Chapter 8

I’m the Only One Who Knows the Male Lead Is the Villain

“So you being here means…!”

“We just got engaged today. It hasn’t been announced publicly yet, but once His Majesty returns, it will be officially announced.”

I added a light laugh, pointing out that I still had plenty of blood and tears, too. Ate’s watery-blue eyes began darting back and forth.

Well, considering how strange the rumors must have been…

He seemed confused because the vicious image he’d heard about didn’t match the person standing in front of him.

“After completely ignoring Brother’s proposal, what on earth made you change your mind…?”

His intimidating warning that he wouldn’t let me off easily if I were after power followed immediately.

Wow. How scary.

Come to think of it, Ate seemed to respect Ivan quite a lot.

‘That devil really deceived even a child this thoroughly… I might have to learn a thing or two from him when it comes to managing one’s image.’

Somehow, Ivan seemed rather impressive.

There was a limit to how shameless someone could be, yet he had managed to fool even his own family completely.

“After talking with him, I realized that he’s actually a good person.”

“Of course. Where could you find another man as amazing as my brother? But… are you going to be okay?”

“Pardon?”

What exactly did he mean by whether I’d be okay?

I tilted my head in confusion. Ate cleared his throat and began mumbling in a small voice.

“I mean… there are nobles outside the Imperial Palace who have their eyes on you…”

His voice trailed off, so I couldn’t hear everything clearly, but I had a pretty good idea of what he meant.

He was probably saying that all the nobles were waiting for an opportunity to target me.

‘In a way, it’s only natural.’

Publicly, I had been ignoring the Crown Prince’s proposal for several weeks.

That alone was enough to make me an eyesore, but if I actually accepted his proposal, the position of Crown Princess—something everyone had been eyeing for a long time—would disappear from their grasp in an instant.

“I’m fine. I’ve already signed the engagement papers, so no one will dare treat me carelessly now that I’m the Crown Princess-to-be.”

“That’s not what I meant… Ah, never mind. Brother will take care of it himself.”

“You were worried about me, weren’t you? Thank you, Your Highness.”

I smiled gently and lightly tapped Ate’s straight little nose.

His soft, jelly-like white cheeks immediately turned bright red.

He might have had a nasty temper, but he was still a child.

Just as I was feeling the urge to pull him into a tight hug because he was so cute, Ate suddenly began coughing violently.

Cough, cough!

The harsh sound continued for quite some time, as though his throat were being scraped raw.

Then, between Ate’s lips, which had gone deathly pale, a thin line of bright red blood appeared.

‘It’s that incurable disease.’

He was so young…

It was heartbreaking.

There was a huge difference between reading about Ate’s illness in a novel and actually seeing it happen right before my eyes.

For a moment, I felt an overwhelming urge to help him.

The reason Shana had failed to cure Ate’s illness was simply because she had arrived too late.

So if it was now, wouldn’t there be a good chance of curing him completely?

‘I can’t just openly mention the Crown Prince’s illness and ask for help…’

‘I’ll have to naturally lead Shana to discover Ate’s condition herself.’

I decided that once I went to the temple, I would definitely build a friendship with Shana.

With that thought in mind, I took out the handkerchief I had been carrying and handed it to Ate.

I wanted to wipe the blood away myself, but Ate seemed perfectly capable of doing it on his own.

“…What’s this?”

“You should wipe the blood away. Otherwise, your white shirt will get stained.”

Ate silently stared at the handkerchief I held out.

His eyes seemed noticeably gentler than before.

Soon, he took the handkerchief and casually wiped the blood from around his mouth with a practiced motion.

“I like that you aren’t making a big fuss. There are tons of people who act like I’m going to die just because I cough once.”

“Everyone has different ways of showing their concern. I’m sure they all want you to get better.”

“I know that much. It’s just…”

Ate’s expression darkened slightly.

“Even though I’m still alive, everyone looks at me like I’m already dead.”

Judging from the situation, it seemed that his attendants weren’t allowed to enter the library with him, so he probably stayed here deliberately.

That way, he could escape all those pitying looks.

‘I think I understand now how he ended up reading all those difficult magic books.’

I had found the book I wanted as well, so it was about time for me to leave.

After taking the book with me, I gave Ate a simple farewell.

“Well then, Your Highness. I’ll see you again.”

“Hmph. Why would I ever see you again?”

Ugh.

He’d already gone back to being prickly…

Despite acting hostile toward me, Ate kept sneaking glances at me as I turned away, his expression full of lingering reluctance.

