Chapter 1
My faith had been solid. It was a belief built firmly by doubting everything—from the smallest detail to the largest—layer upon layer.
I had never once imagined that the tower built from those bricks of trust could collapse in an instant.
No… perhaps I was too afraid to think such a thing, and so I pretended not to know, even though I did.
“I only kissed her.”
My voice was calm as I spoke.
“I’m serious.”
It could even be described as confident.
Tick, tock.
The ticking of the grandfather clock’s second hand echoed loudly, like a heartbeat, making my head ring. The sound was so pronounced that it felt as though my own heart had been transferred into the clock—thudding heavily, relentlessly.
In my ears, a faint ringing accompanied the raw sound of my breathing. My eyes burned as if they were being scorched, yet my chest felt cold.
“Damian.”
“……”
“We haven’t even kissed yet. And yet with that woman….”
“Bri!”
“Ah….”
For a moment, my vision swayed, and I nearly lost my balance. The reason I didn’t collapse to the floor was because of his hand catching me.
He was still the man who had everything I once loved. A perfect male lead—kind, understanding, considerate.
If only I hadn’t known that my perfect husband had kissed another woman.
If this had been before I knew anything, I would have been grateful that he caught me.
Now, it only felt like something crawling with insects.
“It’s common to take a mistress. So….”
“Damian, there was a clause in our marriage conditions that you would not take a mistress. That’s why I agreed….”
“Bri. Don’t act like a child. Things are different now compared to before our marriage.”
“Damian.”
“If the issue is kissing, we can do it now. We do need to produce an heir, after all.”
Even his golden eyes—once resembling gold itself—now felt grotesque and vile. The deep love I once saw in them now looked like a Venus flytrap.
“Did that woman tell you to say that?”
“Bri!”
Delilah—the woman who had kissed my husband.
She was, in fact, the true female protagonist of this novel, the one who was always meant to be with my husband.
“Let’s get a divorce.”
Unable to endure it any longer, I said those words and turned away.
“You think I’ll let that happen?”
Damian’s hand soon grabbed me roughly.
“Let go!”
As I struggled to shake him off—
“Scre—!”
“Bri!”
I fell down the stairs.
❖ ❖ ❖
I realized I had been possessed into this world when I was very young—on my fifth birthday.
In my previous life, I had died from overwork. I had been an ordinary office worker, forced into “passion labor” conditions. I often thought I was underpaid relative to the intensity and hours of my work. Still, I believed that if I worked hard enough, I would eventually have a more comfortable life.
It probably wasn’t the two consecutive nights without sleep that killed me. Rather, it was the chronic lack of sleep over time that eventually led to my sudden death.
The documents I had been reviewing before dying contained urgent tasks I needed to complete. As my vision blurred, the white paper and black text distorted strangely, and then blood began to pour from my nose over them.
The documents seemed to draw closer—
And when I opened my eyes, I was here.
And this place was inside a novel titled “Delilah: The Mistress of the Grand Ducal House.”
Since it was the only romance novel I had ever read, I remembered its contents well.
The original story went like this: the heroine, Delilah, was a commoner but a genius. Because of her brilliance, she was admitted into an academy that only nobles could attend.
There, she became entangled with Damian as rivals, bickering and clashing until they eventually fell in love.
Delilah, despite being looked down upon by Damian, began to develop feelings for him as he consistently helped her in times of danger while still seeing her as a woman.
Their relationship remained playful and tense, until love blossomed on the battlefield during a war they fought together, ultimately leading to marriage.
Delilah, the genius, restored the declining grand ducal house. Though she had been thought a commoner, she was actually the lost child of the emperor.
It was a story in which everything existed solely for Delilah’s happiness.
The problem was that I had been cast as the novel’s villainess.
“Ugh….”
Looking around, there was no one. Where had all the servants gone?
When I tried to reach out my arm, it hurt too much. The fall down the stairs yesterday must have caused this.
Fortunately, nothing seemed broken. After removing the bedsheet, I saw dark bruises scattered across my legs beneath my nightgown. Looking closely, there were more on my arms as well.
My stomach hurt badly, so I lifted my nightgown slightly to check—and found a large bruise there as well.
“Ha….”
As I barely managed to turn and try to get up from the bed—
“Ugh!”
I fell straight to the floor.
“…Seriously….”
This was truly pathetic.
The reason Damian and I fought yesterday was because of the female lead, Delilah.
