Chapter 1
“Stay in Erel until the social circles quiet down. It’s a quiet, empty place — perfect for a period of reflection.”
When rumors spread throughout the capital that I had tried to kill Catherine, the Duke of Oberon sent me to one of the family’s territories, Erel.
The order had come rather abruptly, but I wasn’t surprised.
In the original novel, the duke had said the exact same line before sending Ivria away to Erel.
‘If anything, the timing’s just a bit earlier this time.’
Originally, Ivria refused to admit her wrongdoings and stubbornly clung to her pride. Only after the Crown Prince officially broke off their engagement and banished her from high society did she end up in Erel.
But this time, I had voluntarily broken off the engagement before being forced to, and left the social scene on my own terms. That’s why the timeline had shifted slightly forward.
Erel was a small territory tucked away at the northernmost edge of the kingdom.
It was a remote, frozen land — the kind of place far too harsh and dull for a delicate noble lady to endure. The real Ivria would have found the mere act of being sent there unbearable.
But unfortunately for the duke, who probably hoped this exile would teach me remorse, I wasn’t exactly a delicate noblewoman.
A remote northern estate? Fine by me. In fact, it sounded like the perfect place to be lazy and live comfortably without anyone bothering me.
‘Besides, I won’t have to deal with Catherine’s fangirls glaring daggers at me anymore. This is more of a reward than a punishment.’
At least, that’s what I thought.
“C-cold! It’s freezing!”
Erel was cold.
No — it was unbelievably cold.
The chill was beyond imagination. Even just sitting inside made me shiver violently. I wore a thick coat indoors and had a heavy blanket wrapped around my shoulders, yet I was still helpless against the biting cold.
At this point, I began to suspect that Ivria hadn’t actually killed herself in the original novel, but had frozen to death.
No, that wasn’t a suspicion — it was a certainty. She must have died from the cold.
“Do people… really live like this?”
My teeth chattered as I turned to Emma, the maid assigned to serve me here at Erel Manor.
Unlike me, she wore only a simple maid uniform yet poured tea as calmly as if nothing were amiss.
“If you drink some warm tea, my lady, you’ll feel a little better.”
“Tea w-won’t fix th-this kind of c-cold! Aren’t you c-cold, Emma?”
I sipped the tea with trembling hands. It helped slightly, but the chill never left my body.
If I stayed like this much longer, I was bound to come down with a fever — or worse.
“I am cold, my lady,” Emma said with a gentle smile. “But I was born and raised in Erel. Everyone here is used to enduring the cold. It only becomes unbearable at night, but during the day, it’s still considered warm.”
“This is warm? If it gets any colder than this, I’m really going to die… freeze to death, I mean…”
Freezing to death before I even had the chance to enjoy a comfortable noble life — utterly absurd.
‘I need a plan. Fast.’
Desperate to survive, I scanned the room and noticed a fireplace in the corner.
“There’s a fireplace right there! Why aren’t we using it? Light it up!”
“I’m terribly sorry, my lady, but we have no firewood left in the territory. What little remains is used for cooking. At least we still have enough to heat water for tea.”
“What?”
That was ridiculous.
Even if this was the countryside, this was still a duchy’s estate! How could there be no firewood?
Emma lowered her head, embarrassed.
“The trees that grow in Erel are blackironwood. They’re extremely dense and don’t burn easily, so we can’t use them as firewood.”
“Then why not import regular wood from another territory?”
“Our supplier was the Ocal Trading Company. We’d worked with them for over a hundred years, but recently they suddenly stopped doing business with us. So now the entire estate is out of fuel.”
She looked deeply troubled as she continued explaining.
“Finding a new supplier isn’t easy. The steward is searching for one as quickly as possible, but until then, we can only ask for your patience.”
Business relies on trust.
For a merchant company to abruptly cut ties with a ducal family — there had to be a very strong reason.
Especially in a rigidly hierarchical society like this one, where social rank outweighed market logic.
Even if there was a reason, it was unthinkable for a mere merchant guild to sever ties with a duke’s estate on a whim.
“Erel belongs to the Oberon Duchy. How could a merchant just end a contract unilaterally? There must be some reason.”
Emma hesitated, clearly nervous about saying more.
“Emma.”
I prompted her firmly, and she finally spoke.
“The Ocal Trading Company is affiliated with the Melior Count family. So…”
At the mention of Melior, a certain face immediately came to mind —
Prince Ridan, one of Catherine’s devoted followers.
The Melior family was his maternal lineage.
Though the Meliors weren’t nearly as powerful as the Oberons, they were still the royal family’s in-laws — and that alone made them untouchable.
‘So that’s their backing, huh.’
I could already piece together what had happened.
“Did the trade stop about a week ago?”
