<CHAPTER 5>
If staying beside the male lead only leads to death, then I’ll seduce the villain destined to kill me instead.
Whether a villain was even capable of human emotions was anyone’s guess.
Still, there was something undeniably satisfying about slowly melting the heart of a cold, emotionless man.
Having decided that Whistler would become her target, Alosha drifted off to sleep after going so far as to imagine marrying the duke and naming their third great-grandchild Florence.
The next morning, she left early and headed for the Laos Trading Company in the heart of the city.
He doesn’t show up until around Chapter Twenty. That means the story between him and Dain hasn’t started yet… right?
Project: Reclaim the Genre. Step One.
[Cut off the flow of money that will become the foundation of the war.]
In the original novel, Dain traded information about the Phoenix Ring—a treasure the guild master desperately wanted—in exchange for soldiers and intelligence from the Laos Trading Company to oppose the duke.
So what exactly was the Phoenix Ring?
It was a ring passed down to the heirs of the Phoenix Trading Company, the only merchant group capable of trading with Hamusha, the desert kingdom in the southern reaches of the Empire.
Its whereabouts were currently unknown.
More importantly, it was the only keepsake left behind by the guild master’s parents.
Alosha knew very well that the guild master had been searching for it with near-obsessive determination.
I’ll find the ring first.
If she could obtain it before anyone else, then at the very least, the scene before Chapter Sixty where Dain offended Duke Whistler and used the deaths of Alosha and Alexis as an example could be delayed.
It would be nice if this alone could lead to a peaceful ending between House Nocturne and Dain… but there’s no way a five-hundred-sixty-chapter original story would let me off that easily.
She had no idea what would happen next.
The uncertainty terrified her.
But if she wanted to survive, she had to succeed.
Thus began her own fan-written version of the story.
—
“I’ll buy it.”
She had traveled quite a distance early that morning, yet finding the ring turned out to be far easier than expected.
It was sitting openly on display in a quiet countryside pawnshop not far from where she lived.
Granted, in the original story, Dain had only acquired it after a string of lucky coincidences while helping the pawnshop owner, so quite a bit of the plot had apparently been skipped.
“I’m sorry, miss, but that item isn’t for sale.”
Perhaps because it was destined to become part of the guild master’s storyline, the owner refused outright despite her offer of money.
Figures. It couldn’t possibly be that easy.
So this was the original story pushing back against her.
Even so, there was no chance she would give up something that was practically tied to her lifeline.
“I’ll pay double.”
“I’m sorry, but it truly isn’t for sale.”
“Triple.”
“Miss, please don’t make this difficult…”
“Five times.”
“Miss…”
“Ten times.”
“……”
“Twenty times?”
Someone had once said that if you couldn’t obtain something, the problem usually wasn’t desire—it was money.
The moment she offered twenty times the listed price, the pawnshop owner, who had stubbornly refused until now, swallowed hard and his eyes visibly wavered.
“Sir, I completely understand why you say you can’t sell it. But I absolutely need that ring as well.”
“The owner specifically entrusted it to me and begged me never to sell it.”
“The owner looked exhausted and was dressed in rags, wasn’t she? She wasn’t from around here either.”
“How… how did you know that?”
“She probably had no money even to buy a loaf of bread, so she sold something precious.”
“How did you…”
“Because the owner… was my lover!”
Tears welled in Alosha’s eyes as she stared longingly at the ring.
“…Excuse me?”
“Ah… my poor beloved! We loved each other dearly! But our families opposed our relationship, so we were forced apart. I begged her to run away with me so we could live together… but she left alone for the sake of my happiness. I’ve searched everywhere for her ever since, and the last place anyone saw her was here. I rushed here immediately… and then I found that ring!”
The story had been fabricated on the spot and was riddled with holes.
Still, it was more than enough to fool the owner of a tiny pawnshop on the outskirts of town.
“But, miss…”
“I know! I suddenly appeared claiming to be the ring owner’s lover, so of course you can’t believe me! But you have to trust me! We truly loved each other!”
There’s no way he won’t believe this.
Or so Alosha thought.
…Huh? Why is he making that face?
She had expected him to tear up at her tragic love story and willingly hand over the ring.
Instead, the pawnshop owner wore a rather strange expression.
“…You really were lovers?”
“Yes!”
“…Even though she was an elderly woman?”
At those words, Alosha felt as though the top of her skull had blown clean off.
Swallowing hard, she desperately tried to salvage her collapsing story.
