Chapter 1
When I was little, my dream was to own my own shop.
It didn’t matter if it was a convenience store, a bakery, or a stationery shop.
Born an orphan and raised poor, I thought that if I became a shop owner, I could have anything I wanted.
As I grew up, I realized that owning a shop didn’t mean I could have whatever I wanted, but I still worked desperately hard to own one.
And on the day I finally opened my shop with the money I had saved, I died.
The cause was a heart attack.
But that wasn’t the end. When I opened my eyes, I was in the body of a fifteen-year-old girl.
Normally, in novels, people get reincarnated into noble daughters or saintesses.
But I was an orphan again.
There was no need for my new life to resemble my old one this much.
Luckily, in this empire, if you studied hard, even orphans could become government officials, so surviving wasn’t a problem.
So in this life, I decided early on to live with the goal of becoming a civil servant for a stable future…
“So make your choice. Either stamp your seal here, or else…”
The man in front of me looked at me with dangerous eyes.
Treon Ibaropa.
Despite his handsome looks, he was cold and ruthless—a loyal vassal of Duke Valfruga, the male lead from the romance novel I had read.
I swallowed dryly and looked at the paper in front of me. It felt more like human trafficking or a shady loan contract, but what lay before me was a marriage registration form.
Damn it.
That’s when I realized who I had possessed, and what kind of world this was.
It seemed I had possessed someone in a romance novel titled “Taming the Beastly Man.”
My name was Pelia Foldbish.
In the original story, Pelia, like me, was an orphan who married the ten-year-old male lead at fifteen.
In the middle of her teenage years, she suddenly got a child husband.
Pelia wasn’t interested in the young male lead and simply lived quietly on the outskirts of the castle, satisfied with food, clothing, and shelter.
I don’t know how she felt about that life.
But she didn’t know what was happening in the ducal estate, nor that the male lead and female lead fell in love.
Then one day, when the male lead asked Pelia for a divorce to marry the heroine, she saw her husband—now an adult—for the first time and fell in love with him.
Pelia tried to break them up, telling the heroine that she and the male lead had loved each other since childhood, and that the heroine was just a fling.
Of course, Pelia’s scheme failed, and she was killed by the male lead.
Pelia was just an extra villain, not even the final one—used only to highlight the endless love antics of the main couple.
After Pelia died, the scene where the male and female leads made cringeworthy love confessions and went to bed was quite something.
In some ways, Pelia was pitiful too. The reason Pelia and the male lead married in the first place was because of his needs.
His parents had died, and since he was still young, he couldn’t inherit the family.
Though they said he could get it back when he became an adult, no one would hand it over easily.
So, using imperial law—that a married person could inherit—he married Pelia and took over his family. It was a marriage meant to use her and then throw her away.
Without such a reason, the high-ranking noble male lead would never have married a rootless orphan like Pelia.
“Perhaps… if I refuse this…?”
I cautiously asked.
Sure, if I married, I could at least see the male lead’s face and enjoy the benefits of being in a noble family.
But as a passing villain, I didn’t want to die by his sword.
If I just refused this marriage, I could live peacefully, never getting involved with him.
You go your way!
I go mine!
That’s the plan!
But before I could finish speaking, the knight beside him placed a hand on his sword.
It was a clear signal—he wouldn’t let me live after hearing this.
…If only I had known sooner who I possessed and where I ended up, I could’ve avoided this.
I shouldn’t have followed just because the orphanage head said she’d give me chocolate bread.
“I’m joking. Why would I refuse such a good opportunity?”
I smiled brightly.
“Good. That’s a relief.”
The man smiled back at me.
Hahaha…
We laughed at each other for a while.
Disgusting bastards.
As expected of loyal vassals to the male lead’s family.
I forced a bitter smile and asked,
“Do I stamp my fingerprint here?”
“Yes. Next to your name.”
The male lead’s name already had the family’s seal neatly stamped. I held back tears as I pressed my fingerprint on the marriage registration form.
Watching myself walk straight into the pit of evil almost made me cry.
Now that it had come to this, I would have to live quietly, unnoticed, and get divorced later.
A ducal estate is huge; maybe they wouldn’t even notice me. If everything went according to the original story, I’d be sent to the outskirts anyway.
Though… living alone might feel lonely. Couldn’t I just live in a village instead?
But that decision vanished exactly one week later, when I arrived at the ducal estate by carriage.
***
“Wh-why is it so co-co-cold here?”
My teeth chattered as I layered another coat on top of me.
Even with two thick fur coats, my breath came out in white puffs.
“I’m sorry, Madam. We couldn’t buy firewood because we had no money… please use this blanket for now.”
The maid handed me a thick quilt. It was still freezing, but better than nothing.
