Episode 1
Prologue
I only realized I was a transmigrator by pure chance.
For example, the moment I stamped my seal on a labor contract?
“Huh…?”
I blinked once.
“Huh?!”
I blinked again.
I don’t know how many times I blinked in the confusion of the memories flooding in.
At that moment, a smooth yet captivating voice reached my ears.
“Miss Liliana Walker, I look forward to working with you.”
My body trembled at the sound of that voice.
Instinctively, I gripped the document in my hand tightly. Seeing this, the other party continued with a kind tone.
“By the way, no matter how tightly you grip the contract, it won’t be voided, so don’t worry.”
I couldn’t snap out of it easily. Something even more shocking than the realization of my transmigration was unfolding before me.
The vivid seal of the Winspear Ducal Family stamped on the contract I had just signed, that seal, that seal.
“Oh my, Miss Walker. Are you so overwhelmed by the prospect of working for the Winspear Ducal Family?”
Creaking, I turned my head, and only then did the scenery of the reception room come into focus.
The curtains draped across the walls, the carpet covering the floor, the tea served in front of me, and even the seal I had stamped—all of it was a vivid, blood-like red.
No one would mistake this place for somewhere humans lived.
“Haha.”
As I let out a deranged laugh, the person—no, the demon pretending to be a person—sitting across from me smiled faintly and asked.
“Surely you’re not thinking of terminating the contract less than a minute after signing it, are you?”
There was a reason I was shivering in shock.
This was the home of Roan Winspear, the final villain of the novel I had transmigrated into, a den filled entirely with demons, not a single human in sight!
“If that’s your intention, I’m afraid you’d have to pay three times the contract’s advance as a penalty.”
My hands trembled uncontrollably.
Lowering my head, I scanned the contract I had just, personally, stamped.
The clause stating an advance payment of 300 gold showed no sign of disappearing. Nor did the condition next to it, stating that terminating the contract without special cause would require paying three times the penalty.
As I gaped in dismay, the other party pushed up their glasses and spoke, accompanied by a hypocritical smile.
“You also used the mage’s portal to get here, didn’t you? You’ll need to cover that cost as well.”
Of course, I had neither the money to pay the penalty nor the portal fee.
‘Damn you, Liliana! What were you thinking, signing that contract without a second thought!’
I cursed the pre-memory me, but it was futile. The deed was done, and a 300-gold check was already sitting in my pocket.
Even though they surely noticed the earthquake in my eyes, the demon in front of me spoke casually.
“Shall we go meet the Duke, then?”
Why did those words sound like an invitation to walk into a tiger’s den?
Tears welled up in my eyes.
But there was no escaping this place. It was filled with demons, and not a single angel or holy knight existed to help me.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I-I’m coming.”
Closing my eyes tightly in this dizzying situation, I thought to myself.
The starting point of this absurd situation, the events from three hours ago, flashed through my mind.
It was the start of a day no different from any other.
The ceiling was leaking, and loan sharks were knocking at the door.
“What a lovely day.”
I sipped water from a chipped teacup.
As I set the cup down on the table, thunder and lightning roared outside. Rain poured as if the sky had split open.
Boom!
Lightning flashed again behind a cascade of pure white hair.
Turning my head, I coldly scanned my father, Baron Walker, sitting in front of me.
“How much this time?”
“100 gold.”
When I didn’t respond, my father flinched as if stung and spoke again.
“150!”
His sky-blue eyes, identical to mine, wavered.
“W-Well… 300 gold…”
“Hah?”
The esteemed Baron Walker had borrowed a whopping 300 gold from loan sharks, he said.
No wonder I felt a pull at the back of my neck. It was only natural.
The average annual living expenses for a commoner were around 10 gold. And the Walker Barony’s finances were worse than a commoner’s.
“Sometimes, I really want to crack open your head and see what’s inside.”
I meant it. If I could, I’d love to know what was in that head of his that made my life so miserable.
“How many times has it been now?”
I counted on my fingers the times my father had borrowed from loan sharks.
With each finger I folded, his body flinched. But that wasn’t my concern.
“Good heavens, it’s the fifth time!”
I clapped my hands and smiled brightly.
“No, wait, including this one, it’s the sixth, isn’t it?”
As I burst into deranged laughter, my father avoided my gaze.
“Do you know how much I’ve paid off on your behalf over the past seven years?”
The smile vanished from my face at that moment.
“A whopping 1,000 gold.”
Yes, a full 1,000 gold.
A barony like ours, barely scraping by month to month, could never have that kind of money. Naturally, I had to work.
I took on jobs no noblewoman would ever consider, splitting my sleeping hours and even making a fool of myself.
Earning 12 gold a month, I barely managed to pay off the debts. And today marked exactly one month since I had paid off the last of them.
“I’m not helping you this time.”
I said firmly.
“I think I’ve done my duty as a daughter.”
“Liliana, I needed the funds to rebuild the barony. I only borrowed a little.”
“Right. A ‘little’ that you couldn’t borrow from a state-run bank because of your ruined credit, so you went to loan sharks?”
“Ahem.”
“When will you admit you have no talent for business?”
Despite my scathing criticism, my father busied himself picking at his ear. Seeing him like that reminded me of my mother, who passed away from stress seven years ago.
“Mother died of stress, and you still haven’t changed. Should I die next for you to come to your senses?”
At my words, my father finally looked up at me.
“Liliana! Stop with the insolent remarks!”
Seeing him flushed and fuming, I realized wasting my energy on him was pointless.
Standing up, I spoke to him.
“Fine. Let’s end this father-daughter relationship. Let’s go our separate ways cleanly.”
His neck veins bulging, he shouted.
“This is the last time, I swear!”
“Haa.”
“If you help me just this once, I’ll do everything you want. If I don’t pay them back, they’ll drag me to the salt fields to work until I die.”
At those words, my eyes gleamed.
‘That doesn’t sound bad.’
Sending my uncontrollable father there might be a legal way to…
Reading my chilling expression, my father shouted.
“If you don’t earn the money, I’ll have to sell you!”
“Haa?”
“If I sell you now, I could get at least 50 gold. So, Liliana, choose.”
There was a reason my father could speak so boldly.
Ridiculously, in this country, a daughter was her father’s property. That was why I had quietly worked and paid off his debts for seven years.
“Damn this law. I should burn it all down.”
Muttering through gritted teeth, my father began to placate me.
“If you help me this time, I’ll grant everything you want.”
I wasn’t swayed. After all the suffering I’d been through, he expected me to do it again?
Seeing my lukewarm response, my father spoke as if making a grand decision.
“I’ll sort out your family registry as you’ve always wanted.”
Sorting out the family registry.
If that happened, I’d no longer be subject to his threats or dragged around by him.
Of course, I’d no longer be a noble, but living as a commoner might be far happier than this.
His offer was honestly tempting. But reflecting on his past behavior, it was likely another lie.
Seeing no reaction despite his bold move, my father hurriedly held something out to me.
“What’s this?”
“The documents you brought before to sort out the registry. I’ll stamp my seal on them.”
In front of me, he filled out the documents and handed them over.
“But.”
As I reluctantly took the paper, thunder and lightning roared again.
Rumble—Boom!
After a sound far louder than before, my father uttered something outrageous.
“Pay back the 300 gold within three days.”
