IDLKRH | Chapter 001

[0. Prologue]

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“Lady Ailsden!”

The moment she stepped into the ballroom, a swarm of men and women rushed toward her.

Natalie walked toward the center of the hall, her chin slightly raised. The crowd, buzzing like a hive of bees, bombarded her with eager questions.

“Is it true you’re getting married?”

“Rumors are spreading across the empire that you’re looking for a husband! Is that really true?!”

“Yes.”

Her haughty response made the eyes of those around her gleam with excitement.

“Haha! Truly magnanimous! Giving everyone an equal chance!”

“To think of being the husband of Lady Ailsden, whom it’s so hard to even meet—how enviable that lucky man already is!”

The true lady of the Ailsden ducal family.

A powerhouse with immense wealth and the empire’s finest talents at her feet.

The most famous figure in both high society and political circles.

The most beautiful woman, yet one who harbors the most dangerous thorns.

That was Natalie.

‘Just a while ago, they were pointing fingers, calling me a poisonous mushroom or a crow.’

Natalie picked up a champagne glass and smiled arrogantly. But those blinded by her radiance didn’t point fingers; instead, they chattered incessantly, their mouths practically frothing.

“You look even more beautiful today, my lady. Would you honor me with just one dance…?”

“I have seven keys to my personal vault! Please, just give me a chance!”

“My lady, you know my younger brother, right? He was recently commended by the emperor for graduating top of his class at the academy at the youngest age ever. And these days, younger men are all the rage…!”

“Applications for candidates start tomorrow. Save your self-promotion for then.”

Natalie twirled her glass, speaking with poised arrogance.

At that, some called for servants to prepare documents immediately, while others begged for hints on passing the screening process, causing a chaotic uproar.

Through the commotion, another lady of Ailsden approached.

“Natalie, Father and Brother haven’t approved yet. Don’t you think you’re being too hasty…?”

Sharon Ailsden, the adopted daughter of the ducal family.

Natalie whispered leisurely to her sister, who wore an innocent expression tinged with worry.

“Sharon, you’re mistaken, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t need permission. It’s my husband, not Father’s or Brother’s.”

Sharon’s forced smile twitched awkwardly. Natalie flashed a dazzling smile at her false sister.

At that moment, three men approached.

Their arrival sent a ripple through the hall, shifting the atmosphere.

The crowd vying for Natalie’s attention naturally ebbed away like a receding tide.

“Hello, gentlemen.”

Sharon, still wearing her innocent smile, tried to linger, but—

“Aren’t you leaving?”

“I-I was just about to.”

She scurried off at Natalie’s urging.

Soon, three men—radiating vibrant shades of blond, black, and red hair—surrounded Natalie.

“I heard you put out an announcement to choose a husband.”

The blond crown prince spoke sweetly, as if confirming a fact. Natalie replied coyly.

“Yes. I thought I’d try this thing called marriage.”

Before she could finish, a glint sparked in the eyes of all three men. Sensing danger, Natalie emphasized firmly.

“It’s purely a call for suitors. No ulterior motives.”

But it was futile.

Absurdly, the three men—who always seemed to lose their senses when it came to Natalie—had already interpreted her words in their own way.

“As expected.”

“Just as I thought.”

“I knew it.”

They believed she was so infatuated with them that she was staging a jealousy ploy to receive their proposals!

“I always thought something was off.”

The ‘upstanding’ playboy crown prince smiled charmingly.

“I’m a notorious flirt, yet you’re the only woman who approaches me so boldly. You’ve scared off all the others, haven’t you?”

His smile sparkled as brightly as his dazzling blond hair. Natalie frowned, about to deny it.

“I noticed.”

But the black-haired grand duke’s blunt, low voice cut her off.

“I figured there was a reason you kept jabbering about my stamina or whatever.”

The ‘self-loathing’ cold northern grand duke stared at Natalie with a predatory gaze.

“That’s not—”

Natalie furrowed her brow, trying to explain, when the red-haired mage tower master’s rebellious voice stole her attention.

“You tamed me this much, so you have to take responsibility, big sister.”

The ‘crybaby’ psychopathic mage tower master’s hair suddenly turned blue, and he whimpered pitifully.

“Big sister… you taught me that clinging and crying would win a woman’s heart. So why are you looking at other men?”

Visible only to Natalie, shimmering numbers glowed above the three men.

[100%]

[100%]

[100%]

‘Haa.’

Natalie rubbed her temples.

Something had been off from the start—the settings of the three male leads, who were perfect in the base game, were slightly warped.

Then, an unprecedented error occurred: even after maxing out their affection meters, no ending triggered.

‘If I want to escape this place, marriage is my only option.’

This world was the 19+ complete version of a reverse harem game.

The game’s core condition was this: to log out, you had to raise the affection of the three male leads to a certain level, and an ending would trigger with the one who reached 100% affection.

But Natalie had long since surpassed the complete version’s logout requirement of 90% affection for all three.

Now, all three had hit 100%, yet no ending had appeared, and naturally, she couldn’t log out.

‘Not even the special complete version ending where we all live together has triggered!’

There was undoubtedly a serious bug.

Natalie had tried everything to fix the game.

But perhaps because their affection meters were maxed out and wouldn’t drop, the male leads began showing overwhelming possessiveness and obsession with her.

‘Their excessive affection might be the problem.’

Since the complete version was a newly updated, unstable release, it was a plausible theory.

Natalie recalled that in the base game, the male leads’ affection would drop whenever they felt jealous or misunderstood her.

