Chapter 33

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Chapter 1. The Male Lead is the Villain (2)

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The first day I sensed something was off was sometime in the year I turned nine.

Edelaine was spending some quiet time with her fiancé.

A kid like me already has a fiancé? Talk about jumping the gun.

It might have been commonplace in this world, but it still felt strange to her.

If she thought of him as a childhood friend, it wouldn't be weird at all. But considering he was someone she'd marry someday, it gave her an odd feeling.

A fiancé who's a young duke? Check out this golden boy...

In her previous life, she'd heard about a duke who inherited his fortune at twenty-five and became one of the richest people in their twenties on Earth. This one here? If anything, he'd be even more impressive.

At this point, Edelaine still didn't know much about the world she'd been reborn into.

She thought its setup was pretty fantastical, but it hadn't occurred to her that it was actually a world from a novel. Not that most people would jump to that conclusion.

If I'd been born in my previous life as a model, I would've made it big.

Just standing there blinking would make for a stunning photo; she'd have succeeded no matter the outlet.

The angelic boy's name was Shane Blancard.

His glossy black hair flowed like silk, framing sharp eyes that curved into pretty half-moons, embedded with jewel-like blue irises. His porcelain skin was flawless, and his long limbs were straight and slender.

Being physically thirteen already gave him a distinct boyish charm.

Edelaine was exactly nine, so he was four years older—a kid himself—yet he was a kind fiancé who never showed boredom while keeping her company.

Mostly 'cause his face is so kind.

To Edelaine, Shane seemed like an excessively good, model student.

The kind of kid who was too smart and mature for his own good.

Probably from that strict upbringing—no crying like a normal kid, not even honest with his feelings...

Not long after their engagement, Edelaine had been dragged to the funeral of Shane's mother.

She was startled once upon realizing the adults had taken her to a funeral hall, and startled again at the sight of the pale-faced boy standing there awkwardly.

He'd lost his mother, yet the adults were leaving him be as if he were one of them.

A child who'd only learned to suppress his emotions, never to let them out.

He was so pitiful she couldn't help but hug him.

"I'll stay by your side. Don't worry. I'll be the only one watching, so you can cry if you want."

"I can't cry. No tears are coming."

"Try anyway."

"Do you want me to cry?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then I'll try."

To agree to cry just because his fiancée asked, even without tears—how sweet was that? She decided she'd have to look after him so he wouldn't get taken advantage of out there.

After that, she visited more often out of growing concern, and they played together.

Shane seemed to appreciate her feelings, following her lead enough to visit even outside their once-a-month promise.

He was older, so "following" wasn't quite right—it was more like they'd grown close.

"Come to play again? Got nothing better to do?"

"What could be more important than spending time with my fiancée?"

"R-Really?"

Was he just using her as an excuse to skip studying?

It felt a bit like being exploited as a legitimate slacking alibi, but gazing at his pretty face made time fly, so it was fine.

"I wish the Saintess would show up already."

"Huh?"

"Weren't you reading the paper?"

Edelaine had been holding the newspaper for show while actually admiring Shane's face. Realizing she'd blurted something dumb, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

No way could she admit she'd been staring at his face.

"Saintess?"

What Saintess?

Edelaine glanced at the headline.

It was an article about how 102 years had passed since the last Saintess died, and no new one had appeared, causing trouble.

What kind of novel trope is this...? Wait.

Novel?

Hold on.

Come to think of it, her fiancé's family name was Blancard...

A Saintess who appears once every hundred years.

The eldest son of the Blancard Duke family, a black-haired, blue-eyed handsome man...?

Familiar names and setup...

Oh, shit! He's the male lead!

As the words "Male Lead" floated over the angelic boy's face, the forgotten plot rushed back into her mind.

This isn't just some fantasy world—it's actually from a novel!

And in an instant, she pieced it together.

No wonder he has everything!

A devoted romantic who only had eyes for the heroine, a genius skilled in both letters and martial arts, perfect status and looks to boot.

