MWMT 01

Chapter : 1

“Vivian, you weren’t in the bedroom, so I was looking for you for a long time. What are you doing in a place like this?”

“Th-that is…”

It was a warm afternoon.

Vivian, who had been hiding between the garden bushes and looking around nervously, slowly raised her head.

Standing in front of her with his arms crossed was her fiancé, whom she would marry next month—**Aslan Rezef Astaroth**.

He was nearly two meters tall, with broad shoulders, a solid chest, and thick arms lined with bulging veins. Anyone would think of a wild beast when seeing his threatening body.

But when he looked at his fiancée, his eyes curved gently like a crescent moon.

“If you wanted to take a walk, you should have called me. It would have been nice to come together.”

“Y-you looked so busy…”

“If you wanted it, do you think I couldn’t make time?”

Aslan walked closer, his footsteps crunching on the gravel. That sound alone made cold sweat run down Vivian’s back.

Yes. The truth was, she had been trying to run away—and had been caught.

“You don’t look well. You’re not healthy, so you shouldn’t push yourself. Let’s go back inside.”

“Th-that would be difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“I got an urgent letter, so I think I need to go out. Here, the letter…”

This much trouble was expected.

Vivian pulled out her prepared Plan B. It was a letter from her half-sister, Iris, whom Aslan adored.

Between her raised fingers, a shining gold envelope sparkled in the sunlight.

For some reason, it was a letter from the Crown Prince…

“W-why is this here? I definitely threw it away?!”

“Ah. I see.”

Aslan’s expression hardened when the unexpected letter appeared.

He didn’t know why such an unlucky thing was there, but it was clear that it had badly upset him.

“Haha, my eyesight has been a little blurry these days.”

Vivian laughed awkwardly and tried to hide the Crown Prince’s letter behind her back.

But it was too late. Aslan stepped behind her and tore the letter into pieces.

The brilliant gold envelope turned to dust and disappeared.

“Now there’s no problem with going back to the bedroom.”

“I-it was a mistake. Look, this is really Iris’s letter, right?”

The Crown Prince’s letter was gone. The evidence was gone, so Aslan couldn’t do anything anymore.

Vivian smiled confidently as she held up her half-sister’s letter.

But what she hadn’t expected was that, to Aslan, **Iris was also just an annoyance that interfered with time with his fiancée**.

“You’re not planning to leave, are you?”

“W-why are you staring like that?”

“You promised to spend today with me. I’ve been waiting for this day.”

It was a peaceful afternoon. Blue birds were chirping, and cats were lazily napping.

But Vivian felt unbearably cold.

Aslan’s gaze dropped to freezing levels.

“Cough, cough!”

“Vivian…!”

“It’s nothing. I just feel a little chilly.”

As she staggered from coughing, Vivian accidentally fell into Aslan’s chest. The cold air vanished instantly.

Feeling the gentle spring breeze again, Vivian cried silently inside.

*How am I ever supposed to run away like this?!*

Aslan’s voice, holding her thin waist, was low and excited, like a wild beast.

“The day we become real husband and wife is not far away. Just thinking about it makes it impossible for me to sleep. You feel the same, don’t you, Vivian?”

No?!

But she couldn’t say it out loud. She could only cry silently again and again.

When she thought about how her life had ended up like this, it all started with **one wrongly written will**.

—

### **＊ ＊ ＊**

> **“By the time this will is found, I will already be gone from this world.
> My leaving is the best path for everyone, so do not look for me or wait for me.
> All property and territory I own will be inherited by my fiancé, His Highness Aslan.”**

Aslan Rezef Astaroth, the Empire’s Second Prince and Grand Duke, stared at the paper in front of him with an unpleasant expression.

He didn’t even read the contents. He only checked the signature at the bottom.

**Vivian Eleonora.**

The name of the fiancée he had chosen for political reasons—and eventually came to hate deeply.

Just because she claimed to love him, she had committed countless cruel and dirty acts.

Aslan spoke with cold sarcasm.

“So you interrupted my work just to show me one piece of paper?”

“It’s not just paper…”

“A will? Ha! Another fake drama to get my attention. Truly impressive. She always tests the limits of my patience.”

Just thinking of the Duke’s daughter’s snake-like eyes gave him a headache.

But this nonsense would soon end.

Until now, he had stayed silent for political reasons, but now he had a proper excuse to break the engagement.

*The Duke of Eleonora has a hidden illegitimate child. He committed a disgrace to the nobility.*

Nobles loved gossip. They used their sharp tongues to break the boredom of their repetitive lives.

The Duke had assaulted an innocent maid when he was young. When she became pregnant, he tortured her nearly to death and abandoned her in the mountains.

