prologue

Prologue

The Triviache family has been wiped out.

Although I might have spoken of it as if it were someone else’s problem, Triviache was the home I had entrusted myself to.

I stared in vain at the old mansion burning in front of my eyes. For it to end like this. Should I have run away earlier?

It was a foreseen event but it wasn’t supposed to be today.

The unexpected family’s extinction happened three years earlier in which they were brought to heel like a pig about to be slaughtered.

“The Triviache family is one of the oldest families in the Grenferg Empire whose mansion is so old that you can hear screams every time it collapses.”

“You’re talking nonsense and full of imagination. It’s no wonder you hear the screams. There are still employees left inside.”

The knight shuddered at the cold voice. The man, with twisted eyes, looked displeased.

“What about the maids who had been dragged here? Don’t let them turn into ashes along with the mansion.”

Listening to the cold words brought chills to the knight. In the cold wind, I shook like a twig. The chilling look of that man who had been looking through them directed his gaze at me.

No.

Holding my breath, I put my head down close to the ground. There’s nothing good being noticed at this moment.

I endured the tickling tears in my throat and held hands with a maid who sat close to me like a swallow’s baby.

The face of a woman around my age who raised her head was covered with bloodstain and scorched ashes. It was no different from my own messy appearance.

“Agrane…” (T/N: name of the MC)

It really has been three years since I entered the novel 『The River Where the Sun Manoeuvres』.

I had been a maid in Triviache, a secret helper of Prince Wilhelm, the future Emperor. It hadn’t been easy to do the family chores.

But what can I do? I had to do anything to survive. Fortunately, at the end of the fourth month, I got accustomed to doing chores. But the only problem was the fact that the Triviache family would perish in six years.

A brutal killer who doesn’t blink at killing people. It was the vanguard of Duke Richton Ingord, the mastermind of the Grenferg Empire and the enemy of the main character, Prince Wilhelm.

The strategy I had come up with in case of death was to leave after working three years in Triviache.

As I knew what would happen in the future, I wanted to live with all the benefits she could possibly have.

Wouldn’t everyone think about it at least once?

My dream was also to enjoy the culture of the upper class with an expensive dress and jewelry in my arms.

I thought the status of a maid was too lowly and inapt for her to enjoy.

However, strange things began to happen last year.

In the novel, several noblewomen who shouldn’t have any presence suddenly emerged as the center of society, along with a prophet who sees the future appeared like a comet.

Around that time, rumors also spread rapidly that Prince Wilhelm and Duke Richton Ingord were engaged in a Cold War over a woman.

Then I vaguely realized it.

I wasn’t the only one who fell into this book.

I was trying to leave quietly with the several maids I was close to, but I didn’t know that I would get caught up as we were sneaking away from the Triviache mansion.

I felt the tremor from the other maid, with whom I interlaced my hand, became stronger.

I was scared too.

My fear was so palpable that it felt like a flash in my head.

“What about him?”

“He’s coming.”

I opened my eyes and looked up upon hearing those words.

The red flames were engulfing the mansion and black smoke painted the sky.

The acrid air made it difficult to breathe properly but the silhouette of the man getting closer was very clear.

His blue-gray eyes reflect smoldering hot fire and that platinum blonde hair that appeared clean and refined seemed to emphasize his fascinating presence.

He looked indifferent as the oldest mansion in the empire burned and people perished in the fire. Those slow-moving shoulders appeared like the composed movements of a beast holding the spirit of victory.

The man stood in front of them and regarded them with a mysterious look.

Richton Ingord.

A man who killed several of the insidious characters has twisted the development of the 『The River Where the Sun Manoeuvres』 without leaving any trace.

The man who caused me to lose all the expected future enjoyments of a prosperous life.

“Old. Even a family with a long history of our empire… even the appearance of it being destroyed in flames is so ugly.”

The voice of Duke Richton seemed to have a strange power to captivate even a criminal like me.

With that, I was forced to admit that all those plans had been completely wrong from the start.

Trying to run away from a man like this was crazy.

It was unfair and pathetic.

Why should I die this way?

I am innocent. I didn’t try to sway the world like other transmigrated people, nor did she scorn them. It was all just a means to survive.

It was all because I was a maid in the Triviache mansion but even that became a problem.

What was I supposed to do?

“Look at me.”

All the regret and resentment I felt disappeared at the sound of a languid voice.

I stopped biting my lips and stared at Duke Richton. Just looking at those eyes made me feel extreme fatigue.

The duke looked at me and the other three maids, then slowly opened his mouth.

“Kill the two on the right.”

“A-ah, no!”

“Please save me…!”

I was stupefied by the screams. The maids to my left collapsed with a single blow.

“… haha. “

Hysterical laughter came out as I swept the hot blood splattered on my cheeks with trembling hands.

I choked up. It was so hard to breathe. My impending death was already dreadful that it would have been better if she was the one who was just killed.

While I was wiping my tears, Duke Richton bent down and stared at me.

The distance between them quickly narrowed, my terrified, tear-stained face was reflected in his blue-grey eyes. They were standing so close that they could feel each other’s breath.

“It’s you, the maid who tried to run away from me.”

Richton’s voice was as rough as fallen leaves and as dry as a midwinter meadow.

“Smart and stupid. If it were me, I would have left Triviache alone as soon as midnight passed. Not with anyone else but alone.”

I had neither the courage nor the confidence to answer. The overbearing presence of the duke which I had only briefly read about in the novel was so great.

He slowly reached out looking at my features as if he wanted to rip them off one by one.

Under his neat fingers, my lips, being bitten by teeth, regained their place.

As soon as the duke removed his hand, I tasted blood in her mouth.

He kept his eyes on me as he touched the dead bodies.

“Is it because of these maids? They wouldn’t have believed it, even if you had advised them that Triviache would be destroyed overnight. That’s why you’re so stupid. The weight of affection and life are not the same.”

Stupidity? Is it something a person who ruined my well-planned life should even say?

Then, my chin was pulled by his cold, rough hand that could rival the arctic glaciers. My trembling body stiffened like the dead as soon as he touched me.

I stared at the man nervously, unable to swallow.

I might die like this. No, I will die.

“I’ll give you two options especially for you who’s stupid.”

Far from being happy, it was rather a terrifying offer instead. It sounded like choosing whether to die painfully or less painfully.

“Choose. Would you rather spend your whole life miserably under me, like a dog, or would you rather die here?”

Dog or Death.

‘Had he made such a suggestion to others? Or just me…’

I hastily shook my head before finishing my thoughts. It was a stupid assumption, I can’t think that only I am different.

Weren’t the others, who thought themselves as special, dying helplessly in the hands of this man?

The villain was not the villain for nothing, and the main character was not the main character for nothing.

All the others who tried to gain power by clinging to either the House of Prince Wilhelm or the Duke of Richton were just trying to escape death and enjoy a comfortable life but instead, they all had disappeared without a trace.

It’s been only three years.

Perhaps more and more characters she didn’t know would die in his hands. Then there was only one answer to choose from.

“Save me, please. I’m confident that I’ll be your faithful dog.”

Duke Richton smiled satisfactorily.

No, he laughed at me as if he knew. He wiped her cheeks gently with his hands that were as clean and cold as marble.

She felt like a pet cat who was miserable and obedient.

As soon as the duke moved away, someone covered my shoulders with a thick blanket.

I stumbled on the bodies of the maids whom she had been with for three years. My knees were stained with red blood.

I’m sorry, Casey.

Don’t forgive me, Lona.

But I want to live.

I will survive to the end even if I have to crawl like a dog under the foot of the villain.