Chapter 30
“My goodness.”
The maids styling my hair cheered and brought a mirror, setting it down in front of me.
“You look so beautiful.”
“Your eyes are dazzling.”
In the mirror stood a dazzlingly beautiful woman in a soft purple dress, her face tired but radiant.
Yes… that’s me. Today alone, I was already wearing the tenth dress Davién had picked for me. Kae.
“Davién…”
“Just call me Davién, Kae.”
Davién cut me off lightly while picking jewels from the jewelry box. The twins had been consistently insisting I speak informally with them.
“So, Davién… when is this going to end?”
I asked while slipping on a ridiculously expensive-looking pair of shoes the maid handed me. Davién shrugged, lightly ignoring my question, then placed a large tiara on my head and said:
“Well, isn’t it pretty?”
The sparkling tiara shone brilliantly in the sunlight on my white hair.
Yeah… it’s really pretty.
“All of this was bought with money we secretly took from Lloyd’s personal safe. Of course, he doesn’t know. Hahaha. From now on, it’s all yours.”
The tiara on my head alone must have been worth tens of gold coins. Add in the shoes and dresses I had worn before, and it probably added up to hundreds, maybe thousands of gold. Even if it was Lloyd’s money… could I really just spend it like this?
I sipped the tea the maid offered, quietly worrying.
“If you’re Lloyd’s fiancée, spending this much is just being modest.”
At Davién’s words, I nearly spit out my tea.
“Cough! Cough!”
“You okay?”
Ah, I had momentarily forgotten why I was here. I had only… slept with Lloyd, yet he had kidnapped me, claiming he would take responsibility for my life. And because of that cursed ring, I couldn’t return to Zeronia until Lloyd’s affairs were settled.
Caught in this no-win situation, I briefly considered just closing my eyes and marrying Lloyd… when I suddenly remembered a character from the novel.
The male protagonist of this story! Davién’s love!
According to the original plot, Davién should now be running an intelligence network, gradually cutting off Rosevelier’s finances, and colluding with the Mage Tower leader to tighten the noose on Ibeliana.
She should also be working closely with the Mage Tower leader, gradually falling in love while bungling their plans together. But now that Ibeliana is gone?
She seemed to be taking an indefinite break from all that.
Furthermore, the Mage Tower leader, known in the novel as Davién’s contract fiancé—the one who once shook the empire—hadn’t been seen at the mansion at all since I arrived. Normally, a fiancé would at least check in.
I wanted to see the two of them bickering and clumsily falling in love in real life!
When I asked Davién about her fiancé, her response was absurd:
“Huh? Fiance? That was canceled long ago.”
Wha… what?!
Canceled… long ago?
Long ago…?
I had spent so many cookies following their romance! I even pre-ordered the volumes!
I had spent cookies on all the webtoons too!
Pushing for the Davién × Mage Tower leader ship, I now mourned the cookies that vanished into thin air, along with my cold, devalued stocks.
“Pfft, your face is hilarious.”
Davién laughed heartily at my despair.
With the study hours reduced and Davién’s tone softened, we had become quite friendly.
The problem was the twins treating me like a fragile patient, handling me as if I were a delicate glass doll who might break with a single bump.
Lloyd, having heard that even a cold could be fatal, had brought a massive tree into the mansion to heat the room, turning it into a makeshift sauna with firewood stacked in front of the fireplace.
Davién added a temperature-maintaining spell, making the room unbearably hot.
When I argued that drastic temperature changes could make me sicker, the duchess intervened to stop them from turning the entire mansion into a sauna.
One day, Davién even brought a straw doll as a “body-strengthening talisman.” Its resemblance to a cursed doll was uncanny, and I secretly shoved it deep into a drawer—her secret.
Today… what new antics would she pull?
My days had become a chaotic mess of Davién’s eccentric attempts to protect my health.
“Kae! I brought some nutritious food!”
Today’s focus was on health?
