TSPGD 01

Prologue

Yurgen, who was holding my hand, was trembling anxiously.

He never took his eyes off me.

His eyes had turned as red as blood.

“Arina. I can’t let you go.”

“……Don’t do this.”

The curse within him, one that thirsted for blood, was beginning to grow stronger.

Fighting desperately to hold on to his reason as it slipped away against his will, he pinned me down.

“Ugh, Yurgen!”

“Tell me you won’t leave.”

Clank.

Crushed beneath the strength of his grip, I sank onto the bed.

At the same time, I felt something cold and metallic wrap around my ankle.

“What is this……? Take this off right now!”

I looked down in horror.

A shackle was proudly locked around my ankle.

Yurgen, the one who had shackled me, raised his completely reddened eyes and stared straight at me.

Ah. He really is ridiculously handsome.

Even in such an urgent situation, I couldn’t help admiring his looks.

So this is what a dark, depressing imprisonment story is really like.

While I was briefly lost in thought, Yurgen fiddled with the shackle around my ankle.

Clank.

What brought me back to reality was the unpleasant pain.

“Ugh. That hurts!”

“You seem relaxed enough to be thinking about something else.”

I was thinking about you.

I was about to pout and say something when Yurgen suddenly came so close that I could feel his breath.

Then, moving his red lips with effortless elegance, he called my name.

“Arina.”

“…….”

Deadly.

I had to take a deep breath internally so I wouldn’t be captivated by that beautiful voice.

Since he was using his beauty as a weapon, I had no choice but to use my ultimate weapon as well.

I softened my sharply raised eyes into a gentle smile and reached out toward him.

“Yes, Yurgen.”

I gently cupped Yurgen’s pale cheek and whispered as though I were seducing him too.

A mutual seduction strategy.

“You…… don’t have any intention of taking this off, do you?”

“I’m sorry……. I can’t let the Crown Prince take you away from me.”

Even my ultimate seduction failed to work on Yurgen.

As expected, the male lead’s looks were too powerful for a beauty like me to overcome with mere flirting.

I’m not exactly someone who loses out in the looks department, either.

But standing next to Yurgen, I definitely lost.

So I had no choice but to change tactics.

“Haa…….”

A long sigh escaped me for several reasons.

At the same time, I tightened my grip on his cheek.

“I thought we had finally reached the point where we could talk things out…… What a shame.”

Then I gently kissed his cheek.

Smack.

Something in my chest gave a sharp little pang.

At the same time, Yurgen let out a faint groan and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Ugh.”

“This is all your fault, Yurgen.”

I curled the corners of my lips into a smile and tilted my head back.

“From what I’ve learned from living in this world, when someone doesn’t listen to words…….”

I finished speaking and slammed my head straight into Yurgen’s forehead.

BAM!

“They have to be hit.”

With a tremendous bang, Yurgen crumpled to the floor.

“If you pull out shackles like that again, you’re getting your skull cracked just like today.”

Chapter 1

I didn’t even particularly enjoy reading romance-fantasy novels, yet somehow I ended up transmigrating into one.

So I thought it would be difficult to figure out what kind of novel this was, but imagine my surprise.

The original novel was Offering the Dragon’s Heart, the very novel I had been editing.

I had died from overwork while editing a cinematic video for that romance-fantasy novel. That was how I remembered it.

“It’s an unbelievable reality, but I have no choice but to accept it…….”

I tried to come to terms with it, but I ended up transmigrating into the daughter of a poor viscount and was overworked here, too.

“I’m drowning in work.”

I didn’t know whether this was what transmigration was normally like, but I survived day by day by clinging to the delusion that I might be the protagonist.

“A protagonist wouldn’t be defeated by something like this!”

But I was defeated.

It wasn’t long before I ran headfirst into the wall of reality.

My stamina is terrible…….

What I had been given was a poor, sickly body.

“It’s okay. Even so, the protagonist will survive.”