‘Hmm. Kids really are cute.’

“Oh, about that handkerchief…”

I turned back toward him.

“It’s extremely, extremely precious to me, you know? So I absolutely have to get it back. Make sure you wash it really well before returning it, okay?”

“Huh? O-okay…”

I stretched both arms wide and exaggerated my gestures as I spoke.

Ate blinked several times before nodding.

Mission accomplished: coaxing the tsundere prince.

Ahem.

Satisfied, I left the library and headed straight for the laboratory.

Making the magic potion shouldn’t take very long since it was a relatively simple task.

‘I guess Ivan wasn’t just saying that he would take care of everything.’

The laboratory Ivan had quickly prepared for me was actually quite good.

Perhaps because he had simply repurposed a laboratory previously used by Imperial Palace mages, it already had practically everything I could need.

No, actually, it was even better than I’d expected.

It was spacious, clean, and very much to my taste.

“Wow, is that ‘Rastul’s Beard’? That’s a material that’s really difficult to find on the market!”

After thoroughly looking around the laboratory and getting a generous taste of what it felt like to have power and connections, I took out the magic book I’d brought with me.

Following the recipe, I mixed the ingredients for the memory magic and quickly prepared the reagent.

After conducting a few additional experiments, I finally succeeded in creating a magic potion capable of restoring memories.

Of course, it hadn’t been easy.

If someone could accomplish something effortlessly, that meant they were a master in that field.

Just like me.

Ahem.

“It was worth spending my childhood locked away in a laboratory making a hundred reagents at a time.”

All the thousands of unfinished reagents I’d made back then had ended up in the hands of my older brother, Leon.

I still had no idea what he intended to do with all of them…

“Well, then.”

Gulp.

I thought about the memories I wanted to recover and drank the potion.

A short while later, the forgotten contents of the original story began returning to me, one by one, with startling clarity.

‘…Wow. Right. That’s how it happened.’

The original novel, The Monster Duke’s Doll, or simply Monster Duke for short, was still being serialized, so I hadn’t known the ending.

However, I had regained all the memories I possessed from when I was reincarnated after having read everything up to the latest chapter, which had been close to the ending.

I sat down on the sofa and let out a groan.

The story had progressed much further than I’d expected.

I’d thought we were still in the early stages…

“Then the current point in time is just before the story enters its middle section. If you divide the story into beginning, development, climax, and conclusion, we’re around the early-to-middle part of the ‘development’ stage.”

The Massacrer—Ivan—had suddenly stopped hunting monsters, and for a short period, the deaths had ceased.

The reason was simple.

He was going to attend the upcoming Founding Festival celebration, the Prayer Festival, where he would fall in love with Shana at first sight.

“I said I’d pretend to be a lover who only had eyes for me, but since the original story has already been set in motion, even Ivan won’t be able to avoid it…”

Whatever his true identity might be, there was one unchangeable fact:

Ivan was the second male lead of the original story.

After roughly organizing the events of the original story in my head, I realized that it was about time for Shana to end her secluded life in the temple and start appearing in public.

Shana, who had been exploited for her abilities within the temple, would soon be able to go outside with the help of Duke Varat, the male lead.

‘I need to visit the temple and meet Shana before the Prayer Festival.’

After the festival, Shana would become increasingly sought after, making it difficult to meet her.

It would be better to establish a relationship with her beforehand.

There was also Ate’s illness.

And I wanted to ask Shana for advice about my own power, which was apparently called Filth.

I was thinking that I should arrange a visit to the temple soon when I entered my bedroom.

Sis, who seemed to have been waiting for me to return, hurried over and told me something rather shocking.

“Lady Rine, some news just came in. His Majesty is returning to the Imperial Palace tomorrow! A victory banquet is being prepared, so you absolutely must attend.”

“…Tomorrow? I thought His Majesty wasn’t supposed to return for another week.”

I knew the original story would change, but could even something like this change?

The Emperor was originally supposed to return a week from now…

Had something happened?

“I heard that His Highness the Crown Prince sent a letter to His Majesty. I don’t know what it said, but apparently, because of that, His Majesty’s return was moved up.”

Ivan sent a letter?

No, what on earth could he have written for the normally easygoing Emperor to rush back an entire week ahead of schedule?

‘It can’t be because of the engagement news. In the original story, the Emperor generally left Ivan alone to do whatever he wanted. Even if that included getting engaged.’

…I didn’t know exactly what had happened, but somehow, I had a feeling that the devil had simply been doing devilish things again.