The twins’ faces glowed with anticipation. Sitting at the table, Davién presented a bowl.
“Huh?”
Inside was a milky, slightly translucent broth. It looked exactly like the Korean dish, gomtang. I was delighted by the sudden appearance of Korean-style cuisine.
“Wow! This looks delicious!”
How long had it been since I’d eaten gomtang?
I wanted to mix it with rice immediately. Seeing my delight, Lloyd smiled brightly.
“It’s soup made by simmering dragon bones. The taste is incredible. Davién and I prepared it carefully. Nothing boosts your energy like this.”
Wait… dragon bones?
I was dumbfounded by the sudden exotic ingredient. Dragon-bone gomtang—a fusion of this world’s fantasy and Korean cuisine. Only a munchkin protagonist who could take down dragons could make this dish.
Slightly suspicious, I asked Lloyd:
“This is safe to eat, right?”
Davién answered confidently:
“We’ve already had five bowls ourselves. No problem. Drink it all at once! There’s plenty, so we’ll give you more.”
I tasted it.
Suuuuup… Hngh…!
It truly tasted like gomtang.
The hot broth warmed my stomach as I swallowed. It was savory and slightly salty, likely seasoned by Lloyd.
The taste of home made my mouth water.
“How is it? Lloyd’s seasoning is perfect, right? Not to mention, he’s an amazing cook too.”
I recalled the stew Lloyd had made in the Dark Forest. Just as delicious.
Rich, handsome, great cook… aside from being a somewhat clueless kidnapper, he was a perfect groom.
I watched the twins wait excitedly for me to eat, and I slurped the soup greedily.
Delicious! One more! Another bowl!
“Huh…?”
Just as I was about to call for another bowl, blood suddenly gushed from my nose. And this time—both nostrils.
“Kae!”
The twins leapt up in shock.
‘Nosebleed? I’m not that weak…’
Suddenly, my head spun violently, and nausea hit.
“Ugh!”
I couldn’t hold back the vomit. But it wasn’t the gomtang—it was a huge amount of blood. Seeing my blood-soaked clothes, my hands trembled from the pain.
Did they put poison in it to kill me?
No wonder they were being nice…
Was it a fake to calm me down?
My vision blurred, and I saw the twins running toward me, calling my name… before I lost consciousness.
Was I going to die like this?
How much time had passed?
In a hazy consciousness, I curled up, feeling strangely warm and nostalgic, wanting to sleep forever.
Then, someone shouted loudly into my ear:
-Get up! Quickly!
The urgency jolted me awake.
I had been fainting a lot recently. It was all because of the cursed twins.
I looked around after quickly washing my face and found myself in a completely white space.
Endless white, stretching infinitely.
I struck my cheek to make sure, but felt no pain.
Is this a dream?
It felt like a lucid dream. As I looked around, a very urgent voice shouted nearby:
-Run! Quickly!
Startled, I looked and saw a person with large white wings standing next to me. They looked like the angel I had only heard about.
I stepped closer cautiously.
“Uh? Sandal…senpai?”
It was Sandal, my 7th-year healer senior.
But he looked strange. His usual messy orange hair was gone, replaced with shining white hair like mine, and his eyes glowed red as he looked at me.
His face was clearly Sandal’s, but the hair and eyes felt alien.
As I approached, I heard a faint murmuring far away in the white space. Sandal’s expression darkened, then he suddenly hugged me and began flying rapidly.
What is happening?
He tried to speak:
“Y-You…?”
But his voice crackled like a broken radio, even as I was in his arms.
-…Kae…be careful…run…survive…
“What? I can’t hear you, Sandal-senpai!”
I shouted, and his face twisted with grief. Then suddenly, he let go of me.
Wha…what?!
I fell.
Looking up, I saw Sandal above in the white space, crying.
What a ridiculous dream…
I fell endlessly into the darkness, remembering those school-day dreams of falling while dozing off.
Then, with a loud thud, I hit the ground in the dream, shivering violently—and woke up.
