AMLSL 1

Chapter 1

Crisis from the Start**

Prologue.

Merdia Embergreen.

The sole direct-blood heir of the only ducal house in the Empire—a duke’s daughter.

Yet due to her uniquely cruel temperament and the countless sinister rumors circulating around her, no one could easily approach her.

Such a woman was now silently gritting her teeth while staring at the fiancé candidate who should have just been carried away after being poisoned by her own hand.

“I apologize for causing a disturbance. It seems there was poison in the carriage?”

“……”

“Fortunately, I came back to life—otherwise it would have been a disaster.”

A suspicious fellow with black hair, black eyes, and a black suit who introduced himself as a white mage.

A person whose appearance made it impossible to tell whether his eyes were open or closed—someone who, if you grabbed a passerby and asked, would almost certainly be described as the type to betray you or harbor hidden schemes.

And an annoying existence that the remnants of the ducal family’s succession race and the Imperial family—who viewed Merdia as a thorn in their side—had deliberately pushed forward as her fiancé solely to keep her in check.

That man was now calmly wiping blood from the corner of his mouth and whispering in a low voice to the very person who had just poisoned him.

“At this rate, rumors might have spread that the Lady had tried to assassinate me, you know?”

He said this while wearing such a chilling eye-smile that anyone would instinctively break out in goosebumps.

At that moment, Merdia had no choice but to realize.

That this dangerous-smelling boy before her eyes was probably the same breed as herself.

“The benevolent Lady would never do such a thing.”

No—perhaps he was even worse than her.

“Right, my Lady?”

And perhaps she had just stepped into a trap set by such a person.

“So please, would you mind stopping with that look?”

Perhaps knowing this all too well, he too narrowed his already thin eyes further, wearing an expression like a hunter gazing at cornered prey.

“It’s frightening, that kind of expression.”

At the expression she should have been making right now, Merdia’s gaze—now finding herself transformed from hunter to hunted for the first time—grew even colder.

* * *

Whitney Lingard.

The eldest son of the ordinary Lingard County family located near the Imperial capital.

In truth, he had never done a single bad thing in his life, but purely due to his appearance and manner of speaking—which were full of misunderstanding-prone elements—he had been the victim of countless slanders. A poor fellow.

He was now quietly organizing his thoughts while gazing at the platinum-haired ducal lady who had once been his favorite character but was now breathing and living before his eyes, threatening him.

‘…I’m really scared to death.’

That the only means to fix his utterly tangled fate was, after all, to save that terrifying villainess from her ruinous destiny.

The reason he had just awakened memories of his past life was probably because God was helping with that.

“That aside, shall we return to what we were discussing earlier?”

So he was pulling out every ounce of courage he didn’t have, wearing a smile full of pure innocence again today.

“We still have so much to talk about, don’t we?”

* * *

It seems I’m now living a second life.

I realized this fact right after I brought a teacup to my lips at the first meeting with my fiancé candidate—notified only a day prior—and then opened my eyes again.

“…Rather than returning to what we were discussing, I think examining your condition thoroughly should come first.”

“Hmm.”

“Investigating why there was poison in the carriage is also urgent. So conversation should be postponed for later, I’m afraid.”

Now that I’ve become aware of this fact, the face of my fiancé candidate—which had been so awkward—is gradually becoming familiar.

Amid the ladies-in-waiting who had gone pale and were watching nervously, the one person maintaining composure and fixing her jewel-like eyes on me was none other than Merdia Embergreen, the ducal lady of the Empire’s only ducal house.

According to the past-life memories I just recalled, she is the main villain of Blacktail Fantasy 3 and appears as the final boss in nearly all routes.

“By the way, what’s with that expression?”

She is, in the end, someone destined to be destroyed no matter what—which is why she was my favorite character, whom I stayed up all night trying to save until the blurry end of my past life.

“Is there perhaps something unsatisfactory about my proposal?”

Such a character was now actually alive and breathing before me. The fact that she had poisoned my teacup when I was her fiancé candidate was just a bonus.

“Y-you even vomited blood and collapsed, so you must be feeling unwell.”

“We’ve prepared the family physician, so if you’ll follow us, we can begin treatment immediately—”

As I closed my eyes quietly to organize my thoughts, I heard the ladies-in-waiting’s urgent voices from ahead.

Well, I suppose—I’m the one who suddenly died and came back to life and even recalled past-life memories, but those people facing such a situation must be equally bewildered.

And for good reason—my current incarnation, ‘Whitney Lingard,’ is a thorn in Merdia’s side that must disappear for her plans to succeed.

But from what I know, they didn’t intend to kill me. They probably just meant to put me to sleep briefly with a sleeping poison and threaten me.

So either way, now that I’ve woken up again, there’s a high chance they’ll take me somewhere secluded under the pretext of treatment and threaten me.

But just because Merdia was my favorite doesn’t mean I intend to move according to her wishes. No—rather, I intend to do everything in my power to survive the bad ending.

Together with the villainess ‘Merdia’ right before my eyes, of course.

