Chapter 9: I Stole Yooju's First Love
I stared blankly at the strange scene.
The green bar above Daniel's head was gradually increasing towards its maximum.
‘Could this be affection?’
Upon closer inspection, it was exactly like the interface in the original game.
The simple bar-shaped affection meter, with numbers displayed, made it quite intuitive to gauge the affection level.
I looked down at the shiny bead.
Curious if it had any other functions, I examined it from all angles.
As I was turning the bead, a white hand suddenly appeared in my field of vision.
Tatiana, who had returned without me noticing, snatched the bracelet from my hand.
Her intensely wary and glaring expression was quite alien to me.
Behind her, Lily held up a wooden tray.
"Lily, can you step out for a moment? Don't let anyone in this room."
Lily left the room with a puffed-up face, and Tatiana let out a sigh of relief.
Then she immediately snapped at me.
I pretended to be clueless.
Tatiana's eyes trembled uneasily, as if she had been caught stealing.
If what I saw was correct, it was indeed like being caught in the act of stealing.
"Are you talking about the strange numbers that appear when you wear that bracelet?"
"W-What are you talking about?"
At my words, Tatiana, flustered, hid the bracelet behind her back.
"It's really interesting. I could see Daniel's affection rising in real-time every time you spoke."
I stood up and approached Tatiana, who was standing by the door.
Her bright blue eyes were filled with anxiety.
I pushed her shoulder, which was slightly below mine, with my fingertips.
"Have you been using this to charm all my ex-fiancés?"
My voice trembled with anger.
What must Tatiana have thought, seeing her actions and words affecting the affection levels in real-time?
It wasn't just about playing with men.
She deliberately increased her interactions with them, raised their affection, and then broke off my engagements.
And yet, she stood before me as if nothing was wrong.
Tatiana trembled and bit her lip.
An action that might have made the male protagonists pity her, but not me.
"How can you dare to be jealous of me meeting Aster after what you did to me?"
Tatiana took a step back, startled by my气势.
"The Emperor... The Emperor is different. He is special."
At this point, I wanted to see inside her head to understand what she was thinking.
She had already married and kept all the male leads in her harem, so what more could she want?
"Tatiana, you're a married woman. Is it not enough that you have three other men besides your husband?"
"You don't understand. How I felt when I married Andrew."
Tatiana looked at me with teary eyes.
For some reason, she even seemed wronged, which was absurd.
After taking away my lovers, she acted as if she had been forced into marriage.
It felt like a new avoidance tactic from Tatiana, and I could only sneer.
"Why should I understand? I didn't force you to marry Andrew."
"Your greed is excessive, Tatiana. If you hold onto something, you should also know when to let go."
Behind the flustered Tatiana, a man's shadow appeared on the frosted glass of the door.
It seemed Daniel had followed us.
In the male leads' minds, Tatiana was pure and innocent, a girl who knew nothing of jealousy.
They never imagined such unreasonable possessiveness.
"Surely, you didn't plan to keep them even after marriage?"
I deliberately provoked her.
"They are all important figures in the empire. Even without me, they would eventually marry and become someone else's husband."
Tatiana took a step closer and shouted.
"From the beginning, they were assigned to me! Daniel, Raymond, and even Wilhelm... all of them!"
I don't know how she obtained this power, but Tatiana looked completely insane.
To the point where I even wondered if there was an ending in the original game where they all lived together.
"So you won't hand them over to anyone else. Karin, what do you know?"
The situation was more serious than I thought.
Tatiana's blue eyes shone eerily.
The mask of the kind and elegant heroine was gone, revealing a vulgar face.
A man who had seen her true face was behind her.
Tatiana's face turned pale.
The innocent and pure Tatiana, who felt guilty for breaking our friendship, melted away like snow.
Disappointment and confusion were clearly visible in his eyes.
I smiled at him and said,
"See, Daniel. Are Tatiana and I still friends?"
Daniel, who had been staring at me blankly, slowly blinked. His face turned red as if he had realized something.
"Sorry. I'll be going now. Ti-Ti, go home by yourself today."
Daniel hastily stepped back and left the room.
Was it because of the shame of being toyed with by Tatiana?
Or was he angry that she had played with other men besides him?
I wasn't sure, but one thing was clear even without the bracelet.
Daniel's affection for Tatiana had probably dropped by half.
"You deliberately provoked me. So, are you satisfied now?"
How could I be satisfied with just this?
"I don't plan to take those trash, but at least they should know how you've been playing with them, right?"
"They won't believe you."
At my words, Tatiana made a bitter expression.
As if she had taken on all the world's misfortunes.
She clenched the bracelet and snapped at me.
"It won't be that easy. I'm special, unlike you."
Tatiana closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Then she returned to her usual elegant duchess.
With a doll-like expression, devoid of emotion, she bowed to me.
"See you at the Founding Festival. Lady Pioneira."
"Please stay healthy until then."
After she left, I stepped out of the room.
Lily, who had been waiting by the door, looked up at me.
"Lily, let's go back to the mansion quickly. I need to check something."
"Huh? Suddenly? We haven't even properly toured the perfume shop yet."
"We can come back later. I don't think I'll enjoy it in this mood."
Lily nodded at my words. We tidied up and got into the carriage waiting outside.
As soon as I returned to the mansion, I took out the bracelet from the drawer.
No matter how I examined it, it looked like an ordinary bracelet.
'Maybe mine has no power?'
The bracelet didn't seem to show the affection levels of everyone.
Perhaps it only showed the game's target characters.
Aster, whom Tatiana couldn't get despite her efforts, might not show up.
'But I'll check at this year's Founding Festival just in case.'
I fiddled with the bracelet.
It might be a good idea to ask Daniel about its origin since he gave it to me.
At the same time, Daniel's shocked face came to mind.
I wasn't sure what he was thinking.
To find out that Tatiana, whom he thought was pure, wanted all the men.
But for me, it was the perfect opportunity to shake off the inferiority complex I had felt all along.
"So that's why they left me so easily."
Knowing the reason why men had left me so easily made me feel much lighter.
No matter how much I tried to boost my self-esteem, it was impossible to avoid feeling low.
Not just one, but four men.
I had cursed Tatiana and the swayed men, but I had also wondered if there was something wrong with me.
I took off the bracelet and placed it on the table, then started writing a letter.
I couldn't attend the Founding Festival as his partner, but I wanted to dance the first dance with him.
I didn't know why Tatiana wanted my unhappiness.
Why should I care about the thoughts of a crazy woman?
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
I only hoped that Tatiana would suffer as much as I had.