MTST 01

Chapter 1

“Lilian, you are to marry the Second Prince.”

At the Count’s declaration, a heavy, turbulent hush fell over the dining room.

Deon’s face twisted into a fierce scowl, while Edwin stared blankly, utterly convinced his ears were playing cruel tricks on him.

“The Second Prince? You can’t possibly mean Lord Theodore, can you?”

Edwin forced the words past his lips, desperation bleeding into his tone as if praying he had misheard.

The Second Prince, Theodore von Pesir.

Who on earth was he?

He was none other than the infamous brute of the Pesir Empire.

Whenever people spoke of Theodore, their words invariably aligned in a unanimous chorus:

‘If not for that face of his, he wouldn’t even be treated like a human being! The absolute maddest lunatic alive!’

A man who sat comfortably on the throne as the empire’s undisputed number one in sheer unluckiness and vexation.

Deon glared toward his gently raised younger sister, Lilian, his hands clenching into white-knuckled fists.

“Why of course it has to be Lilian?!”

Count Carpena calmly soothed his daughter, who sat quietly with a pitiful, forlorn expression.

“Huu… There is nothing I can do about this matter either. It is an imperial decree, after all…………”

The thought of handing over his precious, gentle daughter—whom he wouldn’t even trade for the world—to that reckless, good-for-nothing prince tore at his heart with a terrifying agony.

“However, once His Highness takes a wife, he will surely change for the better.”

At those words, Lilian, who had been listening with serene composure, quietly parted her lips.

“Yes. I understand.”

Her frail, delicate silhouette made it seem as though she had already quietly resigned herself to her cruel fate.

It was a sight so poignant it pricked at a corner of anyone’s heart who watched her.

However, there was just one single thing they failed to realize…………

Lilian, the person directly involved in this catastrophe, was utterly indifferent.

Ah, so the time has finally come.

That was literally the only thought running through her head.

…It had only been five years since I realized I had been reincarnated inside a novel.

At first, I simply thought I was just retaining memories of my past life.

Affectionate, doting family members, and the luxurious status of a Count’s daughter where I never had to worry about money.

Born into such a comfortable environment, remembering a past life was nothing more than a trivial, negligible detail.

Yet, as I grew older, increasingly familiar names began to drift into my ears.

For instance, the name of the Second Prince.

Or the name of a newly appointed paladin, which somehow felt intimately familiar despite me having no logical reason to know it, until the terrifying suspicion slowly began to take root that I had heard them somewhere before.

All those lingering doubts came to a definitive end with a sudden, violent bout of fever.

When I finally woke up after suffering through three full days of delirium, a sudden flash of realization struck me like lightning.

Ah, this world was the setting of a novel I had read in my previous life.

The title was probably something like How to Save You, though given the sheer volume of web novels I had consumed in the past, I couldn’t be entirely certain.

Still, the saving grace was that the general progression of this world’s plot flickered back into my mind piece by piece.

The male protagonist, a paladin, receives a decree from the imperial household and is sent off to war.

Plagued by self-loathing and a deep sense of horror over the slaughter he committed as a servant of God, he is ultimately saved and redeemed by the female protagonist, who has recently awakened as the holy maiden.

Afterward, the two inevitably fall deeply in love with one another—a classic, dime-a-dozen mutual salvation romance-fantasy novel.

And I? I was born into the body of ‘Lilian Carpena.’

In the original work, Lilian is the fiancée of Theodore, the second male lead.

The moment Lilian appeared in the story, the readers’ fierce outcry flooded the comment sections: ‘A second male lead with another woman already in the picture? Trash like that is an absolute pass!’

Shortly after, Theodore ruthlessly kicks her to the curb, dropping her from the storyline entirely so she never even gets another mention.

In short.

It’s an absolute jackpot of a role!

All I needed to do was pocket a nice, hefty sum of alimony and call it a day.

“This life is turning out to be absolute perfection.”

I smiled, gazing at my own reflection in the mirror.

Pale, luminous light-brown hair. Clear, soft greenish eyes.

Still, no matter how much I look at her, Lilian looks exactly like me in my past life.

Perhaps because of that uncanny resemblance, even after realizing I had transmigrated into a novel, I managed to adapt to this bizarre world with surprising speed.

Regardless, my ultimate goal was to live a quiet, unassuming life until the original plot officially kicked off.

Since this was a political marriage ordained by the emperor’s direct command, I had no desire to stir up trouble or make things unnecessarily loud.

Besides, Theodore was going to demand the annulment first anyway!

Tap, tap.

“My Lady, it is almost time for your outing.”

Right on cue, the voice of my maid, Annie, echoed from outside the door.

Checking the time, I hurriedly stepped out of my bedroom.

“My Lady, your earrings! You forgot your earrings!”

At that moment, Annie came chasing frantically after me, out of breath.

The earrings she held out were a magical tool designed to alter the wearer’s hair color, eye color, and even their voice.

The moment I put on the magical artifact, the cascading locks of hair brushing against my shoulders shifted into a deep, rich chestnut brown.

Though I hadn’t looked in a mirror, my eyes had surely morphed into a similarly muted shade.

“Thank you.”

As I let out an awkward laugh, feeling strangely unsettled by my altered voice, Annie flashed me a satisfied thumbs-up.

A quaint apothecary tucked away on the outskirts of the capital.

Since Father’s birthday is coming up soon…………

The birthday gift I had prepared for my father was a special herbal remedy known to aid in deep, restful sleep.

