TROWFT 01

Chapter 01

“I surrender.”

The moment I knelt, I could feel it. The Emperor was enraged.

‘Why?’

I couldn’t fathom the reason.

It was the Emperor of Lectis who had driven me to surrender.

Shouldn’t he be happy, having gotten what he wanted?

At the end of the great hall, where stone statues stood, the Emperor, shrouded in darkness, seethed with silent fury.

“Your Emperor is quite heartless, isn’t he?”

Eventually, a voice flowed from the imperial throne atop the high dais.

The Emperor’s slightly husky, beautiful voice rumbled lowly, a soft growl.

“He used you when he needed you, and now he’s discarded you like this.”

Rising from the throne, he set his foot upon the marble. His heavy footsteps echoed through the cavernous hall.

Inside the dim hall, light filtering through the stained glass flickered before my knees.

*Tap.*

Soon, his steps halted before me.

“Raise your head, Duke Berwen.”

The Emperor’s booted foot stood upon a streak of light.

‘Him.’ No, is it ‘The Transcender’?

The greatest variable, one that even she, an avid reader of this novel, could not have anticipated.

‘The Transcender who conquered the Land of Death, Lectis, the Dragon.’

He who endured the pain of twisted bones and torn flesh tens of thousands of times to conquer the legendary Lectis.

Thus, inheriting the power of the Dragon, the Great Emperor who built a new empire in the very land of death, Lectis.

He was Hyacinth Bold Lectis.

“Lewin.”

At his fervent, simmering voice, my head lifted involuntarily.

The Emperor slowly knelt on one knee, his beautiful form gradually revealed as it touched the light.

A strong jawline, red lips, a refined nose bridge.

And those bewitching, familiar blue eyes.

‘That can’t be! It’s impossible…’

I wished it was a mistake.

The person I knew with those eyes didn’t have a sturdy body, nor were there scars all over it.

“Why are you here…?”

He had been a fragile, delicate person, like a single flower.

‘He resembles His Majesty’s eyes so much. Like a hyacinth.’

I had even said that.

That’s how he was in my memories, but…

“Hah…”

Letting out a single breath, he grabbed my hand with his scar-covered one.

Our intertwined hands in the air touched the light and gleamed.

“It seems the Duke no longer finds me, now so withered, beautiful.”

He pressed his cheek into my palm, upon which the light poured down.

The sensation of our touching skin was so vivid that I froze, bewildered by the situation.

“You have nothing to say.”

As if he had expected as much, he sneered, looking at my stiff body.

“It was the Duke who said I should take my revenge.”

“……”

“Take responsibility for making me this way.”

What was revealed as the beautiful man’s eyelids opened were…

“Or pretend like you did back then.”

Blue eyes that bloomed not as a flower, but from rage and love.

It was a raw gaze that didn’t even bother to conceal its love-hate and possessiveness.

‘This doesn’t make sense! How did he…’

He is the protagonist of this BL novel.

The man I seduced and then discarded to avoid the original work’s tragic ending.

“If you, a prisoner, take even a single step outside the castle walls,”

He had returned. As a yandere obsessive.

“I will cut down everything you wished to protect. Even that person you love.”

Seeing him with no intention of letting me go, I squeezed my eyes shut.

No. I was about to leave soon anyway…

I had to escape this place after achieving my goal.

Because I had a reason I absolutely had to return to.

—

To understand the cause of this situation, I had to go back to that day.

The day Kang Hanna was reborn as Duke Berwen.

27 years ago, at Berwen Ducal Castle.

It was a day when a downpour fell as if a hole had been punched in the sky.

“How is the Lady?”

The vassals called out to the maids rushing up the stairs.

“She is still in labor.”

Several of the vassals gathered in the central hall let out sighs.

“If something happens to the Duke on the battlefield…”

“If a girl is born, Berwen is finished! A woman cannot inherit the title!”

Starting with one vassal’s shrill cry, anxious murmurs spread.

“His Lordship’s direct line is only the Duchess’s offspring…”

“If a female child is born, the collateral branches will tear the ducal house apart! It must be a boy!”

And bad premonitions, as always, are usually right.

*Boom.*

The majestic castle gates opened, and a single knight, piercing through the fierce rain, entered.

The black flag tied to his back fluttered.

“That is…!”

A black flag.

It signified the Duke’s death.

“In the end, His Lordship the Duke has…”

The gazes of the shocked vassals converged on one place: the Duchess’s room upstairs.

Now, the fate of House Berwen rested on the gender of the unborn child.

A boy! It must be a boy. Absolutely!

“Ahh!”

Whether aware of the vassals’ desperate wish or not, inside the ornate room that served as a birthing chamber.

The Duchess’s beautiful face was contorted in pain.

“My Lady. Please, just a little more strength.”

“Ah!”

“My Lady!”

The Dowager Duchess, the Duke’s mother, anxiously wrung her handkerchief at the unexpectedly long labor.

The Dowager Duchess snapped at the midwife.

