YHTB 01

Chapter 01 On a Windy Hill Where No One Comes

It was a stormy night, with the wind howling like arrows. Vivian, standing by the bedroom window, felt an ominous chill from the sound of the pouring rain.

Boom… Crash!

The countless strikes of thunder no longer surprised her.

The rain that had been falling since yesterday finally swallowed the village in the lowlands, terrifying many of the local people.

Amid this chaos, her husband had gone out to hunt monsters. Several days had passed since she’d been waiting for him.

Just as Vivian, completely exhausted, was about to give up and go to bed, a flash of lightning lit up the entire world. A huge shadow crossed her sight over the fields.

A black horse, darker than the shadow itself, was running at full speed toward the mansion.

The black cloak, soaked and glistening with rain, and the crow feathers draped over his shoulders fluttered like living things.

Vivian immediately recognized the figure in the black silhouette.

It was her husband, Leon.

Seeing him running alone, she didn’t even stop to think where all the soldiers had gone. She immediately opened the bedroom door and ran outside.

Passing through the dark hallway and over the sound of thunder, she went down the stairs to find her drenched husband already inside the mansion.

His empty eyes scanned Vivian and her body in turn.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

As Leon raised his head, wet hair fell over his sunken cheek.

“Why are you alone?”

Where had the hundreds of soldiers who left with him gone?

He looked extremely tired after returning alone.

Had he been defeated in battle? Should she pack and leave for the south immediately? As she worried, Leon calmly answered:

“The troops will only arrive in the morning.”

Coming back ahead of everyone in the middle of the storm—it wasn’t something the usually relaxed Leon would do.

“Why did you come back so fast… Are you hurt?”

Vivian didn’t expect a sweet answer like “I worried about my wife” or “I missed you.”

But what came out instead was even more surprising.

“…I want to tell you something.”

A low voice that made her tremble.

He hesitated for a long moment, wiped his wet face with his hand, and looked at her.

Eyes like a starving beast. His obsidian-like pupils trembled.

“I want to eat it right now.”

“Excuse me?”

After a brief silence, Leon slowly opened his mouth. His trembling lips parted and he finally spoke with effort.

“…Ramen.”

Hearing that, a triumphant smile spread across Vivian’s face.

As expected, the spicy and rich taste of Korean ramen completely captured the heart of Duke Leon Rohberger Ester, who ruled the barren North and rarely showed emotion.

Spicy food was exactly what the Duke needed.

“I’ll cook it right away. Change your clothes and come to the dining hall.”

How could she possibly make ramen here, where even electricity hadn’t returned?

It was because she had access to the refrigerated storage of a hotel in 202X Seoul.

“Mushroom ramen would be nice.”

“Ten minutes, no, five minutes is enough.”

Right now, the hottest food in the empire was the Korean dishes made by her own hands.

The reason the lonely, wind-swept northern mansion had become the empire’s hot spot was all thanks to the tireless efforts of Duchess Vivian Ester.

Even today, Do-yeon rushed into the hell that was the work bus.

Weakly climbing aboard, she immediately opened her banking app to check her nearly-empty account after paying bills.

Today, her account was as empty as the quiet bus.

At least she had a job. That was something.

The top-class hotel kitchen in Seoul was the dream workplace Do-yeon had long wished for.

She had started from the bottom and endured through sheer determination. Even when others told her to quit, she insisted on staying, and eventually earned the title of assistant manager.

But kitchen work was far more exhausting than she had imagined.

Still, she endured with a sense of duty and her love for cooking.

“Ugh… I already want to go home.”

She was reaching her limit.

When had she last had a weekend off?

In nearly five years, she had spent only a handful of weekends resting.

Even imagining a weekend off while working this job was impossible.

If she worked in a busy office district, it might be different, but the neighborhood of her hotel was even busier on weekends.

She sighed, questioning her efforts.

Perhaps today was the day she would finally hand in the resignation she had prepared just in case.

Doesn’t everyone keep a resignation letter tucked away at least once?

Rustle—

Do-yeon absentmindedly reached into her bag pocket where she had kept it, and her fingers brushed something else.

[Half Luck, Half Donation Lotto #000]

A lottery ticket.

She had bought it for herself on Monday, to cheer herself up for the week, and it was now crumpled in her bag.

Fingering the paper, she pulled out her phone to check the numbers.

[Winning numbers 5 6 11 29 42 25 + 28]

Reading the numbers one by one, she froze.

“Huh…?”

She almost fainted.

A miracle had happened.

“…First prize?”

She had just won the lottery.

Shocked by the unbelievable reality, Do-yeon rubbed her eyes over and over.

[Congratulations. Total prize: 2,055,584,100 KRW]

Even the screen couldn’t lie.

‘This is insane. How much is this exactly?’

Her mind went blank, forgetting about work.

20 billion won.

What should she do with it?

A thousand happy thoughts ran through her head.

First, pay off student loans, give money to her mother… and then, what else?

‘Get off this hellish bus immediately. I need to call my mom first.’

She stood up from her seat.

Suddenly, her body lifted off the ground.

Is this what it feels like to become rich overnight?

For a brief moment, Do-yeon thought so.

But she quickly realized it wasn’t just a feeling.

Her body really was floating.

The moment she realized this, a deafening roar erupted.

Crash—

In an instant, the large bus she was on flipped over and crumpled like paper.

Thrown against the exit door by the impact, Do-yeon stared blankly out the window.

Outside the broken glass, a truck lay shattered, smoke rising from it.

This was it.

The famous “hit by a truck, wake up in another world” story had just begun.

“My first prize…!”

Do-yeon screamed inside the small carriage.

“Ah! You startled me! Miss, are you okay?”

Miss?

In front of her sat a girl with red curly hair and scarlet eyes.

She looked about sixteen or seventeen, swaying with the motion of the carriage.

Do-yeon froze as she stared at the girl’s clear eyes.

“What… is happening? Why am I here?”

“Oh my… Miss.”

Do-yeon immediately sensed something was very wrong.

The narrow carriage shook steadily. She faced the mysterious girl.

Through the small window, the pastoral countryside passed by.

It was total chaos.

“What… is wrong with these clothes?”

It looked like someone had hung Millet’s Angelus on the window.

Do-yeon finally realized she was in a moving carriage.

The carriage raced somewhere unknown.

The girl in front wore a khaki dress tied at the front like a sneaker, with a small white cloth like an apron wrapped around her hips, with pockets of unknown use.

Even at a glance, it looked shabby compared to Do-yeon’s own dress.

“How did this happen? I was on the bus…” Do-yeon looked at her body and whimpered.

The girl frowned and tried to comfort her.

“Miss… you need to accept it now. You are about to become the Duchess. Your wedding is soon, and if you keep acting like this…”

Duchess? Wedding? Do-yeon tried to recall the events.

She had collided with a truck, the bus flipped, and she lost consciousness.

When she woke, a red-haired girl who looked like a maid called her “Miss.”

‘I am about to become a Duchess…’

This.

This was possession.

She should have realized when she could hear a foreigner speaking perfectly, every word intact.

This was clearly a possession.