“That’s… exactly why our families opposed us.”
“…She also had a husband.”
“Love only burns hotter when there’s competition.”
Just to obtain a single ring, Alosha had somehow transformed herself from the heroine of an epic romance into a shameless homewrecker involved with a married woman in her forties or fifties.
She bit her lower lip.
I should’ve said she was my mother…
After a long silence, the pawnshop owner sighed deeply before nodding.
“Very well. I don’t know the whole story, but no one has come looking for the ring in a long time, and the redemption period has already expired. I suppose it won’t matter.”
He carefully removed the ring from the display beside the window and walked over to her.
“It’s not the sort of quality ring you’d normally find in a little pawnshop like this, so I really didn’t want to sell it. But if you’re willing to tell such an outrageous lie just to obtain it… then you must have your reasons.”
“…You knew I was lying?”
“Who would believe a story that absurd? I simply figured you must want it that badly.”
His sympathetic gaze made Alosha want to burst into tears from sheer embarrassment.
After placing the ring inside a small case, he stared at it one last time before handing it over.
“You said twenty times the price, correct? That comes to 35,000 krona, miss.”
Alosha pulled out a check and wrote 36,000.
“…This extra one thousand krona is payment for keeping everything that just happened between us a secret.”
“Only one thousand? Hmm… that performance of yours will be difficult to forget. You said she was your lover, wasn’t she?”
“……”
Without another word, Alosha angrily scratched out the number and rewrote it as 40,000.
Only then did the pawnshop owner beam cheerfully.
“Welcome! I don’t believe you’ve visited our shop before. Is there anything you’re looking for today?”
After even paying him a bribe, Alosha finally returned to the carriage.
Her personal maid, Heidi, tilted her head in confusion.
“Miss, why did you come all the way out here so early just to buy something from an old pawnshop like that?”
“Something that will save my life.”
As Alosha lifted her hand to show the ring now resting on her middle finger, Heidi’s eyes followed it.
“Save your life? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“It’s… complicated.”
Wearing the expression of someone who had achieved enlightenment, Alosha gazed out the carriage window.
Lucky you. At least you’re not the one who’s going to die.
She bit her lower lip, forcing back the tears threatening to spill.
The uncomfortable carriage ride continued, dragging on in tedious silence.
Then—
A horse suddenly let out a frantic neigh.
CRAAASH!
A deafening explosion rang out behind them.
The carriage lurched violently, sending both Alosha and her maid flying into the air.
In that instant, memories flashed before her eyes like scenes from an old film.
Ah… so this is what they call your life flashing before your eyes…
She had only just been reincarnated into another world.
If I die now… what happens to me?
The carriage tipped dangerously before crashing back upright, throwing her body against the wall once again.
“Ow…”
Pain exploded through her body so fiercely she could barely breathe.
Her eyes watered.
“Miss! Are you all right?!”
A moment later, the carriage door flew open, and one of the knights hurriedly checked on her.
It wasn’t his fault.
But Alosha was so furious that she answered curtly.
“…No.”
Still sprawled across the floor, she accepted the knight’s help and climbed out of the carriage.
The damage was worse than she’d expected.
The side of the carriage had been crushed inward, nearly splintered apart.
At this point, isn’t it a miracle I’m still alive?
When she turned her head, she saw the culprit.
A large black carriage stood motionless nearby.
Unlike hers, it appeared almost completely unharmed.
As its door opened, Alosha stretched out an arm to stop the knight from stepping forward.
“Stay here.”
“Miss?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle this myself.”
This, at least, was an area where Alosha had experience.
The man who stepped out wore an immaculate gray suit.
He was tall and lean, with a long face and sharply slanted eyes that gave him a sly appearance.
“My deepest apologies! Are you all right? Were you injured?”
…This won’t be easy.
Judging that he wouldn’t be an easy opponent, Alosha decided to employ a secret technique she’d once learned from a taxi driver after traffic accidents.
She grabbed the back of her neck with her right hand, tilted her head to the left, widened her eyes dramatically—
Then shouted.
“Ahhh!”
The man jumped in alarm and rushed over, lowering himself respectfully before her.
“Are you hurt? Your neck? Is your neck injured?”
“Seriously? How do you crash into a carriage that’s sitting right in the middle of an intersection? What, do your eyes grow on the back of your head?”
Rule Number One of Picking a Fight:
If you’ve decided to fight, make sure you throw the first punch.
