# 1
It was a really surprising incarnation.
Han Chaoyun - or rather, Angelica Ratlay, as she was now - sat in a daze as she thought.
“There was nothing unusual, so why did this happen?”
She was not hit by a truck, nor did she leave countless comments on the work, as usually happens in these stories. All she did was read The Rose of the Empire, now considered an ancient work, before falling asleep.
But when she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a desk, a woman with platinum hair and golden eyes.
However, this world was not the novel I read yesterday.
“Neither the name is familiar, nor the name of the country. I've never heard of either of them before.”
Even if she was just rereading her favorite scenes, The Rose of Empire was a novel she had read over the course of 13 years.
There was no character named “Angelica Ratlay,” not even a name that began with “An.”
“To be embodied in a novel that I don’t even remember? How unlucky I am.”
Her eyes, sparkling with excitement after the materialization, quickly faded. If she had incarnated into , there would have been a certain person she wanted to meet.
“Now I can't even read the novel again, and I won't be able to see Hugo either.”
What a useless incarnation!
It became so frustrating that she felt an overwhelming urge to scream. It is true that her previous life was not easy, but at least she was happy with the presence of her favorite person, Hugo Bernstein.
“Huh...”
Angelica sighed desperately, then leaned her head on the desk.
Annoyingly, a group of scattered messages settled before her eyes.
『To…my love…Angelica…』
The letters were unfamiliar, but thanks to the body's owner's memory, she was able to read them with difficulty.
The message was brief.
It began with the awkward word “sweetheart,” then included the person’s feelings about their last meeting and his look forward to their next meeting.
At the end of it, there was no name, just the first letter “H.”
However, Angelica was able to clearly remember who sent the letter.
“Hyperion.”
Don't know his surname. She had known him since she was fifteen, but he had never allowed her to call him by his full name, saying his name was not something a woman could pronounce.
“As I expected, it is not a name from .”
If her father, the King of the Ratlay Duchy, was addressing him this way, he must be someone of higher status.
“Haaa…”
Angelica sighed again, completely abandoning any hope of this world being the world.
At the same moment, she pushed the letter away so violently that it was almost torn.
She didn't know why, but as soon as she read the letter, she felt an intense disgust rising within her.
“How will I live now?”
The future was unknown. She no longer has the person who gave her life meaning, and worse, this duchy is steeped in a domineering patriarchy.
She could not declare her independence and live alone, and what was worse was that her distorted memories suggested to her that she was engaged to that man called “Hyperion.”
“Uhgh…”
As soon as she thought about it, her body twitched in involuntary disgust.
She tried to calm her nausea, while silently swallowing her tears.
“I want to escape.”
She had no experience in dealing with men, and she remained a musician all her life.
How could she have any feelings for anyone else when all her thoughts were on Hugo Bernstein?
Now, she has to get married? Rather, from a man whose body feels disgusted and nauseated by him.?
“...Should I run away?”
The idea came to her suddenly, but it seemed very tempting.
.-clink! -
Angelica sat up from her leaning position on the desk in one breath.
‘ My stomach still feels a little nauseous, but that doesn’t matter. '
"Yes, I'll try to escape. What's the worst that could happen? Death?"
In fact, living without her favorite person was worse than death for her.
Perhaps, if she died, she would return to her original world.
Then, at least you'll be able to see Hugo again, if only through words or even his silhouette in a drawing.
“I'll run away!”
Her golden eyes sparkled with a light of enthusiastic madness.
The timing was perfect, as night had already fallen.
I ran to the dressing room and gathered as much fabric as I could and tied them together.
"This is good."
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a satisfied smile.
“This rope should be long enough to reach the ground.”
But at that moment...
-Hoof!-
“Huh?”
The candles that were lighting the room suddenly went out.
"What is this? Why is there wind?"
The door was tightly closed, and there shouldn't have been any draft.
However, a cool breeze flowed through the room.
And in the midst of that…
“Escape? It's no use, Ratlay's daughter.”
“!”
It was a cold, masculine voice that she had never heard before, but it pierced her ears powerfully.
Even though it was still summer, hearing that sound made her body shiver as if she had been thrown into the middle of a harsh winter storm.