Even under the worst possible circumstances, I held on to the hope that I might be the protagonist and endured for five years.

Why five years?

Because it was five years ago that I remembered this was a novel.

Until then, I hadn’t even realized I was a transmigrator.

I had simply thought I was suffering from amnesia because I had no memories of my past…….

Then, after seeing a certain family crest that somehow triggered something in my memory, everything came back.

It was the crest of a golden dragon holding a mirror.

The imperial family was represented by a golden dragon, and when I first encountered the crest five years ago, the memory suddenly flashed into my mind.

The reason I could remember the crest was because of the memories of my previous life—and the incredible amount of suffering that crest had caused me.

How could I possibly forget that?

“I could never forget how I nearly popped my eyeballs out cutting out backgrounds.”

But thanks to that, I found a way to escape this place.

“I need to get out of here if I want a life where I can actually have evenings to myself.”

I opened my eyes wide and steeled myself to become a true protagonist.

Still, thanks to five years of suffering, I had finished preparing to run away.

In a few days, I’ll be able to escape.

The reason I wanted to flee this household wasn’t simply because we were poor.

The biggest reason was the father of this body.

My father was addicted to gambling and alcohol.

As a result, he would frequently disappear from the estate, and whenever he returned, it was because he had run out of money.

“Even if I’m the protagonist, I heard you’re not supposed to put up with domestic violence.”

Viscount Carbon always took his anger out on me. That was simply his worthless lifestyle, and because of it, the family’s financial situation grew worse by the day.

Eventually, I reached the point where I had to manage the entire empty estate by myself.

“I may be a noble lady, but how am I any different from a maid? I’ve wanted to escape this miserable place for ages.”

However, because of the social structure of this romance-fantasy world, it had taken me five years.

The world of Offering the Dragon’s Heart had a suffocating social structure in which a woman couldn’t live independently.

“What was the author thinking by not giving women the right to move out on their own?”

In this world, an unmarried woman was considered her father’s property, while a married woman belonged to her husband.

“This is seriously annoying. In the end, the only way to escape the viscount is to get married.”

There was another option: obtaining a guardian.

But that meant becoming the mistress of a high-ranking noble.

“It feels like a setting the author added just to move the story along…….”

Squish.

I wrung out a helpless piece of laundry while longing for modern conveniences.

“I miss washing machines……. I really miss dryers.”

—That was when it happened.

Crash! Bang!

I heard the sound of someone kicking furniture around in frustration.

My eyes widened at the sudden commotion.

And I immediately realized what had caused the noise.

“Huh? What? Why is he back already?”

Normally, once the viscount left, he wouldn’t show his face for a month or two.

It had been the same routine for a full five years.

Why did he break the routine now? Did he find out?

As I stood there in panic, the viscount shouted.

“Arina! Where is that leech of a girl?!”

He had obviously lost money somewhere and come home drunk again.

Damn it! I’m supposed to escape!

I was supposed to receive my wages in three days.

I was planning to take the money and run!

Panic.

“Ah…… What should I do?”

I was so flustered that I froze in place.

Then Viscount Carbon shouted again.

“You damned girl! Your father is calling you, and you still don’t come?!”

With no other choice, I hurried toward him.

The reception room I found was a complete disaster.

I hid my anxiety and greeted him.

“You called for me.”

The moment I appeared, the viscount charged toward me.

He grabbed my silver hair, which fell like silk, and shook me violently.

“Ah!”

It happened in an instant.

“Damn it! It’s all because a leech like you is freeloading in my house!”

“Ah, it hurts!”

A rotten stench radiated from Viscount Carbon, who looked nothing like me.

“I took in some brat your mother gave birth to—who knows whose bastard you even are—and all you do is eat my food?”

The pain was bad enough, but the smell was unbearable.

“That pretty face of yours is completely useless. Tsk.”

“Ugh.”

Unable to contain his anger, Viscount Carbon threw me across the room.