I had no intention of living as the villainess as in the original story, so I had tried not to marry Damian. In the original, Briseis—the villainess—was Damian’s fiancée, and she bullied Delilah.
Later, when the two returned from war, she attempted to kill Delilah.
In the end, she was killed by Damian himself.
But perhaps because I had tried to deviate from the original plot, Damian had instead treated me well. He did his best to earn my trust.
Even though my body was five years old on the outside, inside was someone much older. So I had believed his actions were sincere.
What was even more fortunate was that the original heroine, Delilah, did not appear until Damian and I entered the academy.
So I had let my guard down.
Because everything had changed due to my different actions.
I assumed that even if I ended up engaged to Damian as in the original, nothing major would happen.
Unlike the original, Damian went off to war to earn military merit, and because of that expedition, we ended up marrying earlier than planned.
However, we never consummated the marriage.
“If I were to die on the battlefield, please forget me and live happily.”
“How could I do that?”
“Please… if Bri can be happy, that is enough for me.”
That was why. He had said he didn’t want to hold me close in a war where he might die.
Fortunately, he returned victorious.
The problem was that upon returning with victory—
“Ugh…”
He had brought the heroine, Delilah, back with him.
“Ha….”
The distance I had to climb was far too great.
No matter how much I reached, I couldn’t touch it.
And so, I fainted again.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Where is Damian?”
“He has gone to the academy, my lady.”
At those words, I couldn’t help but frown.
It had been a week since I fell down the stairs and regained consciousness.
“And Lady Delilah?”
“…She went with him.”
The servant avoided my gaze, looking uneasy, which made the situation feel even more real.
What I had seen—
At the academy party, I had rushed there upon hearing that Damian had returned.
What I witnessed was Damian kissing Delilah.
“Are you always this good at kissing, Your Highness?”
“You’re the first. I’ve been trying to learn how to do it well for you.”
Damian’s gentle voice, and Delilah’s clear voice.
All of it had been real.
“I’m going too.”
“But, Your Highness—”
“I’m going to the academy too. Prepare it.”
I extended my arm as if asking to be helped up. The maid, Ella, looked flustered but then took my arm.
“Ugh….”
“You really shouldn’t push yourself….”
At Ella’s words, I shook my head. She sighed in concern.
“At this rate, even walking will be difficult. You have too many bruises….”
“Did the doctor say anything?”
“Yes, he said they were all just bruises, but….”
With Ella’s support, I sat down at the dressing table. Seeing her teary expression in the mirror helped me calm down a little.
“I’m fine.”
“I’m not fine, my lady. You’re injured… and you didn’t wake up for a whole week….”
Ella was a maid I had taken from the Phillia Marquis household and had cherished since before my marriage.
“Please help me get ready.”
At my words, Ella nodded and began to assist with my grooming.
Reflected in the mirror was my striking appearance—red hair and sky-blue eyes. Anyone would see me as a flashy, villainous type.
“Could you make me look gentler?”
“…Yes.”
I found myself saying that, remembering Delilah’s appearance from yesterday.
Soft eyes, brown hair, and golden eyes like sunlight.
Compared to her gentle, kind impression, I looked harsh and villainous. That realization made me feel somewhat intimidated.
“Also, please make it less extravagant.”
“Yes….”
Ella’s expression grew more downcast, as though she could sense my feelings.
After finishing my preparation, I immediately wrote a letter.
“Send this to Jeronis Law Office.”
At those words, Ella nodded with a solemn expression. The Jeronis Law Office was well known for specializing in divorce cases.
❖ ❖ ❖
By the time I arrived at the academy, it was just before the first class.
Wearing the white academy uniform, I had to carefully place my steps to avoid falling.
I was walking up the stairs to my classroom when—
“Bri?”
A voice calling me by my nickname came from someone I was not close to at all.
“Weren’t you said to have fallen down the stairs? How did you come here?”
Delilah was descending the stairs toward me, dressed perfectly in her academy uniform.
“Oh, was it just an excuse after all?”
Strangely, there was no one else around. At this time, there should have been many students going up and down the stairs.
For a moment, the scene reminded me of the original story—the moment when Briseis pushed Delilah down the stairs.
“You’re too naive.”
At that moment, Delilah pushed my shoulder.
And I fell backward, catching a glimpse of her smiling face as I tumbled down.
“How foolish.”
