Chapter 1
01. One Day, a Man Fell Into My House
Today was a particularly unlucky day.
First, I missed the subway in the morning and arrived late for class. Then, a sudden shower came during the day, leaving me completely soaked. To make things worse, a truck drove past and splashed muddy water all over my clothes.
On my way home after my evening part-time job, I dropped my phone.
As a result, the phone I had bought only three months ago was completely shattered.
“…Are you kidding me?”
How much had I spent this month already?
The repair cost was one million won. That was far beyond my planned budget.
But I couldn’t live without a phone, even for a single day. There was a reason it was considered a necessity in modern life.
Should I ask my parents for money? I’ve never borrowed from them since I started living alone…
That was when it happened.
As I stared blankly at my laptop screen growing dark, I suddenly heard a loud crashing sound behind me, as if something had fallen over.
Ah, not again.
The clothes rack I had installed in my closet recently seemed defective. It collapsed whenever it got the chance.
Thinking I should organize my clothes while calming down and sorting out my thoughts, I slowly stood up.
But the sight that greeted me the moment I opened the closet door was something I could never have imagined.
Shining blond hair.
An unreal face that looked like it had stepped out of a comic book.
Deep eyes that seemed full of stories.
“…”
“…”
My eyes met those of a foreign man sitting on the floor, covered by my clothes.
Then we screamed at the same time.
“AAAAAHHHHHH!!”
“AAAAAHHHHHH!!”
* * *
The police!
Yeorae blocked the door with a chair, ran over, and grabbed her phone.
But no matter how many times she pressed the button, the screen would not turn on.
Ah, right. My phone is broken!
Meanwhile, the man calmly opened the blocked door and pulled a T-shirt off his head.
His eyes met Yeorae’s again as she stood awkwardly holding her broken phone.
Seeing the fear on her face, he immediately raised both hands.
“I-I’ll stay right here. I promise.”
The apartment was a tiny studio, barely ten pyeong in size, with a small walk-in closet.
The large man looked even more intimidating in such a cramped space.
Trying to remember where she had put her kitchen knife, Yeorae carefully looked him over.
His messy blond hair was as soft-looking as silk.
His jawline was sharp and firm, as if carved from stone, while his handsome features looked as though they had been painted with a fine brush.
His eyes, framed by long golden eyelashes, were a strange mix of gray and green, like a foggy forest.
But more than his unreal good looks, it was his clothing that caught Yeorae’s attention.
…What is that?
The man was dressed in elaborate clothes that looked like they belonged in a movie.
He was covered in strange brooches and was even wearing a cape.
What on earth was going on?
Yeorae was so confused that her head felt like it was spinning.
Think carefully, Lee Yeorae.
When she came home and entered the closet earlier, nobody had been there.
In the first place, the closet wasn’t even large enough for someone to hide inside.
Especially not a man of his size.
Then that means he suddenly appeared out of nowhere…
It made no sense.
But even if it was impossible, there was no other explanation.
“I was on my way to His Majesty the Emperor’s speech ceremony. It was a celebration of our victory after a long war against the barbarians. Then suddenly the carriage shook, and I felt myself falling somewhere. When I opened my eyes, I was here.”
The man carefully spoke while keeping his hands raised.
Holding her broken phone as if it were a brick, Yeorae took a deep breath.
“This is South Korea in the twenty-first century. We don’t have an emperor, and although we’re technically under a ceasefire, we haven’t fought a recent war.”
“S-South… what? Where?”
The man’s eyes moved around as he looked at the unfamiliar electronic devices surrounding him.
His face quickly turned pale with shock.
It didn’t seem like he was acting.
Just in case, Yeorae pressed the power button one more time, but the phone remained dead.
She sighed, set down the useless piece of metal, and gestured toward the man, who looked ready to collapse.
“F-first, come over here and sit down. I think we both need some time to organize our thoughts. Right?”
The man slowly nodded.
Yeorae opened the refrigerator and placed a vitamin drink she had bought from a convenience store two days ago onto the table.
The man sat up straight and carefully examined the bottle in front of him.
Meanwhile, Yeorae quietly sat across from him.
“…”
Where had this person come from?
She had heard that romance novels often included unrealistic things like time regression and possession.
But this was different.
This man had literally fallen out of nowhere.
Besides, Yeorae had spent her entire life avoiding romance stories and watching documentaries instead.
Good grief. I can’t believe something like this is happening to me…
Even seeing it with her own eyes didn’t feel real.
It felt like a dream on a summer night.
“Here. You open it like this.”
Click.
When she placed the bottle back on the table, the cap was gone.
The man frowned and stared at it closely.
“At least one thing is certain. I believe I have come to another world.”
“I was thinking the same thing. It sounds completely insane, though.”
Yeorae pushed the drink closer to him.
“Tell me about yourself. Maybe I’ll be able to guess where you came from.”
“You can figure that out just by hearing my story? D-Don’t tell me this world is a place where people can travel to other worlds?!”
“No. Of course not. It’s just that I’ve seen clothes like yours in European historical dramas. Who knows? Maybe you came from the past.”
Now that she thought about it, the man was speaking a completely unfamiliar language.
Yet she understood every word perfectly, just like reading subtitles in a foreign movie.
Unless he truly came from another world, modern science could never explain such a thing.
The man straightened his posture and placed a hand on his chest before formally introducing himself.
“My apologies for introducing myself so late. My name is Leandros Julian Therion Etsina. I am the second son and official heir of the Duke Etsina family. I graduated from the Imperial Academy and was appointed as a knight at the age of fourteen. I participated in two wars at the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Currently, I am receiving training as the official heir… or rather, I was. Then I suddenly ended up here.”
“The Duke Etsina family? The heir?”
No wonder his clothes looked so extraordinary.
“So you’re from a noble family?”