“Is it not out yet?!”

“I can see the baby’s head. My Lady, please push!”

The mother, the elderly midwife, and the long labor had left them all haggard.

The experienced midwife, mustering her remaining strength, encouraged the mother.

Just a little more! The head is visible…!

“Ahh!”

“My Lady. The head is out. Just a little more!”

An old maid approached the Dowager Duchess, who was watching, and whispered.

As the maid finished speaking,

“Ah-!”

A scream from the Duchess was followed by the midwife’s voice.

“Congratulations.”

*Boom!*

The clap of thunder seemed to synchronize, as if a play was racing towards its end.

The flash of lightning illuminated the Duchess’s pale, unconscious face.

“My Lady. Please come to your senses!”

“My Lady!”

The maids tried to rouse the fainted Duchess, but…

“What are you doing? Call a healer!”

“Yes, My Lady.”

“Bring new bedclothes! Hurry!”

The Dowager Duchess, in a panic, shooed away all the maids in the room.

Except for her own loyal old maid.

Now, the only person in this room the Dowager Duchess couldn’t trust was the old midwife.

“Is it a boy? Or a girl?”

“My Lady, that is…”

“Give it to me!”

The Dowager Duchess saw the baby’s genitals wrapped in silk and staggered.

It was a girl.

Holding her head, the Dowager Duchess gestured to the old maid beside her.

“Go outside and bring the dark mage.”

“Yes, My Lady.”

The faithful old maid quickly left the room, and the midwife, sensing the ominous atmosphere, stood up cautiously.

“A girl! You’ve finally ended our family line!”

Just as the Dowager Duchess pulled a sword from its sheath hanging on the wall.

“My Lady! You mustn’t!”

The midwife, anticipating the Dowager Duchess was about to stab the Duchess, tried to stop her.

“…Keugh.”

That is, until she saw the blood gushing from her own stomach.

A moment later,

The Dowager Duchess’s trembling hand checked if the midwife’s breath had stopped.

The baby cradled in her remaining arm remained quiet amidst the commotion.

No, it looked slightly bewildered.

The baby, looking around, stared blankly at the blood pooled on the floor for a while.

“Waaah! Waaah!”

Only then, as if understanding the situation, the baby began to cry vehemently.

“Congratulations.”

“Congratulations.”

At the sound, the voices of the knights and vassals outside the door squeezed into the room.

The Dowager Duchess, placing her hand on the doorknob, muttered gravely.

“You were born a girl, but you shall live as the Duke of Berwen.”

Forcing the corners of her mouth up, the Dowager Duchess opened the door.

“The joy of House Berwen! A son!”

She presented the child before the vassals with a happy expression.

“……”

But no one in the castle expressed joy.

The knights, removing their helmets in honor of their fallen lord, the vassals, shedding their ornate jewelry and outer garments, sinking into gloom.

All were immersed in their own sorrow.

Only the stable hand, slightly detached from this affair, who had taken shelter from the rain inside the castle, said,

“A son for House Berwen. He must have been born under a great fortune.”

Sitting in his underground quarters, he simply celebrated the birth of the new Duke.

*Boom!*

At another clap of thunder, the baby began to cry loudly again.

Proclaiming its existence boldly, vigorously.

—

“B-blood! Blood, blood, blood!”

Even in this incomprehensible situation, I knew the wetness on the floor was blood.

“There’s blood! Over there, blood!”

I struggled and pointed towards the door.

Not only did I suddenly open my eyes in a strange place, but now a murder!

“This old woman just killed someone!”

I shouted, looking at the colorful crown of heads kneeling before me.

At first, I was flustered and babbled. Anyone would.

Opening your eyes to find yourself in a strange place, with giant-like people passing you from hand to hand.

But the even more shocking thing was the murder I witnessed in that room.

“Haha. Is this a dream?”

I tried to hold my head with my chubby little hands.

I stopped shouting too. Only cries of “Waaah, waaah” came out anyway.

‘Wait… is this a dream?’

A strange feeling made me recall what had just happened.

‘…So up until just a moment ago, I was…’

Definitely, I was hit by a car and fell onto the asphalt road, right?

The crushed cake, the blurry vision, the license plate I couldn’t see, the cold of the asphalt – everything was vivid.

And then I was born again like this as a baby…

‘Am I reincarnated or something?’

That was the conclusion of my deduction.

*KABOOM!*

The sound of thunder from outside made my throat feel tight. This emotion is definitely injustice.

“Why today of all days! Why today…”

I recalled the day I had the traffic accident.

-I sincerely congratulate you on your acceptance.

The day I died was the day I finally passed the public corporation recruitment exam, after enduring the hellish entrance exams and job hunting.

I cried my heart out, like a baby—or rather, appropriately as a baby.

“How can this happen in the world. *Waaaaah*.”

And so, Korean job seeker, Kang Hanna.

Without ever hanging an employee ID around her neck, she was reborn as Lewin de Berwen.

The sole heir of House Berwen.