“…Yes, my lady.”
“Then it’s clearly because of the First Prince.”
Prince Ridan must have taken offense on Catherine’s behalf and ordered his family’s company to cut us off.
‘That’s exactly the kind of thing Ridan Jeraint would do.’
Just like in the novel.
Ridan Jeraint was the First Prince, yet his younger brother, Cassian, held the title of Crown Prince — a rare situation in a world that favored primogeniture. But the reasoning made sense.
Ridan’s mother died giving birth to him, and the new queen — a marquess’s daughter — later bore Cassian. As the reigning queen, she used her influence to secure the crown prince title for her own son.
Her alliance with the Oberon Duchy through Ivria’s engagement was part of that scheme.
Now, think about it — an heir who lost his mother early, whose maternal family was weak, and who still held a claim to the throne? That was a walking death flag if I’d ever seen one.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), Ridan was smart enough to realize it.
He survived by acting timid and harmless on the surface, while secretly cultivating a sharp, ruthless side.
‘The textbook “hidden mastermind” type.’
Given all that, it was inevitable that Ridan and Ivria — the crown prince’s fiancée — would be enemies.
They were never on good terms to begin with, and since Ivria constantly bullied Catherine (whom Ridan adored), their relationship had been downright hostile.
If you had to pick the person who hated Ivria most among Catherine’s five “fish,” it would definitely be Ridan.
‘But seriously — cutting off trade with an entire duchy? Over that?’
Royalty really were beyond comprehension.
‘Why is everything so needlessly dramatic?’
If he was angry, he could’ve taken it out on me directly. Instead, he punished the entire region just because I happened to be there.
The trade ban itself didn’t matter much to me — but the lack of firewood absolutely did.
I couldn’t laze around or “self-reflect” if I froze to death first.
‘They said this was a quiet countryside estate… a perfect place to rest…’
The peaceful life I’d envisioned was slipping further and further away.
When I left the capital, I truly planned to live quietly — not because I wanted to protect the original story or anything noble like that.
I simply didn’t want to deal with cleaning up someone else’s mess or trying to achieve greatness in a fictional world.
I’d possessed the body of a pampered noble lady — why make life harder than necessary?
‘Working hard sounds exhausting.’
But now, this wasn’t a matter of preference. It was survival.
I needed to live — then I could think about comfort.
Wrapping the blanket tighter around me, I jumped up.
“Looks like I have no choice. Time to use my cheat key.”
“…Your what, my lady?”
Emma tilted her head, puzzled.
A cheat key — the thing that turns a complex, high-level strategy game into something as simple as Minesweeper. With it, even the hardest game becomes easy.
“Emma, why do you think I’m freezing in this room without a fire?”
“Because… we have no firewood, my lady? The Ocal Trading Company stopped—”
“Nope. Wrong.”
“Pardon?”
“Erel has plenty of firewood. Blackironwood — tons of it.”
“Well, yes, but it doesn’t burn well enough to use—”
“Not with ordinary fire, sure. But what if there were an extraordinarily powerful flame?”
Emma blinked at me in disbelief, clearly wondering if I’d finally gone mad from the cold.
“You know the legend of the Blue Flame, right? The great mage who burned all enemies to ash?”
“Of course, my lady. Everyone in the kingdom knows that story.”
The founding myth of the Jeraint Kingdom began with the “Blue Mage” — the great sorcerer who aided King Ephron Jeraint in unifying the land.
He was the king’s mightiest ally, but vanished from history after the king’s death.
Gone like smoke — as though he’d never existed at all.
Even his name was omitted from official records. The only thing left behind was a single sentence he’d spoken before disappearing:
“If ever there comes one who calls my name again, I shall burn for them with blue fire.”
After all his service in founding the kingdom, that was all history remembered him by.
But no one bothered to uncover his true identity.
Because, well — it was a myth, wasn’t it?
Myths always exaggerated the founders’ greatness, after all. Most people considered the Blue Mage just a symbolic figure.
“But if I had a flame as strong as that, I could burn blackironwood. And then, I could finally have a warm night’s sleep.”
“But my lady… the Blue Mage is only a figure of legend. The blue fire doesn’t really exist.”
Of course, Emma didn’t believe in him — few in the kingdom did.
But unlike them, I’d read the book.
I knew the truth — that the great mage had been real, and that he had his own hidden story.
And that truth was going to be my cheat key.
“Emma, fill the fireplace with blackironwood.”
“My lady, that wood truly doesn’t burn. It will be pointless.”
“I’ll handle that part. Just bring it and stack it there. Go on.”
My determined tone must have convinced her that arguing was useless.
With a resigned sigh, she bowed her head.
“As you command, my lady. I’ll bring the blackironwood at once.”
