The Villainess Captured The Grand Duke

The guest room in Blain was warm, a surprise considering the climate. The hospitality, however, was the same as the temperature outside.

“No, you even proposed, so don’t be too surprised.” She’d expected it to be difficult, but…

Scheuer glanced toward the door that connected the room to the hallway. She was trapped inside this fancy place with the rooster. It wasn’t “arrest” but the two stone-faced guards at the door were certainly not for decoration. She lifted the ring up to look at it.

“Did he not like it?” She roughly threw it onto the bed in disappointment.

Coming all the way from the South took much more patience than she’d thought, especially as she’d left her family without a word. She closed her eyes and remembered the circumstances that had caused her to arrive in this situation.

***

Two Weeks Ago

Apparently, she had died. To be precise, the “she” who had lived in South Korea had died.

There was a time when she’d liked her friends more than family and enjoyed being out more than being with them. She was an immature twenty-year-old whose parents’ worries sounded like nagging and their interference in her life only felt cumbersome. That’s when the car accident took place, leaving her an orphan.

It didn’t feel real, even after she’d seen the picture of her parents at the funeral hall.

“A twenty-year-old is a kid. You’ll need an adult’s protection, so let’s live together.”

“You know your aunt’s house is closer to your school, right?”

Her relatives descended on me to take over her inheritance. When she finally escaped them and returned to her house, she realized no one was there and the abode felt oddly spacious. “I’m back…” She broke down at the sound of a greeting after realizing the reality of the situation. There would be no one to nag her and wait for her to come home until the early hours of the morning.

After her family disappeared, all she had left were people clamoring for some of the insurance payouts. No one hugged her. It didn’t take long to realize that everything she’d found annoying was in fact just actions out of affection and attention.

Every day was full of regret. I should have behaved better. I should have told them that I loved them. It hadn’t been difficult to express, so why couldn’t she have said it? Why hadn’t she? That’s how she chose isolation and cut all her ties.

After a year of essentially being a shut-in and passing the day in lethargy, a popular novel called The Princess of Flowers, which she happened to come across, changed her daily life. It was a story about the Knight Commander—who was a beautiful woman full of intelligence and ability—and the Crown Prince who came to love her. They overcame many conflicts to save the Empire and achieve happiness.

It was a romantic fantasy that wasn’t particularly noteworthy. It was near the end of the novel, however, that the Grand Duke Raygrein Blain of the North appears. The sub-male lead, who’d inherited his family’s ability to use emotion as a sword but lost all his emotions due to the frequent demon subjugation.

Grand Duke Raygrein was not swayed by emotion and maintained a steady demeanor that soon captured her heart. At first, it was simple envy. I wish I could feel nothing like him, but the more that she read, the more she began to feel sorry for him. He was like her: staying alone in the North and not appearing in public.

Unlike her, who wanted to let go of all her emotions, he considered his emotions for the protagonist—Erina—to be important. From then on, she found herself conscious of his appearance without being aware of it. By the time she realized it, she had already been rooting for Raygrein to win the heroine’s heart.

She re-read the section where he appeared until the letters were worn-out. It was the first time that she’d felt so entranced by something and imagined his face every day. In her dreams, she even saw the novel play out.

Not being able to feel emotion means living without joy or happiness. This thought made her heartache.

She awaited the sequel, hoping that he’d regain his feelings as soon as possible. Quite a few changes had occurred in her life as she wished for his happiness. First, she’d left the house after a year and met people. She even began studying again.

The life that had come to a standstill a year ago began moving once again. Unfortunately, unlike her who regained her emotions, Raygrein died.

The heroine, Erina, who was the only one who’d sparked his emotions, eventually refused him. After being rejected by her and unable to feel anything else, he became unable to use his sword and after his weakening, the North collapsed.

Just like that, she’d come to the last page.

The sentence proclaiming that the main couple lived happily ever after didn’t catch her eye. Instead, she could only feel a sense of despondency as she walked aimlessly down the road in disbelief. The moment that she spent thinking about Raygrein’s ending in bewilderment, a truck came veering down the road and hit her with full impact.