Flirting With the Villain’s Dad

Prologue

It All Begins with Having My Proposal Rejected

“Father.”

I looked up at the man standing before me. I could see his neat brow quirking up. His handsome face was colored with bewilderment.

“‘Father?’”

“Oops.” I realized I had another slip of the tongue.

This mouth of mine. This mouth!

I quickly changed the subject. “Yes, I mean, Your Imperial Majesty.”

His Majesty seemed irritated already, and he hadn’t even given me an answer. Then again…

This mouth of mine had turned a perfectly normal unmarried young man into someone’s father. It was all my mouth’s fault.

I quickly gave him a big smile. Any man would find the way the corners of my eyes lifted when I smiled pretty, no matter how divine his standards were. I smiled so brightly that my facial muscles cramped.

“Please, marry me!”

Me. Not that terrifying Lady Soleia. Let’s get married. Okay?

I got right into his space with big, doe-like eyes.

Euredian de Bellecourt, the young emperor with shining silver locks and deep amaranthine eyes, instantly looked bewildered.

“Princess.”

I had told him to call me Yerenika. This man, with his impenetrable wall of defense, just wouldn’t even consider the thought of being charmed.

Once again, I put my all into looking up at Euredian with sparkling eyes. He even looked a little put on the spot now.

“But I did not kidnap you to marry you.”

“I know that.”

“Then why?”

I deliberated for a moment. Why? Because marrying me is how you can survive, and while we’re at it, it's how I can survive too.

But it wasn’t as though I could just lay out everything I was thinking. In the end, I tossed a pretty cover story around the whole thing.

“Because I love you very much, Your Imperial Majesty. Since the moment I laid eyes on you—”

“But I do not love you, Princess.”

Doink.

“More importantly, as you know, I have a fiancée.”

Two merciless direct blows. I was reeling. I barely managed to rein in my defeated expression and smiled even brighter. Of course, all the while, I was gritting my teeth.

“I thought… You said she wasn’t your fiancée.”

“Well, allow me to call her the candidate for my future betrothed, then.”

I knew it. I know she’s nothing of the sort, so how dare this man lie to me?!

I barely held myself back from grinding my teeth and smiled even brighter. “Sure, that might be possible since no one knows the future. In that case, do you love Lady Soleia?”

“I cannot say that, but—”

“Then, don’t I have a chance?”

Euredian responded to my challenge of a question with: “What reason do you have for me to give you a chance?”

“Because I love you…?” I answered uncertainly, only to freeze at his expression.

Euredian was smiling in a way I couldn’t understand. He looked blindingly handsome and laidback enough to draw you in.

There we go again, falling for him in a split second!

“I’m not certain. It doesn’t seem so.”

I tossed aside all my thoughts that this man was sweet and kind. He was definitely a suspicious man with incredibly high walls put up in his defense.

I said I like you. I said I love you! Where would you find a more absolute reason?!

This was giving me a headache.

Still, at least he admitted he didn’t love that woman. I reclaimed my determination and began to explain my appeal.

“If you marry me, you’ll gain far more than you could from marrying Lady Soleia!”

“Such as?”

“You see, I own the western breadbasket of Livovny. I’m sure you know, yes? The lands of Western Livovny have been blessed by the goddess.”

“There are countless blessed lands in Bellecourt alrea—”

“A-and! I’m the one and only princess left in Livovny. So, I’m certain Father will provide me with a hefty dowry. The amount will be so grand that refusing—”

“Is the princess of Livovny worrying about the treasure of Bellecourt?”

I couldn’t give up. How about this then?!

“If you marry me, my father will open Glückmahn Road immediately!”

His answer made him seem genuinely curious.

“It seems Glückmahn Road will be open soon, even without the need to marry you, Princess.”

There was nothing I could say to that. It was at moments like this that I mourned the fact that my country was powerless and pea-sized. If this man knew why I was doing this, he’d agree to it in an instant!

If you marry Lady Soleia, she’ll definitely give birth to a terrifying villain! That woman will raise your son as an evil dark mage, and he’ll kill you before you turn forty! I’m trying to save you here!