I had commissioned a custom pouch so he could easily carry it close to his chest.

Today’s outing was entirely for that purpose.

Pushing open the apothecary door with practiced care, a thick, soothing fragrance of dried herbs instantly washed over me.

“Cecilia?”

However, the interior was entirely empty.

Has she not arrived for work yet?

Familiarly, I settled onto a comfortable sofa and waited.

Before I knew it, the clock ticked past 10:30 AM.

Nothing could have possibly happened to her, right……?

She had explicitly told me to come pick up the medicine by 10 o’clock sharp.

Just as a creeping wave of anxiety and ominous foreboding began to settle into my chest—

Clang—!

“Cecilia!”

Overjoyed, I called out her name instantly without bothering to check who had arrived, only to freeze dead in my tracks as I caught sight of the hulking silhouette stepping through the doorway.

It was a man whose face was completely concealed beneath the deep hood of a traveler’s robe.

He paused for a brief moment, staring down at me as I had so eagerly greeted him, before finally breaking the silence.

“I’m looking to purchase some medicine.”

“Ah, my apologies. I’m a customer here as well.”

Left feeling utterly awkward, I let out a silly, nervous laugh before finally snapping back to my senses.

“Let’s wait together.”

As I pointed toward the opposite chair, the man hesitated for a brief second before quietly taking a seat.

From that moment on, a suffocatingly awkward atmosphere settled between us.

This is driving me crazy.

Just where on earth is Cecilia?

She is not the type to be this late…………

As I anxiously checked the time over and over again, a sudden prickle on the back of my neck made me turn my head.

…………For some inexplicable reason, the man’s eyes, hidden deep within the shadows of his hood, seemed to be fixed entirely on me.

With a tone of mild puzzlement, he broke the silence once more.

“You. Haven’t I seen that face somewhere before?”

He had noticed me?

That tone of voice is terribly arrogant… is he a noble?

However, the man’s face was thoroughly hidden by his hood, making it impossible for me to catch even a glimpse from my angle.

Judging by the fact that he kept his face completely concealed, he clearly had no intention of revealing his identity.

In a situation like this, it would be terribly presumptuous of me—a fellow noble—to chirp up and ask if we had perhaps crossed paths at some high-society gala.

Deciding it was best to pivot, I gracefully steered the conversation elsewhere.

“I suppose I just have one of those common faces. Anyway, what brings you to an apothecary like this?”

At that, the man replied in a low, somber voice.

“…………My child is sick.”

“Pardon? Shouldn’t you be taking them to a hospital, then?”

“The circumstances are a bit too complicated for that.”

The sudden weight that dropped into the atmosphere forced me to instantly match his seriousness.

“How old is the child?”

“Hardly a year old yet.”

“Good heavens, then this is an emergency!”

Was this really the time for me to be sitting around idly waiting for Cecilia?

I hurriedly scrambled to gather my things, fetching a pouch of emergency herbs Cecilia had previously prepared and organized for me to take whenever the need arose.

“Would it be alright if I examine the child first? Lady Cecilia taught me the basics of emergency first aid.”

At my offer, the man hesitated for a brief moment before giving a quiet, reluctant nod.

The place he led me to moments later was a simple wooden bench situated directly outside the apothecary.

A knight who had been sitting nearby bolted upright the moment we approached.

So he really is a high-ranking noble after all.

The knight looked as though he wanted to address the man directly, but upon catching sight of me, he hurriedly lowered his head in a deep bow. With a casual flick of the man’s chin signaling him to leave, the knight wasted no time hurrying away.

A second later, staring down at the small box left behind on the bench, I struggled to force the words past my lips.

“Don’t tell me… the child you were referring to was…………”

“It’s a dog.”

The man reached into the box, carefully scooping a small puppy up into his arms, before turning to present it directly to me.

“Well? What do you think?”

“Uhm… exactly what part of it are you referring to…………?”

The puppy blinked its sleepy eyes open and let out a tiny, muffled yawn. Overcome by exhaustion, it immediately drooped its head and drifted back to sleep.

No matter how hard I looked, there wasn’t a single sign of illness or injury on the creature.

Lifting my gaze, I scrutinized its condition once more with painstaking care, yet still found nothing out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, the man solemnly began to list the child’s symptoms with deadly earnestness.

“Its belly is terribly bloated. I suspect there might be internal inflammation.”

True to his words, the puppy’s stomach did indeed look rather round and plump.

But this was…………

Still, just to be safe, I continued with my questions.

“And what else?”

“It devours food like a starving, possessed monster day in and day out. I even went so far as to feed it holy water thinking a demon might have possessed it, but absolutely nothing changed.”

“That’s not even the half of it. It sleeps an absurd amount, just like some terminally ill wretch.”

For a moment, I was completely struck speechless.

“…………Is it a sickness so grave you can’t even put it into words?”

Faced with my silence, the man asked the question with the solemn gravity of someone bracing for a fatal diagnosis.

Hearing his deadpan, utterly serious tone, I finally lost the battle against the laughter I had been desperately holding back.

“Pfft—!”

At that, the man immediately let out a low, menacing growl.

“Is this genuinely a laughing matter to you? When this poor little creature is sick enough to die?!”

“Ah, come on, aren’t you going to laugh at this yourself?”

Struggling to suppress my giggles, I reached up to wipe away the stray tears pooling at the corners of my eyes.

“The symptoms you just listed—having a round belly, sleeping a lot, and eating plenty of food?”

“That’s just what baby animals are like. It isn’t sick at all.”