The Lady Awaits a Broken Engagement

Chapter 3

* * *

She had never found herself attracted to nice men when she was younger, which was something she now found quite simple and one-dimensional.

“I don’t really like the male lead.”

Now that she was looking back on it, she should have known better. After growing accustomed to the violent and abusive men who were prevalent in fictional works, she hadn’t been able to realize that a “nice” man would be incredibly hard to find. Nevertheless, this was why she had unleashed a torrent of criticism when her friend showed her a novel that she had written as a hobby.

“Are you serious? An abused prince meets the female lead, a saint, who ends up saving him and helps him defeat the demon king. Come on! This is a trope from twenty… no, two hundred years ago!”

To be fair, that novel had been the perfect example of an outdated, cliché fantasy novel. If she remembered correctly, the male lead of the story got caught up in a bloody fight for the throne and was sent off to fight monsters on the battlefield. Later, he defeated the demon god with the help of the female lead and made his triumphant return home. At the end, the male lead married the saint—a reward for leading such a virtuous life. They were showered with blessings from everyone at the wedding.

And then they lived happily ever after. The end. Ugh. Everything about it was so boring, from the beginning to the end.

“What should I fix, then?” her friend had asked.

“The male lead is way too nice. Make him more charismatic! Do you know what people actually like? A man who has it all, but lacks one crucial thing… love! And a female lead who can fill that void for him! That’s the kind of stuff that sells.”

Savina wished she could have turned back time to tell her arrogant past self to shut up. Sadly, her memories kept replaying right in front of her eyes, and nobody was there to stop her past self.

“Also, you know that one part in the beginning? You know, the one about the duke’s love child! What’s the point in talking about her friendship with the male lead for so long? She dies anyway, right?”

Here, her friend had tried to correct her.

“Without that part, the male lead’s childhood trauma wouldn’t make sense—”

“Who cares about that? Just make it more interesting! That’s all people care about. You know what? Let’s have the male lead kill her instead. He should be a monster who has no emotions. Perfect.”

Then her friend had written in her notebook:

[Make sure the male lead is rude and arrogant.]

At this point, she began to yell at the figures from her memories, despite knowing that they would never hear her.

Stop! What are you doing? That’s your own novel! Have some more pride! Don’t change your entire storyline because of somebody else’s thoughtless advice! Come on, don’t you feel bad for your main character? You just turned him into some kind of monster!

At that moment, she felt her body snap out of the invisible restraints that had been holding her in place.

Yes! Rushing forward, she attempted to grab her friend’s hand. However, she was thrown out of her dream and back into the world of the novel before she managed to reach her. She blinked and then stared at the high, majestic chandelier and the elegantly framed white antique bed that was decorated with a luxurious canopy.

Unfortunately, she was still at the Charlot Manor. She sighed, allowing her arm to drop back onto the bed. Miserably, she covered her eyes with one hand.

“I’m so sick and tired of this.”

She had watched that scene countless times now. It was torture, having so much hope, then having it snatched away from her in a split second. After that dream, she always woke up right back in her bed where she had fallen asleep.

If only I could actually go back in time to that exact moment… I would have kept my mouth shut for sure! So this is why I couldn’t stop thinking about that novel, even when the memories of my past life were still fuzzy. She had assumed that it was because the fantasy novel was the only one of its kind that she had ever read, but now she stood corrected. The memories of that book… They were the last warning that she would get from her past life.

Standing up, Savina stared into the mirror on the other side of the room. The girl staring back at her looked like she was barely older than ten. Her limbs were like sticks, and her face was pale. Instead of being filled with wonder and curiosity, her blue eyes were dull and dead.

There was no question that she was quite pretty, but it was hard to say that she would be liked by many people. After all, everything about this body was a bit out of place. She was small for her age, and her title was too noble for a girl in her situation. Furthermore, she was an outsider living in someone else’s body. She gave a cold snort, which sounded strange coming from the youthful face reflected in the mirror.

Maybe the reason I can’t perform any magic is that I’m not the “real” Savina. Scowling, she glanced at her hair, which was now draped over one shoulder. It was a pale purple that looked like it could have been painted with watercolor. Even after more than ten years of living in this body, she still wasn’t used to this unnatural shade.

Despite everything… I guess things have gotten much better compared to when I was a newborn. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to reflect on the moment when she had first realized that she had been reborn into a different world. Even now, it was difficult to adequately describe the experience. After all, she had suddenly been reborn as a baby named “Savina” without any warning.

She couldn’t remember much about her past life and how exactly she had died. However, it had always been clear to her that she was now living in a world that was entirely different from the one she used to live in. For instance, in modern-day South Korea, science and technology had been woven into everyday life, while magic was a norm in this world. Due to these differences, she never felt like she truly belonged.

She had tried searching for a way back to her world, but it did not take her too long to give up on her efforts. After all, she didn’t even know how she had come to this world in the first place. How was she supposed to go back to her own? In the end, she was left with no choice but to stay in this foreign body and try to make it through the years to come.

For a long time, she thought that she had simply been reborn into her next life. She only began to suspect that she was living in a novel that she had read in her past life when she began to hear the ominous rumors about the fifth prince.

“There’s something strange about the fifth prince,” someone had whispered. “He began hunting and killing when he was a child… and it turns out that it’s because he doesn’t feel any guilt about it. I heard that everybody is terrified of looking into those evil eyes…”

For some reason, those rumors had sounded like the introduction of a character in a novel. The name that followed had been even more familiar, but Savina had tried to pass it off as a coincidence. She told herself that she couldn’t have been reborn into her friend’s novel.

That’s simply impossible!

However, there were too many coincidences to ignore.

A love child of the duke who nobody cares about, even though she was born into one of the great noble families… Savina, the character, sounded like the same person she had told her friend to kill off, which was foolish in hindsight. At that point, she had simply dismissed it as an impractical thought. However, the anxiety and worry in her head had only multiplied.

That’s when she began to organize the plot of the novel in her head as best as she could. According to her memory, her friend had taken her criticism to heart and began writing an entirely new plot. The fictional world became dark and gloomy, and the kind-hearted male lead lost both his heart and morals.

Unfortunately, her friend had followed all of her advice and made the female lead the only recipient of the male lead’s emotions. It was an inspired decision that had played to the strengths of the fantasy genre. After losing most of his emotions, the male lead would go on to only truly open up around the female lead. In the end, she would offer him salvation.

Basically… he treats everybody else like garbage. Nevertheless, the novel became fairly popular. It was perhaps because of the changes that she had made. Her friend had also changed the title from Epic of the Caesario Empire to The Psychopath Emperor is Obsessed with Me, which must have contributed to the newfound success. Her past self would have been incredibly happy knowing that her friend had managed to carve out a place for herself in the writing industry, except for the fact that she had become Savina.

Now, she was the duke’s daughter who was to be murdered in order to showcase the prince’s cruel nature… And Ricardo Gael de Caesario, the fifth prince, would be coming to the manor in only a week.

There was no use whining about it now. She had already been told about the prince’s arrival, which meant that ignoring the issue wouldn’t change anything. According to the rumors that she had been hearing, it seemed like the prince had actually lost the ability to feel his emotions, and she would have to be at the manor while he was staying there. Unfortunately, her death seemed to be imminent.

“How am I going to avoid that terrifying prince?” Savina murmured to herself, deep in thought.

She had to figure out a way to get herself out of this situation. Groaning, she cradled her head in her hands and collapsed onto the bed.

At that exact moment, the door swung open.