‘Especially when they were disappointed over issues involving other men—it plummeted.’

Finally, Natalie found a way to forcibly lower their suffocatingly high affection: marriage.

Marriage to someone other than the three male leads.

So, she announced to the entire empire that she was accepting husband candidates and would choose one to marry.

“She’s my fiancée.”

The crown prince gently kissed the back of Natalie’s left hand, smiling radiantly.

“She’s my partner.”

The northern grand duke interlocked his fingers with hers on her right hand, gripping tightly.

“She’s my big sister!”

The mage tower master, his hair now half-red, half-blue, whimpered and rubbed his cheek against her shoulder from behind, acting coy.

Then, all three male leads shouted at her simultaneously.

“I’m your husband, right?!”

…Why are you all fighting among yourselves? I clearly said I’m marrying someone else.

“Get lost, all of you.”

Natalie turned sharply, her expression one of exasperation.

“My lady!”

“Lady Ailsden!”

“Big sister!”

The three men started to follow her but were blocked by two silver-haired men glaring fiercely.

On her left, her father, and on her right, her brother escorted Natalie to the carriage like knights.

“So why are you suddenly getting married? You’re so naive, you know nothing, and yet you’re stubbornly insisting on marriage!”

Her hot-tempered brother, Anatol, glared at the three men, fuming.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to get rid of this troublemaker? I’m just granting your wish, so what’s the problem?”

Natalie retorted nonchalantly, making Anatol flinch. Then her stoic father, Duke Ailsden, stopped in his tracks.

“Natalie.”

She turned to see her father looking at her with a resolute expression.

“Yes?”

“Don’t get married. Stay with us at home forever. Spend my fortune extravagantly and live as you please until the day you die.”

Natalie’s jaw dropped.

The three male leads, whose settings were somehow warped; her brother, who used to only get angry; and her father, who once treated her like a stone.

None of them had the slightest intention of letting her go.

‘Why is everyone acting like this?’

On top of the male leads’ relentless obsession, now she had to deal with unexpected family drama she never asked for.

Just how broken was this game going to get?

‘I don’t want this kind of reverse harem!’

Natalie began to wonder how, why, and for what reason she ended up trapped in this ridiculous reverse harem game.

[1. The Woman Who Brings Luck]

It all started with something trivial.

Natalie stared intently at the hat she was about to pick up.

‘Something feels off.’

The pale yellow hat exuded an elegant charm.

To buy this limited-edition hat, adorned with the finest satin ribbons and Valentin lace, she had waited on the reservation list for years.

After exactly three years, the limited-edition sale opened, and upon receiving news that she’d made the first-come-first-serve cut, she rushed to the boutique.

“Lady Ailsden?”

The baron’s daughter who accompanied her subtly urged her to choose, as if wondering why she was hesitating.

Thanks to Natalie footing the exorbitant bill for both of them and keeping their names on the waitlist for three years, the baron’s daughter had secured her own stroke of luck.

Of course, she wasn’t a friend. Natalie didn’t have friends to begin with.

“Oh, yes.”

Snapping out of it, Natalie reached for the hat in front of her.

But for some reason, it didn’t appeal to her. This was the hat she’d dreamed of for three years, yet now it even repelled her.

Funnily enough, her gaze shifted to the display case beside it.

‘For some reason, I want to buy that one.’

It was a small silk hat.

Unlike the flashy pale yellow hat, it was black, more suited for a funeral than a ball, and not particularly pretty.

Moreover, in an era where wider brims were considered more elegant, the hat’s small, corsage-like size almost looked bizarre.

“Lady Ailsden, shall I wrap this one up for you?”

The clerk politely gestured to the pale yellow hat.

The baron’s daughter, already holding a hat of the same design in a different color, waited beside her.

Natalie had a brief staring contest with the two hats.

But every time she resolved to buy the pale yellow hat she’d dreamed of, her eyes drifted to the black one.

Finally, she furrowed her brow and muttered.

“…No. Give me that one.”

“Pardon? But that’s just a sample piece made by Madame Dupré as a practice piece!”

“I don’t care. Wrap that one up.”

“What? Lady Ailsden, really?”

At Madame Dupré’s exclusive boutique, where purchases were strictly limited to one hat per person with no exceptions, the clerk and the baron’s daughter were shocked and tried to dissuade her. But Natalie stubbornly bought the sample hat.

And at the steep price of the pale yellow hat, no less.

“Why did you do that? You waited three years for this beautiful hat, so why choose that weird one…?”

The baron’s daughter, who had hitched a ride in the Ailsden ducal carriage, trailed off.

Even Natalie, who had impulsively spent a fortune on the bizarre sample hat, couldn’t understand why she’d done it.

‘It just kept drawing my attention. Like it was telling me not to buy the yellow one but to choose it instead!’

But saying that out loud would make her sound like a fool throwing a tantrum after being stubborn.

Now that her name was off the waitlist, she’d lost her chance to buy the yellow hat again.

“It’s my choice.”

In the end, Natalie could only reply curtly.

The baron’s daughter, who wasn’t even a friend but had cleverly flattered her way into getting an expensive limited-edition hat, pursed her lips and fell silent.

Two days later—

“Lady Ailsden! Lady Ailsden!”

“What?”

The baron’s daughter came running, breathless, spilling the news.

“You won’t believe this, but there was a fire at Dupré’s hat boutique this morning! Madame Dupré, who had rushed to the Kingdom of Nayuta for her father’s funeral, returned late this morning to find it!”

Natalie, sipping tea primly, spat it out at the bombshell news.