He had to be the male lead from that healing romance, The Saintess I Thought Was Fake Turns Out Real.

I only ever called him Shane, so I never dwelled on his surname. And I never thought to pin a black-haired, blue-eyed hunk archetype on a kid... I had no clue.

You couldn't go through life constantly recalling every novel character's name.

Until the "Saintess" keyword clicked, she'd just seen him as a pretty fiancé with a fancy foreign name.

But he was this novel's male lead, and she wasn't the heroine. She'd doted on him as her fiancé out of ignorance, but now that she knew, she had to change her attitude.

"Edelaine? What's wrong?"

"Let's break off the engagement."

"What?"

When the nine-year-old fiancée suddenly spouted something out of left field, Shane's gentle smile froze into coldness.

His expressionless face looked less like an angel and more like a wax doll.

Undeterred by Shane's icy blue eyes, Edelaine rattled on.

"Break it off, Shane. Yeah, that's for the best. We're still kids, after all..."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Edelaine, but our engagement has already been officially recognized by His Majesty the Emperor. You know it's not something we can just cancel on a whim, right?"

"Engaging kids who aren't even ten yet? That's child abuse!"

"Now you bring that up? We've been engaged for a while."

"......"

Well, that was true.

"B-Break it off. We have to break it off! Breaking an engagement is better than divorce!"

"Who taught you that nonsense—er, those rude words? Care to tell me?"

"......"

Pretty sure you were about to say something worse yourself.

"What are you gonna do about it..."

"I'll make sure they never teach you bad words again."

"......"

Could a mere thirteen-year-old boy sound this scary? The implication in "make sure" was anything but gentle.

Clearly not meaning a polite persuasion.

"Edelaine, who was it? Just tell me the name, okay?"

Shane coaxed her like he would a child. She wanted to snap back at being treated like one, but technically, she was.

"Just break it off, okay? If we both say we don't want it, it'll work out somehow."

"I want to marry you, Edelaine."

"You're too young to know. The future's unpredictable."

"You know you're younger than me, right?"

"...I don't wanna know..."

"Edelaine, did I do something to upset you? Tell me, and I'll fix it."

"......No....... You didn't do anything wrong......"

Not yet.

Edelaine briefly considered throwing a tantrum—screaming and flopping on the floor.

Break it off pleeease!

Her sprawled out, Shane watching, horrified parents...

No, that's not it...

As Shane said, their engagement was a family agreement, sealed with the Emperor's approval—a binding contract.

A child's stubbornness alone couldn't break it.

Even loving parents wouldn't find it easy, and it would cause them losses.

She didn't want to harm the parents who gave birth to and raised her.

Fine, then. No choice. The gentlest way is to get him to agree to break it off and distance ourselves...

If he wouldn't, she'd have to find another way.

The male lead belonged to the heroine anyway.

Getting entangled would just be exhausting, and better to cut ties early than grow attached and lose him later. It benefited both sides.

I am a little attached already...

But you're someone else's cake.

She could slowly wean off her feelings, stay friends instead of fiancés, and let him go cleanly when the heroine appeared.

At this point, Edelaine was still relaxed about it.

But what was that novel about exactly? I only remember the mid-to-late romance parts. There are so many Saintess romances... I've read dozens like it.

Learning her reborn world was from a novel even excited her a bit. Her role as the male lead's fiancée was a hassle, but she figured she could enjoy it from the sidelines.

The nightmares started that very night.

*

"Ah, shit!"

Edelaine bolted awake with a scream, gasping for breath.

Her young body was soaked in cold sweat.

"I remember now...... My role in this novel......"

It wasn't just as the male lead's fiancée.

The "Edelaine" who'd been given everything, showered with love from her parents and two older brothers, couldn't bear her beloved fiancé abandoning her for another woman.

She bullied the heroine, mobilized all her resources to kill her, and in the end...

Who's the bastard who killed me?

She was murdered by someone who loved the heroine.