I was bought at the price of five hundred million markas to become the Duchess.

Transactions as such must be honored, and thus I am obliged to live up to my price.

However, when tribulations came for my married life- made me doubt the sanctity of marriage itself.

I slowly swallowed to wet my dry mouth as I watched the sight unravel before my eyes.

“Aerta……”

His deep, sunken voice called my name.

There he lay on the bed, laxed and sensuous.

The light of the lamp wavered, traveling through the dimly lit room to caress his divinely caved face.

On his transparent skin harmoniously lay beautiful features.

His slender, graceful body glistened in the moonlight.

On his taintless lips hung a crooked smile.

He seemed no different from his usual self, but you could see the delirium in his eyes up close.

His piercing purple eyes had lost their focus, and you could clearly tell that he was riled up by the scarlet flush that bloomed in his eyes.

This man exuding a dangerous aura is Zahid el Carnoire; my husband and the Duke of this empire.

Zahid beckoned me with an eased grin on his face.

I felt chills run down the back of my neck.

Every single one of my instincts was telling me to run away; just as prey would do from a predator.

With slow steps, I approached him, ignoring the voices in my head.

Alas, no matter how dreadfully slow my steps were, the distance between us was far too short.

I was just a couple of steps away from him when he snatched my wrists and pinned me down to the bed.

“......!!”

His large hands firmly grasped my waist, and he let out a heated breath onto my cold, stiffened skin.

Holding me ever so tightly, Zahid whispered in my ears.

“Kiss me, Aerta.”

He always had a nasty habit of making me kiss him first instead of doing it himself.

I carefully grazed his cheeks and planted a kiss.

The moment his tender lips met mine, I felt the blood in my body carbonate, surging through my veins with a tingle.

Every time he ran his tongue across my skin and bit me softly, my body pulsed and quaked.

From time to time, I couldn’t tell whether it was lust or gluttony that came with each kiss, then I was taken over by fear.

Yet fear alone was not enough to describe my pounding heart.

I shut my eyes tightly in an attempt to ignore the blinding sensation that trickled down to my spine and stomach.

Thinking he seemed subtly quenched, I tried to break out of his grasp, but Zahid refused to let go.

Only after many heated moments later that I could pull myself away. The sound of the broken seal between our wet lips tickled my ears.

His tongue skimmed across the deep grin on his face.

“Much better……”

Thank god, I must have made it here on time.

The vehemence in his eyes that was approaching the verge of madness subsided completely, which meant that the purification process worked.

Though he had gotten what he needed, his long, sturdy fingers caressed my back all the way down to my waist; surely, he wanted more.

My lips felt like they were about to burst, throbbing from the passionate moments before.

He seemed like he was about to come at me to get some more.

I quickly pushed him away.

“That surely must have been enough.”

He lifted one of his eyebrows.

“Enough? You must think of me as a priest.”

“Quite the opposite. Now would you please get off?”

However, his hands told me that he wasn’t planning on granting my request.

A flirtatious smile spread on his face, and his eyes bent into beautiful crescent moons.

“A little too cold to your husband, don’t you think?”

“You seem to be feeling better, joking and all.”

“Not at all. I’m still in pain.”

“Well, you’re being unnecessarily touchy.”

His long eyes arched out in a squint upon my firm refusal.

His face then bloomed into the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.

He knew that I couldn’t say no to his pretty face.

Fully aware of his beauty, Zahid came tearing down my walls with his greatest weapons.

“Come on, Aerta. That was just one kiss. You know I’m thirsty for more.”

He pulled me in close as he whispered in my ear.

As he came at my lips once more, an alarming thought took over me.

If this was to continue, he was really going to eat me alive.

I had to escape from this man, using whatever means necessary –

From my husband, the protagonist of this novel.

***

The story behind how I became the Duchess worth five hundred million markas is a long and gruesome tale.

Well, to begin with, I have to mention that I was born with memories from my past life……

And that I was born into a world inside an erotic fantasy novel, written solely for men.

This highly suggestive, violent, B-list novel doesn’t have any female protagonists.

Mostly because the male protagonist kills them all.

At first, I assumed that this was just some other parallel universe that I was in and spent the early years of my life in bliss.

But as the years passed by, the feeling that something was odd about this place grew.

I kept noticing things that felt similar to a novel that I had read before I died.

I am Aerta Arlez: the eldest daughter of the House Arlez.

