TVBDP 1

Chapter 1

The stage was perfect.

The first floor of Dailing, the most famous and luxurious café in the Empire.

Since it was a place frequented by nobles, it was also the perfect place for gossip to spread.

And when Duke Rudnain Eels appeared exactly as announced, everyone held their breath.

Smooth black hair and deep black eyes as dark as the night sky, with a face that looked as though it had been sculpted by the gods.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and possessed a lean yet well-built physique with perfect proportions.

The young duke, barely in his early twenties, was so handsome that anyone who saw him couldn’t help but gasp in admiration.

“This way, Your Grace.”

One of the employees recognized Rudnain immediately and hurried over to guide him respectfully.

With a gentle smile, he followed the employee’s long strides with his own long legs.

“Ahh.”

One of the young ladies who had come to the café early in the morning just to see Rudnain stared at him as if entranced, then promptly collapsed after getting a nosebleed.

“Oh my, Lady Mellovie!”

“He’s even more beautiful and handsome than the rumors said…… He’s absolutely dazzling…!”

“I know!”

“Exactly. Why would someone like him agree to a blind date with that wicked and ignorant duchess?”

The gathered young ladies whispered among themselves.

At first, they lowered their voices out of consideration, but as their excitement grew, their voices gradually became louder, until everyone inside the café could hear them.

Rudnain was puzzled by the malicious gossip that reached his ears.

‘Why isn’t the duchess reacting at all?’

He narrowed his eyes as he watched the woman sitting nearby, her shimmering silver hair elegantly half tied back as she gazed outside.

Lady Yvonne Argenthoz.

The daughter of the Duke of Argenthoz and a brilliant mage, but also a woman infamous for being an arrogant, violent villainess who knew nothing of proper etiquette.

For such a villainess to hear all those nasty comments about herself and remain completely still was difficult for him to understand.

‘Could she be so deeply lost in thought that she can’t hear them?’

Curious about what had captured Lady Yvonne’s attention so completely, Rudnain followed her gaze and turned his head.

The seat where Lady Yvonne was sitting had an excellent view of the plaza fountain, where cool streams of water shot high into the air.

The plaza fountain had been built to praise the greatness of the Vervent Imperial Family and was a brilliant golden color, symbolizing the bloodline of the Vervent Imperial House.

Seeing the bitterness and sorrow reflected in her vivid violet eyes, Rudnain suppressed a hollow laugh.

‘So the rumors that she still can’t get over the Crown Prince were true after all.’

This meeting had been arranged by the Duke of Argenthoz to cheer up his daughter, who had fallen into despair after being rejected by the Crown Prince, and to restore her confidence.

‘Please go on a public blind date with my daughter. That is my one wish.’

Duke Rudnain Eels had traveled all the way from his distant northern territory to the capital to repay the debt his late father had owed the Duke of Argenthoz.

The Eels ducal family’s motto was never to recklessly incur debts to others—and if they ever did, they must repay them without fail.

Rudnain’s father had once received help from the Duke of Argenthoz, but because the duke had never asked for anything in return, the elder Duke Eels had spent his entire life worrying about the unpaid debt.

In the end, even as he lay dying, the previous Duke Eels couldn’t close his eyes peacefully.

With his son Rudnain at his deathbed, he left him one final request:

He absolutely had to repay the debt owed to the Duke of Argenthoz.

Property and debts were both inherited.

And Rudnain intended to faithfully repay even the debt his father had carried in his heart.

That was why he had come to this formal blind date with a woman who was widely considered the worst duchess in the Empire, both for her terrible personality and for the countless crimes she had supposedly committed.

Rudnain had become a duke at a young age, and until now, he had been too busy stabilizing and managing the Eels territory in the north to visit the capital.

He didn’t know much about the situation in the capital, nor had he ever met the notorious Lady Yvonne Argenthoz in person.

Still, he intended to humor Yvonne’s temper with as much sincerity and courtesy as possible before leaving this stage.

No matter how arrogant she acted, he would endure it all.

Even after Rudnain approached the table, Lady Yvonne continued staring at the plaza fountain with a troubled expression.

Rudnain took a deep breath before addressing her.

“Lady Yvonne Argenthoz.”

“Ah.”

At his call, Yvonne slowly turned her head.

Just then, sunlight touched her long silver hair, making it shine brilliantly. Blinded by the light, Rudnain briefly closed his eyes before slowly opening them again.

‘Hmm.’

She was indeed beautiful, just as he’d heard.

It was clear that her reputation as a villainess had overshadowed her beauty.

The slight upward tilt of her eyes and her high nose suggested a stubborn personality, but she didn’t seem nearly as vicious as he’d imagined.

Her vivid violet eyes staring directly at him were beautiful enough to stir his heart.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be such an unpleasant performance after all.

With that thought, he smiled gently and sat down in the chair opposite Yvonne.

“I’m Rudnain Eels.”

“Hello, Your Grace.”

Yvonne stiffly greeted him the moment she saw him, and Rudnain felt a little disappointed.

His competitive spirit was roused.

He smiled even more gentlemanly and spoke in a soft voice.

“Now that I’ve met you in person, I see that you’re even more beautiful and—”

“I’m sorry for asking this when we’ve only just met, Your Grace.”

Yvonne suddenly cut him off and lowered her voice as much as possible.

Her expression was so serious that Rudnain became tense as well.

“Could you lend me some money?”

