Chapter 03
‘Damn that stupid god.’
Rubelia cursed the god in her mind, letting out every insult she knew.
This had to be a curse. Nothing else could explain it.
She should have realized when the original heroine and male lead started acting strangely due to the so-called “blessings.”
This was clearly the god’s plot to make her die no matter what.
Even if she didn’t do anything wrong, the god wanted her dead.
In other words: “Whatever you do, you will die.”
There was no other explanation.
‘No wonder my hand went straight to him,’ Rubelia thought.
She was furious, thinking the god had forced her to cling to Zerden.
At the same time, a deep despair hit her, mixing with anger and panic.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
Her trembling eyes followed the knights as they led her zombie-like toward the marquis’s mansion.
At least for now, she had to get away from the grand duke.
When she reached the marquis’s mansion, Rubelia collapsed onto her bed and thought deeply about the situation.
After three months of careful survival, meeting the grand duke today seemed too cruel.
‘No, think carefully.’
The grand duke had destroyed the Stein family because her father refused his deal. But now, if she avoided harming the heroine and stayed alive, the original story’s tragic ending wouldn’t occur.
‘Ah, I was worrying for nothing.’
She reminded herself that even if she fell into a tiger’s den, she could survive by keeping her wits.
So Rubelia decided to ignore the god’s strange prophecy from last night.
The god said to find her destined partner, but never what to do after finding him.
Finding him alone was enough.
And fate was meant to be challenged, wasn’t it?
Especially if her destined partner had already failed in rebellion and destroyed her family in the original story, she wanted nothing to do with him.
‘Why is life such a minefield?’
Living while avoiding the original heroine and male lead was already exhausting.
Rubelia sighed, overwhelmed by the thought.
Exhaustion from running finally caught up with her, and she fell asleep.
In her dream, Rubelia saw Zerden.
He looked very different from today. His normally neat appearance was disheveled, his body covered in unknown blood.
‘What kind of dream is this…’
She tried to ignore the scene, but her gaze was drawn to him.
Zerden knelt on the ground, roaring in pain like a wounded beast. Around him lay countless corpses. The blood dripping from his sword suggested he had killed them, yet he wailed endlessly in agony.
His eyes burned with pain, almost as if tears of blood were streaming down.
‘Why… why?’
Hadn’t he killed them himself?
Rubelia couldn’t understand, but the emotions he radiated were genuine.
His pain was so overwhelming, it felt like she was suffocating in it.
Finally, Zerden lifted his head, looking directly at her.
‘Please… help me.’
His fragile, desperate voice filled her mind like a candle flickering in the wind.
Rubelia woke as if being pulled by an invisible force.
Was his emotion contagious? Her cheeks were wet when she opened her eyes.
“…This feels really bad.”
She frowned in annoyance.
Then she heard the familiar voice of the god.
“Please, help him.”
‘Are you crazy? Why me?’
Even though he looked pitiful in the dream, she had no reason to save him. Her own life was in danger.
“He is your destined partner. His death means your death. What you saw was his destined future. Help him reach a different ending.”
‘What the…!’
Rubelia gaped in disbelief. Her mind echoed with curses. Why her?
The god looked troubled.
He couldn’t tell her everything. As a god, he was limited in how much he could intervene.
Yet he acted because Zerden’s soul had been manipulated, twisting his fate. The god had even brought Zerden’s destined partner from another dimension to help him.
And gave Rubelia special powers so she could act in their place.
The god could not explain all the details.
“So please… help him.”
For Zerden, and for herself in this world.
Then the god vanished.
Rubelia stared blankly.
‘That’s it? Just a bombshell and you leave? Is that all being a god?’
She punched the air in frustration.
“No wonder my life is never easy.”
Even her life in Korea hadn’t been smooth, but this world was worse. At least she hadn’t worried about dying in Korea.
‘That cursed telephone pole…’
If she hadn’t hit it, she wouldn’t have ended up in this world.
‘Better a poor life than a gold spoon with death.’
She sighed at the tangled mess of thoughts.
Although she didn’t want to trust the god, she couldn’t ignore her life being at stake.
She had no choice but to prevent Zerden’s death—or she would die.
“First, the grand duke dies because of rebellion, right?”
If the rebellion failed, she had two options: help him succeed or prevent him from rebelling.
She preferred the latter.
She was just an ordinary Korean woman, with no brilliant strategies to aid a rebellion. Better to stop him from rebelling.
Even if the marquis got involved, failure was too risky. Zerden would be destroyed not for the rebellion itself, but for helping it.
Preventing rebellion wasn’t easy, but she would try first.
Rubelia tried to stay positive, but the more she thought, the angrier she got.
‘Damn that god again.’
This kind of setback would never happen twice.
“Okay, first I’ll try to stop the grand duke from rebelling. How?”
She needed a careful plan.
“Yes! Become friends first! If he listens to a friend, I can convince him.”
Just walking up to Zerden and saying “don’t rebel” wouldn’t work. She needed to gain trust first.
Friends stop each other from doing bad things, right?
The next day, Rubelia woke with a sleepy face.
Despite hating thinking, she had spent the previous day solving her whole plan.
She deserved a late morning, but no help came!
The noise outside woke her.
“Do I have to run away again today?”
Only two people outside made a fuss, so she decided immediately.
‘At least I can’t run in pajamas.’
She quickly washed and changed without the maids’ help, shivering in cold water.
‘Now, let’s go.’
But she couldn’t leave—her stomach growled from skipping last night’s dinner.
“Fine… just this once.”
She needed strength to survive, at least today.
Taking a deep breath, she gave permission to enter.
Aria and Hasedian burst in with gifts—flowers and a tiara, just like last time.
“Hey, you crazy idiots!”
