“Bet!”
“Young master!”
Sad crying sounds exploded everywhere.
On the bed, a handsome young man with red hair was closing his eyes with a calm face.
“Erhan!
Haha… open your eyes!
Please!”
The Baroness embraced her dead son and wailed, but to no avail.
Erhan Tringen, the eldest son and heir of the Baron Tringen family, suddenly fell ill with influenza and was unable to resist the disease, dying at the age of eighteen.
Beside the baroness who was howling, a red-haired woman who looked exactly like Erhan stood, with a look of shock on her face.
That was Elya, Erhan's twin sister.
Elia looked in amazement at her dead twin brother.
More than grief over the loss of her brother, she was overwhelmed with disbelief.
She looked at her dead brother and screamed inside:
'Oh my God!
If Erhan dies now, what will we do later?'
•
“Shouldn’t we tell the Grand Duke that Erhan has died and his recruitment has become impossible.”
The Baroness opened her mouth, her eyes swollen.
Ilya, the Baron, and the Baroness were sitting in the palace living room.
They have just returned from the funeral, all dressed in mourning clothes.
The living room was so shabby and empty that it did not give the impression of being a noble's room.
The only furniture was an old sofa whose fabric was worn out.
The Baron replied in a desperate and resigned voice:
“That's right.
Our province and the Trengen family are truly over.
However, there was a high possibility of recovery thanks to the compensation Erhan would have received upon joining the Demon Resistance Army...”
At these words, the Baroness burst into tears.
“Haha!
My dear, what are we going to do now?
We don’t even have food for today.
We fired all the servants as soon as the funeral ended.
If this continues, we will starve to death and be chased by the creditors.
Haha!”
Elia looked in amazement at the Baron and Baroness who were drowning in despair, and she sighed:
'Even if I get hit by the reincarnation truck and come here, it seems that I will suffer greatly again!'
The novel she was reincarnated into, <The Grand Duke's World-Saving Daughter Rejects Obsession>, also known as <Sitalsa> for short, was a novel she had enjoyed reading in her previous life before her soul transferred into this body.
It is a romantic fantasy novel that revolves around Lavinia, a spoiled only daughter who grew up in love with her father, Grand Duke Bonberg, the leader of the empire and the absolute power.
She is a strong heroine who crushes demons accompanied by her bodyguards and marriage candidates, who are the male heroes.
It was very popular among readers as a reverse harem novel featuring a refreshing twist on the strong and attractive heroine Lavinia, and the handsome male protagonists who struggle to get her.
But there was another reason for her immersion in this novel.
It is the definition of a massive reverse harem on an insane scale!
Grand Duke Bonberg, Protector of the Empire, created the Demon Resistance Army under the pretext of the need to organize an army to fight demons.
He then selects 50 extremely handsome and talented men from all over the empire and has them reside in a military unit.
But the army fighting demons was just a pretext; In fact, the goal was to form a bodyguard unit to protect his daughter, whom he raised with great care.
Moreover, he made a plan to choose a husband for his daughter from among these men.
Becoming the son-in-law of the Grand Duke, the most powerful in this world, and inheriting his family, was like inheriting the entire empire.
The fifty ambitious, handsome and powerful candidates for future husbands do their best to impress the Grand Duke and Lavinia.
'It's like watching an idol casting show I used to watch in my previous life.'
Naturally, the most skilled and attractive among them become the main male heroes, and Lavinia begins to crush demons and develop light-hearted relationships with them.
Erhan, the brother of Elia's reincarnation, was one of the fifty bodyguards and future marriage candidates.
Naturally, she lived all that time without knowing that the world she lived in was the world of the novel she had read in her previous life.
As a not-so-rich country noble girl, she lived a quiet life with the Baron and Baroness and her brother Erhan.
But two months ago, that peaceful life was completely shattered!
Monsters that had been quiet for several years suddenly invaded the province, turning it into utter ruin, and the damage was too severe to be repaired.