The moment Rudnain heard Yvonne whisper those words behind her hand, he wondered if he had heard correctly.

What an audacious villainess.

She was asking a man she’d just met for money!

And yet, despite his bewilderment, Rudnain found himself staring at Yvonne with his mouth slightly open.

The wicked duchess was holding both hands out toward him politely in a clear gesture that said, Please give me some.

She was devastatingly cute.

It was a bizarre situation.

It was absurd. Completely ridiculous.

And yet, for some reason, Rudnain found himself reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulling out his wallet.

A chilling premonition flashed through his mind.

The feeling that this wicked duchess was going to completely strip him of everything he owned.

At this point, Rudnain, the man sitting across from her on this blind date, had no idea that everything might eventually include his heart.

I had always wanted to be the villainess instead of the heroine.

Not some gullible heroine who would sign a contract as though bewitched, only to discover the hidden poison clauses much too late.

I liked villainesses who were hated by everyone and cursed as that damn woman, yet, if you looked at their circumstances realistically, had been born with a silver spoon in their mouth—or rather, a diamond spoon.

Especially villainesses in romance-fantasy novels.

Have you ever seen a poor villainess?

They were always high-ranking nobles by default, blessed with beauty comparable to the heroine, along with power and wealth, yet they ruined their own lives by being personality disasters who chased twisted desires.

As long as a villainess avoided stepping on the landmines known as the heroine and male lead, what better diamond-spoon life could there possibly be?

‘And just as I wished, I was born with a diamond spoon in my mouth…!’

After opening my eyes in this new world, I covered my mouth in overwhelmed delight as I stared at the gorgeous beauty reflected in the mirror.

Silvery hair with a bluish tint like the winter moon, intense violet eyes, and a faint, teardrop-shaped mark on the inside of my left wrist.

An unbelievably voluptuous chest, a slender waist, firm thighs, and incredible proportions.

I cautiously lifted the chemise I was wearing.

Oh my goodness.

Is that seriously an eleven-line six-pack I’m seeing right now…?

This appearance could only belong to Yvonne Argenthoz, the vicious and cruel villainess and mastermind from the romance-fantasy novel The Light of Cordelia.

‘She is… kind of an intense villainess with a pretty major role, though.’

I scratched my cheek as I recalled the original story.

Yvonne, a mage who tormented the heroine Cordelia Mare after she suddenly appeared in the Empire, eventually learned that the male lead she had fallen for had become engaged to Cordelia.

She then made a contract with a demon and completely descended into darkness.

Yvonne had originally been an exceptionally talented mage, so the demon’s power manifested incredibly strongly within her, turning her into a great dark mage.

Once the cruel demons began ruling the world, the heroine and male lead went through hell.

But in the end, Yvonne, the ultimate mastermind behind everything, met the fate that all final villains seemed destined for.

She died an extremely, horribly, brutally cruel death.

Yvonne’s ending was absolutely horrifying.

‘But who cares? I don’t need an ending like that anymore.’

I didn’t have to cultivate any wicked desires.

I could simply use this villainess’s abilities to live a comfortable, modestly luxurious life.

“Fufu.”

A laugh escaped me naturally.

Yvonne was the most overpowered villainess I’d ever encountered in a novel!

Of course I was excited.

Let’s organize this properly.

□ Status: Youngest daughter of a ducal family. A duchess.

See?

You can already feel it, can’t you?

□ Wealth: The Argenthoz family owns an orichalcum mine and numerous other gemstone mines, as well as a merchant company that sells magical items.

In other words, I was so rich that my former ordinary self couldn’t even begin to imagine it.

□ Power: The Argenthoz ducal family. Her father, the Duke of Argenthoz, is the Master of the Magic Tower.

There were four ducal families who had helped establish the Empire, and the Argenthoz ducal family was an ancient family of mages.

□ Stamina: Beyond ridiculous.

This was also incredibly important.

Physical strength was essential for surviving in this world.

According to the novel, Lady Yvonne Argenthoz once chased the runaway heroine, Cordelia Mare, on horseback for an entire week without sleeping, yet her eyes remained sharp and she was perfectly fine.

□ Ability: Archmage.

To die after using such incredible abilities to torment the heroine and destroy the world?

What a waste of talent.

I had sworn a hundred times that if I were ever in her position, I would never use my abilities like that.

And now I’d become Yvonne herself.

‘This isn’t a dream, is it?’

I raised my hands and gently touched both cheeks, trembling slightly.

The sorrow of my previous life came rushing back.

Well…… it wasn’t anything particularly dramatic.

I had grown up in an orphanage, so I had never had any biological family.

The company I joined immediately after turning twenty paid me a pathetic salary that barely allowed me to breathe.

On top of that, I had a senior coworker who constantly harassed me, as well as overtime that followed me around every day like a stalker.

My life had been nothing short of hell.

Had I ever even been happy?

That didn’t mean I wanted to give up on life myself.

I lived in a tiny one-room boarding accommodation while working and saved every penny I possibly could.

Then, after five long years, I finally managed to purchase a two-room officetel.

Of course, it was an officetel built far outside the city center.

People said the area was slightly concerning when it came to security, but I was still incredibly happy.

Because I finally had a home.

I had never had a home before.

I had always wanted a place to call my own—a shelter, a boundary separating me from the rest of the world.

That desire, that wish……

Had it caused me to make the wrong decision?

Or had I simply been unlucky?

In the end, an accident happened.