Liriope sat at the table by the window, resting her chin in her hand as she watched the phoenix, Lynix, grooming its feathers with its beak.

Lynix, about the size of a fully grown eagle or hawk, had a stunningly beautiful appearance. It resembled the images that would come up if you searched for a phoenix or a firebird in the original world. Its entire body was made of flames, which was truly fascinating.

“Lynix, come here,” Liriope called out to the flaming bird, holding out her hand.

At her call, Lynix immediately stopped grooming its feathers, spread its flamboyant wings, and flew straight to her. It landed smoothly on her arm as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Despite its large size, it was surprisingly light, which she found both curious and pleasing.

As one could guess from the fact that she had created a phoenix as her graduation project, the Liriope she had reincarnated into was a prodigy who handled fire magic with great skill. Not only that—she had the rare ability to wield unquenchable flames and the Flame of Life, which others with fire abilities could not use.

That was why she could create a living phoenix like Lynix.

In this world, where humans and magical beasts coexisted, most nobles of the Gardea Empire possessed elemental magic to fight off monsters. Of course, the level of that power varied greatly depending on one’s status and personal talent.

Particularly, the Crown Prince and the Northern Duke—both of royal blood—were known for having two or more elemental attributes, unlike most who only had one.

That made the royals the most powerful beings in the empire, with Liriope, the only daughter of a duke, ranking just beneath them.

In the original novel, the female protagonist uniquely possessed divine power instead of elemental magic. That alone made her the heroine—it couldn’t be otherwise.

“Lady Liri! Lady Liri!”

Just as Liriope was enjoying the sight of Lynix preening its feathers on her arm, Gemma came running up to her, calling out in a flustered tone.

Turning her head toward the girl, Liriope glanced lazily at the newspaper Gemma was holding and asked with disinterest,

“What is it?”

Gemma held the paper up to her chest and exclaimed in an excited voice,

“There’s an article about you and the Northern Duke in the newspaper!”

“…An article?”

Raising one eyebrow, Liriope looked at Gemma, who then opened up the paper and pointed to the front page, where a large photo of Theo and Liriope was displayed.

“Your engagement! It’s on the front page!”

“Ah.”

Liriope kept her indifferent expression as she glanced down at the headline.

[Exclusive Report] 

The Crown Prince’s lady, Lady Liriope Steila, has changed her mind! The partner is none other than the Northern Duke, Theo Artein.

Today, Lady Liriope Steila and Northern Duke Theo Artein have signed the engagement papers.

According to Steila Duke’s side, Lady Liriope, who was previously infatuated with Crown Prince Kaiden Gardea, has recently changed her mind and turned to Northern Duke Theo Artein…

The headline was ridiculous, and the content no less pathetic.

Liriope frowned automatically, then glanced down at the photo below the article—and to her surprise, her frown faded.

She looked better in the photo than she expected.

Granted, the original male lead and Northern Duke, Theo, looked flawless no matter what he did. And since her character was the villainess, no matter how pretty she was, she was never supposed to outshine the heroine.

Still, the picture on the front page wasn’t half bad, and she didn’t look too out of place standing next to Theo. At least she didn’t come off looking like a complete squid by comparison.

Well, to be fair, Liriope was considered the most beautiful woman in the empire.

Her actions had been so absurd that she’d wasted that beauty, but still.

“You’ve totally become a celebrity now! Do you even know how many tea party invitations are piling up in your study?!”

Liriope stared blankly at Gemma, who was getting excited as if this were her own business, and let out a long sigh.

It was clear that the noble ladies—who loved gossip and couldn’t resist spreading rumors—had quickly sent out those invitations. Noblewomen were the type to chatter about a single piece of drama for a whole week. 

When the duke’s daughter bullied the original heroine, the count’s daughter, they had joined in. But when the heroine suddenly became the center of affection for both the Northern Duke and the Crown Prince, they exaggerated the duke’s daughter’s misdeeds and painted her as a terrible villainess.

They were of no real help to her, so Liriope had no desire to accept their tea party invitations. However, as was the case in most romance-fantasy empires, tea time between noble ladies played an important social role in Gardea as well, making it difficult to simply refuse.

There was a perception that no noble young lady could miss such gatherings in Gardea.

Liriope began sorting through the mountain of invitations. She needed to first identify the ones scheduled for tomorrow, and then separate the ones she absolutely had to attend from those she could skip. This was a bit ambiguous and challenging for her, given that her knowledge came only from the book.

