“Episode 1”
I was Maid A, the maid of the terminally ill younger sister of the second male lead.
Until the younger sister left me such a will:
“Riribel, please marry my brother.”
I didn’t know until I was hurriedly married to the second male lead due to her will.
“Are you saying Lord Erdan left without any notice?”
That the day after the wedding, my husband would run away.
“I would like you to act as the deputy lord.”
That I would be overworked as the acting lord in place of my husband, who sent no word.
And then,
“You’ve really made a mess of my territory.”
“Sign the divorce papers immediately and leave this estate.”
That my husband would return after two years and demand a divorce from me, who had done my best to take care of the estate.
“If you don’t love Erdan, please let him go.”
That he would cheat on me with the heroine, who I thought was happily married to the main male lead.
* * *
“Come back.”
I turned my body back and looked at Erdan.
“It was all a misunderstanding. I will explain everything…”
“Alright.”
Erdan, who had been speaking reluctantly, widened his eyes and looked at me.
“What did you say?”
“I said I will return to your side.”
I smiled sweetly at the bewildered Erdan.
Yes, I will return.
To the place where you humiliated and cast me out.
And I will destroy you in the same way you did to me.
“Wait.”
I slowly turned my back to look at the one who grabbed my arm.
Erdan.
He was the second male lead of the novel I had transmigrated into and, once, my husband.
“What is it?”
I shook off his hand and asked.
Erdan frowned as if displeased that I had shaken off his hand.
“Let’s talk.”
“What is there to talk about?
What could a divorced couple possibly have to say to each other?”
Erdan swept his hair back from his forehead and began to speak, as if he was trying to tolerate my sarcasm.
“It was all a misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding?”
I smiled coldly.
“That you ran out of the house without a word the day after we got married?”
“I had my reasons.”
“Oh, are you talking about how you suddenly showed up two years later to inform me of our divorce?”
“I was deceived too. You know what kind of people tricked me.”
“And you had an affair and brought the other woman into our house in the meantime?”
Erdan’s face grew more unpleasant with each word I spoke.
“She clung to me on her own.”
Yet he continued to make excuses.
“What about deceiving me and giving me an unmanageable wasteland as alimony?”
“I didn’t deceive you.
Things just got tangled up while dealing with matters!
Why are you making me out to be the bad guy?”
I laughed dryly at his words, then my expression turned icy as I spoke my final words.
“I wonder how you’ll excuse trying to kill me.”
“I never did that.
Isn’t your paranoia a bit too much?”
Erdan replied in an annoyed voice.
For someone clinging to his ex-wife with excuses, he was incredibly brazen.
His attitude seemed to say, “How dare you question me when I’m telling you otherwise?”
“Now do you understand?
It was all a misunderstanding.”
His tone implied I should believe everything he said.
“I can see very well that you’re talking nonsense.”
I thought I’d listen to his excuses, but it was a waste of time.
‘Do you think I don’t know why you’re doing this?’
Because the garbage land you gave me turned into a golden one, and you’re now afraid you might lose even your petty title to me.
You’re trying to win me back to steal my land and secure your title.
“My words are not yet finished.”
I thought it wasn’t worth listening anymore and was about to turn away, but Erdan grabbed my arm again as if he had no intention of letting me go.
“No. They are finished.”
But Erdan did not achieve his goal.
Someone gently pulled my shoulder back, causing Erdan’s hand to miss its mark.
“What brings you here, Your Majesty?”
I slowly turned my head back, hearing Erdan’s voice full of resentment.
There stood the emperor, Cassrosian, with a faint smile.
“Well. Is that something a marquis needs to know?”
“I don’t understand why Your Majesty is interfering when I am trying to have a conversation with my wife.”
Erdan’s voice was suppressed, as if he was trying to hold back his anger.
“Speak correctly. Ex-wife, that is.”
Cassrosian withdrew his gentle smile and corrected Erdan with a cold expression.
“Whether she’s my wife or ex-wife, it doesn’t change the fact that we were married.”
I squinted my eyes and glared at Erdan.