Our family has been serving as loyal paladins of the Holy City for generations.

As paladins, our family was pretty well off in terms of wealth.

Just when I was wondering why my name sounded so familiar, my twin younger siblings were born.

My suspicions were confirmed the moment my parents named the two Cheryl and Ethan.

I had reincarnated as a character inside a novel.

Upon realizing this, I fell into despair.

Aerta Arlez was a character destined to get devoured alive by the protagonist.

The protagonist of this novel was a cold-blooded tyrant.

He wasn’t the type to let morals deter him from getting what he wanted.

He had no pity for the weak, and whoever stood in his way would have to face a brutal death.

As a reader, I admired him for his unyielding drive and the way he surmounted any obstacles that stood in his way.

As a character within the novel, however, he was nothing more than a blood-thirsty lunatic.

Now, some might say “Why can’t you just run away from him then? Why can’t you just rewrite the story?”

Only if it were that easy. My fate was ever so tightly wound to his, that I could not help but encounter him.

You see, this world has wizards.

There are only five of them, and each is born with unfathomable elemental powers.

However, they are not necessarily able to use their powers at their will.

Every time they use their magic, a dark force by the name of ‘malignity’ slowly accumulates within them.

Once their souls become overly tainted with malignity, their psyche would come crumbling down into pieces.

In simple terms, they’ll lose their sanity.

Alas, the protagonist breaks away from such limitations by devouring the Purifier, the only being capable of relieving malignity.

He became the only wizard capable of freely using his powers without having to worry about losing himself to it.

Having lost the Purifier, the other wizards attempted to murder the protagonist.

Just as always, our almighty protagonist manages to light-handedly sweep his foes away.

Now, this is where things get crazy.

The siblings that I’ve mentioned are both destined to become wizards.

Cheryl, the Wizard of Flames, and Ethan, the Wizard of the Winds.

And then there is me……

The Purifier - the only being in the empire that can relieve the effects of malignity for wizards.

The very Purifier destined to be devoured alive by the protagonist himself.

The House Arlez, so to speak, was destined for demise.

***

I struggled with all my might to find a way to survive my cruel fate, but soon the struggles became unnecessary.

Even before the protagonist had the chance to come for me, our family came crumbling down.

Our misfortunes sprouted with the business my parents started.

Both paladins, my parents were known for their stubbornness and naivety.

Their so-called friend sweet-talked them into starting a business that they wouldn’t be able to handle.

Since I knew what was going to happen, I tried my best to talk them out of it

Sadly, none of the adults took my warnings seriously.

The ‘business’ had red flags all over it from the start.

The moment things began going downhill, there was no stopping the downfall of our family legacy.

Our mansion was traded for a small house and soon turned into a shabby shack.

With our family going from riches to rags, the twins and I had to constantly suffer from dreadful hunger.

I held onto the last sliver of hope there was, but my parents chose to walk a path of no return.

-We’re sorry. Please don’t forgive us……

Our parents rang our necks with ropes. After hanging their own children, who were all begging for their lives, they too then hung themselves from the old wooden ceiling.

Tragically lucky, we were.

The ceiling was too old, and the wooden pillar that was keeping it up snapped in half at the added weight.

My siblings and I had escaped death’s grasp, but we couldn’t be too excited yet.

What was left to us were the corpses of our parents and five hundred million markas in debt.

All of this had happened when I was at the age of fifteen, and when the twins were only seven.

Despite the series of unfortunate events, there were three things that kept me hopeful.

First, that we wouldn’t be sold as slaves since the debtor was the Holy City;

Second, that I wasn’t alone;

And third, that the twins would grow up to become powerful wizards.

Once signs of wizardry manifested in oneself, they would be treated like nobility – even the lowliest of the servants would be treated with the same level of respect as a Duke.

It would be like winning the lottery.

Alas, this was to take place in the far future.

Till then, we would have to survive as homeless orphans.

I hadn’t really thought too much of this part when I read it in the novel.

But once poverty became a reality for me, living through it was much more miserable than I had imagined.

Five hundred million markas is roughly equivalent to five million dollars, and with a debt that heavy came interest payments just as large.

Aerta from the original novel used to do sex work on the streets to feed the remains of her family, but I didn’t want to walk down that road.

Instead, I swore to survive by any means possible until the day the twins manifested into wizards.

Through the years, I took whatever job that I could find and worked my bones off to pay back our parents’ debt.