Crash!

“Eek!”

I curled myself up as tightly as possible, trying to suppress my scream.

“And of all things, you inherited that silver hair from your mother!”

Viscount Carbon glared at my silver hair in disgust and threw his liquor bottle at me.

Crash!

The bottle shattered, sending shards flying everywhere.

Fortunately, because I had curled myself up so tightly, none of the shards hit me.

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Go get me some alcohol!”

I escaped the reception room as quickly as possible, getting away from the spittle-flecked shouting of Viscount Carbon.

“……I’ll have to give up on my wages.”

I changed my plan to leave this place first thing tomorrow.

“I have eighty silver coins saved up……. It’ll be tight, but I’ll somehow manage.”

The viscount would stay here for at least six months until he got more money.

So I couldn’t wait any longer.

“I’ve put up with enough.”

To leave immediately, I had one final preparation to make.

“I need to hide my silver hair and disguise myself as a man.”

Like an onion that revealed yet another layer every time you peeled it, this world had one more problem.

Its society hated silver hair.

Apparently, they believe people with silver hair are descendants of witches?

They had made up such ridiculous nonsense and used it as an excuse to ostracize anyone with silver hair.

Because of that, I had earned money without having to meet people face-to-face.

I had ghostwritten love letters for married noblewomen and written trivial stories for them.

“If I start preparing quickly now, I should be able to manage it.”

An escape operation to become the protagonist of a healing story where I could finally enjoy a life with evenings to myself!

“Hmm…… If I start now, I should be able to leave tomorrow…….”

I had to hurry, finish preparing, and sneak out.

That meant I needed to move quickly, but there was one problem.

My body was weak and slow, so there was a high chance I’d get caught.

I pondered while gathering the belongings I would take with me. Whenever I became tired, I sat down to rest.

“Let’s go to bed early tonight. I need to conserve my strength.”

That way, I’d somehow be able to escape tomorrow.

I reassured myself and briefly closed my eyes.

Actually, I knew I wasn’t the protagonist.

Sure, protagonists were supposed to face hardships and trials, but this was too much.

If the trials were going to be this brutal, I’d honestly rather be a passing extra.

But I continued reassuring myself that I was the protagonist until the very end.

Without doing that, it would have been too difficult to endure in such a barren place.

I’m the protagonist of a healing story where I get to enjoy a life with evenings to myself.

Repeating that to myself, I fell asleep.

The next morning, I opened my eyes wide and hurried to get up.

Today is going to be a busy day.

I hadn’t come up with some brilliant new escape plan, but I steadily moved about, determined to leave this miserable viscount’s household as soon as possible.

My preparations were complete once I packed some alcohol and a small amount of sedative powder.

“All right. Shall we begin?”

The plan was simple: mix the sedative into the alcohol, give it to Viscount Carbon, wait until he fell asleep, and then run away.

With that determination, I pulled the tray along.

Thump-thump.

My heart was pounding.

Don’t be scared! I’m going to succeed!

I steadied myself and shouted internally once more.

I’m the protagonist.

Even though I didn’t know the original story, I had transmigrated into it, so I was obviously the protagonist.

Believing that, I gripped the tray handle tightly.

I was hurrying toward Viscount Carbon’s bedroom, listening to the tray rattle along, when—

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone had come to the estate.

There was no one who should have been visiting.

“Huh?”

I was quite startled.

It had been a long time since I’d heard someone knock, and with one unexpected variable after another occurring, my eyes widened.

But I couldn’t simply ignore the unfamiliar visitor.

I walked toward the door, and……

“Gasp!”

The moment I saw the unfamiliar visitor, my heart began pounding as though it would burst.

“Oh my goodness! Am I really the protagonist……?”

At last, a savior had come for me.

A magnificent being who would rescue the oppressed young ladies of romance-fantasy novels!

“……What the heck. He’s perfect.”

I covered my mouth with my hand and opened the door.