Even if they spent all of the Baron Family's money, repair was impossible, and in the end they had to borrow money from everywhere.
But this was only a temporary solution, the demands of creditors became more severe, and the situation of the Baron's family deteriorated sharply.
At that very moment, Grand Duke Bonberg sent Erhan a recruitment notice to join the newly founded Demon Resistance Army.
The Baron and Baroness hesitated to send their only promising eldest son to the army, but Erhan insisted on going.
This was because the Grand Duke offered enormous compensation for recruitment.
In the end, with the decision to gamble on recruitment, the problem seemed to have been solved.
'But, why did the story change completely?'
According to the original story, Erhan was supposed to join the Demon Resistance Army and compete with the other 49 men for the position of Lavinia's husband.
But a week before the enlistment, Erhan suddenly died, and at that moment, Elya regained memories of her entire previous life.
'What's the point of having memories of my previous life back now!
The situation is very dangerous.'
Illya sighed desperately.
In the original story, it was briefly mentioned that Erhan joined the army for the sake of his poor family, but she did not know that such circumstances existed.
As the Baron and Baroness said in front of her, there was no way the Baron's countryside family drowning in debt could recover by a miracle.
Even if they ran away at night to avoid creditors, it was hard to imagine how they would live.
Moreover, the Baron and Baroness were old and had difficulty moving.
If they remained like this, it was clear that they would starve, drowning under mountains of debt.
'Is there really no solution...?'
Not only did she want to survive, she also wanted to protect this place and the Baron and Baroness at all costs.
This county, the baron and baroness, were a precious existence to her.
Even before the monster attack, life here was overly happy compared to her previous life.
Unlike her family in her previous life who took advantage of her using their kinship at every opportunity, the Baron and Baroness loved their son Erhan and her deeply.
This was the ideal family she had dreamed of so much in her previous life.
'But how?'
She sighed again and picked up a teacup with a broken rim sitting on an old, cracked silver tray.
They didn't even have money to buy tea leaves, so the taste of tea that had been re-boiled several times was hopelessly dull.
Then, her worry-filled face appeared on the surface of the cracked silver tray.
Her face that looks exactly like Erhan.
Her long hair and dress made her a feminine replica of Erhan.
One thought suddenly came to her mind:
‘What if I joined the army instead of Erhan?’
However, in Sitalsa's novel, the future marriage candidates who caught the attention of the Grand Duke and Lavinia and achieved great success, the main male protagonists, were other people.
In the original story, Erhan, who joined the army, was reduced to a worthless extra after living among powerful rivals.
He was fairly intelligent, but his strength or other abilities weren't that special, and he was an introvert, so he couldn't catch Lavinia's attention.
Not only Erhan turned into an extra character, but so did the rest of the worthless men.
They lived without any significant presence, only training in the unit.
This is because readers were more interested in the light-hearted romances between Lavinia and the main male heroes, rather than the fate of those who were superfluous.
Of course, their path was never mentioned.
'They were just fodder for secondary fanfiction written in secret by readers with marginal tastes.'
Anyway, they remained silent, then showed up at the last minute when Lavinia married the male hero, and they all celebrated together.
After that, there was a brief mention in the additional part that everyone had returned home.
'So, aren't I supposed to just remain a silent extra in the reverse harem and hold out until I come back?'
Moreover, she and Erhan were so similar that it was impossible to tell them apart at first glance.
Even in their childhood, the Baron and Baroness confused them.
If she had cut her hair and worn men's clothes here, anyone would have mistaken her for an illusion.
'Anyway, the Grand Duke and Lavinia won't care about me, so it's impossible for them to find out.'
Then, her family and her county will survive.
And peace will prevail over everything.
Erhan's heart, which closed his eyes, would feel much more at ease.
“Mom, Dad.”
After Elijah finished her thoughts, she opened her mouth and spoke to the Baron and Baroness.
“I will recruit myself instead of my brother Erhan.”