No matter how hard I tried I was always barely making enough to pay back interest and maintain the original five hundred million markas worth of debt to our name.

Like a shadow, our debt refused to leave me alone.

Several years have passed; I am now eighteen, still stuck drowning in debt.

“Ha…….”

I let out a deep sigh.

Today is the day that I’m supposed to make the interest payments.

The days and nights I spent working to exhaustion seemed ever so insignificant on these days.

The debtor’s last words linger in my ears.

- We will be needing an increase in the interest payments from next month, dear……

- After all, we haven’t been receiving much other than the interest payments.

- So, the payments will be this much starting next month.

I was never going to be able to get them the amount of markas on this piece of paper he handed me.

Knowing that getting another job would simply not be enough, all I could do was beg them for mercy.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t shown any.

I was removed from the Holy City grounds with nothing but dreadful news.

With my spirits crushed, I scavenged through my pockets to find a couple of coins.

At least I would be able to buy some bread on my way home.

Of course, delicacies that would go with the bread, such as milk, juice, jam, or cheese, never would make it to the table tonight.

Out of the big stack of bread on the bakery shelves, I picked the largest out of the cheapest batch.

It wasn’t large enough to last us till breakfast tomorrow.

With the sun brilliantly setting behind my back, I hurried back home.

A sharp cry leaked out the broken windows of our shabby shack.

Startled by the noise, I ran into the house.

“Cheryl, Ethan!”

The twins were glaring at each other, with hot beads of tears hanging from the corners of their eyes.

“Aerta!”

“Y…You’re home……”

Cheryl angrily shoved her finger at Ethan’s face.

“This greedy selfish slob here ate it all!”

Apparently, somebody gave them a whole apple.

They had agreed upon having a quarter each and saving the other half for me, but Ethan must have accidentally eaten the whole thing.

“I’m sorry Aerta……”

“It’s fine Ethan. And Cheryl, don’t get too angry with your brother. Now come here you two, look what I’ve brought.”

Both Cheryl, who had just been giving Ethan her death glare, and Ethan, who had been busy swallowing his tears, quieted down and looked at me to see what I had brought.

It was hard, bone-dry bread.

Regardless, the twins began digging in. They must have been famished because they made it seem as if the stale pieces of bread were made of the finest ingredients in the empire.

I watched Cheryl and Ethan as I sat there and ate my portion of bread.

Their frail figures caught my eye; they had arms and legs that looked like twigs.

Not surprising, taking into consideration that they are nearly starving to death day after day during the most crucial years of development.

The weight of this suffocating reality suddenly made it hard for me to breathe, and my eyes began to fill up with tears.

Higher rates of interest.

Unbearably heavy debts.

I was just eighteen, and my siblings were only ten.

Given that the two become wizards at the age of fifteen as they did in the original novel, I was going to have to endure another five years of this.

Though we somehow managed to survive till now, it was really starting to seem like we weren’t going to make it.

I began to spiral, drowning deep in thought.

“......Hell, we’re going to starve to death even before I get eaten alive by him.”

I murmured, slowly putting down the stale slab of bread in my hands.

“Hm? What was that Aerta?”

“Nothing.”

I ruffled their hair and pinched their confused cheeks as I got up and stood in front of the cracked mirror that stood in the corner of our house.

A lanky girl with sharp, cat-like eyes stared back at me.

Her lips were firmly shut, giving her a blunt, calloused aura.

The iris of her eyes gleamed in a shade of bluish gray, and her pale ivory hair flowed down her shoulders to her waist.

“......”

She lifted her eyebrows, then tied her hair into a tight ponytail.

It seemed a bit more formal that way.

I probably should have put on something more formal, given whom I’m going to go meet, but there was no way I had anything of that sort in my wardrobe.

The least I could do was tie my hair.

After patting my worn-out dress down with my hands, I beckoned Cheryl and Ethan closer.

“I’m going to be gone for just a moment. It’ll be real quick.”

Their eyes grew to the size of large gumballs, quaking with anxious curiosity as they continued to ask me where I was headed.

I simply smiled and told them that I’m going to get us a mouth-watering meal.

As soon as I closed the door behind me, my legs began to shake.

I tightly clenched my fist to stop the trembling.

The protagonist, as he is indeed a wizard, needs the Purifier.

The Purifier, which in this case is me, needs money.

Hence, my grand plan was to sell him my body.

The price? Five hundred million markas.

Not a bad deal on both ends, I’d say.