Normally, it was considered proper to attend all invitations, but when you received this many, it was only natural to start picking and choosing.

She found it a bit depressing that even after transmigrating, she still had to do things she didn’t want to do. But at least this wasn’t as grueling as the life of a salaried worker, so she consoled herself with that thought.

Thankfully, because she’d read the original novel so many times, she already knew which noble ladies to befriend and which to avoid. That made sorting through the invitations much easier than expected.

Wanting to finish this task quickly and throw herself onto her fluffy bed, Liriope’s eyes and hands moved swiftly.

After spending quite some time focused on selecting the invitations, she looked at the noticeably reduced pile and felt a wave of happiness—her peaceful bedtime was near.

She figured just one more hour of this, and she’d be free.

That is, until Gemma burst into the study yelling,

“Lady Liri! His Highness the Crown Prince is here!!”

“…Who’s here?”

Liriope’s expression froze.

“Hurry, hurry! His Highness the Crown Prince is here?!”

Since Gemma knew better than anyone how long Liriope had pined for the Crown Prince, she was clearly overwhelmed with excitement at his sudden visit to the duke’s estate.

“Why… why is he here?”

Of course, Liriope was anything but pleased. Just hearing the title Crown Prince made irritation rise in her chest.

“What do you mean, why?! It’s His Highness the Crown Prince! What are you doing? You need to change and do your makeup—!”

“Haaaaa…” 

Liriope let out a sigh that was more like a groan. Gemma’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Just bring me something to throw on.”

When Liriope put down the invitation she’d been holding with clear annoyance and gave the order, Gemma’s already-wide eyes grew even larger.

“Gasp?! Lady Liri! I said it’s the Crown Prince!”

“And?”

“But you’re meeting the Crown Prince! At least do your hair and makeup—!”

“I said, just bring me something to throw on.”

Liriope shook her head and spoke firmly. Gemma blinked in disbelief and asked, hesitantly,

“B-but shouldn’t you change at least? I mean, going like this would be terribly rude to His Highness…”

“He didn’t announce his visit. He just showed up uninvited, didn’t he? If anyone’s being rude, it’s him. Why should I be the one to show manners?”

“But still, I mean—it’s not just about manners—he’s the Crown Prince… Oh.”

Gemma, flustered and stumbling over her words, suddenly closed her mouth as if she had realized something.

She had remembered that Liriope was now the fiancée of the Northern Duke and no longer needed to care about looking pretty for the Crown Prince.

Gemma hurried out, and before long, she returned with a large shawl that Liriope could throw over herself.

Sure, it wasn’t exactly proper etiquette, but Liriope had no intention of being polite to a guest who had shown up without notice.

Besides, the dresses in this world were outrageously inconvenient to put on or take off.

Liriope stood from her desk and draped the oversized shawl over herself, covering most of her body.

***

Liriope quickly made her way to the receiving room but came to a halt when she saw the platinum-haired man sitting arrogantly in the center of the sofa.

It was her first time seeing the Crown Prince in person, and his appearance perfectly matched the descriptions from the novel.

Even without being told, anyone could tell he was royalty—his noble aura was unmistakable.

With his dazzling platinum-blonde hair, jewel-like blue eyes, and flawless porcelain skin, he was a man whose beauty was almost too perfect to be real.

With his overall refined features, the handsome man looked like a work of art sculpted by the gods themselves. Just having him in front of her was enough to dazzle the eyes—it was easy to understand why people couldn’t stop praising his looks. He was more of a flower boy, or perhaps a classically beautiful type with an air of flamboyance.

In any case, he was the complete opposite of the Northern Duke, Theo, who exuded a rugged masculinity. And yet, strangely enough, the cold and arrogant glint in his eyes resembled Theo’s quite a bit.

Liriope stood there, momentarily dazed by the Crown Prince’s appearance. She didn’t snap out of it until their eyes met—his wide in surprise at the sight of her. Only then did she realize and quickly return to reality.

“I greet Your Highness, the Crown Prince,” Liriope said, bowing respectfully toward Kaiden.

He gave a slight nod in return, acknowledging her greeting. His eyes flicked around, unsure where to look, and Liriope could tell he was quite flustered by her current appearance.

“You must know why I’ve come here, Lady Liriope.”

“…I have no idea.”

Her firm reply caught Kaiden off guard for a moment. Then, he held out a piece of paper to her.

“Here. The engagement contract you were so desperate for—with me.”