Meeting the man I’m supposed to seduce for the first time… at his engagement party?
This is seriously hard. Even Shakespeare couldn’t write a story out of this.
I had a mountain of documents from Luna to memorize!
I also needed to plan how I’d go about seducing Peredil!
My head felt like it was going to explode, yet I lay there blankly, staring up at the ceiling, unable to do anything.
So in the end, Peredil and Vivian really are getting engaged, just like in the original story.
Vivian was the daughter of the Marquis of Boleyn, leader of the aristocrat faction—unlike Peredil, who was with the imperial faction.
Still, she fell in love with Peredil at first sight and courted him with everything she had, body and soul. But Peredil’s attention was focused entirely on Luna, who had saved him.
Unable to have what she wanted for the first time, Vivian was blinded by jealousy.
To eliminate Luna, the thorn in her side, Vivian sought out her weakness—and eventually discovered that during Luna’s time in exile in a provincial territory, she had violated a Coventin law that punished anyone who concealed their divine powers.
Instead of simply handing Luna over to Coventin’s prison, Vivian chose a more insidious route: she went to Peredil and used Luna’s secret to blackmail him.
Burdened by guilt toward Luna, who had once saved his life, Peredil gave in and agreed to the engagement.
If only Peredil hadn’t invited Luna to the imperial ball to thank her for saving him, Luna would never have come to the capital, never used her divine power to save the collapsed emperor. None of this would’ve happened.
So, it’s no wonder Peredil felt uncomfortable after Luna confronted him.
Out of guilt for causing Luna’s suffering, he chose to get engaged to someone from the very faction opposed to him—the leader of the aristocrat camp.
In the original, once Luna later learns that Peredil got engaged only because of her, she forgives him and they grow closer.
But right now, from Luna’s perspective, it must be irritating that a man who’s already engaged keeps worrying about her.
For just a moment, I wondered: Am I really supposed to take the female lead’s place?
But that thought was quickly shoved aside by a more urgent realization—Vivian’s new target for torment was going to be me, not Luna.
What if I lose an arm? Or an eye?
I might not even make it back to Bria in one piece.
No, let’s be honest. I should consider myself lucky if I get back alive.
The one benefit of possessing some throwaway side character was that I didn’t have to fight tooth and nail just to survive. But now that the story’s gone off track, I’m surrounded by death flags.
My brain, which should’ve been working overtime, went on strike instead—only telling me to shut my eyes and go to sleep.
Was this a form of escapism?
Somehow, keeping my eyes closed felt… peaceful.
I really need to start planning ahead…
But my eyes won’t open…
If this keeps up… I’m… going to… zzz…
* * *
“I’m doomed! Totally doomed!”
Lazy perfectionists are never satisfied, and humans always repeat the same mistakes.
I should’ve known better than to fall asleep like that!
And to make matters worse, I slept on the floor instead of the fluffy bed—my back was killing me.
Still, crisis breeds wisdom. So the tears rolling down my face weren’t tears… they were enlightenment.
If I go to the party tomorrow unprepared, Luna will kill me.
If I openly flirt with Peredil, Vivian will definitely kill me.
And the guy I’m supposed to seduce? He’s got the original female lead stuck in his head.
But they say even when the sky falls, there’s always a way out.
Let’s see if I can find one in this mess.
Having wasted a whole day, I finally started preparing the first episode of my plan, “How to Get Dumped by a Duke in 100 Days”, with only one day left before Peredil and Vivian’s engagement party.
“Acting on stage and acting in real life are two totally different beasts.”
In playwriting, I created the characters, settings, and dialogue myself. But now, in the real world—with already established settings and characters—it was much harder to craft the story I wanted.
“All I can do now is…”
…predict how the characters of Moon of Coventin, which I’d analyzed to death by now, would act—and then steer them in the direction I wanted.
“Alright! Let’s start with character analysis.”
Since my goal was to seduce Peredil, I needed to decide on my approach—and that meant understanding the women already around him.
I pulled out a blank sheet and started scribbling.
“First, Luna Woodville.”
Luna first met Peredil when she saved him during an assassination attempt by the aristocrat faction.
Even though she was supposed to hide her divine powers, she couldn’t ignore a dying man.
After being falsely accused of leading a rebellion against the emperor, Luna was exiled to her family’s territory far from the capital.
Not realizing how much she hated the capital, Peredil had thought he was doing her a favor by clearing the Woodville family’s name.
But when Luna cried, begging him to leave her alone, Peredil was overcome with guilt and kept thinking about her.
There’s still emotional distance between them, though. They’re not that close yet.
“Next, Vivian Boleyn.”
Peredil didn’t like her from the beginning.
Vivian always had to have whatever she wanted, and she’d aggressively thrown herself at him from the start—not realizing that the more someone chases him, the more he pulls away.
Even after getting engaged to him like she wanted, she tried to cling to him more tightly, which only backfired.
One is a radiant sunshine type who avoids crossing boundaries.
The other is a possessive type who wants to control everything.
If I go for the sunshine girl approach, I’ll overlap with Luna.
If I go for the aggressive Vivian approach, Peredil will just reject me.
So thinking about the remaining relationship types, I started to see the kind of character I needed to be.
They say genius composers can write hit songs in five minutes.
Maybe I’m a genius playwright too—because once I figured out how to seduce Peredil, the rest of the story flowed naturally.
After finishing the first episode in one sitting, I finally felt at ease since arriving at the Woodville estate.
“If he’s always been surrounded by sunshine, it’s time he met the opposite.”
I realized that if I wanted to stir something in Peredil, who had lived as if emotionless, I needed to be the opposite of sunshine.
Sunshine’s left you wanting more, right?
Time to meet someone new.
Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Let’s start as enemies, shall we?
Let’s hate each other—then slowly get drawn to each other, until we can’t resist.
I was going to become the typhoon that sweeps him away.
* * *
“We’ve arrived at the Boleyn estate.”
With the coachman’s help, I stepped down from the carriage and quickly scanned the exterior of the marquis’s mansion.
“It’s about as big as the Woodville estate.”
Built from dark gray bricks, the Boleyn residence looked less like a noble mansion and more like a fortress for monsters.
Inside, however, was a different story—expensive red velvet decorations everywhere.
It looked humble on the outside, but the interior screamed extravagance.
Hmph. So it’s that kind of house, huh?
I remembered the original Vivian—how she acted sweet and innocent in front of the emperor, while scheming behind his back to help her father overthrow him.
In the garden, Vivian was already seated with a few noble ladies she had invited.
They all believed that I was adopted by the Woodville family after helping Lady Molly when she was robbed, refusing the enormous reward out of sheer kindness.
Of course, that was all a carefully crafted fake news campaign I’d orchestrated. Ha-ha.
“Lady Vivian, Lady Joyce Woodville has arrived.”
A servant announced me to the party’s host.
Vivian, who I was meeting for the first time, wore a striking black dress.
She had the opposite charm of Luna—dusky skin, fierce cat-like eyes, a decadent beauty that inspired both fear and fascination.
After scanning the area, Vivian slowly looked me up and down… then greeted me with a sharp, dry tone.
“…What the hell is this? I didn’t invite her.”