“I have to… move…”
She tried to move her body, but it froze in place.
Alarm bells rang in her mind, but she couldn't even utter the words, "Save me."
Heavy footsteps approaching...
The man approached her slowly, and each moment seemed to last forever.
Then, without warning...
“Oh?!”
He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him tightly.
“Uhgh...!!”
No, this wasn't just "cuddling."
His chest, which she could feel through his soft clothes, was as hard as stone.
She groaned softly, feeling as if the grip of his arms around her loosened for a moment.
But she thought she was imagining it.
Then…
“Oh!”
“Stay calm.”
He tightened his grip on her jaw, violently turning her face towards him.
Her vision was blurred with pain, but she saw the reflection of his wild eyes.
She couldn't see his whole face.
The room was dark, and her eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness, and she instinctively closed them out of fear.
But as her vision was disrupted, her other senses became more sensitive...
For example, I can feel the feel of a man's hand holding my chin more sensitively against my skin.
The blisters were so hard they looked and stung, as if they were scars.
The instinctive fear I felt, the pain that spread through my sensitive senses clouded my mind.
'Huh...I'm scared'
Tears flowed from her eyes.
But what is this?....
“I won't hurt you, Angelica Ratlay.”
Although his hand on her jaw was rough, he wiped away her tears with his thumb in a strangely contradictory movement.
His movement was rough and harsh, but it did not reflect a desire to kill her.
Without realizing it, Angelica slowly opened her eyes.
It was that moment that completely changed her fate.
“Oh, I'm going to die…”
With this idea, Angelica abandoned the last thing that protected her from madness.
Then I dreamed.
It was a dream about the moment I read < Empire of Roses > for the first time.
That day was clearer than any other.
It was winter, and she was sixteen years old.
Her curiosity led her to click on a novel that was soon to be pulled from the shelves.
The story was very interesting.
It was an academic novel about a heroine in the sword department and a prince who belongs to the magic department, and how they had a romantic relationship. But the man she thought was just a foolish prince turns out to be a master of the sword arts and has the ambitions of an emperor, just like in the traditional stories. There were also wonderful drawings of the young prince with blond hair and blue eyes that dazzled the eye.
But the person who captured Angelica's heart was not him.
Rather, it was Hugo Bernstein, who appeared mysteriously in the background at first.
Unlike the protagonist who was always full of naivety, Hugo was serious and frank about everything. Despite his nickname, “The Blood Demon of War,” he showed signs of seriousness and diligence and also seemed innocent at times.
It was just that reason.
'I loved Hugo for that reason alone.'
Whenever she recalled his actions as the novel progressed, she found herself smiling subconsciously. When she tried to draw his features in her mind based on the written description, he seemed cute to her, no matter how harsh or strict he seemed in the novel.
But that feeling, which she thought was just a fleeting moment, lasted for thirteen years.
She didn't know if she was the type to be attached to someone for a long time, but she never expected to fall in love with a fictional character so deeply, not just a two-dimensional character, but just written words.
She did not know his real face, nor his voice, nor his height, nor even his date of birth... She did not know anything about him except what was written about him in the novel.
“Hoo...Gu...”
However, instead of finding herself in a world containing her favorite person, her misfortune was not limited to being caught in the act of an unknown person, but she also ended up being kidnapped!
‘These days, flagrante delicto does not happen just once, but occurs several times...’
Therefore, she hoped that the next time would be in the world of the Rose Empire, where Hugo was.
But, before you can even sink into that dream—
“Are you awake, Angelica Ratlay?”
“…?”
She heard the voice of the man who kidnapped her.
She felt disoriented, and her consciousness gradually returned. In an instant, her body froze in place.
“Am...still alive?”
How is that possible?
Although she tried to deny reality, her senses gradually began to return.
The sounds of horses' hooves, the solidity of the chest of the man in whose arms she was still, the feeling of his arms wrapped around her waist, his hot breath touching her ear, and the strong thigh on which her trembling feet rested.
But there was only one thing…
“My eyes...why...”
She couldn't see anything.
The world before her was completely dark.
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