It wasn’t that the male lead saw me and immediately said, “Her face looks unlucky—send her to a ruined palace.”
No, I hadn’t even seen him yet.
The truth was, this family was just poor. The male lead still had his noble status. A duke of the empire, descended from one of the empire’s founding heroes.
But right now, his family was completely ruined.
“Ha…”
I pressed my forehead.
In the original novel, the story began after the male lead was already grown up. It only briefly mentioned that he was a genius who revived a fallen family.
But once revived, he wasted money like crazy. If someone bid one million marks at an auction, he would raise it to ten million.
He showered the heroine with extravagant dresses and jewels every single day.
There had never been a single scene showing him poor like this. And yet here I was, staring at true poverty. This was a duke’s family, wasn’t it?
I had imagined maybe some financial trouble, but not this level of ruin. I looked around the room.
Though it was technically the duchess’s chamber, there wasn’t a single valuable item inside.
So far, I’d only seen one servant in this massive castle.
Normally, even servants of a duke’s family wore clean, fine clothes, but hers were patched everywhere.
“Hey, you.”
The maid smiled sweetly.
“Please call me Bella, Madam.”
“Okay, Bella. Are you the only servant here?”
“No, there are a few more.”
“More than ten?”
“…”
She didn’t answer.
So no.
I decided to ask directly.
“Bella. Why is this ducal family so poor?”
They say even when a rich family falls, the wealth lasts three generations!
But this place looked like debt collectors had already stripped it three times over.
“Well…”
Bella told me the story.
The male lead’s great-grandfather had angered the emperor.
The emperor ordered him to hunt down a dragon that was disturbing the empire. If he refused, it would be treason, so he had no choice.
But dragon hunting wasn’t easy—it required massive amounts of people and money.
At least if he succeeded, he could claim the dragon’s hoarded treasure. So he poured all the family’s wealth into the hunt. But the dragon turned out far stronger than expected.
The great-grandfather and all his knights were annihilated. The invested fortune was lost. And the emperor, who had always disliked the family, used this failure as an excuse to punish them further.
From then on, the family had no talent, no money, and no political influence.
They tried to recover, but nothing worked. Every investment turned out to be a scam or a failure. Talents drawn to their name betrayed them or fled.
So they sold off what little they had left to put out immediate fires, but the family declined further.
Eventually, the male lead’s parents—who worked themselves to death trying—died, leaving him alone. So he was the fourth generation to suffer. Damn it…
“Bella. Then when will money come in to buy firewood?”
“I don’t know…”
“Bella. I’m asking this just in case… when was the last time firewood was bought?”
“A year ago…”
I grabbed my head.
The duchy was in the far north of the empire.
Even indoors, with layers of clothes, I could see my breath. If there wasn’t money for firewood, was there money for rice?
At this rate, I’d freeze or starve to death before the male lead ever killed me.
I forced myself to breathe deeply. So this was why drama chairmen always grabbed their necks and collapsed.
This marriage was worse than a scam!
Thinking back, no wonder they had to marry him to an orphan. No sane parent would marry their daughter into such a ruined house.
I tried to speak calmly, though my voice trembled.
“Bella. Answer me honestly… If I hadn’t married him, what would have happened to this family?”
“Well… there’s a bit of land left… so either another noble family would absorb it, or His Majesty the Emperor would take it.”
“Then my husband wouldn’t even be a noble anymore?”
“Yes.”
Bella looked nervous and quickly added,
“Um, Madam… if you marry as a minor, you can’t divorce until you’re an adult.”
She must have feared I would ask for divorce. I had thought of it, but I gave up after hearing that. I was fifteen now, so I’d have to wait five years.
“That’s not what I meant. Then… what about His Majesty the Emperor? Does he still dislike this family?”
“Not really. He doesn’t care much… but he doesn’t seem to like us either.”
Ugh! Why still hold a grudge against a ruined family?!
“Why?”
“I’m not sure…”
My head throbbed.
Anyway, I couldn’t leave this family for the next five years. In the original story Taming the Beastly Man, the male lead was twenty-five.
Now he was ten. Which meant, in fifteen years, he would rise to become the strongest man in the empire, ruling the continent.
The novel said he was a sword genius—one swing could break mountains and split seas. Even the emperor and other dukes bowed before him. So reviving this ruined family wasn’t impossible.
But I couldn’t just rely on a ten-year-old.
Who knew when he would start rebuilding?
If I just waited around for him, I’d die from cold or hunger long before then. So there was only one solution. I would revive this family myself.
I’d save the duchy, raise the male lead, and later, divorce him. Surely, if I saved the family, they’d give me a generous settlement.
When the heroine appeared, I’d hand him over without hesitation.
That way, I’d never die by his hand, and I could live happily with the wealth I’d received.
It was the perfect plan.