Is that something someone who ran away the day after our wedding and demanded a divorce the moment he returned should say?
“No matter if you’re the emperor, I don’t think it’s right to meddle in a couple’s affairs.”
“I’ve never been married, so I don’t know much about such affairs…”
Cassrosian paused and lifted one corner of his mouth.
“But I do know that you’re pathetically clinging to Countess Riribel.”
As soon as his words ended, Erdan’s face twisted in anger.
“There’s no point in dealing with you anymore. Go away.”
I looked at Cassrosian’s outstretched arm, then placed my hand on it.
Just as I was about to leave with him, I heard something completely unexpected from behind.
“Come back.”
I turned my body to look at Erdan once again.
“I’ve told you many times, it’s all a misunderstanding.”
“……”
“Both I and the marquisate need you.
So please, come back.”
“……”
“I will explain everything…”
“Alright.”
Erdan, who had been grabbing me reluctantly, looked at me with wide eyes.
And Cassrosian’s arm, which was touching my hand, began to stiffen.
“What did you say?”
“I said I will return to your side.”
I smiled sweetly at the bewildered Erdan.
‘Fine. If you want, I’ll return.’
To the place where you humiliated and cast me out.
And I will bring you down in the same way you did to me.
“Then, how about you kneel and bow your head first?”
“…What?”
At that moment, Erdan’s face, which had been showing a victor’s smile towards Cassrosian, hardened at my words.
“I don’t want to return without even hearing an apology.”
I continued, smiling at him.
“If you grovel and beg, I might consider it.
Or maybe crawl and bark like a dog?”
Even if I don’t go back, there are other ways to get my revenge.
I have no intention of returning quietly.
* * *
I was an ordinary student on a leave of absence.
An extremely ordinary student who worked part-time at a convenience store near home.
Even such an ordinary me had a hobby, which was to read web novels whenever I had free time.
So, reading that novel was just a part of my usual hobby.
However, there was something a bit different this time…
―The heroine is such a nuisance.
It’s so frustrating.
I had never left a comment on any novel I read, but that novel was the only exception.
The heroine was just too frustrating.
She always claimed she could do things on her own and rejected help, but when trouble came, all she did was cry.
She would just cry and rely on the male lead and the second male lead for help.
And she caused trouble wherever she went.
“Ah, why does she do this?”
But contrary to my frustration with the heroine, the comment section was filled with fans of the heroine.
―Author, please stop tormenting our Elodiaㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
―Elodia, let’s walk on a path of flowersㅠㅠ
―I don’t need the male lead or the second male lead, I just want Elodia to be happy.
I wondered if they were reading the same novel as me.
Already feeling choked up because of the heroine, seeing such comments made me even more frustrated.
So, I left a comment, something I normally wouldn’t do.
“It must be a rant, right?”
Replies flooded in right after I posted my comment, but I purposely ignored them.
It seemed like the heroine’s fans were attacking me.
Since I hadn’t posted the comment to argue, I ignored the notifications and started reading another web novel.
And then, somehow, I fell asleep and woke up to find…
“What is this?”
I had transmigrated into the novel.
The one novel where I had left a comment.
“From Despised Maid to Beloved Grand Duchess.”
The novel, shortened to ‘DMBG,’ where I had transmigrated.
“Ha, give me a break.”
And it was on the day of the heroine and the male lead’s wedding.
Worse still, I was an extra far from the couple, clapping my hands in congratulations.
Up to that point, it was barely tolerable, if I forced myself to compromise with reality.
“This is just…”
Leaving the wedding and somehow making my way back home, I stared speechlessly at the empty interior of the house.
The extra I had transmigrated into, Riribel, was someone who lost her parents at a young age and became a baroness early on.
“How can a baroness be this poor?”
But Riribel was impoverished.
She had no land, no wealth.
She was a poor noble with nothing but an empty title.
“……”
At this point, a thought occurred to me.
Maybe the author, displeased with my criticism of the heroine, had put me in the novel as Riribel to get back at me.
‘Watch in envy as the heroine you called a nuisance lives happily ever after!’
Something like that.
