Chapter 5

I let out a scoff and shook my head.

“No way. I don’t know about the other rumors, but he definitely wasn’t a strange person.”

“You met Duke Piction?”

“Yeah. At the tea party earlier.”

“What kind of person was he?”

“He’s really handsome and really kind. He smiles a lot, picks up on things quickly, and his personality is great.”

I explained Linus as plainly as possible.

I almost added that he was tall, had great skin, and was very gentle, but that felt too much like praise, so I held back.

Ruby narrowed her eyes and curved her lips into a mischievous smile.

“My lady… don’t tell me…”

“Don’t tell you what?”

“Did you fall for him at first sight?”

“What? No, not at all.”

“Oh my, oh my.”

“I said no!”

When I denied it again, Ruby, her eyes curved in half-moons, twitched her lips and chimed back playfully.

“Alright, my lady. So you didn’t fall for him at first sight.”

She said she understood, but her expression showed she believed none of it.

Ruby finished straightening my bedding and left the room with her lips still twitching.

I told her it wasn’t like that…

Linus was sweet as honey and I did love honey, but the background of our first meeting had been far too bleak for romance to blossom.

Besides, Linus had witnessed me digging through a monster’s skull.

Even if he didn’t show it because he was a kind man, he must have thought I was strange on the inside.

And the problem wasn’t just that he might think I was strange.

I got out of bed and took out the monster core I had stored in the drawer.

The pale blue gem-like core sparkled so beautifully that I sighed.

The fact that this existed meant that gates and dungeons were real too.

Was the universe kidding me?

Destroying the original plot was one thing, but what were dungeons doing in a romance fantasy world?

Was it because of me? Because I possessed this place?

The fact that a dungeon I personally cleared had appeared in a world where dungeons never existed… no matter how I thought about it, it felt like it was my fault.

“This is absurd…”

Why did I have to become the villain who ruins the setting of my favorite novel?

Surely dungeons won’t keep showing up in this world… right?

Gripped by the ominous thought, I clutched my head and screamed silently, then suddenly snapped back to my senses.

If, by any chance, dungeons were appearing because of me, then absolutely no one could be allowed to know.

This wasn’t on the same level as being exposed for possessing someone’s body.

If someone decided, “If you disappear, this disappears too!” they’d definitely try to kill me.

I was not about to die because of dungeons in this life as well.

I wanted to live long and comfortably, sipping honey as an oblivious duke’s daughter.

Tomorrow, when I saw Linus again, I vowed to make sure to shut his mouth properly one more time.

* * *

The next day began with yet another rumor that Ruby brought me.

As soon as she set down the basin of washing water, she asked in a flustered voice,

“My lady, something strange appeared in the imperial palace yesterday. Did you happen to see it?”

I froze mid-motion, my hands cupping the water.

I tried to act as natural as possible, but I ended up stuttering without realizing it.

“S-strange?”

“They say a black hole opened in the sky. Apparently the Crown Prince’s engagement announcement was canceled because of it.”

“Is that so? I had no idea.”

“Thank goodness, my lady. They say it caused a huge uproar because something so ominous appeared over the palace.”

I had hoped that it disappeared quickly enough that no one saw it, but that was just wishful thinking.

Of course something that big and dark wouldn’t go unnoticed.

Just imagining that someone might have seen me and Linus near it made my blood turn cold.

It was a remote corner of the garden, and the space around a gate gets distorted, so… maybe we were safe?

I stood frozen long enough that water dripped through my fingers, and Ruby continued speaking.

“Because of that, all the mages and scholars have been summoned. The duke also went to the palace early this morning.”

It really did sound like chaos had broken out.

When gates first appeared on Earth, the world had flipped upside down too.

And when monsters came pouring out of them, ‘chaos’ wasn’t even close to describing it.

“So, what are they saying that black hole was?”

I braced myself for her to say gate or something starting with that sound, but Ruby’s answer was completely different.

She lowered her voice, even though it was just the two of us in the room, and mentioned a very familiar name.

“They say Duke Toned has schemed something again.”

“Duke Toned?”

“That’s what the rumors say. People are saying, who else would cause trouble in the palace besides him?”

“But didn’t the imperial family and House Toned reconcile? His Highness the Crown Prince and Lady Larienne were supposed to get engaged.”

“Maybe they were pretending to make peace while plotting something behind the scenes.”

There wasn’t a single person in the Dioretta Empire who didn’t know that the reconciliation was just a temporary patch.

House Toned was the main pillar of the anti-imperial faction, and the novel The Butterfly Garden’s Secret Affair progressed with the imperial family and House Toned at odds.

That was why Heide and Larienne’s romance was destined to be miserable beyond words, but that part of the story came later.

Right now the two houses were supposed to maintain a short peace thanks to their marriage alliance announcement.

If the gate hadn’t appeared, that’s exactly how things would have gone.

Duke Toned would certainly feel wronged, but if the gate incident ended up being pinned on him, it wasn’t a bad outcome for me.

After all, he was secretly plotting things.

The imperial–Toned conflict might start earlier than in the original, but the original plot was irrelevant now.

As long as no more dungeons appeared, nothing else mattered.

Yes. As long as no more dungeons appeared.

While thinking through everything until late last night, I recalled one important thing I had forgotten.

It might not have been because of me, it might have been because of that chubby cat I met yesterday.

The gate appeared right after the cat started spouting nonsense.

A talking cat was even more absurd than a dungeon popping up.

That creature must have done something.

“I need to find that cat…”

“Sorry? A cat? My lady, do you want to keep a cat?”

“N-no. Don’t worry about it, Ruby.”

I brushed it off and finished washing my face.

Since I met it in the Butterfly Garden, I should be able to find it if I go back there.

I decided to ask Father how I could enter the palace once he returned.

Around lunchtime, instead of Father calling for me, Ruby came running in, clutching her skirt.

“My lady! A letter arrived from House Piction!”

It was a letter announcing Linus’s visit.

After reading his elegant handwriting… just as graceful as his face, I fell into deep thought.

And Ruby began thinking as well.

I was desperately searching for a way to explain monster-core extraction without sounding completely insane.
Meanwhile, Ruby was busy hanging various things onto my body.

“My lady, how about this necklace?”

She sat me in front of the mirror and tried dozens of necklaces against my neck one by one.

“They’re all pretty. Just pick anything.”

“Anything? My lady, this is your first date!”

“It’s not a date.”

“Alright, it’s not a date. And this necklace isn’t right either. Red gemstones suit your hair color best.”

Ruby absentmindedly agreed and clasped another necklace around my neck.

The necklace with the sparkling red jewel really did look incredible against my pale skin and pink hair.

As usual, my reflection in the mirror was breathtakingly beautiful.

Exactly the kind of appearance I once imagined myself having if I ever possessed a romance-fantasy novel character.

And strangely enough, even though I possessed a different character, this face resembled my original one.

It was like putting a romance-fantasy beauty filter over my real face.

My features were nearly identical, and even my body shape was similar.

Considering this body had been lying still for over ten years, I was surprisingly well-toned too.

Was this also the power of magic?

This world really was full of wonders.