Episode 5
“This will be your room.”
The woman who had been leading me to the duke looked much softer now.
Her cold attitude was gone, and she suddenly acted warm and gentle, as if she had always been kind to me.
It was funny how different she seemed compared to when we first met.
“This is the room I’ll be using from now on?”
“Yes. If anything makes you uncomfortable, please tell us anytime.”
The room she showed me was bigger than the house I used to share with my dad.
I had never even dreamed of staying in a place this luxurious, so I stood there stunned.
The huge room was filled with expensive furniture.
Paintings hung on every wall, probably chosen because I liked drawing.
The wardrobe—bigger than me—was full of frilly dresses.
The cabinet beside it overflowed with jewelry.
“These were gifts from His Grace to you, Miss Chloe.”
On the bed sat a card that said “Welcome to the mansion” along with a bouquet of immortal golden roses.
I hugged the bouquet and examined the card.
Looks like one of the servants wrote it for him.
Not that I cared. I did not want affection from the duke anyway.
What mattered was that everyone in the mansion saw how much he appeared to “care” about me.
“Alright, I’m going to rest now, so can you leave?”
“…Yes, of course.”
The woman frowned at my rude tone, clearly annoyed, but she still left without arguing.
Once I was alone, the tension that had been crushing me all day finally slipped away.
I tossed the bouquet into the trash and stretched before sitting at the vanity.
“They must have left a diary somewhere.”
I dug through the drawers until I found a crystal-covered diary and an ornate fountain pen.
Wow. Even the diary is fancy.
Honestly, selling this pen alone could’ve funded my entire childhood.
I opened to the first page and wrote the most important thing.
“Survival.”
That was my ultimate goal.
Living mattered more than anything.
But the fate assigned to me by the god was far from normal.
I would have to struggle a lot.
“Battery role confirmed. Cannot avoid. If I escape, Dad will be in danger.”
Even though I negotiated with the duke, nothing about my situation truly changed.
I was still a battery for Aphelion.
Just… a slightly better-treated battery.
No matter how much I struggled, that fate would not disappear.
“Two lives. Must escape before losing one.”
So my target was simple: escape.
Aphelion’s awakened power was destruction.
Chloe’s power was restoration.
Not just healing but revival.
In the original story, weak and drained Chloe died once.
But using her ability, she revived.
Even after coming back to life, she remained a battery in the mansion.
I remembered that when she revived, some of her lost power slowly returned.
Enough that she could restore her body.
Which meant…
When they thought I was too weak to resist, I could revive and then use that moment to negotiate again.
The biggest issue was: What kind of offer could shake the duke’s greedy heart?
“Duke Rehaven — opportunist.”
The duke saw even his biological son as a tool.
He valued profit above all.
In the original story, he thought endlessly about how to dispose of Chloe once she became useless.
He claimed it was to silence her, but the truth was simple: she had no value anymore.
“But if I become useful in some other way, he won’t kill me.”
That was what I needed.
But aside from having divine power, what could a half-dead Chloe offer?
“Chloe Ritz — adopted daughter of the Rehaven family.”
Chloe had the prestigious title of adopted daughter but received none of the real treatment.
That had to change.
I could not be satisfied with a luxurious room.
I needed all the benefits a noble daughter should have.
Not because of pride.
I needed the world to see Chloe Ritz as a beloved, favored noble girl.
“So that I can get a good marriage offer.”
A good marriage would make me valuable again in the duke’s eyes.
“Marriage → best escape route?”
Of all the escape plans I imagined, marriage was the most realistic.
I hate to say it, but I was pretty cute and smart.
Being a commoner was a flaw, yes, but if I built my status in the mansion, I could overcome it.
“If a wealthy, high-status family offers a marriage with a big dowry, the duke will be tempted.”
Then after getting married, I could fake a suicide.
Everyone would think I died. They would never look for me.
Then I could change my identity and live a peaceful life somewhere else.
When I wrote it all down, the plan actually felt solid.
“So I should start with what I can do now!”
I was too young to find a husband immediately.
So step one was building the name of Chloe Ritz.
To do that, I needed to prepare perfectly for the negotiation coming one month from now.
“Well then… time to go see the villain who holds my fate.”
“Where is he…?”
I marched confidently out of the room, only to realize I did not know where Aphelion even was.
All I knew was that he was training somewhere, and the novel mentioned:
“Beside a detached building, in a wide forest where sunlight barely reaches.”
But there were multiple detached buildings on this giant estate.
The description was so vague it was useless.
Asking passing servants felt pointless.
They would never give me real information anyway.
So I decided to check the forests beside each detached building myself.
If you are not smart, your body suffers. That was exactly my situation.
“Huff… tired…”
My short legs wore out fast.
I stopped to catch my breath.
Just then, I heard people approaching. A group of knights poured out from between the trees.
Knights!
I quickly hid in a bush and listened.
“Good work today, everyone.”
“I am dying of exhaustion. What’s for lunch?”
“At this point I could chew rocks.”
While they joked around…
“Um… what about Lord Aphelion?”
A young knight asked hesitantly.
The cheerful mood froze instantly.
The knight next to him elbowed him sharply.
“He will pull himself together. Like always.”
The middle-aged knight who seemed like the leader said that firmly before walking away.
The others hurried to follow.
Once they were gone, I crawled out and brushed leaves off my clothes.
“So his training is over?”
It was strange they did not walk with Aphelion, but that worked in my favor.
It was better to meet him alone the first time.
I followed the path the knights had come from and traced the clear footprints.
“…Aphelion?”
And before long, I found him.
The one who held my fate.
The reason Chloe Ritz existed in this world.
Aphelion Rehaven.
Maybe he heard my voice, because the boy who had been lying down sat up.
Aphelion met my eyes but did not say anything.
For someone so mysterious, he did not even look curious about who I was.
The silence was suffocating, so I broke it first.
I walked up to him and stopped right in front of him.
The way he looked up close matched the novel perfectly.
Pitch-black hair.
Golden eyes that glittered like sunlight.
Proof that he was unmistakably of Rehaven blood.
“Hi.”
I reached out my hand toward that deceptively angelic face.
“Nice to meet you.”
The boy stared at my hand for a while, then finally opened his mouth.
“Hi…! I… I am happy to meet you too…!”
A pure, innocent child’s voice.
Impossible to imagine that he would one day become the cruel villain of the story.
