HDTRML I Chapter 05

Chapter 05

Rena thought Duke Ricardis didn’t even glance her way, so she believed he hadn’t noticed her watching him.

“Um… I just thought, ‘Wow, the Duke eats so elegantly.’ I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable,” she said absentmindedly.

She didn’t bother pretending to act like the original Rena Palles — no one in the mansion knew Rena well enough to notice a change in personality anyway.

And actually, the original Rena really had admired the Duke’s table manners during this same dinner.
Now that she saw it herself, she finally understood why Rena had been so captivated by him.

‘Ugh… that annoyingly perfect face.’

He was the kind of man people meant when they said someone “looks expensive.”

Tsk.

In the original story, even though Rena never said it aloud, her secret feelings for the Duke were obvious — and he hated that.

But this Rena had no intention of changing that dynamic.

Her goal was to make the Duke dislike her enough that he would want to divorce her quickly.

So she decided to do exactly what he hated — and even more actively.

—

“For someone who says that, your face looks like you find me rather unpleasant,” the Duke suddenly said.

Rena blinked.
Apparently, her inner thoughts had shown clearly on her face.

‘Why is his sense of perception so sharp?’

She forced a smile and quickly changed the subject.
“What kind of tea is that?”

“It’s Terrail tea,” he replied.

“That’s not a very common one, is it?”

“Perhaps not.”

The Duke answered casually, then turned away and went back to eating.

‘“Perhaps not,” my foot,’ Rena thought.

He had been drinking that tea since he was thirteen. Now twenty-seven, he’d been drinking it for fourteen years — so familiar with it that he didn’t even realize others rarely did.

Rena kept glancing at him, partly to make him uncomfortable, so he’d really feel that ‘I like you’ vibe that he found so irritating.

But honestly, that wasn’t the only reason.
She also had no idea which of the many knives and forks to use.

Since being reincarnated, fragments of the original Rena Palles’s memories had been slowly merging with hers — even small, insignificant details that weren’t in the book.

But it seemed there was just too much information to absorb at once. The knowledge was coming in bits and pieces.

So, for now, she had no choice but to carefully watch and copy the Duke’s every move.

She couldn’t not eat that delicious-looking steak and salad — but she also couldn’t make it obvious that she had no idea about table manners.

Anyway, he wasn’t even looking at her, so he wouldn’t notice that she was mimicking him.

And even if he did feel her gaze, he’d probably just assume she was another lovesick fool obsessed with his face.

—

Meanwhile, after dinner, Duke Keith Ricardis returned to his study and immediately ordered the butler to bring him digestive medicine.

‘What a mistake,’ he thought.
He had only wanted to share one meal together since it was their first day of marriage — but it turned out to be a terrible decision.

He couldn’t digest anything.

When they had first met at the temple, Rena couldn’t even look him in the eye.
Every time their eyes met, she would flinch like a startled rabbit.
Even when signing the contract, she had trembled.

But tonight…
Something was off.

The way she looked at him during dinner — constantly watching, as if studying him — was strange.

‘Did I choose the wrong person?’

Actually, now that he thought about it, she had been acting oddly ever since signing the contract.

The moment she finished, her once-blank eyes began to shine with an unfamiliar spark — and her tone even changed.

There was something… hostile about her.

As if she’d dropped a mask and revealed her true self.

And then she suddenly tried to revise the contract, too.

‘Wait… true self?’

A thought hit him.

‘Could that woman be one of the Emperor’s spies?’

But… could all those tragic events have been fabricated?

Her parents’ deaths, her massive debts, her being sold as a second wife to Marquis Houre — were they all an act?

“Hm.”

That didn’t make much sense.

He was the one who proposed marriage, not her.
And he had only gone to that temple by coincidence — after years of avoiding it.

How could the Emperor’s people possibly have predicted that he would go there that day?

And Rena had already been there before him, weeping in prayer.

He remembered hearing at a recent banquet that the fallen Palles family’s daughter was a stunning beauty — and that she was about to be sold off to a lecherous old Marquis.

He hadn’t paid much attention then.

But seeing her crying in the temple, he had immediately recognized her from those rumors.

And yes, she was a beauty.

Still, beauty never affected him.

If not for that fateful encounter with Count Bulin, father of the infamous Radis Bulin, he never would have been entangled with her at all.

—

“I found you at last! Duke, if you’ve touched my daughter, take responsibility!” Count Bulin had shouted when he burst into the temple that day.

The Duke had merely blinked in disbelief.

Some time ago, he’d once run into Radis Bulin at a hotel — purely by chance.
But soon after, rumors spread that they were having an affair.

He’d realized that only Radis herself could have spread such gossip, since they were the only two there at the time.

At first, he’d been too irritated to bother denying it. Later, he’d let the rumor live — it actually helped conceal his own… “condition.”

But still — “take responsibility”?

“Hah.”

Even thinking back on it, the absurdity made him laugh.

He hadn’t wanted to argue with the raging Count, so he simply ignored him and tried to leave.

“Send a proposal! You must propose to my daughter!” the Count had bellowed, blocking his path.

Completely ridiculous.

‘Is that woman insane?’ he had thought.

Lying to the entire society was one thing, but now claiming he’d “touched” her?

‘Even if my body isn’t fully functional, does he think I’d stoop that low?’

“Count,” he had said coolly, “why don’t you ask your daughter directly? Ask if she really met me at the hotel. And if she admits to secretly meeting a man before marriage, then you can come back to me. Until then, don’t waste my time.”

He added quietly, just loud enough for the Count to hear,
“Unless, of course, you’re fine with a defamation lawsuit.”

At the word “lawsuit,” the Count had finally turned pale and fled.

As he left, Keith’s gaze had wandered — and that was when he’d noticed her.

Rena Palles, sitting alone by the temple doors, crying miserably.

At that moment, a sudden thought had crossed his mind:

‘Maybe having that woman as my wife wouldn’t be so bad.’

She looked harmless, gentle — the perfect decoy wife.

A convenient “cover” for the Emperor’s suspicions.

Her background, her fragile situation, her quiet demeanor — everything about her had seemed ideal for a fake marriage.

But now…

‘Strange,’ he thought.

The woman from that day — the one crying in the temple — and the woman who’d glared at him over dinner tonight felt like two entirely different people.

During dinner, she had stared at him nonstop, then flashed fake smiles whenever their eyes met.

Even worse, she kept fidgeting with her fork, raising and lowering it like she was nervous or mocking him.

‘I wanted to help her avoid marrying that old Marquis, but maybe I made a mistake.’

The tearful woman from the temple and the one sitting at his table now…

They shared the same face — but everything else felt like a mask had been ripped off.

If she was working for the Emperor, then the Emperor must have been preparing her for years.

Her parents’ deaths, her debts, the Marquis’s proposal, her appearance at the temple — even the rumors about her beauty.

All of it might have been part of a larger, carefully crafted trap.

But there was one thing that didn’t fit.

‘How could they possibly know that I would propose a contract marriage?’

That would mean the Emperor even suspected his… physical condition.

Tock, tock, tock…

His fingers tapped on the desk for a while — and then stopped.