Prologue

“I heard a strange noise, so I came to check… Is everything all right?”

The elderly butler looked around Mia’s bedroom with a puzzled expression.

It was a dark night. Candlelight flickered against the walls, and a feather quilt lay crumpled on the bed. Other than the fact that Mia Lisicha, the Grand Duke’s secretary, had unusually flushed cheeks, there was nothing particularly strange.

Mia frantically waved both hands.

“What do you mean, something happened? Nothing happened at all.”

“Then please rest comfortably.”

The moment the butler left, Mia closed the door and let out a sigh of relief.

She went to the bed and threw the feather quilt off in one swift motion. A tall man who had been hiding underneath was revealed. His black hair, damp with sweat, was neatly scattered across his forehead.

Lowering her voice, Mia scolded him.

“You almost got caught by the butler, Your Grace!”

Grand Duke Asad Uliel was lying on the bed, staring at Mia.

He was still in the same position he had been in when Mia had hurriedly hidden him, with one arm raised above his head. His languid eyes and cleanly defined jawline were enough to captivate anyone. It was no wonder the daughters of distinguished noble families were practically obsessed with him.

Asad pressed his lips together in apparent displeasure. He was probably annoyed at being shoved into hiding at the sudden knock on the door. Mia sat by the head of the bed and spoke to him as though soothing a child.

“I appreciate the apology, but what’s the big deal about accidentally seeing me naked?”

For a moment, he stared at the ceiling instead of Mia’s face before parting his red lips.

“…I feel like I wronged my secretary.”

Seeing the arrogant Grand Duke, who had apparently never known how to apologize in his entire life, act like this made it seem that he really did feel sorry.

Well, it was understandable. Even if it had been an accident, he had seen an unmarried young lady naked.

Mia awkwardly lowered her gaze toward the carpet. The atmosphere in the room, with just the two of them alone together, was strangely suffocating.

Unable to bear it any longer, Mia was the first to break the awkward silence.

“What’s done is done. It’s not like you’re going to take responsibility for it. Haha…”

He remained silent for a long time.

Just as Mia was beginning to feel awkward, he spoke.

“I will. I’ll take responsibility.”

What did I just hear?

Before she could even process his words, a large hand wrapped around the back of Mia’s neck.

Without giving her a chance to speak, he pulled her toward his face.

Then, as though he had been waiting for this moment, he kissed her without hesitation.

Asad’s fragrant breath tickled the tip of Mia’s nose. Mia felt as though her breath had stopped.

The kiss continued, as relentless as a thirsty person desperately quenching their thirst in the middle of summer.

It was only after a long while that their lips finally separated by the slightest distance.

Giving Mia a chance to breathe, he whispered in a low voice.

“Then I don’t have to hold myself back anymore.”

Mia blinked.

His behavior was completely different from usual, and it left her utterly confused.

Weren’t they normally a boss and secretary who snarled at each other like cats and dogs?

And on top of that, she had always been the one getting pushed around.

As Mia’s light-green eyes wandered helplessly over his face, unable to find anywhere else to look, she finally spoke.

“Your Grace, what exactly do you mean by—”

In an instant, Asad flipped them over.

Mia’s blonde hair spread across the white sheets. She felt the soft feather quilt beneath her back.

And above her—

At the unfamiliar weight of his body, Mia felt as though her heart had dropped with a thud.

Her delicate wrists were already firmly pinned beneath his hands.

Her entire field of vision was filled with his mesmerizing face.

She could not move at all, as though she had been completely spellbound.

Asad lazily traced her lips with his black eyes.

“Are you nervous?”

Mia instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

Watching her, Asad smiled softly.

Something inside Mia’s heart tickled unbearably.

It was as though butterflies were frantically fluttering their wings inside her.

Asad slowly lowered himself over Mia.

His breath, brushing against her hypersensitive ear as she kept her eyes closed, was burning hot.

He whispered in a low voice.

“I’m about to do something I’ll really have to take responsibility for.”

One moment was all it took to fall into the abyss.

Those words could not have suited Mia Lisicha better at that exact moment.

“Ow…”

Mia was sprawled at the bottom of the grand central staircase, the pride of the Lisicha residence, which was made entirely of white marble.

The gazes of everyone gathered there struck her like arrows.

Mia’s eyes darted anxiously from side to side.

‘They’re not going to reject me just because I can’t keep my limbs under control, are they?’

The muscle pain assaulting her entire body was nothing compared to her worries about getting a job.

As though she had never fallen at all, Mia clasped her hands together and quickly stood up.

A perfectly polished interview smile appeared on her face.

For events to proceed according to the original story, Mia absolutely had to become Grand Duke Asad Uliel’s secretary today.

She had rolled so hard that her skull still felt like it was rattling, and she could barely see properly, but Mia recited the lines she was supposed to say.

“Your Grace, in exchange for the debt owed by our Lisicha family, I will become your secretary—”

Before Mia could even finish the line from the original novel, someone viciously kicked the back of her knee.

“Whoa!”

The body she had painstakingly managed to stand up was once again sent crashing face-first onto the marble floor.

In an instant, dozens of swords and spears were pointed menacingly at Mia.

Apparently, she had caused quite a serious incident.

‘Could it be… the thing I knocked over when I fell earlier…?’

Flustered, Mia raised her head.

Only then did she see the man struggling to get back on his feet.

He was Ha-yoon’s favorite character—the man Mia had possessed, and the Grand Duke who held her fate in his hands.

Asad Uliel.

He was clutching his right wrist with his other hand.

As he attempted to remove the glove from his injured hand, a faint crease appeared on his handsome forehead.

“Ugh…”

“Are you all right, Your Grace?! This lunatic woman—!”

The dark-complexioned adjutant standing beside him looked as though he was ready to cut Mia’s head off at any moment.

Asad raised his left hand.

The escort knights immediately fell silent.

Breaking through the silence, Asad approached Mia.

His black eyes, cold as ice, calmly looked down at her.

The moment their eyes met, Mia forgot all about the responsibilities of a job applicant and unconsciously let out an exclamation of admiration.

“Wow… That’s insane.”

There was simply no other way to describe him.

He was overwhelmingly more beautiful than the descriptions in the original novel.

His jawline and nose were as though they had been carved by a master artisan, complemented by that seemingly indifferent expression.

He truly was worthy of being Ha-yoon’s favorite character.

‘At least when it comes to his looks… there’s absolutely nothing to criticize.’

Mia was stunned again and again by his appearance, which far exceeded her imagination.

She came to her senses only when he frowned in displeasure.

Mia belatedly jumped in surprise.

Like a wind-up doll, she repeatedly lowered her head.

“I-I’m sorry, Your Grace!”

He did not answer.

His gaze had stopped on the cheap locket hanging around Mia’s neck.

Perhaps the locket had opened slightly when she fell earlier, because a few strands of black thread were sticking out from inside the heart-shaped pendant.

Cold sweat formed on Mia’s forehead.

‘Ahh. What did I mess up this time? How am I supposed to deal with this stiff atmosphere?’

After thinking desperately, Mia strained her cheeks upward and flashed her teeth in a smile.

‘They say you can’t spit in the face of someone who’s smiling. That’s a universal rule in any world.’

But there was one thing Mia had overlooked.

This man was a ruthless villain.

He was the kind of person who would have no problem spitting in a smiling face ten times over.

“…You’re smiling?”

Asad’s voice, cold as frost, pierced her ears.