Self-Made Lady

Chapter 3

“So it doesn’t matter what I say,” Cedric said.

“I apologize if that offends you,” I replied. “But that just goes to show how desperate my situation is.”

“How...?” Cedric rubbed his forehead and let out a short sigh. His eyes were still full of confusion as they stared at me. It looked like he had so many things to say that he didn’t know where to begin.

“Your Grace.”

Just then, a cautious voice came from outside the room. It was one of Cedric’s subordinates.

“There’s an urgent message from the estate. Please pardon my intrusion, but it is quite pressing.”

He didn’t say anything important since I was in the room, but both Cedric and I knew what this urgent news would be.

“It seems word has arrived,” I said. Once he heard the message, it would be easier for him to make his decision. “I’ll give you two some space. As soon as you decide what to do, please come visit me.”

With a courteous farewell, I stepped back.

“Wait.”

Before I could turn away, Cedric snapped out of his thoughts and stopped me.

“Why does it have to be marriage?” he asked. “I could use the Command to ask for your freedom.”

“I don’t want anyone to know that we made a deal,” I replied. “I want to get out of this as naturally as possible.”

Ultimately, I couldn’t let it out that I was the one behind all this. Violet just wasn’t that sort of character. If she changed so drastically overnight, it would look suspicious.

I also had another reason, but I had to hide the true story from Cedric. If people learned why he’d actually used his Meritorious Vassal’s Command, it would be difficult to hide the fact that a plague was spreading on his estate.

“If you say that you fell in love with me at first sight and wanted to stop my marriage, that would be the most natural—”

The archduke listened in silence before quickly raising a hand to cut me off.

“Fell in love at first sight?” he asked. “Me? With you?”

“Yes,” I replied. “You fell in love with me at first sight. Doesn’t that sound plausible?”

Lost for words, the archduke’s mouth fell open at my shamelessness. It was a natural reaction—most people didn’t go around bragging about their looks like this. However, I had good reason to be so confident.

“Anyone would believe you, if you put it like that,” I continued. “Everyone says I’m quite attractive.”

Violet really was gorgeous. She was only sixteen, so she still looked a little baby-faced, but calling her a great beauty was a no-brainer.

“Don’t you agree?” I asked bluntly.

“Well... You’re not wrong...” He raised his hand to cover his mouth as he trailed off. This, however, couldn’t hide the fact that the rest of his face was noticeably red.

He’s nineteen years old, right? It was hard to tell when he was acting all stoic and dignified, but his current expression certainly made him look his age.

I grinned, feeling like I was talking to a cute younger brother.

“Then go ahead and use that as your excuse,” I said. “Say you want to use your Command because you fell for me and want to marry me. That’s the best story we have.”

I turned around without waiting to hear his reply. I could feel Cedric’s intense gaze as I walked away, but I didn’t look back.

The decision had already been made.

* * *

When I first realized I was in the world of The One Who Holds the Crown, I did my best to deny it. I thought I might be dreaming, so I tried sleeping it off and even tumbling down the stairs. However, nothing would change no matter what I did. I was still in this world.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if this is a dream or not. Even if I wake up, I’ll just go back to wasting away from an incurable disease.

I decided to live where I was. As soon as I accepted my reality, a thought struck me: I had to get far away from the battle for the throne!

I had no intention of setting someone up to be emperor like in the game. If I failed in the game, I could always start over, but I only had one shot at reality. Meddling in the fight for succession was a great way to get caught up in someone’s wild schemes and die a horrible death.

The best choice was to escape it all.

I don’t want to die. I had imagined death every day as I lay in my hospital bed. Now I was sick of even thinking about it. But when I opened my eyes, Violet was already engaged to the crown prince. Time was short, so I didn’t have a lot of options. I even considered marrying the crown prince and then living as quietly as possible.

However, if I lived in the palace, I would definitely get caught up in some kind of plot. There was no such thing as a quiet life there. In this soap opera-like world, you could never tell where a fatal blow would come from.

Walking that tightrope is fun when it’s a game. In reality, peace was the best path. I have to get out of here no matter what. The most important thing was to escape the capital, which was at the center of the storm. However, I couldn’t just speak frankly with my stepfather, Duke Vasell, and tell him I didn’t want to get married. He was the one who had pushed Violet to marry the crown prince in the first place, just so she could spy on him.

If I told him that I didn’t want to go through with it now, he wouldn’t care. This had all started because Duke Vasell’s daughter, Vivian, was head over heels for the second prince, Jadiel. The duke, however, had greater ambitions for her: He wanted his daughter to be the most important woman in the empire. But Vivian insisted on Jadiel, no matter how much her father tried to change her mind. Eventually, the duke decided that instead of convincing his daughter, he’d have to make Jadiel into a man worthy of her. That was the start of their firm alliance.

If Violet’s mother were still alive, she would have shielded her daughter from all this. Lady Adeline had a wide social network and great influence over high society. She would have backed Violet up. Unfortunately, she’d tragically died three years before in a sudden fire.

That’s why Violet had been so easy to use in the game.

Why did you have to do that, past me? I resented my past self for getting excited and pushing Violet down this dark path. The bigger problem was that from the outside, this marriage looked like a really spectacular union.

In the game, Violet felt moved by the fact that her stepfather and stepsister set her up with such a favorable marriage, so she did whatever they told her to. She didn’t even suspect that they might have ulterior motives.

I need someone on my side to help get me out of this. It was only natural that I thought of Archduke Etchell in my tough situation. To escape a marriage to the crown prince—especially one that the emperor had approved and the duke was pushing for—I needed someone as impressive as Archduke Etchell.

Besides, the Etchell Estate is a perfect temporary shelter.

The Etchell Estate was located in the east of the empire, far from the noise of the city, so it was the perfect spot to quietly gather strength. The second prince would try to bog Archduke Etchell down with issues in his territory. This way he could focus on the crown prince. According to my calculations, that would give me several years to work with.

I’m not going to be the archduke’s wife forever. Archduke Etchell was a strong contender for the throne. The fight would reach him sooner or later. Until then, my plan was to lay the foundations for my independence and then divorce him.

My ultimate goal is to become a self-made lady!

My life would only be peaceful once I escaped from the game’s characters and became fully independent. I can’t live on my own just yet, so this will just be until I set myself up. Marrying Archduke Etchell would be a mere stepping stone on the way to becoming a self-made lady. Cedric probably didn’t want to spend his whole life in a marriage he was coerced into anyway.

Of course, we can hammer out the details together. We’d probably write our own marriage contract. That was a typical thing for the nobles of this world. My head was full of thoughts about the future when I heard someone furiously shout out my name.

“Violet!”

Without warning, the door flew open, and Duke Vasell and Vivian stormed in. The duke never thought of Violet as his real family, but he would always pretend to be a good father. But today, it seemed like he wasn’t even bothering with the mask.

What’s going on?

“Your Grace. Lady Vivian.”

Feeling suspicious, I stood up to greet them. Suddenly, there was a flash in front of my eyes.

The duke had slapped my face.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he snapped.

Just then, I heard a small warning sound in my head as a black see-through window appeared before me.

[!] You have been attacked.

[!] -100 life points!