GDASP 01

Chapter 01…

Prologue

“Ugh…”

A small groan echoed through the darkened room.

Cynthia grasped the man’s shoulders as he buried his lips against her neck, kissing her over and over again. The metal ornaments on his perfectly fitted uniform felt cold under her palms.

“Wait…”
“…Do you dislike this?”

The man lifted his head from where he’d been showering kisses beneath her chin and looked into her eyes.

The moonlight from the tall window gleamed against his dark pupils, and for a moment Cynthia’s heart stopped. She had never seen eyes so deep — not in books, not even in her imagination.

“It’s not that I dislike it…”
“Then what is it?”

The corners of his lips curled slightly as he tilted his head, still trailing moist kisses upward from her jaw to her ear.

“Ugh… Y-you’re not supposed to be this kind of character!”

The instant his hot lips brushed her earlobe, Cynthia couldn’t hold back her outcry any longer.

At her words, the man finally pulled his lips away and gave a low chuckle.

“Cynthia, you say the strangest things sometimes.”
“…”
“As if you know me very well.”

…Know him? Oh, she did.

Pinned beneath him, Cynthia rolled her eyes silently.

Because the handsome man gazing down at her with burning eyes — kissing her so passionately — was none other than one of the male leads in the 19+ reverse harem tragedy novel she’d been reading.

And not just any man — he was the Duke Tesion Lumanov, the heroine’s fiancé and a major character.

“What kind of person does Cynthia think I am?”

His voice, tinged with laughter, descended toward her.

Cynthia turned her head to meet his gaze again. After a moment of hesitation, her lips parted.

“Y-you’re… um, a little more restrained… well-mannered—no, abstinent! A man who isn’t interested in… in this kind of thing…”
“Me?”

Tesion let out a louder laugh this time. He gently took a loose strand of Cynthia’s hair and brought it to his lips.

“I-I’m right, aren’t I…?”

Cynthia stammered, but she wasn’t entirely unsure.

Tesion Lumanov, the Duke, was the only man in the entire novel who never slept with the heroine — despite her legendary record of relationships with about twenty other men in her infamous reverse harem.

Then, his low voice brushed her ear again.

“Well… who knows?”

When Cynthia had first read the book, she’d never understood why the heroine, Elizabeth, ignored her fiancé Tesion.

Sure, he was blind in the first half of the story — maybe that made things complicated.

But later, after he regained his sight, he’d become one of the readers’ most anticipated characters — the stoic, repressed man ready to explode in passion.

“The longer the restraint, the brighter the explosion!”

But…?

Even in the latter half, nothing happened.

“People even wrote reviews wondering if Duke Tesion Lumanov had some… ‘problem’ in that area.”

“What are you looking at?”

Tesion lifted Cynthia’s chin, forcing her eyes back to him.

Snapped out of her thoughts, she studied his face again. His calm, predatory expression reminded her of a lion eyeing its prey.

“Restrained and modest… and uninterested in such things, you say?”

He murmured softly — repeating her own words. Cynthia’s face flushed crimson.

Tesion’s purple eyes glimmered as his fingers toyed with the ribbon near her chest.

“Would you like to test that theory?”

Cynthia stood frozen.

Was what I just saw… real?

Under the overturned carriage — now smashed beyond recognition — red liquid streamed onto the dirty ground, pooling slowly toward her feet.

Cynthia stared down, easily recognizing what it was.

Could that much… really come from one body?

As that thought sank in, the silence in her ears shattered — all the noise of the world rushed back at once.

“Hey, miss! Are you all right?”
“Good heavens! You could’ve been hit too, by those mad horses!”

Her legs gave out.

As her frail body swayed, a sturdy woman nearby caught her arm.

“You poor thing, you must be in shock. Are you okay?”

Her arm trembled uncontrollably in the woman’s grasp. Her head spun violently.

“We should report this—”
“Shh! Don’t you see that crest on the carriage? That’s the Bailey Duke’s emblem! Someone else will handle it. We’d best get out of here before we’re seen.”
“But we should at least help—”
“Getting involved with them will only bring trouble!”

The crowd began backing away from the wrecked carriage, not wanting any part of the notorious family.

“…He…lp…”
“What was that?”

Cynthia’s unfocused eyes flickered. She spoke in a frail whisper, forcing her trembling hand to point toward the wreck.

“Someone… please… help… that person lying there…”

“Shh. Someone will. Come on, we have to go before the guards arrive.”

The woman pulled Cynthia away with surprising force. Dragged helplessly, Cynthia bit down on her trembling lip.

…

Up until now, she’d managed to endure it.

Being suddenly reincarnated into an R-rated tragedy novel…
Being just an irrelevant background character…
And realizing there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

At least back then… I still had hope.

The woman finally seated her in front of a nearby shop, checked that she was stable enough to be left alone, and hurried off.

“Damn it… it’s over…”

Cynthia muttered to herself.

She had just witnessed — right before her eyes — the death of the novel’s heroine.

It had been about a year since Cynthia realized she’d been reincarnated into a novel.

And not just any novel — a 19+ reverse-harem tragedy where the heroine shamelessly tangled with multiple men.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

How did she figure it out?

Because she’d met the heroine herself — Elizabeth Bailey.

At the time, Cynthia had barely adjusted to her new life as some random extra in an unfamiliar world.

At first, she thought she’d simply fallen into another world. Or maybe she’d died and been reborn as someone new.

But then—

“Lady Elizabeth, please don’t wander off too far! The capital can be dangerous!”
“Okay!”

Elizabeth?

The name caught her attention. Cynthia turned her head.

Golden waves of hair, bright green eyes like emeralds, and a soft, gentle aura…

“Wait… I know her.”

Cynthia blinked at the cute young woman being addressed as Elizabeth.

She looks exactly like the description in the book… Wait—book?

Yes.

That woman, with the Bailey crest gleaming in her hairpin, was unmistakably the heroine of the scandalous 19+ novel titled
“When I Devour a Rose Like You, I Feel So Happy!”

Cynthia froze for a second, then grabbed the wrist of a passing merchant.

“Um, e-excuse me… Is there a noble family named Bailey in the capital?”
“Whoa! Of course — they’re the wealthiest duke’s family around! How could you not know that?”

The merchant stroked his messy beard, giving her a puzzled look.

Cynthia’s face drained of color.

“T-then… what about the Lumanov family?”
“Oh, that’s the Duke’s line — directly related to the Emperor.”

She was doomed.

Cold sweat trickled down her back.

“A-and the Baileys and the Lumanovs… they don’t have any kind of… connection, right?”
“Well… rumor has it that Lady Bailey and Duke Tesion Lumanov are soon to be engaged…”
“That’s a lie!!”
“Why would I lie about that…?”

The merchant gave her a strange look, shook off her grip, and walked away.

Left alone, Cynthia clamped both hands over her mouth. If she didn’t, she might start screaming every curse word known — and unknown — to man.

You mean… I’m in the novel I was reading? I’m so f**ed…*

After a moment, she slowly lowered her hands.

“So that woman… the one who’s supposed to build a legendary reverse harem with about twenty men — doing this and that all night and day — except with her official fiancé, Duke Lumanov… that’s her?”

An elderly gentleman passing by stopped dead in his tracks, shocked at the vulgar words spilling from a young lady’s mouth.

“E-excuse me, miss? Did I just hear you say those words… out loud?”

Oops.
She hadn’t meant to say that part aloud.