Chapter 1
Why, isn’t that a story?
She woke up to a different world.
Aren’t there quite a few stories where the heroine wanders into a book she’s been reading until yesterday, makes a fortune predicting the future based on what the book says, and falls in love with a handsome northern duke who is cold but warm to her?
Well, yes. That was the reality Yumi found herself in when she opened her eyes.
There were two problems. One was that she hadn’t finished the book and had fallen asleep, so she didn’t know what was going to happen in the middle.
The second problem was that the original owner of the body that Yumi had entered had almost sold it to the Grand Duke of the North.
The only saving grace is that Selene, Yumi’s soul, is the main character of the book, so she’s not going to die?
Not a bad position to be in, except for the fact that the possessed novel is a corpse, so she’s imprisoned and tormented day and night.
Oh, and by the way. She almost forgot the most important issue.
The timing of Yumi’s entry into Selene’s body.
Shortly after she returned to her bedroom after her wedding to the Grand Duke.
***
[the day of]
Selene had changed into her comfortable chemise immediately after the wedding and was in her warm room.
When all the maids had left and she was alone with the big man, she moved slowly to stand before the mirror.
A face she had never seen before, and pale blonde hair that cascaded down to her waist. And the sky-blue eyes all felt out of place.
As she studied herself in the mirror, it suddenly occurred to her that she looked a lot like Selene, the heroine of the book she’d read yesterday.
It was a ridiculous thought.
But now that she’s in a bedroom she’s never seen before, in a mirror she’s never seen before, in what appears to be a wedding dress, with the help of maids, does it make sense?
She couldn’t think straight because of how confused her mind was.
She staggered to her feet and slipped under the covers. As she settled into the fluffy bedding, she felt a sudden rush of fatigue and closed her eyes.
How much time had passed?
Selene’s eyes snapped open at the sudden sound of the door, and it was pitch black.
She could sense that someone had entered her bedroom.
The figure exuded a dangerous presence that was frightening even in the darkness, and she instinctively realized that this was the place she’d seen yesterday in the book, The Monstrous Grand Duke.
The man’s presence seemed to confirm the nonsensical thoughts she’d had before falling asleep. The situation in the book was not a dream.
After the wedding, he seemed to have stayed up late dealing with guests and didn’t come to his room until after dark.
He stood in the doorway for a long moment, and as he started to walk away, he heard the explosive sound of soft fabric being crushed.
A dark bedroom. The light coming through the curtains barely made out the silhouette of a man.
Even at first glance, his height and bulk intimidated most people.
Selene, leaning against the head of the bed, swallowed hard and gripped the covers.
Even if she strained to make out his face, she couldn’t make out what he looked like.
The dim light could only do so much, and the only good thing was that he wasn’t a true beast with a hairy face.
She was hopeful that maybe she could get along with him, since her ideal man was tall and burly, but she couldn’t hold out much hope when she remembered the description of his appearance in the novel.
[He was blind in one eye, so that the colour of the pupil had faded, and the other glowed red, as if of the devil. His fierce eyes and pinched mouth made his appearance even more beastly].
On the whole, all the descriptions of him in the novel were either beast or brute.
Ugly, handsome, and frightening.
The original Selene is even frightened by his appearance when she first sees him, and then he locks her away, as the hero of the story does.
It wasn’t out of love; it was just a rice house with no rhyme or reason.
As Selene struggles to read the Grand Duke’s face, the Grand Duke, or Barath Velias, is also trying to gauge her reaction.
The darkness was no barrier to him, and he could see Selene’s curious expression. She looked like an innocent girl, as if she hadn’t heard the rumors about him.
He had watched her from afar for a week before the ceremony, and now that she was in front of him, she seemed very different.
Her demeanor was so different from the time when she treated the wedding like a funeral, He wondered if the bride had changed in the meantime.
Her eyes moved intently in the darkness, following his steps.
The way she clutched the blanket, she looked like a frightened rabbit, and she felt a glimmer of hope that maybe she would get along. But then she remembered his missing eye, his scars, and his gaunt features, and she dismissed the hope.
Barath slowly walked over to the window and drew the curtains so there was no light leaking in.
“Good night.”
He swallowed a laugh, wondering if his words were too crude.
Until he walked into this room, it had never occurred to him that he wanted to get along with his wife-to-be. She was the illegitimate daughter of a dying viscount.
She was a commoner, barely a name on the register, sold for money.
Besides, he needed a woman to give him an heir.
Selene watched him close the curtain and thought something was wrong.
‘How did she faint in the original? I can’t see anything.’
“Sleep.”
His voice seemed to float through the darkness of the room.
It seemed like this was going to be a one-night stand, so Selene slowly lowered her arse to find a place to lie down.
Even so, she kept her eyes darting in the direction she thought he might be.
She hoped she might catch a glimpse of his face, but it didn’t happen until she was completely asleep.