The maid died after giving birth to a daughter. Now, that child was coming to the capital to find her real father.

There were no eternal secrets in this world.

*If I push a little from behind, the Eleonora family’s reputation will fall completely. Breaking the engagement will be easy.*

Vivian also knew this. Aslan had told her himself.

So this suicide drama had to be her final struggle before being discarded.

But the chief attendant still looked grim.

“M-my lord… this time, it seems real.”

“What do you mean?”

“The young lady has tuberculosis.”

Aslan stopped flipping through the documents.

“We secretly recruited servants from the Eleonora household. According to her doctor, by the time it was discovered, it was already too late to treat.”

“You mean the blood she coughed up at the last banquet?”

“Yes. After hearing there was no cure, her behavior changed. She seemed like a completely different person.”

“Taste even the imperial physicians can’t cure that disease.”

Aslan recalled her face.

More precisely, the lifeless eyes hidden beneath her beautiful mask.

*Who would believe words of love from eyes like dead fish? She chased empty power, and her ending is empty too.*

He felt some regret—but only that much.

Still, politics were separate from feelings.

His half-brother, Crown Prince **Johannes**, would never miss this chance.

If Vivian truly died, Johannes would surely pin the blame on Aslan.

“You heard from the Emperor?”

“His Majesty ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of this tragedy.”

“Damn it. Find her. Before she dies—no matter what!”

Aslan slammed the desk in anger.

She annoyed him even at the very end. But he couldn’t let her die freely.

He had to remove anything the Emperor could use against him.

“Bring her to me. Even if she’s already dead, bring the body. We’ll put on a miserable show if we have to.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The attendant bowed deeply, already sensing busy days ahead.

—

### **＊ ＊ ＊**

How many days had it been since Vivian escaped the Duke’s mansion after writing her will?

She realized her situation was very bad.

It had never been good—but now it was the worst it had ever been.

*I just left a little early before dying… Is wanting a peaceful rest of my life really such a terrible crime?!*

She regretted messing with the original story, but it was too late.

In front of her stood a **house-sized black lion**.

Golden eyes shone fiercely, killing intent tightening like a collar around her neck.

If she turned and ran, she would be torn apart instantly.

*Why is Aslan—who should be calmly inheriting my property in the capital—here, and looking like this?!*

Vivian carefully recalled how she ended up in this nightmare.

She had died in an accident and possessed a **hardcore 19+ novel** she had been reading, *The Curse of Astaroth*.

The story began in ancient times, when an unnamed hero defeated the demon **Astaroth**.

Astaroth, a black lion demon, cursed the hero as he died.

> **“I will surely revive!
> I will steal the bodies of your descendants, generation after generation, and use them as sacrifices for my return!”**

The hero became Emperor, and strange things began to happen in the imperial family.

Princes and princesses were born who could turn into black lions.

When one died, the curse passed to another royal.

Aslan, the male lead, was a prince who was **artificially burdened with the curse**.

The one meant to bear it was Crown Prince Johannes. But the Emperor used dark magic to transfer it to Aslan, the second prince born to a maid.

Vivian was Aslan’s fiancée.

She didn’t know about the curse. She only obsessed over his looks and power.

When he fell in love with the female lead—her half-sister—Vivian tried to kill her and was executed.

A typical villainess.

*At least I possessed her before the female lead appeared…*

Vivian entered the story one month ago, early in the plot. She thought she could live quietly.

But there was a serious hidden problem.

**Vivian was dying of tuberculosis.**

The doctor said, “At most, one year.”

Her face was pale, her body thin, and even the servants avoided her.

She noticed even they looked down on her.

But she decided not to overthink it.

*No one cares about me. That’s actually good.*

She had inherited massive wealth from her mother and maternal family.

*I’ll take part of it and run away.*

So she made her escape plan and wrote a will.

> **“By the time this will is found, I will already be gone from this world.”**

She planned to change her identity.

> **“Do not look for me or wait for me.”**

She would spend her remaining life at a luxury resort in the south.

> **“All my property will be inherited by my fiancé, Aslan.”**

*What could go wrong just because I didn’t follow the original story exactly?*

She didn’t want her father, the Duke, to get the money.

He had never visited her—not once.

*It’s done. Let’s go.*

At first, she was careful. Simple clothes. Hidden routes.

But no one chased her.

So she relaxed, dressed richly again, and took a carriage.

That’s when she met bandits.

Unlucky for them.

She beat them all down with her sword skills.

But then—

“Grrrr…”

Inside their camp, she found a huge iron cage.

Inside it was a massive black lion.

Golden eyes shining.

It was **Aslan Rezef Astaroth**