But if I verbalized any of this, he would definitely treat me like I was crazy. Or interrogate me about the source of my information. In the end, I laid down my ultimate card. I really, really didn’t want to go this far…

“Don’t you find me pretty?”

The response was immediate.

“Hmm, I’m not certain.”

I was speechless.

Let me correct my earlier statement.

Euredian de Bellecourt didn’t just have his walls up, he was also definitely made of ice and definitely had no blood or tears in him at all.

My beauty has never failed to work on someone before!

Of course, this wasn’t exactly new information. This man was so beautiful, he made me, Yerenika, look dull in comparison. Grr. How upsetting.

“Ah, maybe I’ve angered you by saying so, Livovny’s hissy feline princess?” Euredian continued with a grin.

I remained silent.

“This sort of proposal is a first, and quite refreshing in a way, but I would like for you to understand that I have no intention of marrying you, Princess. I won’t consider a loveless marriage.”

The ridiculousness of it made me huff. Hey, you said you don’t love Lady Soleia!

As if he read my thoughts, Euredian shrugged. I didn’t know what he found so funny, but his laidback, bored face was full of amusement.

“I am in the process of attempting to fall in love with her at the moment.”

“Excuse me?”

“The moment the king of Livovny opens Glückmahn, I will return you home immediately.”

Gah. There were no cracks whatsoever in his walls. He was going to try to fall in love with that evil woman? He could only say that because he didn’t know anything!

That woman is going to teach your son dark magic!

The frustration was going to kill me. This wasn’t just Euredian de Bellecourt’s problem. My future peace and well-being were on the line, too. So long as my body was so vulnerable and this world was going to do its best to continue down its destined route, I had no choice but to stick to this man like glue.

“Nn…” I swallowed down my tears of resentment and backed off for now. This was a strategic retreat.

Flames were burning in my eyes.

Do you think I’ll give up because you’re stonewalling me? Since you’ve already kidnapped and whisked me away to Bellecourt, I’m gonna make this marriage happen!

Euredian watched me with amusement clear in his eyes before turning and walking away.

Jerk.

It had been a year since I fell into this novel, and now, it was twenty years before the start of the original story.

My desperate attempt at rescuing two poor supporting characters from their fates began by getting mercilessly rejected by the villain’s dad.

Chapter 1

This Isn’t What I Expected

“What are you going to name the baby?”

It was a warm spring day. I looked over the tea table at my one-and-only older sister. With her red curly hair in a messy braid, she looked as pretty as a red rose. She certainly didn’t look like she was six months pregnant.

Theresia seemed to think over my question for a moment.

I held my teacup tight and urged her on, heart racing. “My brother-in-law must already have decided, right? What did he come up with?”

“Mm… well…”

For some reason, it felt like Theresia was embarrassed. And, to be honest, I already knew the name that was going to come from my sister’s lips, and why she was embarrassed.

“Brigitte.”

I knew it. I hid my twitching lips with the teacup. It was the name I expected.

“Brigitte. It’s pretty,” I mumbled against the rim of the cup.

But there was nothing I could do about the slight tremor in my voice.

Theresia’s cheeks flushed red. “Doesn’t it sound… too much like something you would name a pet?” she asked.

“Not at all. It’s cute,” I answered as calmly as I could.

This made things absolutely clear.

I was in the world of the novel I had been reading right up until my death, Brigitte Wants to Be Happy.

Inside my sister Theresia's belly was…

“Brigitte.”

…the heroine of the original novel!

* * *

The heroine of the original novel was growing in my sister’s belly. This sentence meant an infinite number of things.

It meant that this world was merely printed material inside a book, that I had fallen into this world eight months ago as a supporting character, and that this wasn’t just a silly dream… but my new reality.

And the original story was just about to start!

The first page of the story was on the verge of being turned. The curtains were about to rise on a story that wasn’t very pleasant. No, if anything, it was a cruel, tragic tale.

And it was starting right now!

After my sister left, I sat at the table alone and gloomily tugged at my hair.

“What do I do…?”

My fluffy pink hair bounced back up, the gears turning in my head.

Brigitte Wants to Be Happy.

That was the book I was attached to until my death and the book I had fallen into as a side character.

Brigitte Wants to Be Happy began with the young emperor of Bellecourt kidnapping my pregnant sister.