The reason was simple.

It’s not simply because she was my favorite—it’s because the moment my engagement to Merdia breaks, my own fate is ruined too.

The Lingard family, of which I am the eldest son, looks fine on the surface but is actually in a rather precarious state both internally and externally.

If my engagement to Merdia breaks on top of that, we probably won’t last a few years before becoming a fallen noble house or ending up on the streets.

So for my own sake—not just for the family’s prestige—this engagement must succeed. No matter how bad the surrounding reputation may be, being engaged to the ducal lady of the Empire’s only ducal house is an advantage no one can ignore.

Actually, the memories just awakened, so everything is still awkward and I’m not sure I can do well.

The fortunate thing is that my personality and character haven’t changed between my past life and now, so I was able to maintain my sense of self. That’s something, at least.

Well, I’ll take comfort in that, and since I’ve set a goal, I should do my best.

If so, the first thing to do is decided.

That is—to let her know that someone intervened in the lady’s plan—she who hadn’t intended to kill me from the first meeting—and tried to actually kill me.

I can’t say it directly since there are eyes and ears everywhere, but Merdia is smart, so she’ll probably understand with just a slight hint.

“I promise the ducal house will thoroughly investigate this matter. Well then, today we’ll—”

“Please wait a moment.”

I hope this performance makes it clear that I’m a capable and useful person—and above all, that I’m on her side.

“I’ll show you something interesting now.”

But what if she says she’s not interested and tells me to just go home?

That would be a bit troublesome.

* * *

“Something interesting…?”

“I’m sure the Lady will find it interesting as well.”

Until Whitney, who had collapsed before her, opened his eyes again, Merdia had believed in the success of her plan without a shred of doubt.

It was only natural, given she was someone who took it for granted to live with everything within her grasp and moving according to her will.

That’s why the situation she now found herself in was truly unpleasant and frustrating for Merdia.

“And if I don’t want to see it?”

“Oh my, that would be troublesome.”

The eldest son of the Lingard County family, who should have been carried out unconscious by the personnel standing by, was somehow perfectly fine and stroking his teacup before her.

With a tone that suggested he had already known everything that would happen here today, and that irritating eye-smile that kept making even the usually composed ducal lady flinch.

“If you truly think that way, then you’ve underestimated the ducal house.”

“What? Not you, my Lady—I meant me.”

At that clearly provocative remark, Merdia retorted coldly with a flash of anger, but what came back was a tone of genuine disbelief and a subtle deflection.

“As you said, what reason would the Lady have to be troubled? The one who’ll be troubled is me.”

“Hah.”

Was it Merdia’s teacup that Whitney, calmly adding that, held in his grasp—or was it Merdia herself?

Either way, Merdia’s patience had already reached its limit.

“…Well, since you put it that way, I’m intrigued as well.”

But Merdia was not the kind of person to show weakness or crumble over such a trivial reason.

In fact—though Whitney didn’t know—the teacup he held had already lost its evidentiary value.

That terrifying masterpiece developed by Merdia, who had developed a specialty in poison-making through accumulated experience, could not be detected by any means once a certain amount of time had passed.

So whatever ‘interesting thing’ he claimed to show, at least her crime from today would not be exposed.

‘And if it is exposed, I’ll just cover it up.’

Of course, considerable effort would be needed given the opponent, but even if the man before her succeeded in uncovering the truth, nothing would change.

“Would you show me, then?”

With such confidence, she mirrored the smile of the man sitting before her.

“Haha. Thank you so much for the opportunity.”

“Not at all, hehe.”

How much time passed like that?

“Is the interesting sight you promised to show me, by any chance, just sitting still without doing anything?”

Merdia, who had been resting her chin on her hand and staring at the man before her for quite some time, finally spoke with a cold smile.

“If so, I’m disappointed.”

“……”

Quite a long time had passed since Whitney made his grand declaration, but all he had done was sit holding the teacup as if meditating.

From that, it seemed he had attempted some magic to detect the poison in the teacup and failed spectacularly.

“Escort Sir Whitney to the infirmary now. And…”

Mocking him inwardly, Merdia gave a merciless signal to her subordinates who had been standing by on either side—

—Whoosh…!!!

“…Ngh!?”

Just before the subordinates could drag Whitney away, black flames suddenly erupted from the teacup in his hands.

“You’d better step back.”

“That’s…!”

At the sight, she couldn’t help but rise from her seat, eyes wide, lowering her right hand that had begun trembling slightly.

And for good reason—the black flames burning in his hands signified black magic.

A trace of a capital crime that could result in execution regardless of status or rank—even for those of Imperial blood, no exception.

So of course, it had never once been considered as a material for the ‘small disturbance’ to be caused today—

“You could die, you know.”

“…Hah.”

Apparently, the man before her didn’t want to end this incident as a ‘small disturbance.’

“Me, I mean.”

‘…I’ve been had.’

The trap that had been precariously hanging over Merdia snapped completely shut at that moment.

‘No, what is this, why is this happening.’

Of course, only in her thoughts.