[Day 2]
Selene woke up slowly, groggily.
There was no sign of anyone lying next to her, so she assumed the Grand Duke had fallen asleep elsewhere.
Taking a quick breath, she stood up and pulled back the closed curtains.
As the room brightened, she could see the large figure of the Grand Duke seated in a small chair by the window.
Selene’s shoulders shook with anger at the presence of a stranger so close.
The room had already brightened, and Selene locked eyes with the Grand Duke, who was watching her.
She tried not to notice, but her gaze kept drifting to his left eye.
A white eye that was clearly blind, with a scar running from his eyebrow upwards.
The Grand Duke cold expression, as if he was in a bad mood, made it difficult to talk to him.
The Grand Duke turned his head away, avoiding eye contact.
Seeing his stern expression, Selene suddenly remembered her own attire.
The thin chemise she wore was indeed for early evening.
Selene blushed and turned around quickly, afraid that if she walked fast enough, the hem of her dress would fly open and reveal her bottom, and she slipped back into bed.
She pulled the covers up to her head and breathed heavily before she heard the Grand Duke push himself to his feet and step outside.
Tak. It wasn’t until she was sure she heard the door close behind her that Selene slowly lifted the covers and checked the bedroom.
Barath watched as Selene rose and approached the window where he was.
‘So it is,’ she thought, as her shoulders dropped in surprise as the room brightened, but she soon realized she was wrong.
She was surprised, it seemed, simply because she was confident.
Most people who met Barath for the first time were terrified and unable to make eye contact.
His men say he’s gruff, and that’s because he’s been on the warpath.
A man who has to live as a wife for the rest of his life is a rough northern man, and his nickname is War Ears. When she found out he was one-eyed, she was lucky if she didn’t faint.
It was the last thing she expected to see.
The way she shyly turned around and reached for her blanket was almost cute. The way she was naked to the nape of her neck and the way she pulled the hem of her skirt down gave the illusion that she thought she was a man.
‘No.’
No one would ever think of themselves as a man, just ashamed to be dressed in public.
Barath shook his head, dismissing the thought, and went back to catching chickens.
When Selene was sure no one was in the bedroom, she quickly found her clothes and put them on.
She slipped into the dress, but how was she going to tie the straps in the back by herself?
She rummaged through the wardrobe for a while, looking for something she could wear alone, when the door opened and Barath came back in.
Selene turned to face him, her back to him.
Luckily, he didn’t even look in her direction as he stepped in, pulling out a leather pouch and pulling back the covers on the bed. She almost screamed when he turned it over and spilled the contents.
It was blood.
There wasn’t much in it, but that red liquid with the unmistakable fishy smell was blood.
Clapping her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound, Selene froze in place.
For a moment, Selene thought this was something.
Could it be some sort of demonic ritual from another world? No. It couldn’t be human blood, could it?
The droplets of blood that bounced and scattered before being absorbed by the bedding looked like a scene from a film.
His monotonous expression and languid movements were like a film projected on a screen, and everything that surrounded him was fake.
Only the fishy smell of iron that stung her nostrils made her believe that this horrible sight was real.
Barath glanced at her, and then, as if nothing had happened, he pulled the blood-stained sheets off her and the thick layer of furs beneath them.
He tugged at the ropes at the foot of the bed and slowly walked over to Selene.
He held out his hand slowly, and she clung to it, pulling herself to her feet.
Her legs still seemed wobbly, though.
Barath looked over at her carefully. Her dress looked flimsy as it continued to slip off her shoulders.
He walked slowly, watching her as carefully as if he were observing a stone. When he reached her back, he could see the laces were undone.
Peeking through the gap, her back looked white and bare.
Should he touch her?
After a moment’s hesitation, he made up his mind, and as he carefully reached for the laces, his hand came into view.
They were large, thick-knuckled, full of calluses and scars. If these hands were to touch delicate flesh…
Selene was uncomfortable with Barath at her back.
She could feel the sting of his gaze, tickling and strange, like a caterpillar crawling up her side.
Yumi knew how to warm herself, but that was all, she had been a single mother until the age of twenty-nine.
She had never been this close to a man in private before, and the mere fact that she was close enough to hear his breathing made her feel uncomfortable.
Then there was a knock on the door.
“It’s Anna.”
Behind Selene, Barath’s eyes flicked between her back and his hands, and without further ado, He tied the laces, trying to stay as far away from her as possible.
With his gaze still on the knot in the string, he answered.
“Come in.”
Soon a middle-aged woman came in with breakfast.
Anna didn’t look anywhere else. She ate at the table by the window and then left, taking the bedding that Barath had put away.
When the door closed again and they were alone in the bedroom, Barath suddenly had a thought.
‘Why don’t we just lock that door?’
His eyes caught sight of the thin nape of the neck. It was white and seemed to smell good.
