t you going out to get money now?”
What?
El...what?
I froze and blinked.
It was a household name.
Things were about to take an unexpected turn bigger than hell.
***
I suddenly found myself at the mercy of this man on a dirty farm doing hard labor.
After gathering information by asking questions to people around me, I came to the following conclusion:
‘I was run over by a truck and died, and here I am reincarnated as a character in a novel.’
A romantic fantasy novel about a crown prince and a popular heroine who overcomes all obstacles, including palace opposition and the machinations of his evil half-brother, to bring their love story to a happy ending.
The character I played, Elena Christie, is just a secondary role mentioned in one sentence in one of the heroine’s childhood memories in the novel.
“In our village, there is no one poorer than Elena Christie but Vivian.”
I quickly appreciated the situation thanks to a client who recently came to me claiming that his novel had been stolen.
At first glance, it seemed like it wasn't worth the trouble, and it turned out that there was no actual theft, so I refused to help him.
But everything around me now confirmed to me that I was inside that same narrative.
You may be wondering, how did I manage to remember Elena's name, which was mentioned in only one sentence in a novel I read quickly?
Well, that's because I have an eidetic memory, so I can remember everything I see very clearly.
Thanks to this ability, I was able to become a successful lawyer in my previous life.
“What is certain is that manual labor is not for me.”
I whispered as I seriously picked up the weeds on the farm, but it seemed that Elena's body was so weak that every muscle in my body ached.
After collecting information from those around me, I came to the following:
1.
This place is the ‘Arya’ empire from the novel, and the events take place after the end of the story.
2.
The heroine married the hero and became the wife of the Crown Prince.
3.
Elena's father is a drunkard, and her brother is addicted to gambling.
4.
With the heroine's marriage to the crown prince, Elena became the poorest person in the village.
Oh, this was hell.
The hell of poverty is not comparable to the hell of fire or sloth.
“Come on, Elena, here are three silver coins, today’s wages.”
After working all day, I barely had enough to buy two pieces of bread.
“How can I get out of this hell?”
I bit my lip nervously.
In my previous life, my situation wasn't much better than Elena's, with a gambling addict father and a playboy brother.
I was able to escape after becoming a lawyer and cutting ties with my family.
“I can't live like this again.”
I began investing what I earned in buying newspapers, despite my dire need for food.
This aroused the curiosity of the people around me.
“A speck of dust is just a speck of dust.”
Under the light of a dull oil lamp, I began carefully flipping through the newspapers.
Working in slums is not enough, and I do not want to live a life in which all my efforts to support my family are wasted, which sucks the life out of me.
So, I'm going to aim for a big hit.
how?
Using my best skill, lawyering skill!
“Let's see, who can I gain the most from?”
With sharp focus, I carefully reviewed news of the arrests and trials.
One of the lessons I've learned as a lawyer is that money doesn't come from innocent people who are wronged, but from evil people who are rich.
If they have power, so much the better.
In this world, there is no person who fits this description more than one specific personality.
“Found him.
This is my client!”
Finally I found the article I wanted, and I smiled happily.
the next day,
As soon as the sun rose, I rushed out of the house.
My father would think that I had gone to work on the farm again, but I had already arrived at the gate of the Imperial Palace Prison.
There were muscular men carrying huge swords at their sides and making a noisy demonstration.
"Stop the Imperial oppression and court against Archduke Richard!
Stop him!"
"Release Archduke Richard!
Release him!"
It so happened that the purpose of my coming here was the same as what they were demanding, the release of Archduke Richard.
In other words, liberating the person who will be my financier in this novel.
Benedict Richard.
The man who was famous on the battlefield as the 'Battle Killer' for his ability to annihilate enemies in cold blood, became a true 'assassin'.
In the original novel, after the hero and the heroine he loved got married, he could not control his anger, so he killed the heroine's father and was immediately imprisoned.
Since he killed the Crown Princess's father, he was sentenced to death in the upcoming trial.
I looked at the protesters and shook my head.
'It seems as if they are calling for the death sentence to be carried out.'
They were knights with harsh features, bodies full of scars, and dressed entirely in black.
Clearly, they were all soldiers under the command of Archduke Richard, a man who was a symbol of terror in battle.
However, they were screaming at the top of their lungs in front of the Imperial Palace Prison.
Passing citizens, and even journalists who came to cover the protest, looked in horror at these knights, as if they might use force at any moment.
This was a clear threat directed at the palace and the court.
But thanks to that, it became easier for me to reach the goal.
I approached the group of demonstrators and threw myself at the man who seemed to be their leader.
Boom!
“Ah!
Miss, are you okay?”
“Oh, sorry, I tripped.”
“Are you hurt?”
The man was nervous as he helped me up.
While I looked confused, I quickly examined his belongings.
"I'm fine."
I raised my head and smiled gently, and his face turned red.
It made sense, because when I looked in the mirror this morning, my face was beautiful.
White skin, delicate features, and light blue eyes.
To distract him even more, I deliberately ran my hand through my hair, my attractive golden locks swaying in the wind and catching his eye.
“Be careful on your way, miss.”
I answered him with a smile and quickly headed to the prison visiting room.
The guard at the desk gave me a passing glance.
“Did you come to visit?”
“Yes, I would like to request a visit from Archduke Benedict Richard.”
“Do you have an ID card?”
"naturally!"
Confidently, I showed the card I had seized from the belt of the man I had just met.